Holdout Squad
Four armoured soldiers stand back to back in a walled arena at dusk, firing at red creatures that rush in from the edges between wooden crates.

A game by Indie App Studios

Holdout Squad

Hold the line together.Up to four players. Every wave is worse.

Join the Android test In closed testing
  • 1 to 4 players
  • Voice chat built in
  • No ads
  • No tracking

How it plays

Survive the wave. Pick a perk. Do it again, harder.

Top-down view of the arena in a boss wave: a large creature at the top with an orange health bar, red arrows on the screen edge pointing to enemies that are off screen, and a small radar in the corner.

Fight the waves

Creatures pour in from the edges of the map. Each wave is bigger and meaner than the last, and every fifth wave brings a boss.

Between waves the screen offers three perk cards: Shotgun, Damage and Speed.

Pick a perk

Between waves everyone chooses one of three upgrades: more damage, a faster trigger, a shotgun, armour and more. No two runs build the same.

First-person view: a teammate in a dark helmet with a rifle and a name tag stands beside a crate.

Stand together

A downed teammate can be brought back if you stand beside them for three seconds. Talk to each other with push-to-talk voice chat.

What is in it

Small, tight, and built to be played with friends

  • Two ways to look. Top-down or first person, switched with one button. Players in either view fight in the same match.
  • Five kinds of enemy. Grunts, fast runners, tough brutes, ranged spitters that keep their distance, and a titan boss every fifth wave.
  • Eight perks offered three at a time: damage, fire rate, health, speed, regeneration, piercing shots, a shotgun and armour.
  • Voice chat. Hold a button to talk to your team. Voice is passed along live and never recorded.
  • Three maps: a walled arena, a city of streets and buildings, and a container dock. Cover blocks both movement and shots.
  • It scales. Enemies get tougher for every extra player, so a team of four is still in trouble.
  • Heal items you cannot camp. They appear at random moments and random places, only when someone is hurt, and vanish if nobody takes them.
  • Best runs. The lobby shows the best waves reached on each map.
  • Phone and keyboard. Two-thumb touch controls on Android; the game is built and tested on Windows as well.
  • No accounts. Type a name, pick a room name to play with friends, or press Quick Play.

Screenshots

Straight from the game

Tap one to open it larger.

First person in the city map: a large red creature with a tail walks toward the player between brick buildings under a dusk sky. First person in the arena: a teammate with a rifle and a purple name tag stands near a crate. Top-down boss wave with the titan's health bar. The lobby: name, room, map and view choices over the key art, with the best runs listed on the right.

The promise

No ads. No tracking. No accounts.

  • No advertisingNone in this version, and nothing is hidden behind a reward.
  • Nothing to buyNo shop and no coins in this version.
  • No accountChoose a name. That is all.
  • Voice is not recordedOnly passed to the people in your room, while you hold the button.

Read the game privacy policy

Help us test it

Holdout Squad is in a closed test on Android before it goes public. If you are an adult with an Android phone and a Google account, we would be glad of you and a friend for two weeks.

Join the Android test

Join the Android test