In the main menu, Play takes you to mode selection: Arcade, Orbit and co-op — Track is listed there too, but it is still in development. Difficulty and loadout come next. Online co-op has its own button in the main menu.
Arcade
The classic climb: fifty sectors, one after another. A sector ends when every enemy is defeated.
- Every five sectors a guardian awaits. It brings an escort from the previous wave, gets tougher with every sector and shows its three phases with a banner and a screen shake.
- From sector 11 the enemies move up to a new generation — not all at once, but one after another: drones and swarms first, then orbs (13), spinners (15) and finally fortresses (17). This repeats every ten sectors, and you can see it in their coloring.
- From sector 7, enemies from Orbit join in: the Lance, from 9 the Driver, from 12 the Mirror, from 16 the Plague Thrower.
- In sector 50 the Core, the final boss, is waiting. It brings a large escort and shows its four phases — from dark crust to meltdown.
Along the way, power-ups, wreck parts, nova capsules and ion crystals show up. Your ship only fires when an enemy is on screen.
Orbit
An open star system of three rings — the Scrapyard, the Shipyard and the Ember. Instead of flying upward, you move freely in every direction: mine and sell ore, take on contracts at stations, secure zones, collect both key halves and pass through the gate to the Core. After that, you jump on to the next system.
Here you aim yourself — with the mouse or the right stick — or leave it to the auto-aim, which you upgrade at the stations. Everything about it in the Orbit article.
Co-op
There are two ways to fly together:
- On the same screen, in Arcade and Orbit. The CO-OP card starts Arcade with two players right away. Everything about it under Co-op.
- Online, with a room code: each player at their own computer, each with their own ship. Everything about it under Online co-op.
Track — in development
In development — coming in a later update. In the released game, Track is still greyed out and not playable. The playable modes are Arcade and Orbit, solo or with two players.
The idea: your own song plays along. The game analyzes it and lets tempo, intensity and timbre decide on enemies, patterns and your firepower; in between, choreographies demand a flawless dance through walls, spokes and rings. Music files are meant to stay on your device and be processed only in your browser.
Leaderboard
Arcade and Orbit have a weekly leaderboard. It counts each player’s best finished flight of the last seven days, at least one minute long. Only players who enter a pilot name are listed — without a name you fly anonymously.