You failed math class. Math didn't forget.
Zero Sum is a pencil-on-paper twin-stick shooter roguelite. Your enemies are numbers and your weapon is math. No health bars. No hit points. Just raw arithmetic violence.
A "48" is charging at you. You fire ÷2. Now it's "24". Three more divisions: "12," "6," "3." Now switch to minus. Bang. Bang. Bang. Zero. Gone. Next.
Wishlist now! The numbers are counting on you not to.
Fight through different difficulties and game modes with a variety of arithmetic weapons. Face 9 different bosses based around mathematical concepts. Fine-tune your experience to your math knowledge level, from subtraction and addition, to division and multiplication, up to root and modulo.
The Numbers Fight Back
Enemies aren't just walking health bars. A prime number can't be cleanly divided. A factorial grows exponentially if you ignore it. Negatives force you to rethink. You can't outrun fast enemies. Don't just shoot, solve.
Your Arsenal Is Unconventional
Forget guns. You carry operators. Minus and Plus are your reliable sidearms. Precise but boring, until they save your life. Division rips through enemies. Root turns big numbers into rubble. Modulo nukes even the biggest numbers if played right. Multiplication? A slow trap that slows everything it touches. Useful if you're smart enough to set up a kill with it. And then there's Sigma, turn a massive swarm of numbers into one big, easy-to-handle target.
Seven operators. Twenty-two firing modes to unlock. Every shot requires a decision. Every clean kill and clever combo rewards bonus points. Integer split, perfect root, modulo blast. The game knows when you're showing off and rewards you for it.
Create Combo Chains for Perfect Waves and crazy multipliers
Every kill can be a clean kill. Divide a number into a perfect split. Root a perfect square down. Land a modulo that leaves exactly zero. The game tracks your math and rewards precision.
Chain multiple clean kills for combo multipliers. Perfect wave? No misses? Bonus points. String together operations across different operators for Clean Combo Chains. The flashier the math, the better the reward.
Sloppy kills still work, but clean kills let you progress faster and score higher. In Zero Sum, showing off pays off.
Die. Learn. Multiply.
Run one, you're rationing division ammo. Do you minus this 72 down shot by shot, or use your division for the perfect clean kill? Do you root the cluster of 16s for instant clears, or hold it for the tanky 256 barreling toward you?
Run twenty, your chain-divides ricochet through swarms, your root shotgun pulps clusters in a single shot and your Sigma vortex eats half the screen. Permanent upgrades carry between runs. Temporary buffs stack within them. Every death makes the next run meaner.
Bosses That Would Make Mathematicians Sweat
Nine bosses, each built around a mathematical concept that wants you dead (a small selection):
The Euler Owl
The Factorial Factory
The Pi Boss
The Yin-Yang Boss
The Prime Sieve Spider
Sketched by Hand, Animated Like a Fever Dream
Zero Sum looks like your notebook came alive and got angry. Enemies are the doodles you drew when you were bored in math class. Except these doodles want revenge. Every menu is a school handout — quitting the game requires a permission slip.
Features
7 operator weapons with 22 firing modes: every operator unlocks three to four distinct modes that change their behavior and your playstyle
80+ upgrade nodes across the operator tree: chain division, shotgun roots, area-of-effect modulo blasts, freeze lines, Sigma vortexes and more
9 boss fights built around real mathematical concepts: exponentials, prime sieves, pi, harmonic balance, factorials and more
Different game modes with a wave structure: Classic, Holdout, Survival, Conveyor, Boss Rush, Endless and more
Custom Runs, where you can design your own game mode to your liking or math knowledge
Roguelite progression: permanent upgrades between runs, temporary buffs within them.
3 difficulty modes for all knowledge levels with hard mode introducing additional boss mechanics
Twin-stick controls with mouse + keyboard and full gamepad support
A skill ceiling made of mental math.
Zero Sum launches Q4 2026. Wishlist Now. Math thanks you. So do I.
