Controls
- Move
- W A S D or Arrows
- Fire
- Automatic
- Start / restart
- Enter
- Pause
- P or Esc
On touch, drag to move and tap to start or resume.
How a run works
You start with three lives and a single forward gun that fires automatically, several times a second. Enemies arrive in waves. When a wave's last enemy is gone, the next begins two seconds later, and every fifth wave is a mini-boss. There is no final wave: the run ends when your third life is gone.
Losing a life is not the end of a fight. You respawn at the bottom of the screen with two and a half seconds of invulnerability, and every enemy bullet on screen is wiped at the moment you are hit. The cost is your weapon: power-ups reset to the single gun.
The enemies
| Enemy | Behaviour | Hits | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weaver | Drifts down in a sine wave | 1 (2 from wave 7) | 50 |
| Shooter | A weaver that fires aimed shots at you; appears from wave 3 | 1 (2 from wave 7) | 70 |
| Diver | Hovers briefly, then dives in a straight line at where you were | 1 | 80 |
| Asteroid | Bounces off the side walls; appears from wave 4 | 3 | 40 |
| Mini-boss | Sways near the top, fires a five-bullet fan plus an aimed shot | 90 on wave 5, +50 per boss | 500+ |
Enemies that slip off the bottom of the screen cost you nothing — there is no penalty for letting one go, only the points you did not take.
How waves scale
- Each wave brings more weavers, up to 13, and spawns them closer together.
- Divers join from wave 3 and asteroids from wave 4, both growing in number.
- Enemy bullets get faster every wave, and shooters fire more often.
- From wave 10, bosses arrive with an escort.
Power-ups
A destroyed enemy has a 12% chance to drop a power-up, and every mini-boss drops one for certain. Picking one up is also worth 25 points.
| Power-up | Effect | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Double | Two parallel shots | 12 s |
| Spread | Three shots, the outer two angled out | 12 s |
| Shield | Absorbs one hit | Until hit |
Picking up a weapon replaces the one you have and restarts its 12-second timer. Bosses hand out their drops in a fixed order: double, then spread, then shield.
Strategy
Your hitbox is smaller than your ship
The ship is drawn about 30 px wide, but only a circle 20 px across in its centre can be hit. Bullets that appear to clip a wing pass harmlessly. Once you trust that, gaps that look impossible open up.
Use invulnerability as a weapon
While your ship is blinking — after a respawn or after a shield breaks — enemy bullets that touch you simply disappear, and flying into any non-boss enemy destroys it. Two and a half seconds is enough to clear a crowded lane or body-block a stream of shots. You do not score for ramming, but you do survive.
Sidestep divers once they commit
A diver locks its path the moment it leaves the hover. Hold still until it launches, then move a ship's width to the side and it sails past.
Fight bosses off-centre and on the move
The middle bullet of the boss's fan drops straight down, and its extra shot is aimed at where you are when it fires. Sitting under the boss invites both. Stay one lane to the side and keep drifting, and the aimed shots land behind you.
Protect the shield
The shield never times out. If you have one, play the next boss aggressively — it is a spare life that does not cost you your weapon.
Good to know
- On touch screens the ship follows your finger, offset above it so your thumb never covers it.
- Sector Seven is the only game in the arcade with sound effects; they switch on with your first key press or tap.
- Switching tabs pauses the game. Your best score is saved in this browser.
More games
- Neon Drift — arcade racer
- Dust Rally — rally racer
- Shock Breaker — brick breaker
- Volt Serpent — snake