Cloud Patrol

Cloud Patrol is a first-person aerial combat game in which you play the patrol’s youngest flyer, defending a chain of floating islands from a swarm. You fight across drifting island arenas, dodging, strafing and double-jumping as drones attack from every direction. You can pick off Scouts from range, shove a charging Brute aside or hold your ground against a wall of fire.

The campaign

The campaign has 12 levels, each with its own arena, biome sky and sun. Patrols range from noon skies to storm fronts and night raids, building toward a hold-the-line finale at the burning Shattered Ring.

You face 10 enemy archetypes, including hovering Scouts and Stingers, ramming Brutes, orbiting Wardens, long-range Sentinels, a Hive that continually summons enemies and a Mender that repairs its allies. The three bosses are the high-health Carrier, the multi-phase Leviathan and the Overlord that ends the campaign. Bosses keep their escorts supplied, so they remain a threat even when the surrounding sky looks empty.

Weapons and upgrades

Cloud Patrol has six weapons, from the free Repeater to the all-piercing Railgun. The Scatter fires a visible fan of pellets, the Mortar leaves a voxel fireball, the Lance sweeps a column of light across what it appears to touch, and the Railgun leaves a trail that lingers for a couple of seconds. You buy weapons in the hub between sorties.

The hub is also where you spend coins on three upgrade tracks—Armor, Firepower and Thrusters—choose a difficulty and roll modifiers for the next fight. Modifiers can stack, including a lighter frame that trades for more firepower, overclocked enemies, no resupply or a rich field that pays out more coins for a tougher fight. You can spend coins to reroll the modifier stack.

Difficulty and challenges

Choose STANDARD, ELITE or NIGHTMARE. Each tier increases enemy health, damage, speed and numbers, makes the star gates stricter and offers larger payouts. Clean clears earn star bonuses, while three daily tasks are generated from the local date. An idle patrol also earns a little while you leave the game open.

Endless and Ascension

Endless mode generates waves from a growing threat budget in an arena whose layout rerolls with each attempt. It has no victory; your run is measured by the number of waves you survive and compared with your best.

After you clear the campaign, an ASCEND kiosk appears in the hub. Use it to climb to the next cycle, where enemies grow tougher, payouts increase and your Armor and Firepower upgrade caps rise. There are 30 cycles, with escalating enemies and rewards.