Cosmic Invasion

Cosmic Invasion combines strategic fleet management with fast-paced battles against invading UFO fleets. You move ships across a 20-by-30 grid of 600 sectors, protecting your home planet and four space stations while gathering resources and ship modules. Losing your home planet or all your ships ends the game.

The invasion

Alien fleets enter the sectors around your planet. You start with five ships: one at your home planet and one at each of the four space stations. The stations can repair your ships and contribute to your score, so you try to hold on to them as the invasion grows.

At the start, fleets contain three or four scout ships, the slowest and weakest of five UFO ship types. As the game progresses, fleets grow in size and variety; fleets of 15 to 20 ships are common later on. The invasion begins with three to six spawn locations, and a new location appears every 7 to 10 turns, depending on the skill level you chose.

Ships and resources

You can build more ships with metal, and use modules to improve their stats. Modules can be found on most types of planets; there are nine types, each with three levels. Installing them requires crystals.

The game has three resources:

• Metal: found in asteroid fields; used to build ships and make repair kits.
• Science: found in nebulas; used mostly to research technologies.
• Crystals: found on crystalline planets; used to install modules on your ships.

Researching technologies with science can improve your chances of holding off the fleets. Technologies increase repair rates and reduce the time needed to move and search areas.

Combat and scoring

During combat, UFO ships appear, move and fire bullets and missiles, dart around the screen, then disappear. You move your ship’s aimer and fire machine-gun bullets and missiles. Destroying UFOs earns points.

You also score points each turn based on the remaining armor of your home planet and space stations, so damage to them reduces your score. The game ends if you lose the home planet or all your ships; the goal is to achieve the highest score possible.