Another Generic Space Shooter Ultimate Guide

The Guide:

Considering the version of AGSS that's going to be going on Steam is being worked on, I figured I'd do an ultimate guide for the demo version of the game. Any questions you have should be answered somewhere in here, except for super specific things. 

The Objective:

Your objective in AGSS is to survive as long as you can against an endless barrage of enemies. You man a ship with very basic controls to assist in achieving this goal. Throughout the game, powerups will appear, special objectives will pop-up, and boss will get in your way. Press onward and the end of the wave will always be in sight...usually.

The Ship:

The ship you operate has multiple basic functions it can preform, which will all be listed below.

Move: As you could guess, this is just moving your ship.

Aim and Shoot: This is your main method of dealing with enemies, which allows you to fire bullets that have built-in tracking in a desired direction.

Blink: This is a short teleport you can preform, which has a brief cooldown and grants very brief invulnerability.

Powerups: These are collectibles that appear during the game that you can pick up, that all possess different capabilities to aid you in combat.

Display Info: This allows you to display a mini map and any relevant information about the wave, if necessary.

The Controls:

There are two control methods in the game: Keyboard & Mouse or Controller

Keyboard & Mouse:

• Move: WASD
• Aim: The mouse itself
• Shoot: Left Mouse Button
• Use Powerup: Right Mouse Button
  
• Blink: Space
• Display Info: Q
• Swap Powerups: E
• Pause: Escape

Controller (Please note that due to the way inputs are handled, some buttons may be different on your controller depending on the controller itself):

• Move: Left Stick
• Aim: Right Stick
• Shoot: Right Stick 
• Use Powerup: Right Trigger
• Blink: Left Trigger
• Display Info: Left Bumper
• Swap Powerups: Right Bumper
• Pause: Start

The Settings:

There are multiple settings you can change before you go out and play, all of which I will go over here.

Choose Craft: This allows you to change the ship that you control when you play the game.

Full Screen: Toggle this setting to choose whether or not you want to play the game in full screen display.

Controller: Toggle this setting to choose whether or not you would like to use a controller when you play. If off, you will be using keyboard and mouse.

UI Toggle: Toggle this setting to choose whether the info display button needs to be held to display the info (off), or if you can press the button to display the info then press it again to turn it off (on).

The Enemies:

I'm not going to go into specific detail about each one, but there are a multitude of enemies that appear throughout the game. New enemies begin to appear as you progress into deeper waves, and some special enemies will appear occasionally to test you. They all have unique attack patterns and are all killed in the same way: by shooting them.

The Waves:

Most of your waves are pretty regular, but occasionally you will encounter a wave that isn't a regular wave. Here, I will go over all of the waves that aren't normal waves that can appear. All waves will finish when all enemies are defeated. It is worth noting that for waves with a special objective, they will appear as a special icon on the mini map.

Boss Waves: In this wave, a single boss will appear. They have high health and extra deadly attacks, and any of them can appear here.

Bees: In this wave, an endless onslaught of bees will furiously rush you. They do not shoot projectiles, but they do move fast and efficiently.

Queen Wasp: In this wave, a special boss known as the Queen Wasp will appear. Defeat it like any other boss to proceed.

Space Nuke: In this wave, a giant sea mine will appear, along with a regular assortment of enemies. Defeat the sea mine before it explodes, or you take damage.

Zones: In this wave, multiple small sea mines will appear, along with a continued refreshment of enemies. To dismantle the mines, stand in their zones until they go away. Do this for all of the mines, or if the timer goes off, take damage for each mine still alive.

Airstrikes: In this wave, you will be barraged with a seemingly endless number of airstrikes. Just don't get killed and kill the enemies that appear throughout the wave to continue.

Solo Type: In this wave, a single enemy type will appear for the entire wave. Just defeat all of the enemies to continue with the game, as normal.

Black Holes: In this wave, multiple black holes will appear and act as a spawner, spawning a single enemy type until it's destroyed. Destroy them by shooting them like a regular enemy to continue.

The Powerups:

As mentioned before, you can pick up and use powerups throughout the game. You can replace them at your leisure, or keep them until you die. It's truly your choice. You can have two powerups at any one time, and cannot have 2 of the same powerup. Here, I will go over every powerup and it's effect in game. It should be noted that when you pickup a powerup, it will always take the backup slot UNLESS the primary powerup slot is empty. All powerups have a cooldown, and some have a duration. If no duration is present or the cooldown is over, the cooldown will start. The powerup in the slot cannot be used unless the cooldown and duration are over.

Laser Beam: Fire a laser beam that fires in the direction that you are facing for the duration.

Missile Barrage: Fire multiple missiles that will seek out enemies and explode on impact.

Health Shield: Generate a shield for yourself, allowing you to take an extra hit, and generate a pulse wave when hit next.

Pulse Wave: Generate a pulse wave around you that will deflect enemy bullets back at their sender, damaging enemies they hit.

Health Regen: Restore 60% of your max health, rounded up. This powerup is consumable.

Stop Watch: Slow down time for a duration, slowing down enemies, their bullets, and any other actions related to the enemies.

Health Increase: Increase your maximum health by 2. This is also restored. This powerup is consumable.

The Bomb: Fire a small projectile that will detonate into a MASSIVE explosion on impact of when it's timer stops. You can detonate it early by pressing the powerup button again.

Turret Blink: Create a version of your blink that fires independently at enemies for a duration. You can reposition it by blinking. Increases blink frequency and distance.

Incinerator Drone: Fire a small drone that will continue moving slowly in the direction you shot it, spewing fire in all directions as it moves. A player can only have on drone on the field at a time.

Absorber Bubble: Generate a small shield around yourself that will absorb any enemies bullets it touches for a duration. After the duration ends, it will generate and fire bullets based on the number of bullets it absorbed.

Cold Front: Fire a chilling wave in front of you, dealing small damage to and freezing any enemies hit by the wave. Bosses take increased damage, but are not frozen.

Drain Shot: Fire a powerup bolt that will restore 1 health if it kills an enemy. It is a consumable, but if you land the kill, it's cooldown is greatly reduced and it is put back in your inventory.

Overcharge: Greatly buff yourself, increasing bullet damage, fire rate, and movement speed for a duration. Taking damage will not remove health, but instead take away from the duration of the powerup.

Glutton's Funnel: Create a vortex around you that pulls in enemy bullets for a duration. Enemy bullets that touch you are absorbed. After the duration ends, if you absorbed enough bullets, you restore health. This is a consumable.

Acid Reflux: For a duration, bullets you fire become very acidic, dealing greatly increased damage and destroying any enemy bullets they touch.

Flashbang: Flash the entire arena, slightly damaging all enemies and destroying every enemy bullet.

Cannon Comrades: Summon a legion of revolving turrets that fire when you fire in the direction you fire for a duration. Enemy bullets they touch are also destroyed.

Dragon's Desire: Breathe out highly damaging flames directly in front of you for a duration.

Hivemind: Upon use, your next hit will generate a continuously spawning army of bees. This effect stacks. This powerup is a consumable.

Quick Succession: Fire a projectile in front of you with a quick cooldown. When the cooldown is finished, fire it again to increase it's damage and gain bonus effects.

Space Strike: Generate a series of missile strikes that target enemies throughout the arena and blow up on them.

Rechargeable AAs: Create a shield of revolving AA batteries. These batteries can extend the duration their operational by absorbing enemy bullets.

Seek Saws: Fire a set of spinning saws that track enemies throughout the arena. After the duration ends, they split apart from each other.

Sinister Sunshot: Fire a laser powered by the sun, granting increased damage to enemies the more they are hit with it.

Deletion Beam: Fire a laser that is capable of destroying enemy bullets. Destroying enemy bullets increases it's damage.

Boom Buddy: Create a plushie version of yourself that attract enemies. After it's timer goes off, or it loses all of it's health, it explodes, damaging all nearby enemies.

Divine Flame: Fire a set of flaming, piercing bolts that ignite enemies they pass through. Ignited enemies cause and explosion upon taking damage from a regular bullet or dying.

Shatter Blink: Blinking creates a version of the clone that will shortly shatter, damaging enemies around it heavily. Increases blink distance and frequency.

Flash Back: Rewind time, setting your position and health to the state they were exactly 5 seconds prior. This does not affect anything else.

Broken Heart: Upon use, begin repairing a broken heart that, when repaired, will heal you to full health. This is a consumable.

Suspicious Substance: Inject yourself with something odd, increasing your movement speed and damage at the cost of 1 health. This effect lasts until another powerup is used. This powerup is a consumable.

Pizza Slicers: Create a set of pizza slices behind you that will move in front of you in a spread after a short delay. The pizza slices destroy bullets and pierce enemies.

Kettle Cannons: Arm yourself with miniguns attached to kettles for a brief duration, firing popcorn kernels that explode if they kill an enemy.

Chunky Soup: Consume a can of chunky soup, decreasing your fire rate, but heavily increasing your bullet damage for a duration.

Strike!: Throw a bowling ball in front of you that damages any enemies it touches and destroys bullets. Hitting enough enemies will refresh the cooldown.

Cheesy Goodness: Throw out a pot of boiling hot cheese sauce that attracts and damages enemies when it inevitably spills for a duration. You can spill the cheese early by pressing the powerup button again.

Micro Missiles: Fire a set of missiles that seek enemies. Upon impact, they explode and split into small missiles that behave the same way.

Bubble Blink: Blink to create a version of your blink with an absorber bubble around it for a duration, capable of absorbing bullets and firing them back at enemies after a delay.

Explosive Substitute: Firing for a duration create a small missile instead of a regular bullet, capable of seeking enemies and exploding on impact.

Laser Sight: For a duration, bullets you fire lose all tracking, but gain increased damage and speed.

Ball Lightning: Fire a ball of electricity that will attack enemies with chain lightning for a duration.

Wire Blink: Blinking  for a duration creates a clone that holds a wire to the previous clones or yourself. These wires deal chain lightning damage to enemies.

Atomic Knife: Throw a knife in front of you. When it hits an enemy, it creates small atoms that you can shoot to detonate. They are also detonated by another explosion.

Sploda Can: Shake a can of soda. When you're ready to throw it, press the powerup button again to do so, dealing massive damage and slight lingering damage to anything hit by the explosion. If you let it shake to long, you'll take damage and lose the powerup as it explodes on you.

The End:

I hope I didn't miss anything important. If I did, I'll be sure to go back and revise this, but for now, this is my guide to everything in the game. If you would like more details on some things (especially powerups), my patch notes have much more detail than this guide, since this is meant to be a basic rundown.

I hope you play the game and also enjoy it. :)