"Throughout the galaxy, a legend was told. On a distant planet, a grim fortress stood. The Gungeon. It was said to have held an artifact of impossible power: a gun that could kill the past. Most who sought the Gun perished, and others languished for eternity in the Gungeon's halls. Precious few, however, achieved their aims, and took their shot, but in doing so, wounded time itself. As the Gungeon becomes paradox, and begins to shatter, the last of the gungeoneers must... (cue Title Drop)"
— Opening narration
Exit the Gungeon is a sequel/spin-off to Enter the Gungeon, released on iOS via Apple Arcade on September 19th, 2019, with Steam and Nintendo Switch versions released on March 17th, 2020. Taking place after the events of the first game, Exit the Gungeon follows the gungeoneers from the first game as they try to escape the collapsing Gungeon. While it's still a Bullet Hell shooter, it takes place from a side-view perspective, unlike the original, which was a top-down dungeon crawler.
This game contains examples of:
- Actionized Sequel: Granted, there was plenty of action in the original game, but it was primarily based around positioning and careful strategy. Exit the Gungeon still has those elements, but shifts towards a more breakneck side scroller rather than a top-down experience.
- Ambiguous Situation: Did the Gungeoneers intentionally leave the Cultist behind, or did they do it accidentally in their haste to leave?
- Art Evolution: The overall sprite work is much more detailed, and the Gungeoneers' portraits make them look younger compared to their Enter portraits, especially The Convict.
- Back from the Dead: The Fallmonger, aka the Deathvator, is the Wallmonger’s dead body trying to fight back against you.
- Blatant Lies: Winchester's Original Game is pretty transparently an Angry Birds clone.
- Bullet Time: One of the two control schemes, in which time slows to a crawl so you can properly aim your jumps and dodge rolls.
- Butt-Monkey:
- The Gunsling King has had his position usurped by Manservantes, who forces him to participate in games of golf... as the ball.
- The Cultist is this even more than before. In their ending, their parachute fails to open, causing them to fall on their face, and they're left behind by the other Gungeoneers' ship just as they're about to enter.
- Callback: Bello no longer attacks you for shooting in his shop, but he reminds you that it happened.
- Collapsing Lair: The Gungeon is falling apart, and now the Gungeoneers must escape starting from The Forge.
- Dartboard of Hate:
- The Convict sets up one using Black Stache's photo.
- The way Trorc tosses beer cans at the dummy of the Ledge Goblin is also in the spirit of the trope.
- The Dog Bites Back: Manservantes, having been stuck as the Gunsling King's lackey throughout the previous game, has since managed to usurp and reduce him to a glorified golf ball in his "Just Desserts Golf" mini-game.
- Dracolich: The High Dragun has now become this, having been Stripped to the Bone and is now hell-bent on destroying the escaping Gungeoneers.
- Dragon Ascendant: The Chancellor is a boss fight this time around, having taken the Bullet King's place after you killed him.
- Elevator Action Sequence: 90% of the game.
- Escape Sequence: The Convict's version of the Mines has her chased by a giant worm.
- Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: With the Pilot's ship.
- Fusion Dance: A few bosses are fusions of bosses from the first game.
- The Eyebalrog is the Beholster wearing the shell of the Cannonballrog.
- The Medusalier is the Gorgun riding atop a Fuselier shell.
- The Last Dragun is the High Dragun's remains after taking on The Lich's power.
- The Ghost: Blockner and the Ledge Goblin are mentioned by Manuel and Trorc, respectively, but never appear.
- Happy Ending Override: The gungeoneers killing their past caused a localized Time Crash, causing the Gungeon to collapse and forcing them to escape it in order to get any worth out of it.
- I Choose to Stay: The Bullet, unsurprisingly.
- Living Statue: The Sepulchergeist is the Challenge Shrine, possessed by the spirits formerly inhabiting the Kill Pillars.
- Locomotive Level: Some versions of the Mines take this form.
- Luck Manipulation Mechanic: The combo system is a form of this.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: Gungamesh, a four-armed gunslinger who acts as a boss.
- Non-Standard Character Design: The Last Dragun is the only enemy rendered using polygonal 3D assets.
- Robot Me: As if the Ammoconda wasn’t bad enough, after feeling he lost his skills, he went and got mechanical enhancements and became the Bolt Python.
- Shows Damage: The Mutread Head and the Low Priest display varying forms of decay when reduced to half health:
- The former has various cybernetic components exposed on its body, and its face-screen below the body of the boss turns from green to red.
- The latter's texture is stretched out into a rectangle, as if he had become a painting moving across the screen.
- Shout-Out: Alongside the many from Enter the Gungeon, we have:
- His Majesty's Chancellor is named Toadstool.
- Meduselier is a combination of Medusa and Carmilla from the Castlevania series.
- Meowitzer is based on Eggman.
- Gungamesh, with his red cloak, multi-armed appearance and dimension-hopping, resembles not the Mesopotamian king of myth, but the haughty sword-stealer that shares his name.
- The subtitle for the Sepulchergeist is "The Shrining".
- Achievements called Smash Brother and Sunset Overdrive.
- Stripped to the Bone: The High Dragun returns as the Final Boss of this game, now only a skeleton with purple, spectral wings who is now known as the Last Dragun.
- Take Your Time: While the Gungeon is falling apart around you, both in a traditional sense and an existential sense, it will never collapse until you've gotten all the Gungeoneers and their allies out of there.
- Time Crash: Turns out killing your own past wasn't such a good idea after all...
- Among other effects, one of the bosses is the younger, human version of the High Priest, before he joined the Gundead.
- Took a Level in Kindness: The Sorceress no longer charges you for her blessing. Which is good, because that's the only way you can get other guns in this game without Arsenal mode.
- When you first meet him, the Resourceful Rat apologizes for his behavior, and gives you a gnawed key with no strings attached. Subverted in that he's the one who kidnapped all the other NPCs, and is holding them ransom by charging you for further keys.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: The Buffammo is mentioned to be one of these with the Gatling Gull. He even bears a similar image on the splash screen prior to his fight.
- Writing Around Trademarks: The Gloctopus is named that way because "Glock" is a registered trademark that is very rigidly defended. Thus, the name has the "K" left out, and for good measure it's said to get its name from its proficiency with the glockenspiel.
