Space Defense

Action · 1 player

How to play

Your ship fires on its own; you dodge enemy fire and line up your shots. Enemies come in waves, each harder than the last, and every fifth wave brings a giant mothership. Grab power-ups to upgrade your weapon and recharge your shield.

1. 1Move your ship with the mouse, your finger or the arrow keys; it fires automatically.
2. 2Dodge enemy bullets and hulls; every hit takes a slice of your shield, and when the shield runs out the ship explodes.
3. 3Collect the crystals that destroyed enemies drop: every 12 crystals raise your score multiplier by one, and a hit costs you half of them.
4. 4Power-ups upgrade your weapon, recharge your shield, give you a bomb, speed up your fire or pull crystals towards you. A bomb wipes every enemy bullet off the screen.
5. 5Every fifth wave a mothership arrives: take out its turrets first, then hit the exposed core.

About Space Defense

Space Defense is a vertical shooter that rewards positioning rather than trigger timing. You never think about firing; all your attention goes into weaving between bullets and slipping the nose of your ship under the right enemy. That makes it comfortable to play one-handed, even on a phone, yet it turns into a serious reflex test once the screen fills up.

The enemy fleet grows more varied step by step. The first wave brings only divers; zigzaggers join in wave two, hunters that aim at you in wave three, kamikazes that dive onto you in wave four, and in wave six come armoured ships that soak up thirty hits but drop power-ups. Every fifth wave a mothership fills the screen: silence its turrets first, then target the core that opens up.

There are two modes. In Endless you have three ships and the waves keep getting tougher. In Hard you have a single ship and enemies arrive faster, but every point you earn is multiplied by one and a half. Your record and best wave are kept on your device, so each run can aim to go one wave further than the last.

Strategy and tips

• Keep your ship in the lower third of the screen. It gives you time to read incoming fire and room to sidestep kamikazes before they reach you.
• The crystal multiplier caps at eight, and taking a hit costs half of your collected crystals. Play defensively while the multiplier is high, because one shield slice can cost a lot of points.
• The magnet pulls crystals toward you for ten seconds. Hold a central position during that time so you sweep in crystals from both sides.
• You start with two bombs and can carry at most five. Any bomb capsule picked up at five is wasted, so when your stock is full do not hesitate to spend one the first time you get cornered.
• Hunters aim straight at you. Instead of long sideways slides, make short, sudden changes of direction so their shots miss.
• Shooting the mothership before its core opens is wasted effort. Take the turrets down from one end to the other and save your bomb for the open core, since bombs deal extra damage to motherships.
• Do not skip armoured enemies. They are tough, but when destroyed they drop a power-up and spill twelve crystals, which can lift the multiplier a full step at once.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to press a button to shoot?

No. Your ship fires continuously on its own; you only move and drop a bomb when needed.

How many hits can my shield take?

The shield has four slices and each hit removes one. When they run out that ship explodes; a shield capsule refills it completely.

How strong can my weapon get?

Weapon capsules upgrade it through five levels, and a full-power message appears at the last one. Rapid fire separately boosts your rate of fire for eight seconds.

When does the game end?

When you lose your three ships in Endless, or your single ship in Hard. The waves never run out; the goal is simply to get as far as you can.