It is set After the End, when a sudden invasion of enormous dragons had destroyed much of humanity and hoarded its treasures, with the remnants forced to flee the planet entirely. However, Stanley and Sydney are the two heroes who dare to keep their spaceship in orbit, and regularly skydive down (past a range of obstacles) and go straight for each dragon's back. They are all so enormous that going from tail to head takes up an entire auto-runner level where you dodge hazards and gather treasure, culminating with a battle when you finally reach a dragon's head and attempt to slay them. Dying forces you to start the game over again, but now with the treasures you have collected on the previous run.
Tropes present in EarthNight:
- Action Girl: Sydney, who is as much of a dragonslayer at her young age as the grizzled Stanley.
- Combos: These are built up by continually jumping from one enemy's head to the other. Getting a string of five combos will restore some of your lost health.
- Deflector Shield: This is one of the power-ups you can get.
- Double Jump: Sydney's unique ability, to offset her jumps being shorter than Stanley's.
- Goomba Stomp: Jumping onto the enemies' heads will not necessarily defeat them, but it will still be chained into combos.
- Heroes Prefer Swords: This is the chosen weapon of Stanley, which allows him to attack enemies directly ahead without having to always jump onto them like Sydney.
- Multiple Endings: Depending on your actions in a run, the game can end in four different ways.
- Normal Ending: Slay the EarthNight Dragon, earning an achievement that calls you out for your cruelty.
- Downer Ending: Strike at but fail to slay the EarthNight Dragon. She devours you, ending your run.
- Pacifist Run: Let your slaying timer expire on every dragon without striking once, all the way up to the EarthNight Dragon, who, upon sparing her as well, takes you to meet Yaga, leader of the Dragons. Yaga reveals that the Dragons are all sapient, thinking beings, driven mad by the vermin and garbage covering their bodies, and states she was only following the Earth’s will. Yaga agrees to make peace with humanity, ushering in a new age of peace between the two species.
- Bolivian Army Ending: After collecting a series of well-hidden items on the backs of many dragons through a full run, slay the EarthNight Dragon and drill through to the core of the earth, confronting and slaying Yaga. An army of enraged dragons bursts through the ground, prepared to devour Sydney and Stanley, but the remainder of humanity, emboldened by their actions, gathers behind them against the Dragons in a Last Stand.
- Practical Currency: Given that you are stuck on a spaceship when not descending down to Earth, the main thing you extract from all the collected treasure is… water.
- Press X to Not Die: Once you reach any given dragon's head, you need to stab it through the skull, in what is represented as a quick-time event.
