Dude Star Guard.

How to play Dude Star Guard

1. Press Play, then choose Campaign and launch stage 1-1, or pick Long Night, the Daily Sortie or Classic.
2. Fly by dragging anywhere on the screen, dragging with the mouse, or using the arrow keys or WASD. Hold Shift to slow down for tight gaps.
3. Your ship fires on its own. Line up under enemies and catch the Power cores that gold carriers drop.
4. Only the white dot at the centre of your ship can be hit. Read the bright enemy bullets and slip between them.
5. Graze bullets and chain kills to charge Nova, then press X or tap NOVA to erase every enemy bullet on screen.
6. At a boss, break its side parts for bonus points and watch the notches on its health bar for each new phase.
7. Earn Clear, Sweep and Untouched medals, unlock new weapons, drones and ships, and come back for the daily sortie.

Make your move

About Dude Star Guard

Dude Star Guard is a vertical space shooter about one small ship holding the lanes above the Dude's home. Your guns fire on their own, so the game is about where you fly: under a formation to break it, between two fans of bullets, or close to a boss to finish a phase. The campaign crosses six sectors, the Harbor Belt, Coral Nebula, Amber Hive, Glass Expanse, Iron Veil and Eventide, each with its own sky, set pieces and music. Every sector has five stages; the third brings in a heavily armed frigate elite and the fifth ends with a boss, from the Lantern Warden at the harbor gate to the Long Night itself. Phones held upright get a tall play field with the score above it and Nova below it, while wide screens show the field in the middle with the instruments beside it.

Fourteen kinds of enemy craft share the sky. Darts and weavers fly in along curves and settle into a grid that sways and breathes, then send divers swooping down at you before they loop back to their slots. Turret pods fire rings, mine layers drop charges that burst into circles, lancers draw a dashed warning line before their beam fires, splitters break into two shards, bastions push walls of slow orbs, swarmers home in on the ship, and rocks and boulders tumble through whole stages. Gold carriers bring Power cores. Destroy every craft in a formation for a formation bonus, and keep kills coming within about a second and a half to build a chain multiplier up to five times.

The six bosses each have three or four phases, marked by notches on the health bar at the top of the field. When a phase breaks, every bullet on screen turns into score gems and the next pattern is announced, so you always get a moment to read it. Side parts such as cannons, wing turrets, brood cells, prisms and corona petals can be shot off for bonus points, and each one you break silences its own fire. If a boss shoots you down, Retry from boss restarts at that fight with your earlier score, although the Untouched medal then needs a full flight.

Your hangar holds four weapons, four drones and three ships, and none of them is sold. The Pulse Lance adds parallel streams, the Scatter Fan widens its spread while heavy slugs keep its centre useful at range, the Arc Beam burns the first target in line and chains arcs at higher power, and the Seeker Swarm steers its own darts. Twin Wings add forward fire, the Orbit Shield erases bullets it touches, the Hunter zaps nearby enemies and the Magnet Core pulls pickups in and charges Nova faster. The Guard is balanced, the Sprite has the smallest hit core and the Bulwark carries four hull plates. Beating bosses unlocks these sidegrades, and medals unlock paint.

Nova is the emergency answer. It charges from kills, grazes and the Nova cells that frigates drop; when full, a shockwave turns every enemy bullet into gems, hurts everything it reaches and gives you a moment of safety. Grazing, letting bullets pass close without touching your core, charges it faster. Each stage awards up to three medals: Clear, Sweep for destroying at least 85 percent of the fleet, and Untouched for taking no hull damage. Cadet adds two hull plates and never costs power, Pilot is the intended balance, and Ace makes the patterns faster and denser for 30 percent more score and a diamond on every stage you clear.

Long Night is the endless mode: waves are built from the same formation library, a boss arrives on every tenth wave, and after every third wave you choose one of three perks such as Rapid Coils, Piercing Tips, Wing Mate or Extra Plate. The Daily Sortie gives everyone the same fifteen waves, ship, weapon, twist and final boss on a given UTC day, and tracks your streak. Classic keeps the original one-pulse defender game with its three health grades, falling boulders, 100-point repairs and 1,000 looping levels, and your earlier best score carries over to it. Everything saves on this device only. Sound and music are synthesised in the browser, and shake and flashes are reduced when your system asks for less motion.

A little help for your next high score

• Aimed shots go where you are, not where you are going. Move in small, steady steps through an aimed fan instead of big swerves.
• Stay low but off the bottom edge, so you always have room to sidestep a volley or a diving craft.
• Shoot the gold carriers first. A higher power level is worth more than a few points, and every hit on Pilot or Ace costs a level.
• Save Nova for the densest boss phase or a beam you misread. A full meter is a spare hull plate you have not lost yet.
• The Scatter Fan shreds formations up close while its heavy slugs still reach a boss. The Pulse Lance and Arc Beam reward staying lined up.
• For Sweep, finish divers before they rejoin their grid. For Untouched, learn a stage on Cadet first, then fly it clean on Pilot.

Good questions