Plane Shooter Rules

Movement and Automatic Fire

On a computer, use all four arrow keys or click and drag on the playfield. On a phone or tablet, drag to move. Your plane can move horizontally and vertically throughout the playfield, not just along the bottom. Movement stops at the playfield boundaries; you cannot move offscreen to avoid threats.

Your plane fires upward automatically, with no fire button required. Moving does not change the firing direction. Enemies below your plane cannot be targeted by new shots, because you cannot fire downward. Player shots destroy enemies, but cannot intercept enemy bullets or damage another player's plane.

In co-op, the blue plane that starts on the left uses the arrow keys. The yellow plane on the right uses WASD: W moves up, A left, S down, and D right. Both planes can cross the centerline. The game tracks only one drag target and does not support independent two-finger control, so use a keyboard for simultaneous two-player input.

Scoring and Enemy Exits

One hit from a player shot destroys an enemy, earning 10 points and adding 1 to the destroyed-enemy count. All three enemy types are worth the same amount. Bomb kills also earn 10 points each. There are no combo multipliers, wave bonuses, or separate points for survival time.

Clearing enemy bullets earns no points. An enemy that leaves the playfield adds no points or kills and costs no lives. An enemy removed after colliding with a player plane earns no points either. An enemy disappearing from the screen does not necessarily mean you earned points for destroying it.

For example, destroying 4 enemies with shots and 3 with a bomb adds 70 points and 7 kills. Enemy bullets cleared and enemies that leave on their own do not change that total. Co-op records one shared score, not separate player scores.

Lives and Hit Detection

Each run starts with 3 lives. Unless you are invincible, a collision with an enemy or enemy bullet costs 1 life. The run ends at zero lives. In co-op, both planes share those 3 lives: a hit on either plane reduces the shared total. Neither player is eliminated or respawned separately.

Hit detection uses circular hitboxes centered on each object's position, not pixel-by-pixel checks of wings, bullet glow, or image outlines. A collision occurs only when the distance between the centers is less than the sum of the hitbox radii. Objects that appear to touch may not register a hit; glowing bullet trails alone do not establish a collision.

If you have lives left after a hit, you receive approximately 1.15 seconds of post-hit invincibility. Further collisions during that period cost no lives. In co-op, both planes become invincible together. Taking a hit clears all current enemy bullets, but not all enemies. The flashing plane indicates invincibility, not a halt in enemy spawns.

An enemy that collides with a player plane is removed without awarding points, even during invincibility. Player planes cannot damage each other by touching, and there is no friendly fire. When invincibility expires, normal hit detection resumes without clearing enemies or bullets again.

Bombs and Cooldowns

A bomb is ready at the start of each run. Select Bomb on the playfield or information panel, or press the space bar, to clear all current enemies and enemy bullets. A bomb does not restore lives, extend invincibility, or prevent new enemies from spawning. Using it when no enemies are present still starts the cooldown.

Each use starts an 8-second cooldown. Once it ends, you can use another bomb; there is no per-run limit. The button's countdown shows the remaining cooldown. You can use a bomb only when the cooldown is complete and the run is neither paused nor over.

Co-op uses one shared bomb cooldown. After one player uses a bomb, the other cannot use another immediately. A bomb clears the whole playfield, not just one side. Decide whether to use it by checking both players' escape routes, not just enemies near your own plane.

Waves and Speed Settings

The wave starts at 1 and increases by 1 every 18 seconds of active game time, regardless of kills or enemies remaining. Later waves increase enemy descent speed and shorten spawn intervals until the interval reaches its minimum. The wave number records elapsed game time, not a batch of enemies you have cleared.

There are three enemy types: drifting, weaving, and shooting. All move downward. Shooting enemies fire bullets straight down. Those bullets do not track your plane or change direction when you move sideways. Both enemy bodies and bullets can cause damage.

Steady is the default speed; Calm is slower and Brisk is faster. The setting affects enemy descent, some lateral movement, spawn intervals, keyboard movement speed, automatic fire rate, and the speed of newly fired bullets. Dragging sets your plane's position directly. Bullets already in flight retain their launch speed, so changing the setting does not scale every movement and timer together.

Changing speed preserves lives, score, kills, and the current wave. It does not change the 10 points per enemy, 8-second bomb cooldown, 18-second wave interval, or approximately 1.15 seconds of post-hit invincibility. Keep the speed setting fixed when comparing scores or reviewing your play.

Modes and Their Limits

Endless solo play puts one plane under your control. Local co-op runs two planes on one device, sharing lives, score, kills, wave, and bomb cooldown. A hit on either plane grants both temporary invincibility. Co-op does not connect two devices for live online play.

Same Run shares a random seed through the link's run parameter. Each device runs and scores one plane independently. The link creates no live room, does not sync positions, lives, or scores, and provides no spectating, score uploads, or public leaderboard. Exchange run scores yourselves after finishing.

The same seed initializes the same pseudorandom sequence, but playfield dimensions, speed, frame scheduling, and the order of random-number calls still affect gameplay. Resizing regenerates background stars and consumes random values, so matching seeds do not guarantee identical enemy conditions. Check speed and playfield dimensions before comparing, but do not treat the results as a competition verified under identical conditions.

In Same Run, New run and Restart at game over keep the current seed and speed setting. Reloading a valid seed link also keeps the seed. To generate a new one automatically, remove the run parameter from the address and reload. A link is not a save file: keeping the seed does not preserve progress.

Pausing and Saving Scores

Select Pause to stop the run and Continue to resume. Wave timers, enemy and bullet movement, automatic fire, bomb cooldowns, and post-hit invincibility all stop advancing. In co-op, pausing affects both players; in Same Run, it affects only your device. Switching browser tabs is not a substitute for pausing. Use Pause before leaving the game.

New run discards current progress, resets the score and kills to zero, restores 3 lives, returns the wave to 1, and makes the bomb ready. It keeps your speed setting. Restart at game over performs the same reset. Refreshing or closing the page cannot restore the previous run either. Pausing does not save a game.

A score becomes your best score only if it exceeds the previous record when you lose your last life and the run ends. Refreshing, closing the page, or selecting New run midway does not save an unfinished score, even if it has already beaten the record.

Your best score is stored in the current browser's local storage. Solo, co-op, Same Run, and every speed setting share one record, without separate records by seed or difficulty. It does not sync across browsers or devices, and clearing the site's data deletes it. For a Same Run comparison, use the score from that run, not your all-time best.