To clarify further, your score is simply how long you survived, so if there are too many rats to take on, just run away. In order to kill a rat, you need to collide with it while facing towards it within 90 degrees. So if you are looking more towards it than you are looking away from it, the game registers a hit for you, regardless of your character graphic. So you will probably end up doing as much killing with your shield as with your sword.

The rats kill by the same rule, except the player is more powerful and has priority if both characters hit at the same time. You have to be careful about running past a rat, because computers cheat with their perfect reflexes, so the rat will turn and often hit the back half of you, killing you.

Thanks for the tips. I had a question, how are you doing the rat vs player battles / collision? Like, are you detecting if the rat hits right on the ‘point’ of the sword or just the front of the player? I couldn’t really figure out what happened sometimes when I died because it would seem I was stabbing rats. Maybe you are just supposed to run away?

I did find it fun to keep looping around the arena like a mad pied piper being chased by hundreds of little rodents!