Defect

Defect is a ship-building and combat game in which you defend a planet with a crew that will eventually mutiny. You design a ship, complete a mission and then face your former crew in that ship during the next mission. This cycle of construction and combat continues as the missions and story progress, with each new ship giving you a chance to improve your design while adding weaknesses you can exploit when your crew defects.

Build your ship

In the construction phase, you place a power core to set the ship’s size, then add components that you can place, scale and rotate in any arrangement. Components follow the game’s rules and physics, and more than 180 are available. Ships range from tiny fighters to battle stations the size of a small moon.

The main component types are:

• Core: provides the ship’s power and serves as its ultimate weak point.
• Weapons: include lasers, blasters, missiles, torpedoes, mines, rail guns, turrets, flak guns and point defense guns.
• Crew: operate the ship, though they will eventually turn against you.
• Hull: provides most of the ship’s armor.
• Wings: help make the ship more agile and maneuverable.
• Engines: contribute to how the ship performs.
• Special components: fighter decks, shields, radar, heat sinks, exhaust ports, ion intakes, flares and countermeasures can boost or specialize your ship, but may leave it vulnerable if you cannot protect them.

Components have stats and behaviors based on their main functions. The game features three visual styles: industrial, mass-produced TriStage; streamlined SSN; and 2255, a retro style inspired by pulp magazines and the space race. The components used to build a ship also shape its distinct musical theme.

Fight through missions

Combat takes place from a top-down 2D perspective, with you controlling your ship against enemy vessels. Victory advances you to the next mission; defeat sends you back to the shipyard to design another ship. After each mission, your crew defects in your previous ship and tries to defeat you in the following mission, so you need to build flaws into your designs that you can later exploit.

The Planet Asbestos campaign

On Planet Asbestos, corporations, governments, pirates and private citizens are fighting over the right to prospect for a theoretical particle believed to exist only there. Research and mining costs have already bankrupted several planets, inflating the value of the probably nonexistent particle and creating a stock bubble that supports the galaxy’s economy.

You defend the planet for the Suppressed Systems Navy. Your crew has been drafted from prison, morale is low, and mutiny is inevitable. Missions range from fighting waves of fighters and capturing space stations to evacuating passengers from a burning cruise ship. Some objectives call for building a ship that resembles an enemy vessel closely enough to pass its shields and deliver a nuclear weapon.

Challenge mode

Challenge mode lets you fight ships designed by friends or other players, but it is not direct multiplayer: the opposing ship is controlled by AI. You can take on quick skirmishes based on core size or a chosen enemy, survive waves of opponents, or play a campaign mission without scrap limitations. You can also upload successful ship designs and take on designs from the community.