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How to play Nova Rift

Goal

Blast through 15 sectors of 5 stages each — 75 stages in all — at full speed, and beat the guardian waiting at the end of every sector. Every sector has its own scenery to fly through, its own enemies, set pieces and music. The first sectors are a fair fight; the last ones are very, very hard.

Controls

• Keyboard: ← ↑ ↓ → or W A S D fly · Space or J fire (hold it — or switch on auto-fire in the pause menu) · K, X or Shift special · L, C or B bomb · P pause · M music.
• Phone / tablet (turn it sideways): drag anywhere on the left of the screen — your ship moves as far as your finger does. Your guns fire by themselves. ★ Special and ✹ Bomb are on the right (you can swap the sides in the pause menu, and change the touch speed). The ⤢ button makes the picture smaller so your thumbs don't cover it.
• Mouse: move the mouse over the game and the ship flies after the pointer · left button fire (hold) · right button special · middle button (wheel click) bomb. Arrow keys take over again whenever you press them; switch mouse control off in the pause menu or the controls panel. On a computer the controls are listed beside the game.
• Gamepad: stick or d-pad fly, A fire, X special, B bomb, Start pause.

The ships

Each hit costs you a shield. With no shields left your ship explodes: you lose a life, a weapon level and an option drone (a power capsule spills out so you can win some back), and come back with full shields. Extra lives at 1,000,000 points, then every 2,500,000 (you can hold up to 9).

Power-ups

Shoot the orange supply carriers — three to five fly through every stage — or now and then wipe out a whole formation, for a capsule: P weapon power (up to 5 — but 3 in sector 1 and 4 in sector 2) · M homing missiles (up to 3; 1 in sector 1, 2 in sector 2) · O an option drone that copies your gun (up to 2; 1 in sector 1) · S speed · H a shield back (or an overshield) · B a bomb · 1UP an extra life (very rare). Beating a mid-boss or a rival ace, and wrecking the first piece of a guardian, gives one too.

Special and bomb

The special meter (top of the screen, or the ring on the ★ button) fills as you hit things. When it's full, fire your ship's special. A bomb clears every bullet off the screen, hurts everything on it and keeps you safe for a moment — you start with 2 and can carry 5.

Scoring and rank

Kill in quick succession to build a chain: every 10 kills raises your multiplier (up to ×8). Gems from wrecked enemies feed the chain too. At the end of every stage you get a tally and a rank — S, A, B, C or D — from how much of the stage you shot down and how often you were hit; the better the rank, the bigger the bonus. Guardians give a time bonus and a no-hit bonus.

Enemies to watch for

• Nothing can be hurt before it has come onto the screen — and it can't hurt you either.
• A warning line shows where a laser or a charging drill is about to go; a red sight means a sniper is lining you up.
• Shield drones block shots from the side they face — hit them from another angle, or when they lower the shield to fire. Pods and sawblades can't be hurt at all (a bomb clears sawblades). Missile cruisers' rockets can be shot down.
• Laser gates switch on and off — time your pass, or destroy a pylon. Proximity mines blink fast just before they burst.
• << ! on the left edge: enemies are coming from behind.
• Near the end of stage 3 of every sector (and of stage 2 too in the last four sectors) a rival ace duels you: it dodges your fire and gets away if you're too slow. Stage 4 has a different mid-boss in every sector — shoot its guns and pods off to weaken it; stage 5 is the run in to the guardian.

The sectors

Stage 4 of every sector has a big mid-boss; stage 5 is a short run-in and the guardian. Watch for warning lines — they show where a laser is about to fire. Some guardians can't be hurt until you've broken their defences. Wrecked enemies leave a few slow shots behind — usually from the second sector on Pilot (sooner once you're well powered up, or on the harder settings, and from the very start on Nova) — so don't fight with your nose against them. The enemies also get a little fiercer while you're fully powered up.

Difficulty

Five settings: Cadet (slower bullets, less fire, fewer enemies, 4 lives and an extra shield — still a real fight), Pilot (the game as designed, 3 lives), Veteran (faster, denser and tougher), Ace (much faster fire, one shield fewer per ship) and Nova — insane: everything at full fury from the first wave, 2 lives, one shield fewer. Your main gun hits harder the easier the setting — double damage on Cadet, +80% on Pilot, +60% on Veteran, +40% on Ace and +20% on Nova (missiles, specials and bombs stay the same). Later stages get very hard on every setting. Once you've reached a sector you can start a new game there.

Continue

After a game over you can continue from the same stage with fresh lives (your score starts again from zero) — and pick any ship you like. The game is saved at the start of every stage: pause and choose 💾 Save & quit (or just leave) and you can carry on next time.

Two pilots

• With a wingman: choose 🤝 With a wingman in Play the computer. A computer pilot flies beside you; it never runs out of lives and leaves most power-ups for you.
• Online co-op: in the game's menu, press 🤝 Invite next to a player (or choose Nova Rift when you challenge someone). You each pick a ship; enemies are a bit tougher and guardians have more health. If you run out of lives, continue with any ship while your partner flies on; it's over when you're both out and nobody continues. One player's browser runs the game, so it's smoothest when they have a good connection.
• If someone drops out: their ship is shielded for 30 seconds (it can't be hit) while they reconnect. If they're not back by then — or they pressed 🚪 Leave — the other pilot flies on solo (if it was the browser running the game that went, the stage starts again with your score, lives and weapons). Whoever left doesn't get a leaderboard score for that game.

Tips

• Your ship is only hit in its glowing middle — you can let bullets brush the wings.
• Save bombs for the moments you can't dodge, and use your special on guardians.
• Keep moving: the world rushes past fast, and the ground in caves and factories hurts.
• Every ship plays differently: Bulwark hits hardest up close, Ember at mid range, Lancer and Wasp from far away.

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