Beat Invaders

Beat Invaders is a space-themed vertical shoot ’em up roguelite, not a rhythm game. You play as one of three Pilots, each with a different Ship Class, and shoot through enemy waves while protecting freighters, defeating bosses and surviving events to complete your delivery. The current track’s speed affects gameplay speed, while each song’s beat and tempo determine enemy movement and firing rates.

Runs and upgrades

During a run, you level up and choose upgrades to strengthen your ship, combining them into builds. Between waves, you can upgrade your ship’s and convoy’s systems; between runs, you spend earned upgrade points on permanent improvements, unlock weapons and convoy gadgets, and unlock Ship Classes with distinct main weapons and stats. You can reset and redistribute upgrades to try different strategies, then take on harder difficulties.

Events, mini-events and booster pickups create opportunities for combos that can clear screens of enemies. Route Effects modify a run, and event waves and mini-events add challenges between the regular waves.

Game modes

The modes are Easy, Normal, Hyper Mode, Speedrun, Lone Wolf, Weeklies and Dailies. They include online leaderboards, where you can compare scores with friends.

Ships and soundtrack

Each Ship Class has its own main weapon and stats. The atmospheric electronic and vocal soundtrack has 33 tracks, and each track sets the pace of its enemies, making each round different.