Ships & Classes
Fifteen ships. Six are free, five are bought with gold, three are handed out for killing a wave-100 boss, and one only arrives by code. Your ship never moves — its class ability is the entire reason to pick one.
How classes work
- You pick a ship in the Room, from your player card’s ‹ › arrows — the same screen whether you are alone or in a party. It remembers your last choice and skips any ship you have not unlocked.
- Class levels are permanent, and they are earned by flying the ship rather than bought — waves and bosses feed that ship’s mastery, and its mastery is its level. See Ship Mastery. Levels are 1-indexed, so Lv1 is the base ability.
- Caps are 30 for the four on-kill classes (Healer, Shielder, Bomber, Assister) and 50 for everything else.
- Every ship has a max-level perk — a second ability that only exists at the cap. Reaching the cap is usually a bigger jump than the fifty levels before it.
- “Effective damage” below means your base 10 damage after Stronger Bullets, band buffs, buff balls and any active charge skill. Class abilities read it live, so upgrading bullets upgrades your class too.
Summary table
| Ship | Unlock | Cap | Trigger | Cadence / rate | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Laser | Free | 50 | Timer | max(0.1, 50 ÷ level) s → 50 s at Lv1, 1 s at Lv50 | Hitscan beam at the nearest enemy for 10× your bullet damage. |
| Healer | Free | 30 | On kill | level % chance per kill | Every kill has a level% chance to heal you +1 HP. |
| Shielder | Free | 30 | On kill | level % chance per kill | Kills roll for a 10-second absorb shield that eats one hit per enemy. |
| Bomber | Free | 30 | On kill | level % chance per kill | Kills roll for a 36-bullet omnidirectional burst (5 damage each). |
| Assister | Free | 30 | On kill | level % chance per kill | Kills roll for a free assist ball anywhere in the arena. |
| Clavier | Free | 50 | Every musical beat | 60 ÷ BPM — one note per beat at every level | Drops a musical-note AoE bomb on every beat of the music. |
| Gemini | Gold | 50 | Passive | Permanent companion | A permanent half-size drone that orbits enemies and shoots. |
| Tesla | Gold | 50 | Timer | max(1, 51 − level) s → 50 s at Lv1, 1 s at Lv50 | Chain lightning: unlimited first hop, then up to 20 targets within 300 px. |
| Oktopodia | Gold | 50 | Timer | max(2, 100 ÷ level) s → 100 s at Lv1, 4 s at Lv25, 2 s at Lv50 | A tentacle whip across the arena that damages everything on its path. |
| Flare | Gold | 50 | Timer | max(0.5, 25 ÷ level) s → 25 s at Lv1; Lv50 fires every 0.25 s | Two flame bolts per volley at 4× bullet damage, one out of each flank. |
| Pinball | Gold | 50 | Timer | max(1, 26 − level × 0.5) s → 25.5 s at Lv1, 1 s at Lv50 | A metal ball fired out the back that ricochets around the arena at 10× damage. |
| Flying Sky Whale | Code | 50 | Timer | max(10, 30 − 0.4 × level) s → 29.6 s at Lv1, 10 s at Lv50 | An outward tidal wave that knocks non-boss enemies back — once each, ever. |
| Horridus | Boss reward | 50 | Timer | max(5, 15 − level ÷ 5) s → 14.8 s at Lv1, 5 s at Lv50 | A sandstorm that freezes and lifts small and medium enemies into the air. |
| Flammenwerfer | Boss reward | 50 | Timer | max(5, 15 − level × 0.2) s → 14.8 s at Lv1, 5 s at Lv50 | A one-second flamethrower blow that sets everything it touches on fire. |
| Einfrieren | Boss reward | 50 | Timer | max(5, 15 − level × 0.2) s → 14.8 s at Lv1, 5 s at Lv50 | Defensive snowflakes that hold station around your hull and shred anything that touches them. |
Laser
Healer
Shielder
Bomber
Assister
Clavier
Gemini
Tesla
Oktopodia
Flare
Pinball
Flying Sky Whale
Horridus
Flammenwerfer
EinfrierenUnlocking ships
Free Always yours
Laser, Healer, Shielder, Bomber, Assister and Clavier are unlocked on a fresh install. Laser is the default.
Gold Premium ships
Gemini, Tesla, Oktopodia, Flare and Pinball are bought in the Shop. The price escalates: 200,000 for your first, then 300,000, 400,000 and so on. Ships you did not buy don’t count toward the escalation.
Code Code-only
The Flying Sky Whale is not for sale at any price — the Shop lists it as a disabled LOCKED tile. It arrives by redeem code instead.
Boss reward Kill to earn
Horridus, Flammenwerfer and Einfrieren drop from Spike King, Blaze and Frosty — the three wave-100 finale bosses, one per planet. In co-op every participant unlocks it.
In the Shop and Loadout, a ship you can’t buy shows its actual requirement instead of a price — “Defeat Moloch”, “Defeat Periplaneta”, “Defeat Eriosomatinae” — or a plain LOCKED tag for the code-only whale. Those tags use the bosses’ formal names, so they read Moloch rather than Spike King.
Laser
Hitscan beam at the nearest enemy for 10× your bullet damage.
| Cadence | max(0.1, 50 ÷ level) s → 50 s at Lv1, 1 s at Lv50 |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Unlocked from the start |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- Fires an instant beam at the nearest enemy dealing effective damage × 10 — by far the biggest single hit in the game, which is why its cadence starts so slow.
- The class level literally means “times fired per 50 seconds”, so Lv1 is one beam every 50 s and Lv50 is one every second.
- Buying a laser level mid-run re-bases the running timer immediately, so the faster cadence applies right away.
- The beam ignores enemy shields the way nothing else does: it deals damage AND pops a Wizzle or band-buff shield in the same hit.
At Lv50 a 4× thicker beam (with a 4× thicker hurtbox) fires every 10 s on top of the normal 1 s beams.
Healer
Every kill has a level% chance to heal you +1 HP.
| Cadence | level % chance per kill |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Unlocked from the start |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- The chance is literally your class level as a percentage — Lv30 means roughly a third of your kills top you up.
- Heals never revive a dead player: a downed ship stays at 0 HP until someone actually revives it.
- In co-op the effect is killer-driven, so a joiner playing Healer heals the team regardless of who is host.
At Lv30, every 30 s the whole team is healed by the number of enemies currently on screen — a crowded arena becomes a huge heal. Healed players show an enlarged heal aura.
Shielder
Kills roll for a 10-second absorb shield that eats one hit per enemy.
| Cadence | level % chance per kill |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Unlocked from the start |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- The shield is a 40 px bubble that absorbs one hit from each enemy that touches it. Only one can be active at a time.
- It is a team-wide effect in co-op — the whole party gets shielded, not just the killer.
At Lv30 every kill also has a 5% chance to grant the WHOLE TEAM a pair of spinning shields. They orbit each player 180° apart on the shield ring and shove back every enemy they sweep into, despawning after 10 pushes (20 s failsafe). Unpushable enemies — Wizzle, Goldie, Lash — are skipped and don’t spend a charge.
Bomber
Kills roll for a 36-bullet omnidirectional burst (5 damage each).
| Cadence | level % chance per kill |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Unlocked from the start |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- The burst fires from your own position and its bullets kill like any other, so it can cascade through a packed wave.
- Each burst also spends one Doppelgeschoss count if that charge skill is running — and the burst bullets are doubled while it is.
At Lv30 every kill also has a 5% chance to DETONATE the corpse — the same 36-bullet spray erupts from where the enemy died. Because those bullets kill, a detonation can chain-detonate into the next corpse.
Assister
Kills roll for a free assist ball anywhere in the arena.
| Cadence | level % chance per kill |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Unlocked from the start |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- Assister-spawned balls are capped at 6 alive at once. The every-5-waves rain and the mini-boss rain are uncapped and stack on top.
- Ball type is random — heal, explode, pushback or lightning. See Balls & Pickups for what each does.
At Lv30 any ball you would have let expire is auto-collected 1 second before it vanishes, so the effect is never wasted. It works on ANY ball — yours, the every-5-waves rain, or the mini-boss rain.
Clavier
Drops a musical-note AoE bomb on every beat of the music.
| Cadence | 60 ÷ BPM — one note per beat at every level |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Unlocked from the start |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- Exactly one note per beat, at every level, whether or not there are enemies. It skips only when you are dead, the music is mid-transition, or a band-buff vote is open.
- A note sits for 6 beats (8 at max level) pulsing, then auto-explodes for a fixed 25 px radius.
- Tap it early instead and the blast is far bigger — 50 px at combo colour 0, +2 px per beat-combo colour step, up to 80 px on the last colour. The note is tinted live to the current combo colour.
- Damage is effective damage × (0.2 × level): 0.2× at Lv1 and 10× at Lv50, read live at explode time so Stronger Bullets and band buffs both scale it.
- In co-op teammates can tap your notes too — the request routes back to you and the boom is broadcast.
At Lv50 notes live 8 beats instead of 6, and every 10 consecutive correct beats in the rhythm mini-game all your live notes fire a bonus explosion WITHOUT being consumed.
Gemini
A permanent half-size drone that orbits enemies and shoots.
| Cadence | Permanent companion |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Buy in the Shop — 200,000 gold for your first premium ship, +100,000 for each one you already own |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- The drone picks the enemy nearest to ITSELF, flies over, locks on and orbits at ~70 px while firing — but only within 100 px of its target, not while crossing the arena. When the arena is clear it orbits you.
- It has no health and no collision. Enemies cannot hit it and it never despawns mid-run.
- Its damage is level ÷ 50 of your Stronger-Bullets damage: 2% at Lv1, 100% at Lv50. It also inherits your band buffs, buff-ball multipliers, Party Damage and the Focus Fire spread.
- Its bullets use your shared Faster/Additional Bullets upgrades and are drawn half-size.
At Lv50 the drone flies 3× faster, so it crosses the arena and re-engages far more often.
Tesla
Chain lightning: unlimited first hop, then up to 20 targets within 300 px.
| Cadence | max(1, 51 − level) s → 50 s at Lv1, 1 s at Lv50 |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Buy in the Shop — 200,000 gold for your first premium ship, +100,000 for each one you already own |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- The first hop reaches the nearest enemy anywhere on screen; every hop after that chains to the nearest un-struck target within 300 px, up to 20 hops.
- Each strike deals your full effective damage — the same strength as the lightning assist ball.
- A hop that lands on an enemy BULLET shoots it down instead, which makes Tesla unusually good in the wave-50+ boss-gun waves.
- Each upgrade shaves exactly one second off the interval.
At Lv50 every struck enemy has a 5% chance to be STUNNED for 2 seconds — frozen in place but still killable, marked with an electric ring.
Oktopodia
A tentacle whip across the arena that damages everything on its path.
| Cadence | max(2, 100 ÷ level) s → 100 s at Lv1, 4 s at Lv25, 2 s at Lv50 |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Buy in the Shop — 200,000 gold for your first premium ship, +100,000 for each one you already own |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- The whip lashes toward the FARTHEST enemy on purpose — the longer path sweeps the most enemies in between.
- Everything within 28 px of the straight origin→tip line takes effective damage × 2. Damage lands once at fire time; the visual lingers half a second.
At Lv50 it fires 8 tentacles at once, each aimed at a different farthest enemy — or all 8 converging on a single target when only one enemy is left.
Flare
Two flame bolts per volley at 4× bullet damage, one out of each flank.
| Cadence | max(0.5, 25 ÷ level) s → 25 s at Lv1; Lv50 fires every 0.25 s |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Buy in the Shop — 200,000 gold for your first premium ship, +100,000 for each one you already own |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- Every volley is exactly 2 projectiles aimed at the two enemies nearest YOU — one launched from each side of the hull. With a single enemy on screen it takes both.
- Each bolt deals effective damage × 4.
- Flame bolts travel at a fixed speed and are deliberately NOT sped up by the Faster Bullets upgrade.
At Lv50 the same 2-bolt volley simply fires twice as fast — every 0.25 s. It never adds more bolts.
Pinball
A metal ball fired out the back that ricochets around the arena at 10× damage.
| Cadence | max(1, 26 − level × 0.5) s → 25.5 s at Lv1, 1 s at Lv50 |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Buy in the Shop — 200,000 gold for your first premium ship, +100,000 for each one you already own |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- The ball launches OPPOSITE your ship’s facing — out the exhaust — nudged off a pure axis so it ricochets around rather than ping-ponging one line.
- Contact deals effective damage × 10, then resolves by enemy size: it always bounces OFF small enemies (Scooter, Blinky, Itsy) over and over, and SHATTERS on medium or large ones (Chompy, Mama Spider, Lash, Goldie, Wizzle, any boss).
- It only fires while an enemy is on screen. It also shatters on the first wall hit after 5 s of flight, with a 45 s hard backstop.
At Lv50 the ball flies 3× faster, so it lands far more hits before it shatters.
Flying Sky Whale
An outward tidal wave that knocks non-boss enemies back — once each, ever.
| Cadence | max(10, 30 − 0.4 × level) s → 29.6 s at Lv1, 10 s at Lv50 |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Never sold for gold — unlocked with a redeem code |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- The outward ripple does no damage. It shoves each non-boss enemy away from you exactly ONCE for the whole run — a later ripple never re-shoves the same enemy. Bosses are immune.
- It only fires while an enemy is present.
- This ship cannot be bought with gold at any price — the Shop shows it as a disabled LOCKED tile. It is unlocked with a redeem code instead.
At Lv50 it ALSO sends a red ripple INWARD from the arena edge, rushing back to your ship and dealing effective damage × 10 to everything it passes — bosses included.
Horridus
A sandstorm that freezes and lifts small and medium enemies into the air.
| Cadence | max(5, 15 − level ÷ 5) s → 14.8 s at Lv1, 5 s at Lv50 |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Defeat Spike King·Moloch — Sand, wave 100 |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- The storm is a 100-radius swirl centred on the nearest liftable enemy. It does no damage on its own.
- Every small or medium enemy caught is frozen in place and lifted aloft for 3 seconds — sprite, hitbox, HP bar and your aim all move with it.
- Bosses and mini-bosses are immune to the lift. If only a boss is on screen the storm centres on it anyway rather than doing nothing.
At Lv50 the storm deals effective damage × 20 when it ENDS — to every lifted enemy and to any boss that passed through it. That makes a max Horridus a real boss-killer.
Flammenwerfer
A one-second flamethrower blow that sets everything it touches on fire.
| Cadence | max(5, 15 − level × 0.2) s → 14.8 s at Lv1, 5 s at Lv50 |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Defeat Blaze·Periplaneta — Magma, wave 100 |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- Two widening cones blow from the ship’s top nozzles in your aim direction, reaching 300 px and sweeping live with your aim for a full second.
- Every enemy caught is ENGULFED — a 3-second burn dealing effective damage × 2 every 0.5 s. Each enemy is engulfed once per blow.
- It fires only while an enemy is present. Bosses burn like anything else.
At Lv50 the fire SPREADS: while an enemy burns, un-engulfed enemies within 90 px catch too, inheriting the source’s REMAINING duration — so a wildfire converges and dies out together.
Einfrieren
Defensive snowflakes that hold station around your hull and shred anything that touches them.
| Cadence | max(5, 15 − level × 0.2) s → 14.8 s at Lv1, 5 s at Lv50 |
|---|---|
| Unlock | Defeat Frosty·Eriosomatinae — Ice, wave 100 |
| Levelling | Mastery — +4 XP per wave, +20 per boss, +4 for half of elite kills, flown on this ship |
- Each summon adds ONE snowflake to the first empty fixed slot — NE, SE, SW, NW — building up to four. They hold position 64 px out and spin in place rather than orbiting.
- Any enemy overlapping a snowflake takes effective damage × 1 every 0.1 s. Each damaging tick counts toward 20 hits, after which that snowflake despawns.
- Snowflakes also expire after 60 s (20 s at max level). Unlike most timers this one is not gated on enemies being present — the flakes sit there defensively.
At Lv50, once all four slots are full and enemies are present, one snowflake per interval DETACHES and homes onto the nearest enemy, spending its remaining hits and freeing its slot for a fresh flake.