Game tips

Power systems - by default you start the level at full shields. Until you feel like you’ve got a handle on things it probably best to leave them that way. Once you get comfortable try splitting power boost between shields and weapons (gives you some protection and more shots).

If your shields go down - immediately tap the shield’s repair button (if you haven’t already) and boost your repair slider (so the repair happens much faster). Once you’ve got a little shield back - split the power between repair and shields until the shields are mostly back. If you have engines that are in good shape you can also try boosting them and outrun your enemies, however some enemies are too fast to outrun.

Against tougher enemies I’ll often stay mostly at full shields and then quickly full boost the weapons, fire off a couple seekers or a torpedo and then quickly switch back to full shields. And always keep those shields repaired. Once they’re gone all your other systems are vulnerable. Damage to engines reduces your throttle. Damage to weapons reduces the number of shots and weapon options. Once the repair slider goes red - game over.

Weapons

Burst - your default weapon. Each button press launches several shots and then recharges. This is good for close range dog fighting and if you boost the weapons you’ll fire even more shots per button press.

Seekers - good against small ships, or for damaging engines on bigger ships, they are fast enough to hit most ships, but they do have a mind of their own and will sometimes go after a passing asteroid instead of where you wanted them to. You can use the sensor to lock them on a target. Be advised there are a few ships that they won’t target because the ship is cloaked or has some other counter measure.

Torpedoes - are awesome. They have the longest range of your weapons and a wide blast area. A well aimed torpedo can take out a small ship in one shot or temporally damage all the weapons on a large ship (yes they can repair just like you). Keep in mind that tougher ships are often smarter so if they’re far enough away they’ll have time to evade the torpedo.

Basic Tactics - Don’t sit still. Some of the early enemies aren’t great shots, however if you’re sitting still it’s a lot easier for them to hit you. When going in for the kill don’t get too close. When they blow up they can give you a parting gift of potential damage and leave you in pretty bad shape for the next enemy. After I’ve delivered the final shot, I’ll veer sharply or slam it into reverse, but even an experienced player can end up being a pin ball inside a debris field sometimes.

It’s not good especially in the tougher levels to be surrounded, while you’re focused on one enemy the others are blasting away your shields. Try and keep them in front of you so you can pick them off one at a time. Fire off a couple of seekers or a torpedo in their general direction. This can often chase them back a bit. However, if you push them too far away - they’ll warp jump behind you (which is a pretty rude surprise). Some of the enemies are pretty smart but every once in a while I will see one face plant into a moon. This is not a bug, I figured if I can do it, they can too. And they do it a lot less often I do, but it’s always a little treat when I see it happen.

Ramming - ramming is not a good strategy in this game, you ship is much smaller and has less mass than most of the ships you’ll encounter (small things in good packages). So what happens when you ram a ship? Your ship bounces off and takes some damage. Meanwhile on the alien ship - one alien says to another “hey did you just feel something?” the other alien says “nah dude, I didn’t feel nuthin”.

Hazards - this ship is not designed to land on alien worlds, so don’t bother trying to land on a moon (it won’t go well, trust me). Also gas giants have dangerous radiation belts (yeah, they’re a little exaggerated, but hey you’re flying a spaceship on your phone. How cool is that), and next to the central star is obviously not a good place to be. On the outer fringes of the system there will be a debris cloud left over from the stars formation (Most of the time, you’ll never get near that but, if you put full power to the engines you can reach it) Asteroids and comets will cause collision damage but are not usually lethal. You’ll usually be warned when you get near these things, and there will often be a little blue arrow with a blinking point showing the way out of the hazard.

Unlocking random patrols

After each four levels you unlock a random patrol, made up of randomly selected ships from the previous four levels (and maybe a couple of other ships). Because of this, the 4th 8th and 12th levels have ships that are a little trickier to deal with. While I won’t spoil all the fun, I will give you a hint for each.

The fourth level - they’re out there they’re just not easy to see - follow their shot trails.

The eighth level - you want to try and avoid hitting the shield.

The twelfth level - the main ship is surrounded by an anti-matter field ( you know what happens when matter and anti-matter meet?). Also since this is the final level it also unlocks an additional patrol where you can encounter any of the ships in the game.

 

I had a lot of fun making this game. I tried very hard to make the kind of game I’d like to play on a phone. And in that I believe I’ve succeeded. So if you’ve already gotten the game - Thank You.

If you’ve enjoyed the game so much you’d like to see me make another game - you can help out by rating the app and being very generous with the stars, and also by telling everyone one you know about the game.

If you are one of the many folks who would like to play it on their iphone well - you can still help out by telling all your friends about the game and hey, if it makes enough money, I’ll buy a mac and port it over.

Enjoy

-g-