Hey, game designer here. I played the game and had success in two different runs, but with almost the same build.
The game is a Vampire Survivor like or Autoshooter, and this formula proves itself fun in any iteration.
There is very little help in understanding how the game works, so the first couple of runs could end without you even realizing it.
Some stats are mandatory for having a good run, health regen is a must because is very improbable to dodge or having enough damage to handle the enemies at the start.
Some combination of Heroes and Monster + initial weapon just doesn't allow you to progress in the run, and other weapons are overpowered in a way that makes them the best build.
After the initial wall, when you understand what is good, the game becomes way to much easy.
Chest and progression feel awkward, it's not intuitive, and needs different runs to understand what you're doing.
The balance within stats, weapons, shards, and artifacts is messed up.
Now, I think those problems could be easily resolved with changes:
- Make Pilots have a starting weapon.
- Make Pilots specialize in that weapon category.
- Tune up the weak weapons and shards.
- Make the chest's timer stop when picking it up.
- Increase the power of the weapon in the early game or reduce the health, speed, and number of enemies at the start.