Dead Biomes: how a VR wave shooter works across five shelters

Dead Biomes is a wave shooter for a VR headset. You choose a shelter, scavenge for parts, fortify, and then fight the wave. Between waves a short minigame reveals the next piece of story.

This post explains what Dead Biomes is, how a night works and who it suits. It is coming soon on aeternusvita.io. You can get notified from the product page when it is ready.

What Dead Biomes is

Dead Biomes is a VR wave shooter built around shelters. The one-line pitch from the store copy states it directly: "A VR wave shooter across five shelters, with minigames between nights."

The long description adds: "Dead Biomes is a wave shooter for a VR headset. Each night starts when you choose a shelter. You scavenge for parts, fortify, and then fight the wave."

That choice of shelter is where every night begins. You pick the shelter, prepare inside it, and then face what comes for that shelter.

The game is made by aeternusvita.io. The listing closes with: "Dead Biomes is made by aeternusvita.io. Pick the shelter, survive the wave, and let the minigame open the next piece of story." It is listed as Coming soon at https://www.aeternusvita.io/en/products/dead-biomes and has not been released yet. There is no release date, price, rating or review to quote.

The feature list from the Play copy is short:

• Five shelters, each with its own enemies
• Scavenge, fortify, then fight the wave
• Lock, radio and map minigames that reveal story
• Command, drone and tabletop view changes
• Craft weapons from the parts you scavenge
• Horde score mode, and mixed-reality room defence

How a night works

Each night follows the same order. The Play copy puts it plainly: "Each night starts when you choose a shelter. You scavenge for parts, fortify, and then fight the wave."

You choose the shelter first. Then you move through a scavenge phase where you look for parts. Then you fortify the shelter. Then you fight the wave.

The brief describes the core loop in the same steps: choose shelter, scavenge, fortify, wave fight, between-round minigame that reveals story, POV-switch set piece, then the next night.

Between waves you take a short minigame. The Play copy says: "Between waves you take a short minigame. It is a lock to pick, a radio to tune, or a map puzzle. Finishing it reveals a piece of the story."

After the minigame the view switches: "The view then switches to a top-down command view, a drone camera or a tiny tabletop of the fight. The next night follows from there."

A night is therefore choose, scavenge, fortify, fight, minigame, view change, then the next shelter.

The five shelters and their enemies

There are five shelters in the set. The long description names them: "Five shelters are in the set: a cabin, a lighthouse, a desert outpost, an ice station and a subway. Each shelter brings its own enemies."

The five are a cabin, a lighthouse, a desert outpost, an ice station and a subway. Each has its own enemies. The feature list repeats it as the first point: "Five shelters, each with its own enemies."

The brief lists the same five in the same order and notes the interiors are built as modular kits. The point is variety of place and enemy. You meet different enemies in the cabin than in the lighthouse or ice station, and you prepare inside a different interior each time.

Choosing a different shelter changes where you scavenge, where you fortify and what comes at you in the wave.

Minigames that reveal the story

Between waves you take a short minigame. It is part of how you move from one wave to the next, not a separate mode.

The three minigames are a lock to pick, a radio to tune, and a map puzzle. The Play copy says: "It is a lock to pick, a radio to tune, or a map puzzle. Finishing it reveals a piece of the story."

The brief describes it the same way: the minigame (lockpick, radio tuning, map puzzle) reveals story, and the story is told through minigame rewards.

You pick up story in the quiet between waves, when you complete the lock, tune the radio or solve the map puzzle.

View changes: command, drone and tabletop

After the minigame the perspective shifts before the next night begins.

The Play copy says: "The view then switches to a top-down command view, a drone camera or a tiny tabletop of the fight." The brief calls these POV-switch set pieces and lists them as top-down command view, drone cam and tiny-scale tabletop view.

They are short shifts in how you see the fight. One may show the shelter from above, another as a drone camera, another as a tiny tabletop. The next night follows from there.

Crafting, horde score and the two ways to play

Dead Biomes has a small set of systems around the main loop.

You craft weapons from the parts you scavenged. The Play copy says: "You craft weapons from the parts you scavenged." It appears both as a sentence and as a feature point. The parts you collect when you scavenge go into weapon crafting for the wave.

A horde mode keeps a score across the waves. The Play copy says: "A horde mode keeps a score across the waves." It is listed as "Horde score mode" in the features. The score runs across waves rather than resetting each night.

There are two ways to play the same night. The Play copy says: "In mixed reality you defend the room you are standing in. A VR mode plays the same night inside the headset."

In mixed reality the defence sits in your own room. In VR the shelter is fully inside the headset. The choice is where the shelter sits; the night itself is the same.

The feature list phrases it as "Horde score mode, and mixed-reality room defence."

Who Dead Biomes suits

Dead Biomes suits people who like wave defence with a prepare-then-fight structure.

It suits you if you like choosing where to fight and preparing in that space. Each night starts with a shelter choice, then scavenging and fortifying before the wave. If you enjoy gathering and then holding the line, the loop is built around it.

It suits you if you like variety of place and enemy. Five shelters each bring their own enemies, so the cabin feels different from the desert outpost or the subway.

It suits you if you like short tasks between rounds that open story. Between waves you pick a lock, tune a radio or solve a map puzzle, and finishing it reveals the next piece.

It suits you if you want two ways to play. VR mode keeps you inside the headset. Mixed reality lets you defend the room you are standing in. Horde mode keeps a score across waves if you like a tally through the set.

If you want a VR wave shooter where you choose from five shelters, scavenge and fortify, fight the wave, craft weapons, open story through minigames and see command, drone and tabletop changes between nights, Dead Biomes is aimed at you.

Coming soon — get notified

Dead Biomes is coming soon on aeternusvita.io. It is listed as Coming soon at https://www.aeternusvita.io/en/products/dead-biomes and has not been released yet. There is no release date, price, rating or review to quote, because nothing has been submitted or released.

When it is ready, the product page is where you will find it. You can open Dead Biomes and get notified from that page so you hear when it goes live.

If you want a quick summary:

• Choose a shelter, scavenge for parts, fortify, then fight the wave
• Five shelters — cabin, lighthouse, desert outpost, ice station and subway — each with its own enemies
• Between waves: lock to pick, radio to tune, or map puzzle; finishing it reveals story
• View switches to top-down command, drone camera or tiny tabletop
• Craft weapons from parts; horde mode keeps a score across waves
• Mixed reality defends the room you stand in; VR mode plays the same night inside the headset
• Made by aeternusvita.io, coming soon — follow Dead Biomes to be notified