What a fresh plane carries
Every sortie starts the same way: power level 1, no sub-weapon, an empty ultimate gauge and two spare planes besides the one you are flying. Firing is already automatic, so the first job is not shooting but collecting. Your power level, sub-weapon, spares, gauge and score carry into the next stage; your health does not. Each stage starts you at full health, so a Mitchell limping out of Stage 1 on 20 HP begins Stage 2 at 150 again.
The pickups are easier to grab once you know what they look like on screen, because only two of them show the letter used in the instructions:
- Power (P): red disc with a white P.
- Sub-weapon (S): a disc whose letter and colour keep changing: teal H, blue R, orange W.
- Ultimate (U): purple disc with a U. It adds 50 to the 100-point gauge.
- Repair (H): green disc with a plus sign. It restores 50 health.
- Medal (M): a gold star that spins like a coin.
- Part: a steel-grey disc with a gear, used in the hangar after the run.
Power levels: what each plane gains
Power runs from 1 to 4, and each P raises it by one, but the four planes grow differently. The figures below are damage per second at each level if every bullet of every volley hits, before hangar upgrades.
Spitfire is the narrowest. All of its damage flies in one straight column, which is why it melts single targets despite the lowest start. Corsair’s seven-shot fan is 8° between shots, so the farther away a single target is, the fewer of the seven shots reach it. Mitchell’s level-2 tail guns fire backwards, which only matters for enemies that come from behind or below you. Once you are at power 4, every further P is worth 1,000 points instead.
- Lightning: 2, 4, then 6 shots in a widening fan; level 4 only makes each shot 25% stronger. 20, 40, 60, 75 per second.
- Spitfire: 1, 2, then 3 parallel shots; level 4 adds piercing. 18.6, 36, 52.2, 54 per second.
- Mitchell: one heavy shell, then two tail guns, then two angled heavy guns; level 4 strengthens the shells. 23.3, 23.3 forward plus 13.3 to the rear, 56.7, 73.3 forward.
- Corsair: 3, 5, then 7 shots in a fan; level 4 strengthens them. 27, 45, 63, 77 per second.
The sub-weapon pickup changes every 1.5 seconds
An S item cycles through Homing, Railgun and Wingmen, spending 1.5 seconds on each, starting with Homing the moment it drops. Whatever it shows when you touch it is what you get. If it matches your current sub-weapon, that weapon goes up one level, to a maximum of 3. If it is a different weapon, you switch, and your current level carries over to the new one. So you can wait for the letter you want instead of taking the first one, provided you can stay near the item while it falls.
The three sub-weapons, with damage per second at levels 1, 2 and 3:
- Homing (H): two, three, then four missiles every half second that turn toward enemies. 10, 15, 20.
- Railgun (R): a piercing slug every 0.6 seconds, two slugs at level 3. 20, 26.7, 66.7. The best boss weapon by a wide margin once it reaches level 3.
- Wingmen (W): two extra straight guns firing 7.5 times a second from either side of your plane, which widens your coverage. 16.5, 21, 25.5.
When items drop, and when they don’t
Every stage has a fixed table of which enemies carry which item, but in co-op and solo runs only half of the small-enemy and formation items actually fall. The game does not roll dice for this: for each item kind, the first one drops, the second does not, the third does, and so on. That keeps runs from going through long dry spells. Boss and midboss rewards, parts, and the P you drop when shot down are never halved.
Formation bonuses need the whole formation. If you destroy four of five fighters and the fifth flies off screen, the bonus item is gone. Sweep a formation before chasing the next one.
In Stage 1 the twin-engine bomber midboss, about a minute in, drops P, S, U and H together. Power-ups are front-loaded: the table hands out P early so that a first run already fires a wide spread before the battleship arrives.
What getting shot down costs
Losing a plane resets your power to 1 and removes your sub-weapon entirely. If you were above power 1, a single P falls where you went down. In co-op you can pick it up after you return, or an ally can grab it; either way one level comes back. Using a continue after your last plane costs the same: full health and two spares again, but power 1 and no sub-weapon.
This is why the gauge matters: an ultimate fired just before a hit you cannot dodge keeps everything you have collected.
Your first three runs
The server counts your runs. For your first three, Stage 1 enemy bullets come at 70% of their usual density and 70% of their usual speed, and the first hit you take is replaced by a two-second barrier. A message on screen tells you when this is on. Stage 2 onward, the Daily Sortie and versus are never eased.
A practical order for those runs: take every P until you see POWER MAX; take S items but wait for the letter you want once you have a sub-weapon; take H only when you have lost at least 50 health, because at full health it gives only 500 points; and keep U items for the moments when your gauge is low.
Parts and the hangar
Signed-in runs earn gold, experience and parts. A boss drops two parts, a midboss one, and an enemy worth 600 points or more (in Stage 1, the torpedo bombers and gunboats) has a 12% chance of dropping one. Each part is randomly one of four kinds: engine, armor, guns or magazine. They join your profile when the run ends.
In the hangar each plane has its own four upgrade lines with five levels each. Gold and parts are shared across planes, but an upgrade belongs only to the plane you bought it for. Each step needs gold plus parts of the matching kind: 200 gold and 1 part, then 566 and 2, 1,039 and 3, 1,600 and 4, 2,236 and 5. Maxing one line costs 5,641 gold and 15 parts.
- Engine: +3% speed per level, +15% at level 5.
- Armor: +8 health per level, +40 at level 5.
- Guns: +5% damage per level, +25% at level 5. It applies to the main gun, the sub-weapon and turret fire.
- Magazine: +6% ultimate charge per level, +30% at level 5.
Experience, gold and the three perk choices
At the end of a run you get experience equal to score ÷ 200, plus 60 for every stage completed and 400 for clearing all seven, and gold equal to score ÷ 100, plus 2 per kill and 1,000 for a full clear. Continues cut both: one continue leaves 80% of the reward, two leave two-thirds. A run that scores 100,000 and ends in Stage 2 gives 560 experience.
Pilot levels need 800 total experience for level 5, 2,700 for level 10 and 5,238 for level 15. At each of those you choose one perk out of three. The hangar has no way to change a choice later, so pick for how you usually play:
- Level 5: Rescuer (rescue 40% faster), Treasure Hunter (medals +25%) or Chain Master (chain window +50%).
- Level 10: Formation Pilot (merge in 1.5 seconds), Ejection Seat (lose only one power and one sub-weapon level when shot down, with no P dropped) or Charged Sortie (start each stage with the gauge at 50).
- Level 15: Tenacious (one more spare plane), Marksman (take off with Homing level 1) or Guardian Angel (allies you rescue return at full health).
Solo or with friends: choosing perks
Rescuer, Formation Pilot and Guardian Angel need allies; if you mostly fly alone they will rarely do anything. For solo play, Treasure Hunter or Chain Master for score, Ejection Seat and Tenacious for staying power, and Charged Sortie for a guaranteed ultimate in every stage are the choices that act every run. In a regular squad, one pilot with Rescuer and Guardian Angel turns each rescue from half health into full health and shortens it from 1.2 seconds to under 0.75.
Where upgrades do not count
The Daily Sortie ignores upgrades and perks, so everyone flies the stock plane, and it gives no growth rewards. Rated versus turns off both upgrades and perks, so rating measures only flying. In a friendly versus room the hangar is still ignored, but the host can enable weakened versions of five perks: Rescuer, Chain Master, Formation Pilot, Charged Sortie and Guardian Angel.
Versus pays experience and gold but never parts, which means hangar progress always comes from co-op and solo sorties. A win pays 120 experience and 300 gold, a draw 90 and 220, a loss 60 and 150; unrated games pay half, and only your first ten versus games each day (Korea time) pay anything.
Play it yourself
