Getting Started
Everything a new pilot needs — the core loop, difficulty, every progression system, the sector map, game modes, squads and the economy.
How a Run Works
- Pick a pilot, difficulty and arena. New players start free with NeoByte on Normal in the Azure Expanse.
- Move — your weapons auto-fire. You only control movement (joystick, WASD or gamepad). Dodge enemies and aim by positioning.
- Vacuum XP gems and gold dropped by slain enemies. Bigger magnet range = easier pickups.
- Level up and choose an upgrade — a new weapon, a stat passive, or an evolution key. Build toward a synergy.
- Survive elites and the end-of-sector boss. Hit the boss's weak side and watch the hazards.
- Bank your loot in the Hub at run's end — gold becomes permanent currency; your score hits the weekly ladder. Then dive back in stronger.
🦥 Beginner tip
You can't out-aim everything — you out-build it. Your first goal every run is to assemble one synergy or evolution as fast as possible. Grab a weapon, then the passive that evolves it.
The Four Difficulties
Higher difficulty multiplies enemy HP and damage — but also your XP and gold. Hazards are environmental dangers.
| Difficulty | XP | Gold | Enemy HP | Enemy DMG | Hazards |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy Forgiving start for new pilots. |
0.5× | 0.5× | 0.7× | 0.6× | None |
| Normal Standard, balanced challenge. |
1× | 1× | 1× | 1× | None |
| Hard Tougher enemies, occasional hazards. |
2× | 2× | 1.5× | 1.5× | 5% |
| Cosmic Extreme danger, frequent hazards. |
3× | 3× | 2.5× | 2.5× | 15% |
When to push up
Move to Hard once you can comfortably clear a sector — the 2× gold and XP massively speeds up your permanent upgrades. Save Cosmic for strong builds chasing leaderboard scores.
Systems That Make You Stronger
Permanent Stat Tree
Spend gold on lifetime stat bonuses — HP, speed, damage, magnet, regen, cooldown, luck. Also has weekly and seasonal tiers that reset.
Character Mastery
Each pilot earns mastery tiers from kills. Tiers 1–5 are shared stat bumps; T6 and T7 unlock that pilot's signature package and ability boost.
Talents
Per-character talent trees (permanent / weekly / seasonal) you slot with gold to define your build identity.
Relics
Craft and equip up to 3 artifacts, level them 1→5, then prestige to PL5 for stacking multiplicative power.
Weapon Mastery
Rack up kills with a weapon to permanently boost it and unlock its mastery effect for every future run.
Mystery Forge
The Astral Lab — a gold-only RNG system (S6+) that grants permanent stat buffs, respecting all stat caps.
Shared Mastery Tiers
| Tier | Title | Kills | Bonus |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥚 T1 | Cadet | 0 | No bonus — earn your wings |
| 🚀 T2 | Star Runner | 2,000 | +5% Speed |
| ⚔️ T3 | Void Reaper | 5,000 | +10% Damage |
| 🌌 T4 | Nebula Warden | 10,000 | +15% Area |
| 👑 T5 | Cosmic Overlord | 25,000 | -10% Cooldown |
| 🌟 T6 | Signature Tier | 50,000 | Character-specific multi-stat package |
| 💎 T7 | Ability Boost | 100,000 | Supercharges the pilot's signature ability |
All 20 Sectors
The Inner Galaxy (1–10) eases you in; the Outer Galaxy (11–20) is the endgame ladder with far tougher mobs and longer runs.
Azure Expanse
Mystic Cosmos
Ethereal Nebula
Crimson Void
Solar Storm
Emerald Galaxy
Shattered Core
Abyssal Vortex
Turquoise Drift
Rainbow Rift
The Galactic Core
Pillars of Creation
Saturnian Reach
Andromeda's Edge
The Painter's Spiral
Harmony Drift
Chromatic Tides
Stormfront Nebula
Supernova Heart
The Devourer
Where to Play
Sector Run
Pick a pilot, arena and difficulty, then clear a timed sector ending in a boss. 20 sectors across the Inner and Outer Galaxy; durations run 3:00 up to 12:30.
Endless
Launched from its own button — no timer, no win condition. Gold trickles in (capped at 12/sec) and kills bank at up to 4/sec while difficulty ramps forever. Its own leaderboard.
Leviathan Trials
Toggle on boss modifiers (the 'Cosmic Mutations' menu) to make bosses deadlier in exchange for bigger gold, XP and relic-fragment drops. Stack as many as you dare.
Galactic Raid
A server-wide co-op world boss. Every player chips at one shared HP pool and earns rewards scaled to their damage contribution.
Squad Meteor
A 90-second DPS-check arena for squads. Members pick a meteor target and hammer it together; cumulative damage funds squad-wide weekly buffs.
Squad Wars
Weekly head-to-head between two squads. Most kills over the week wins, building your squad's lifetime war record and streak.
Boss Modifiers
Toggle any of these six modifiers on before a run. Each makes bosses nastier — and pays out more gold, XP or relic fragments.
| Modifier | Effect | Bonus Reward |
|---|---|---|
| Leviathan's Fury | Bosses deal +50% Damage | +500 Boss Gold Drop |
| Thick Hide | Bosses have +100% HP | +50% Boss XP Drop |
| Frenzy | Bosses move 50% faster | +1 Relic Fragment on Boss Kill |
| Bullet Hell | Bosses fire twice as many projectiles | +2 Relic Fragments on Boss Kill |
| Cellular Regeneration | Boss heals 1% Max HP every second | +800 Boss Gold Drop |
| Unstoppable Force | Boss ignores slow and pushback | +1000 Boss Gold Drop |
Bounties & Daily Missions
Recurring objectives that pay out gold and relic fragments just for playing.
🎯 Bounties
📅 Daily Missions
Squads & Competition
A solo run is fun; a coordinated squad is the heart of the long game. Squads are player-created guilds of up to 5 members with a shared gold treasury, levels, daily goals and a war record.
⚔️ Squad Wars
Squads are paired head-to-head each week. Most kills wins — building a lifetime War record and win streak for the squad.
☄ Squad Meteor
Members pick a shared meteor target and hammer it together in a 90-second DPS check. Cumulative damage funds squad-wide weekly buffs that apply to every member's runs.
💰 Squad Treasury Buff Tiers
Members donate gold; leaders activate a weekly buff tier for the whole squad.
| Tier | Treasury Cost | Weekly Buff (all members) |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 25,000 G | +5% squad XP from kills |
| Silver | 100,000 G | +10% XP, +5% gold drops |
| Gold | 500,000 G | +20% XP, +10% gold, +3% boss dmg |
| Platinum | 2,000,000 G | +30% XP, +15% gold, +8% boss dmg |
The Economy
🪙 Gold
The main currency. Earned in runs, spent on upgrades, talents, relics, mastery and the forge.
⭐ Star Fragments
Forged from gold (daily cap). Fuel weapon augments and character passives.
🔮 Relic Fragments
From boss drops, milestones and raid contribution. Used to craft and prestige relics.
💎 $OMENX
The real on-chain reward token. Earned via weekly/seasonal payouts; spent on cosmetics & convenience.
Server-authoritative scoring
Your run score is recomputed and validated on the server from your run stats — the client is never trusted. $OMENX is spent through the Omen settlement layer on cosmetics and convenience SKUs (revives, XP boosts).
Cosmetics
Pure flair — trails, kill effects and skins. A taste:
Combat mechanics that matter
The numbers that quietly decide your run — straight from the live build.
Armor = % damage reduction
Each point of armor is roughly 1% damage reduction, clamped to a per-sector cap (≈20–25% in the Inner Galaxy, higher in the Outer Galaxy). Stacking armor on tanks like Pandypaws is very strong.
Hard stat caps
Multipliers are capped: Damage 6.0×, Area 4.0×, XP 5.0×, Gold 8.0×, and a Cooldown floor of 0.35×. Once you're near a cap, pivot your spending to a different stat.
Diminishing returns
Stacked weekly + seasonal upgrades are scaled by 0.66×, so whales don't run away with the ladder. Permanent and single-tier upgrades are unaffected.
Dynamic difficulty
The game watches your kills and damage taken and ramps spawn rate and enemy speed to match — up to 2.5× enemy speed on the hardest pushes. Play well and the field gets fuller and faster.
Endless caps
In Endless, gold banks at up to 12/sec and kills at up to 4/sec for scoring. It's a marathon — survival and consistent clear speed beat burst.
Level scaling
Each level-up raises the next XP requirement (roughly ×1.1 + 20), so early levels snowball fast and late levels reward XP/magnet investment.
Scoring & leaderboards
Your run score is recomputed on the server from validated stats — time survived, kills, level, pre-cap gold, your pilot, the arena and the difficulty — with sanity caps on every dimension. The client number is never trusted, so there's no cheating the climb.
🏆 The ladders
Weekly score and weekly sector-kills (reset Mondays UTC), a four-week seasonal ladder, a separate Endless ladder, and Global Raid contribution. Top placements pay out $OMENX to your linked wallet, with bigger seasonal pools.
💡 Climb faster
Higher difficulty multiplies score inputs, so a clean Hard/Cosmic clear outscores a safe Normal run. Bank weekly & seasonal upgrades early each cycle, finish an evolution, and push the highest difficulty you can survive.
Pro Tips
- Rush one synergy first. A single fused or evolved weapon out-damages three half-leveled base weapons. Pick with a plan.
- Keep moving in a wide circle. Kite the swarm into your auto-fire and trailing AoE pools instead of standing still.
- Match pilot to goal. Farming gold? SynthBeats. Leveling fast? HoloDrift or CodeBreaker. Pure carnage? NovaByte or NeonVortex.
- Bank weekly & seasonal upgrades early. They reset, so spend into them while they're cheap each cycle for a free power spike.
- Hit boss weak sides. Every boss has a back or side weak point — reposition to land bonus damage.
- Join a squad. Treasury buffs and Meteor buffs apply to all your runs — free permanent power just for being active.