How to Play Void Raiders

What it is

Void Raiders is a fast little space shooter. You pilot a tiny cyan starfighter at the bottom of a starfield while waves of glitchy pink invaders weave their way down toward you. Blast them apart, dodge their shots, and see how long you can hold the line.

How to play (rules)

Your ship moves left and right along the bottom of the screen and fires straight up.
Invaders arrive in waves. The first wave has four slow invaders that rarely shoot, so you can get a feel for the controls. Later waves grow to as many as eight and fire more often.
A new wave drops in when fewer than three invaders are left on screen, so the pressure never really lets up.
Each wave moves faster and shoots more often than the one before it. After the fourth wave, some invaders need two hits to destroy.
You have three lives, shown at the top left. You lose one if an enemy shot hits you, if an invader crashes into you, or if an invader slips past the bottom of the screen.
After you’re hit, your ship blinks for a moment and can’t be hit again until it stops.
Lose all three lives and the run is over. The current wave number is shown at the top right.

Controls (desktop and mobile)

Desktop: move with the arrow keys or A and D. Hold Space to fire, and your ship shoots steadily for as long as you hold it.
Mobile: drag your finger on the game to fly, and your ship fires automatically while you drag. You can also use the left, fire and right buttons shown under the game.
P pauses, R restarts and F toggles full-screen.
M mutes or unmutes the sound.
Two toolbar buttons control sound and motion. Mute sound (M) turns the sound effects off, and its label changes to “Unmute sound (M)” so you can switch them back on. Reduce motion turns off the explosion bursts, screen shake and flashes when an invader is destroyed or your ship is hit, and slows the drifting starfield. It starts out matching your device’s reduce-motion setting. Each button has a short text label next to or under its icon. Your choices are remembered on your device and shared by every game in the Arcade.

Scoring and high scores

Every invader you destroy is worth 50 points. Tougher two-hit invaders are worth the same, so they take a bit more effort for the same reward.

Your best score is saved in your browser. When a run ends, the game-over screen shows your score next to your best and adds ”★ New best!” when you beat it. If your score would make the global top-10 board, the screen tells you where you’d rank and lets you enter a name and press Submit. If the board is full and you fall short, it shows the score you need to get in. When Void Raiders is the daily challenge, the goal is to score 1,500 points in a single run, which means taking out 30 invaders.

Tips to beat your best

Keep firing. Your ship’s shots are limited by a short cooldown, not by ammo.
Don’t let invaders reach the bottom. A stray one costs a life just like a hit.
Move in short bursts and keep an eye on the yellow enemy shots coming down.
Clear waves quickly, but stay out from directly under a crowd of invaders.
Use your blinking safe time after a hit to reposition, not to take risks.