Swordshipis a fun, fast-paced,arcade-styleindie game. In this post-apocalyptic setting, players must travel at top speed to grab shipping containers, before depositing them into pop-up portals. The main aim of the game is to dodge the barrage of enemies attacking left, right, and center.
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It’s adifficult gameand requires a lot of perseverance. Theroguelike elementsmean that players will fail (again and again), hopefully learning new skills and sharpening their reaction speed with each run. There are a few things to look out for in the opening levels that may make it easier to progress - here’s what players need to keep in mind.
6Aim For High Scores For Progression
This sounds obvious, because of course, in any arcade game, high scores are the main goal. However, inSwordship, if players don’t gain a certain amount of points at the end of a run, they’ll lose them. They won’t count toward players' overall experience, and they won’t help players to unlock the next step in their Progression, which gives much-needed upgrades and variants.
So the key thing is to keep a note of how many points the player needs to reach the next unlockable item and to keep that in mind when playing. When players reach the end of a stage, they’ll have the opportunity to ‘spend’ their shipping containers on either extra lives, or points. Choosing points may be a wiser option if it would tip the players' score into that next Progression threshold.
5Play Chicken With Diving For Bigger Scores
Certain moves in Swordship will reward players with bigger scores. These include tricking enemies into attacking each other, quickly picking up containers, and making some expertly-timed dives. Players can press X to dive, and if they leave it until the last possible moment to do so before an enemy attack, they can grab some extra points.
Obviously, this is a risk. Games likeSwordshiptake a lot of practice, and there will probably be a few misses while players get used to the rhythm. Eventually, it becomes second nature to dive at the last moment. But because each enemy has a slightly different type of attack, it may take a few failures to get to that point.
4Hold Out For Delivery Dive
Swordshipalmost feels like afuturistic racing game, and players will need to pick up and drop off containers as the level progresses. Containers are very useful, as they can be spent on either points or extra lives. However, the window of time to make a drop-off is very short, and players will often be bombarded with enemy attacks while trying to line up their ships properly.
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Players will unlock the upgrade Rapid Delivery, which makes it quicker to make deliveries. This is unlocked fairly early on in the game. Shortly after that, players will unlock Delivery Dive. This means players can dive on a delivery point, making it easier to simultaneously dodge attacks and make a delivery at once. Phew.
3Block With Enemy Fire
In City 03, a new enemy will appear. This enemy takes some time to charge up, then releases a huge blast of fire. Obviously, the player won’t want to get caught in it, but they can use it as a handy shield against other attacks. This beam of fire will prevent any other attacks from passing through it, so if players can position themselves on the other side of a group of enemies, they’ll have a temporary reprieve.
Using enemies against each other in this way is a huge part of learning to succeed inSwordship. It takes time to figure out how each enemy works, but it will slowly become second nature.
2Go For Double/Triple Hits
Players can use the attack of one enemy to destroy another by dodging at the last moment. This is incredibly fun, and super thrilling when players dodge attacks at the last moment. However, it’s also the best way to gain the most points (which are important if players want to move along the Progression track).
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If players can position themselves in the exact right position, they can take out two or three enemies in one go by causing them all to attack each other at once. Not only is this really fun, but it will also give players a nice point boost, which is useful.
1Don’t Forget To Collect Power Cells
Power Cells are small yellow dots that are easily missed in the chaos of enemy attacks. If players can sneak in and grab them, they’ll be able to use them to unleash a powerful attack. For example, they can set off a bomb to wipe out every enemy on the screen.
It’s worth taking the risk when players see a power cell. A well-timed attack could make the difference between surviving or failing in a particularly tricky area! Focusing on these special attacks can help players to survive the frantic,fast-paced gameplayon harder levels.
Swordshipis currently available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Switch.
