Co-op is Arcade for two ships on one screen. Each player flies their own ship with their own weapon, jump and defense. You share XP, skill points, boons, novas and lives.
Starting
- Play → CO-OP card → difficulty → Take-off.
- Player 2 is already in the loadout screen.
Without a connected controller, the co-op row waits; as soon as a controller reports a button press, player 2 joins. Browsers only expose a controller after a button has been pressed while the window is open.
You can also team up in regular Arcade: click Join in the co-op row — whoever clicks plays with keyboard and mouse; whoever selects it with the controller and presses A plays with the controller.
Devices
- Keyboard + mouse against a controller — the most common setup.
- Two controllers — keyboard and mouse then stay with player 1 as well.
- Use ⇄ in the co-op row to swap devices.
- If a controller is disconnected and a player is left without a device, player 2 leaves.
Choosing your loadout
Both players pick weapon, jump and defense in the same rows. A frame in the player’s color marked 1P or 2P shows who chose what.
| Controller | Keyboard + mouse | |
|---|---|---|
| Change row | ↑ / ↓ | — |
| Select | ← / → or LB / RB | Click a card, keys 1–6 for the weapon |
| Ready | A | “1P/2P READY” button or Enter |
| Back | B (first “not ready”, then leave) | — |
Changing your choice cancels “ready”. The flight starts only once both are ready.
In flight
- 1P is blue, 2P orange — projectiles, muzzle flash, the ring around the ship and the label beneath it.
- Each player has their own status corner: 1P bottom left, 2P bottom right, with weapon, hull and shield.
- Enemies aim at the nearest ship, and loot flies to the nearest ship.
- At level 5, each player chooses the upgrade path of their own weapon; the skill tree shows a separate weapon card for player 2.
Downed and salvaged
A downed ship drifts as a wreck with a ring and a countdown. If the partner flies into the ring and holds position until salvaging is complete, the ship returns with half its hull. Leaving the ring makes the progress drain away. A life is only lost when both are down at the same time or the timer runs out.
Co-op balance
Co-op should be a challenge, not a comfort. That’s why co-op turns up the incoming fire instead of just enemy hull — and everything scales with difficulty:
| Fire rate | Volley density | Enemy hull | Hit damage | Wreck timer | Salvage time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cadet | ×1.15 | ×1.1 | ×1.6 | ×1.1 | 15 s | 2.5 s |
| Pilot | ×1.3 | ×1.2 | ×1.8 | ×1.2 | 12 s | 3 s |
| Veteran | ×1.4 | ×1.25 | ×1.9 | ×1.3 | 9 s | 3 s |
| Legend | ×1.5 | ×1.3 | ×2.0 | ×1.4 | 7 s | 3.5 s |
These values stack on top of the difficulty level’s own. Enemy hull is tuned so that a fight lasts about as long as it does solo.
Not in co-op yet
Co-op is Arcade-only for now. Orbit and Track will follow once there’s a solution for two ships there (the camera in Orbit, polarity in Track).