Loadout

The **Loadout** is a section which players access from the main menu in the *Sky Force* games. It is where they apply upgrades to different parts and aspects of their Plane as well as make a few kinds of in-app purchases [mobile versions only].

## Description

By collecting Stars littered throughout Stages, the player can access the Loadout screen by navigating through the main menu to upgrade various aspects of their Plane. On mobile versions of the game, the screen also gives access to offers that can be acquired using in-app purchases or by watching advertisements.

There are eight armaments of different strengths and peak performance. Depending on how high its maximum strength is, the armament has a variable number of tiers, in which the higher the tier level is, the stronger the armament. Each tier has ten blocks, where they all need to be upgraded by paying a set amount of Stars. Once every block in a tier is cleared, the next upgrade refurbishes the armament for the next tier. Every upgrade made is shared by all nine Planes.

In the mobile version of the game, the upgrades are slowly applied over a period of time, and to finish them instantly, extra Stars need to be paid. As for the widescreen versions, on a contrasting note, the upgrades are completed instantly for free.

## Upgrades Overview

Stars are the currency used in upgrading. Upgrading the Plane's armaments is the primary function of the Loadout screen. Doing so helps the player beat later Stages and Difficulty levels.

### Passive or automatic armaments

#### Health

* Your Plane's ability to defend against enemies during a Stage. Once it drops to zero, the Plane explodes and the Stage will end immediately as a loss. Missing health will be regenerated gradually over time upon the acquisition of Card 19.
* Upgrades improve the health degree especially by increasing its level of resistance to attacks and its maximum health. Note that the Health Restore items will recover less health when the degree has received more upgrades. The player may ignore this upgrade if they are confident in their dodging ability.

#### Main Cannon

* The habitual source of firepower from your Plane that tears down enemies in a Stage. The Main Weapon is a rapid-fire armament that normally shoots in a shotgun-spread pattern, resulting in concentrated firepower at point-blank range. The ninth Card in the deck installs the Main Weapon Supercharge (MWS) module that allows extra firepower to be delivered momentarily. In battle, the frequency of fire can be increased by collecting Weapon Upgrade items dropped from the destruction of glowing enemies.
* Some of the Planes, particularly Ambulance, Gladius and Swift Justice, shoot their gunfire in unique patterns. For The Classic Plane, after collecting all the Bonus Cards, its standard Main Cannon is removed and the special Laser Whip weapon is retrofitted in place of it.
* Upgrades improve the damage dealt by this cannon by increasing the size of the projectiles. After every ten blocks in a tier, the next tier adds extra projectiles to every shot and drastically improves the weapon's firepower.

#### Wing Cannons

* Located by the side of the Main Cannon are two caliber cannons, referred to as the Wing Cannons for they are mounted on the wings of the Plane. These cannons add on to the base firepower generated by the Plane. Despite a very slow fire rate, they are noticeably capable of tearing through chains of enemies similar to The Classic's Laser Whip or delivering great damage to ones that they cannot penetrate. Similar to the Main Weapon, their firing frequency can be improved by collecting Weapon Upgrades items. Players may practice their timing skill to land successful Wing Cannon shots on enemies.
* They are not pre-installed at the start of the game, meaning that the player has to buy their first upgrade manually. Upgrades enlarge the projectiles, causing them to deal more damage and throughout upgrading, the color of the projectiles modulates from yellow to bright green. Although players may not set upgrading the Wing Cannons as their first priority out of belief that their strength is insignificant and their effects eventually wear out due to the superior strength of other powerful Planes, it is still important as they save Medal-seeking runs from the brink of losing an Enemy Chain Bonus.

#### Magnet

* As simple as it means, it attracts Stars, Health Restore items, Weapon Upgrades and Power-ups to the Plane, but it does not pull in other items like Wingman Cubes, Bonus Cards and aircraft parts. Its magnetizing power is inversely correlated with the distance from the Plane to the item. Magnet also attracts the green Card crate that rarely appears.
* Like the Wing Cannons, the Magnet is not pre-installed, which means the player has to manually add it by buying its first upgrade. Its strength and radius are increased with every upgrade.

#### Missiles

* Two missile housings are mounted on the back of your Plane. If there is an enemy in view, they each periodically fire an accurate guided missile on targeted enemies and prioritize enemies based on their threat level (for instance, they will target Radial Cannons even if there are AA Cannons nearby). During flight, missiles will target other enemies if the original target is destroyed. The missiles blow up when colliding with enemies and deal high damage, even if the enemy isn't their intended target. These missiles are important for targeting enemies that are missed by the spread of the Main and Wing cannons.
* The Octopus Plane has a unique missile system where it releases a long salvo of mini homing rockets instead. These rockets deal overall slightly weaker damage but can be helpful against powerful and defensive enemies.
* Similar to the Wing Cannons and Magnet, the missiles can only be activated once the first upgrade is bought. Upgrading them shortens the intervals of which they are released as well as their damage, speed and range. With later upgrade tiers, the Plane will start to launch two missiles at once.

### Manual armaments (Power-ups)

Power-ups can be activated by the player at any time they please. On PC/console, a charge of any of the power-ups can be released by pushing a certain key. On the mobile version, the player has to lift off their finger to bring up the sub menu, and press the icon representing the desired power-up to unleash.

All the power-ups must be unlocked by buying the first upgrade. Once unlocked, power-ups can be charged at the start of Stages using stars or collected throughout them by destroying crates, random enemies, destructible towers, a few Boss armaments or by charging from Dispensers when the respective Cards that activate those operations are collected. There are also Cards which will give you one free charge of each power-ups once they are collected. The Plane can carried up to five charges of Lasers and Energy Shields each, and three charges of Mega Bombs.

When the Power-Up stock is full, aka five Energy Shields/Lasers and three Mega Bombs, collecting an extra will cause it to immediately activate (contrary to *Sky Force Anniversary*, in which it's deleted). This can act like another slot by leading around the item itself.

Random power-ups can also be activated by the Burton Panic Technician, though the charges on board the Plane are not consumed.

#### Laser

* Mounted at the nose of the Plane, which gives a short but sweet burst of a penetrating laser beam capable of delivering great damage to enemies. The Laser beam is always discharged straight ahead and appears to have unlimited vertical range. The Laser is perhaps the highest damaging weapon on board the Plane, plus its penetrating power helps dealing with rows of armaments, usually those on Bosses. Its button or respective key can be held down to release a continuous discharge, though not advised in the early sections of the Stage as that is best to be saved for strong Bosses. It is similar to the Laser Whip of The Classic after collecting Card 24.
* Upgrades increase its damage, but not the duration of which the laser is discharged.

#### Energy Shield

* Generates a blue force field around the Plane that blocks out and absorbs almost every form of enemy projectiles and ramming aircrafts (like Prop Planes or Gunships), granting temporary invulnerability. Like the Laser, the button or key that activates the Energy Shield can be held down to release more than one charge back-to-back, for the case of the latter being that it will consume charges one after another similarly, extending the active duration and hence blocking out more enemy blasts. The Shield's duration is indicated by a curved green bar that is displayed above the plane, which make beeping noises as it is about to run out.
* In the later parts of the game, new powerful enemy rolling stocks appear, many of which fire blasts and projectiles that are capable of instantly piercing the Shield and ending its duration prematurely, though obviously still keeping the Plane safe from damage for at least once. Card 3 can be collected that has a low chance to activate a weak Shield that protect the Plane from a lethal projectile. Energy Shields do not prevent the EMP Missile of Stage 5 from connecting with the Plane and disarming it.
	+ Attacks that destroys the Shield immediately are from Energized Railguns, Heavy Cannonballs (including one from Lewiatan's portside cannons), all lightspeed blue lasers (including Laser Drones, The Scarlet Heart's main laser cannon, and Lewiatan's omnidirectional laser cannon), Omega's laser cannons, and collisions with Balloons and Laser Fences.
	+ While active, the Shield can instantly destroy enemy units that interact with collision upon contact, the sole exception being Balloons from Stage B3 by which the Shield gets shattered instead.
* With each upgrade, the duration of which the Shield is active is increased.

#### Mega Bomb

* A generator on the back of the Plane that unleashes a spectacular shockwave around it, blasting away streaks of projectiles and bullets and casting out nearly every enemy within the circular range of the detonation. Enemies which are closer to the Plane upon detonation will receive more damage. Therefore, Mega Bombs can be a substitution to Energy Shield, being used to clear out bullet hell on the screen as well as the enemies that cause it. However, it is deemed slightly ineffective when it comes to heavy duty enemies, especially Bosses. Mega Bombs should be used after flying the Plane to the middle of the screen, otherwise most of the potential damage is wasted off-screen. Mega Bombs cannot clear the EMP Missile from Stage 5 and the AA Mines often seen on Stage 9.
* Each upgrade for the Mega Bomb increases its damage and the width of the detonation range, allowing more enemies on the screen to be blown down. Mega Bomb is the most expensive power-ups to charge at the start of stages.

## Shop (iOS/Android)

The Shop can be accessed by tapping on the shopping pushcart icon at the upper left corner of the screen.

### Gift Shop

Every few hours, a free gift is available to be claimed by watching an advertisement. As reward, players are given three chests, one of which they can choose to claim. The chest contains a single type of reward, being a sum of Stars, Plane Parts, Bonus Cards (Usually Temporal) or more.

### SX2-Star Doubler

Doubles the number of Stars a player has collected at the end of a Stage.

### Ads Removal

Disables the occasional popping up of ads, making it a useful deal for active players who want to spend maximum gaming time by consuming minimum data.

### Planes Generator

Genuinely gives mobile players of the game almost infinite units of Planes, as greatly-improved industrial technology drastically shortens production time to mere minutes which then makes the unit tally inexhaustible after playing a Stage.

## Cards with additional Loadout enhancements

Some Bonus Cards have special tweaks that install additional upgrades to different elements of your Plane's loadout, such as the Main Cannons and missiles.

Card 1: Hangar is expanded to allow 3 additional Planes to be stored.

Card 3: Energy Shield is retrofitted with Emergency Discharge Module, occasionally activating it to save a Plane from otherwise being destroyed.

Card 4: Slightly decreases the time taken to build a Plane.

Card 7: Decreases the time taken to install upgrades (With robots taking over part of the hangar crew) and the price of Stars to be paid to finish it in advance.

Card 10: Main Cannon firerate starts off with one level.

Card 13: Missile damage increases.

Card 14, 15 & 16: Turns on the Power-up Dispensers, respectively Laser, Mega Bomb and Energy Shield.

Card 18: 10% discount is applied to upgrade prices.

Card 20, 21 & 22: Gives a free charge of the three Power-ups at the start of a Stage, respectively Energy Shield, Laser and Mega Bomb.

Temporal Card 2: Maxes out Magnet Power for fifteen minutes.

Temporal Card 3: Planes start off with full fire rate for fifteen minutes.

Temporal Card 4: Production time of Planes become almost instant (Mobile)/Mega Bomb damage increases (PC) for fifteen minutes.

Temporal Card 5: Instantly finishes upgrades using powerful cordless tools (Mobile)/Increases Laser damage (PC) for fifteen minutes.

Temporal Card 6: Random free charge of Power-ups at start for fifteen minutes.