Build your Gunfighters. Call the shots.
A browser-based game of turn-based tactics, custom builds, and Old West showdowns.
Build a stable of Gunfighter avatars, develop their skills, and equip them for different ways to win. Then send them into duels—with you directing their actions.
You choose when your Gunfighter draws, aims, shoots, evades, or recovers. The engine resolves each exchange; you assess the result and decide what comes next. Your job is to command the fighter, not work a crosshair.
Enjoy figuring out why a build works—and how to beat it? You’re in the right place.
Start with the basics, then try our simplest, stripped-down version of the game.
The no-account QuickDuel link is below the tutorial video. A desktop browser is recommended for learning to play.
Your strategy starts before the first shot.
What kind of Gunfighter will you build? One who can take punishment and outlast an opponent? One who disrupts the other fighter’s aim and undermines their strengths? Or a specialist built around accurate shooting and carefully timed attacks?
Start with 12 basic dueling skills. As your fighters advance, explore the Guts, Swagger, and Acuity skill families and their nine specialized paths. With 180 skills to explore, there’s plenty of room to experiment.
Match their weapons and equipment to those choices. Over 900 items of gear can complement your skills or undermine your opponent’s. A powerful pistol is only part of a good build: its Energy cost matters, too. The interesting question is how your skills, gear, and decisions work together once the shooting starts.
Develop different fighters to test different approaches. Your stable doesn’t have to fight the same way twice.
Read the opponent. Decide the next move.
Your opponent’s aim is improving. Do you order a shot before they’re ready, spend another turn improving your own odds, or evade because you think they’ll fire now?
A well-timed dodge can waste their shot. Dodge at the wrong moment, and you’ve spent Energy while they prepare a better one. Even before either weapon is drawn, your choices matter: build your fighter’s Accuracy and Energy, disrupt the opponent’s preparations, and decide when to commit to the draw.
Throughout the duel, you manage three essentials:
- Resolve keeps your Gunfighter in the fight.
- Energy governs the actions available.
- Accuracy (Nerve) influences the chances of landing a shot.
Reduce the opposing Gunfighter’s Resolve to zero before yours runs out. Every action can change your fighter’s position or your opponent’s. Luck can affect an exchange; your task is to keep making choices that improve the odds.
Start with a simple duel. Then explore the full game.
QuickDuel is our most basic beginner version—not the full Gunfighter experience.
Face our simplest AI opponent using basic actions, without special gear, weather effects, or a turn timer. It’s deliberately stripped back so you can learn how actions and counters interact before tackling more advanced builds.
No account is required for QuickDuel. Watch the tutorial, then use the QuickDuel link below its video to begin. Try a few exchanges, see what your opponent does, and experiment with your responses. You don’t need to master the advanced systems before your first duel.
The game was designed for desktop browsers. Mobile play is supported in early beta, but its interface differs from the desktop tutorial; starting on desktop will be easier.
Build a career. Challenge a rival. Test a new approach.
The full game adds progression, equipment choices, and opponents with different fighting styles. Develop members of your stable through career play against AI, or challenge another player to a head-to-head duel.
Each AI opponent has its own personality and tactics. As you advance, test your builds against highly skilled bosses—legendary gunfighters like Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday, and many others.
Player-versus-player formats include simultaneous play, where decision speed matters, and an asynchronous option where you and your opponent play at your own pace. For a different challenge, send a fighter into short-lived Rogue Mode. Surviving five gunfights takes skill and a little luck.
Play is free through level 30, including both player-versus-AI and player-versus-player duels.
Planned: Bring a posse.
Our next goal is team-based competition: 2v2 fights, with larger 3v3 showdowns in view.
Think O.K. Corral-style encounters where choosing fighters who complement one another becomes as important as building a strong individual duelist. We’re exploring formats where you command multiple avatars yourself or team up with other players.
Which opponent should your side pressure? Who needs support? Can one fighter disrupt an enemy long enough for a teammate to land the decisive shot?
That’s the direction we want to explore: more pressure in every exchange, more coordination, and more reasons to experiment with your stable.
Team formats are planned, not yet available.
Help shape Gunfighter.
Gunfighter is an indie game in beta. The interface is still basic, and there’s room to grow. Join the discussion, compare builds, share tactics, and help us decide what to improve next.
The game that inspired the books.
Gunfighter inspired Kevin Higgins’s two-book Gunfighter duology: Skeleton Trail and Invasion. No reading is required to play—but there’s a story to explore beyond the duels, beginning with Skeleton Trail.