Fernwild

Play as Fern, an elf with a bow, a limited quiver, and four stages of monsters between her and the way out.

Fernwild is a short, free arena shooter with pixel art, seeded rooms and upgrades that carry into your next attempt. Clear each arena to open the way forward, collect what the monsters drop, and try to reach the boss with enough arrows and lives left.

Watch your quiver

You start with 24 arrows and one life before Hearth upgrades. A hit costs a life, and an empty quiver leaves you looking for ammunition. Collect dropped quivers, keep moving, and use the trees and rocks to your advantage.

Goblins chase, imps swarm, beetles close their shells, shamans keep their distance, boars charge, and widows throw a spread of thorns.

Four stages into the hollow

Fight through the Fern Edge, Overgrown Ruins, Misty Crypt and Deep Hollow. Each stage has six arenas and its own boss.

Start with a random seed or enter one yourself. The same seed rebuilds the same arena layouts, so you can retry a route or share it with someone else.

Spend this run’s coins. Improve the next one.

The pedlar waits beyond each boss. Buy stronger bows, multishot, piercing arrows, a faster draw, better boots or an extra life.

Runs also earn embers. Spend them at the Hearth on permanent starting upgrades. Your Hearth progress and records are saved locally.

Controls

Keyboard and mouse:

• WASD or arrow keys: move
• Mouse: aim
• Hold the left mouse button: fire
• Shift: run
• Esc: pause

Phone:

• Play in landscape
• Left-thumb joystick: move
• Fire button: shoot towards the nearest enemy
• Menu button: pause and settings

Gamepad controls are also supported.

About the game

Made by Niko Minadze under Tavern & Tails, in roughly two weeks of building, playing and finding things that needed fixing.

The game uses AI-generated art and music alongside credited CC0 assets and synthesised sound effects. Asset and font credits are included in the game.

Found a bug or got stuck? Leave a comment with your device, browser and what happened. Include your seed if it relates to a particular room.

Tavern & Tails · Development notes and release history