The first impression is interesting because the game lets you play in two different modes that fit two separate genres. The first is an incremental mode where you don’t lose anything upon death and can simply reach the end by spending time, while the roguelite mode makes you lose everything and sends you back to square one after each death, requiring more effort. There’s also a third, middle mode in which you get something from both modes, or you can customize certain features.
Either way, the main gameplay is closer to a roguelite. You have a ship flying through space, and you pick your next destination by clicking on usually three icons around you. They show what you’re getting yourself into, and the majority of them are salvage events in which you click on debris to grab resources. These are often accompanied by several enemies, at which point your ship fires automatically. Another thing that happens automatically is the actual collection of resources and loot.
Salvaging and destroying ships earns you Cred and experience. Cred is used at shop destinations, where you can buy various drones to help you with things such as attacking or salvaging, as well as modules that improve or add something, such as increasing dodge range or making your shots ricochet toward nearby enemies. However, you have limited slots, so you need to pay attention and choose something good. Another vital resource is fuel, which is required for travelling around, but you often get it from destroyed enemies.
After a number of jumps, you’ll get into a boss fight that you probably won’t survive on your first few attempts. What happens, and what you lose, upon death depends on the chosen mode, but you always start from the beginning and pick a free reward. Cred is gone in all modes, while experience stays and is useful in incremental mode.
The upgrade tree is similar to those in other incremental games, with invisible upgrade nodes until you buy the first upgrade and reveal all adjacent nodes. Although there’s an element of surprise in never knowing what you’ll unlock next, the game adds a toggle that reveals the entire tree so you can see what upgrades await you further down the tree.
Some nodes can be bought once, but most allow further purchases to improve their benefits. Of course, each purchase increases the cost of the next upgrade. Upgrades add all the important stuff, such as damage, firing speed, accuracy, salvage yield, fuel, and so on. Focusing on weapons, especially accuracy, is pretty vital because enemies constantly move around, and the faster you kill them, the more experience you gain. You also want to kill them quickly because they tend to run away when they take some damage.
Another important upgrade is in the center, which unlocks more slots for drones and modules, but you first need to buy the required number of upgrades across the tree to unlock the next purchase option. After that, you can also invest in an upgrade that increases the chance of getting better-tier drones and modules. The level of both types of loot, as well as salvage in general, depends on the sector you’re in. You progress to the next one by beating the boss. And again, depending on the mode, you either respawn in the last reached sector or have to start all the way from the first one.
But even if you go with incremental mode, progress is slow. Also, each time you take a hit to your ship’s hull or get destroyed, drones and modules take a hit as well. After enough hits, they become broken and need to be repaired at a yard event or destroyed by double-clicking on them. This means the majority of progress still depends on the upgrade tree, and although the difference might not be that big, every upgrade helps.
