Junkyard Universe

Junkyard Universe is a 2D galaxy-cleaning game in which you play as space pilot Meredith. Dissolve or repair space trash, trade items and improve your junk eraser ship as you search for your missing mother, Elaina, and try to bail out the ship before the DISSOLVER year ends and your points reset.

Clean and upgrade your ship

You need to collect 125,000 dissolve points to bail out your ship. You can dissolve trash for points, repair items to learn their value, trade them for dissolve points or recycling coins, buy ship upgrades and use items to survive the current level or make more room in your inventory. Installing a repair upgrade lets you repair things instead of only dissolving them.

The game’s controls revolve around turning: turn left to shoot particles and right to load the particle tanks. It takes 4–6 hours to play, can be saved at any time and has three difficulty levels.

Meredith’s search

Meredith grew up in the DISSOLVER company’s childcare unit. When she was a teenager, her mother Elaina did not return from work, so Meredith got her pilot license and is now boarding the junk eraser ship 3LS4—the ship that returned without Elaina. To learn what happened to her mother, Meredith must bail out the ship; otherwise, it will not tell her anything about Elaina.

The ship refuses to hand over Elaina’s pilot logs because they are protected by the pilot association’s psychological safety agreements. Its particle dissolve projector is powered by a supermassive black hole at its core, and if the ship could move on its own it would be considered a weapon of mass destruction. Since it has been erratic since returning, it is scheduled for erasure.

Meredith also uncovers the DISSOLVER company’s secrets and must decide whom to trust: her surrogate father Dexter, her actual father, the rebels, the aliens or even her own ship.

Allies and other characters

• Dexter: Meredith’s surrogate father, a loyal DISSOLVER engineer who was there when Elaina vanished. He mentored and supported Meredith, but opposes her boarding a ship he believes is about to explode. The ship once exploded his laptop when he tried to retrieve Elaina’s pilot logs.
• 3LM4R: A customer-facing unit at the DISSOLVER station who strongly reminds Meredith of Elmar, the customer-facing unit at the DISSOLVER kindergarten.
• Mikhail: The rebels’ top mechanic and inventor since Elaina left. He knows how to install, use and upgrade her repair particle projector.
• Chen: A young tractor ship pilot and rebel who was partly raised by Mikhail after a junk eraser ship crashed into and destroyed his home planet.
• Naaib: The rebel leader, who will not tell Meredith anything until she proves her merit.
• XorX: An alien tractor ship pilot who seems unsociable; whether that is simply because he is an alien is unclear.