Finally! An incremental shooter game that is skill-based and scales well?! Pinch me, it has finally happened. Welcome to DEFRAG, my favourite incremental of 2025, and the reasons why have already been stated.
DEFRAG is a top-down arena shooter themed around being trapped in a computer. Your weapons will autofire, but initially, you’ll need to choose which one of four primary weapons you’ll want to invest in. The others have the potential to be unlocked and used later, but deciding if you want to chain electrical currents, use slower, powerful bombs, or keep things simple with a gun will be huge early decisions. As you play, you’ll earn currency that can improve your weapon stats, but also your health, damage, currency collection range, and the enemy spawn rate (with special currency unlocked when you clear a level).
Initially, DEFRAG likes to keep you busy with fast-spawning enemies and multiple mini-boss viruses. Much of the skill required is to dodge out of the way or trigger any additional abilities you’ve gained along the way. It is fast, frantic, and the player is never too far away from some kind of progression on the skill tree or a level unlock. It is well-balanced and never feels like it is playing itself. The player is always in control. However, after a couple of hours in, DEFRAG decides to open itself up to other modes and strategies, and it’s this diversity that elevates DEFRAG further.
The first new mode is a quickfire 20-second firewall that you need to shoot at to break elements off. It is measuring your damage per second, but crucially, every time you play and break wall sections off, power-up chips are being dropped. These can be installed into your pixel ship, and this RPG unlock and build system becomes a new, crucial way to improve your abilities. Suddenly, you can equip other weapons, at an overall damage rate drop, but doing so will weigh you down, leaving you less room for other upgrades. Maybe you want to equip a shield, or a poison bullet, or increase the chain reaction of the electrical currents. You could simply make the pixel ship faster and beefier. It is entirely up to you. There is some grind involved to unlock the maximum amount of chips you can install, but having multiple loadouts to switch between is helpful.
After that, DEFRAG then adds in an incremental mining task that gives way to the “Overclocked” challenge mode. This puts you in increasingly difficult, often one-hit kill situations. Some are about surviving a time limit, others killing x amount of enemies within a time limit, and some are about not shooting at all. Each cleared challenge boosts a specific stat. It all comes full circle to make your ship more powerful, but it always emphasises the player’s skill first and foremost. It is rare to have an incremental game get the balancing, pacing, and involvement right from beginning to end. DEFRAG deserves a lot of praise for pulling it off.
With multiple modes, a fast, decisive gameplay loop, and plenty of ways to upgrade and tweak your loadouts, DEFRAG provides a good 5-8 hours of entertainment for a tiny price point. DEFRAG was a surprise hit for me at the end of 2025, and if you are in the hunt for an engaging incremental in 2026 – this is a great place to start.
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