Nova Swarm

Nova Swarm is a vertical shoot ’em up in which you read enemy formations, find gaps in waves of bullets and learn boss attack patterns. Enemies hold formation before peeling away to dive, while tractor beams can grab and drag your ship. You can free captured fighters from enemy convoys; rescued ships join you as an escort wing.

The game includes 30 ships with distinct weapons, handling and traits, 50 bosses with different ways to defeat them, endless sectors and seven ways to play. The Last Salute is a ten-chapter story told across the first 100 sectors, with Story Echoes that interrupt the action during a fight.

Shape your run

In Arcade Tactical, defeating a boss lets you choose one of three upgrades for the rest of your run. You can strengthen weapons, improve handling, reinforce defences or develop support drones. Upgrades can stack, evolve and combine into Fusion protocols; for example, combining the right drone upgrades adds converging crossfire to your support wing. Your starting ship provides the foundation, while your upgrade choices determine how its build develops.

Change the fight

Your shots can free captured fighters, destroy a rival’s guns to silence its attacks, break shield projectors, cut dangerous machinery loose and expose vulnerable cores. You face Veilborn visitors and segmented Space Snakes, learning their movements and attack patterns to decide when to press your advantage.

Planetfall is a colossal orbital fortress. You can dismantle its outer structure or strike its core when the shutters open, bringing it down in a rolling collapse of armour and machinery.

Ships and progression

You begin with three ships and unlock the rest of the 30-ship fleet as your pilot career develops. The fleet includes precision cannons, sweeping spread fire, drone specialists and nimble interceptors. Each hull has its own strengths and tradeoffs, shaped by its weapons, handling and traits.

Game modes

• Arcade Tactical: Start from the beginning and build your run through boss victories and upgrade choices.
• Onslaught Tactical: Choose six starting upgrades and enter Sector 51 under immediate pressure; this mode has a separate Steam leaderboard.
• Arcade Pure and Onslaught Pure: Test your flying and shooting without drafted upgrades.
• Daily Signal: Fly the same daily ship, route theme and rules as every other pilot.
• Scout Run: Learn patterns and experiment at a gentler pace.
• Sector Run: Practise deeper encounters from earned checkpoints.

Rivals and records

A rival ladder brings real Steam leaderboard scores into your runs. Pass one pilot and the next target moves up, with visible and audible overtakes and a chase announcer for major passes. Your next rival can appear in the fight as a Nemesis ship: shoot it down for a score bonus, or let it escape. If another player passes your score between flights, the menu shows who did it; choose Take it back to start a run on that board and chase your place again.

Runs can be saved mid-flight and continued later. Swarm School teaches new pilots in a short tutorial sector with a live instructor. Separate Steam leaderboards cover Arcade and Onslaught, and there are 100 Steam achievements.

The galaxy beyond combat

Cosmic creatures drift past and unexpected scenes unfold between firefights. You can discover 60 Cabinet Wonders, strange sights with stories to uncover, including ghost fleets and living constellations. The mystery of The Cabinet, an arcade machine that watches your career, also unfolds as you play. Pilot ranks, Pilot Orders and the Threat Codex offer further progression, while detailed Run Reports show what happened in each attempt.