How to play guide for Starblast

This page is a basic **how-to play guide for *Starblast***. Feel free to edit this guide with any tips, tricks, and suggestions.

For advanced strategies, see Strategies.

## Basic gameplay

The basic objective of Starblast is to use gems to upgrade your ship and base (if applicable) and to kill enemies (aliens and opponent players). To get gems, mine asteroids or steal gems from the enemy. However, some modes (such as Deathmatch, Rumble, CTF, DTM.) do not have mining.

## Mods

There are mods that you can access by going to the home screen and clicking on modding space, however, only one mod is playable during a specific time and after the time runs out you will be able to play the next recommended mod. The list of mods is:
Nautic Series,
Racing Championships,
Rumble,
Capture the Flag,
Destroy the Mothership,
Multi-class Ship Tree,
Dueling Championships,
U-Series,
Battle Royale, and
Alien Intrusion

## Controls

The controls in Starblast are fairly simple. The ship can either be controlled with the mouse or keyboard. Moving your mouse around along with pressing right-click or using the arrow keys will cause your ship to move while pressing left click on your mouse or the space bar on your keyboard will cause your ship to fire its weapons. It is not recommended to use arrow keys to move, because it is hard to aim.

Starblast.io can also be played on mobile, if you’re a Google Play Store user or iTunes user, the controls are: the chat pops up when you hit the center of your ship, the secondary shop is a mine with a "$" in it, the RCS button is on the left side of your screen, the thruster and fire button is on the same side, the joystick (how you move) is where your finger is.

### Upgrade Hotkeys (Upgrades)

 2
 3
 4
 5

Tip: if you get the damage upgrade it's recommended to get energy regeneration and capacity.

### Communication Hotkeys

In addition to the basic movement/attack controls and gameplay controls, many other keys on the keyboard (e.g. the "K" and "M" keys) act as an in-game selection addition to chat with other players in real-time. Here is a list of those shortcuts (in Survival Mode).

### Upgrading

* Upgrading a ship will cut into your crystal reserve but will help you mine and survive attacks better.
* At tier 4 known as the X-Warrior, upgrade your Energy Regen twice, it is all that is needed unless you max it and then upgrade your damage output twice also. You can shoot nearly forever if not forever while also doing slightly more damage.
* For U-Sniper and Vanguard, you can use a strategy known as “squidding.” (Using it's recoil to propel itself.) If you don’t upgrade damage but upgrade capacity and regen, you can turn RCS off and shoot behind you to go extremely fast. Note: due to the recoil nerf on the Vanguard this said trick is not as effective.
* A maxed out ship will ALWAYS be stronger than a non-upgraded ship of the next tier. For example, a fully upgraded Side-Fighter will always be stronger than an un-upgraded X-Warrior. In fact, maxed Tier 2 ships are equally matched with non-upgraded Tier 6 ships, which means maxed Tier 3 ships are significantly stronger than non-upgraded Tier 6 ships.

### Tier jumping

* To jump tiers as fast as possible, upgrade the Energy Regen all the way as soon as you can (With the exception of tier 1 and 2 when you shouldn't buy upgrades at all. Just mine and upgrade.) This maximizes your DPS, and although you spent some crystals, you'll earn them back 10-30% faster. Skip the other upgrades, with the exception of damage when your ship can regenerate its energy faster than you can consume it.
* If you have enough crystals to level up, but you don't want to move to the next tier, you can buy another life or just keep the crystals as extra shields. Note that the extra life won't help you when survival mode starts in survival mode.
* If you join at the very start of a team mode game, go for only the smallest asteroids. This is because gem drop starts out very low in team mode before gradually increasing and all asteroids must drop at least 1 gem. (Mining the big asteroids takes a long time and will only give you a few gems.)
* When you are a lower tier, focus on smaller asteroids, as bigger ones take too much time and you will likely get killed before you destroy it, however, you can still mine them if you want because it doesn't hold you back anymore than if you didn't mine them as smaller tiers. examples:

```
Fly: tiny and small
Tier 2: tiny, small, medium
Tier 3: tiny, small, medium, large
Tier 4 and up: every rock size

```

### Attacking

* If you attack someone mining an asteroid, crash into them from behind, so that they crash into the asteroid and do some extra damage from both you and the asteroid. Make sure you have enough shield to handle both the crash and weapons of the ship you're fighting.
* When attacking a ship that is faster, but weaker than you, and he tries to escape, try to do enough damage so it loses some gems for you to collect. If you ram them into asteroids, you will get even more gems, and maybe even kill them.
* If you attack and kill your killer, you get extra revenge points. In some modes this doesn't give you any extra points.
* Always attack ships with at least one attack pod of your own. There is an exception: If you have a laser modification.
* If you are a lower tier ship, use your speed as an advantage. Attack for a few seconds, then retreat, repeat. If your shield gets too low, do not come back for a little bit.
* If you want to attack a group of players who have the same level ships as you, try to pick off stragglers that are in the process of mining. If your opponent retreats, do not go after him unless you know a proper escape.
* If someone is attacking and you are almost the same speed turn off RCS and turn around shoot, move, turn around shoot, move. Repeat the process until they die. This gives you a better chance of winning. (Note: this works best with pulse ships.)

### Defending

* If you are getting attacked by a ship that's faster than yours try doing zigzags; it will be much more difficult for your opponent to hit you.
* Crystals act as health after your shield is down!
* When your shield is down and you're losing gems, try to pick them back up.
* If a player tries to attack you, don't be afraid to fight back sometimes.
* If your ship is heavier than theirs, meaning it is less susceptible to flying back really far when rammed, try to ram theirs. This will throw their shots off and will do damage to them, and you. Ramming them into asteroids (or a base corner in team mode) can really change who's winning a fight. (Heavy ship examples: O-Defender, Pioneer, Bat-Defender, Barracuda, or Crusader.)
* Run from tier 7 ships. If you have enough shields, you may attack depending on your selected ship. However, you can't kill them unless you have a very powerful ship (such as U-Sniper, Advanced-Fighter, Scorpion, Barracuda.) and/or 3+ torpedoes.

### Losing a fight

* If you are getting attacked and don't think you can survive, press the upgrade keys quickly to avoid losing gems.
* If you have full crystals, and are about to lose all your shield buy another ship, fight back and upgrade to the next tier ship just before you start losing gems. This will max your shield instantly and gives you a better chance to survive.

DON’T RUN IN DEATHMATCH MODE (ever)

If you run in Deathmatch, your attacker is likely to catch up with you. This is why you should always stay and fight.

If there are tons of ships all fighting for a kill than maybe run. If you run, try to make it as unnoticed as possible. FOR EXAMPLE- Avoid bumping into asteroids and other ships, this will draw attention and make them want to follow you and eventually kill you.

### Secondaries

Secondaries are highly useful items in starblast.io. There are 3 pods, 2 types of mines, and 3 projectile weapons.

Defense pods:
These pods act like shields, protecting you from enemy shots. Defense pods don't work if you are being rammed. The enemy player can get within range of your shields. Defense pods are also useless against a Barracuda. Many players use defense pods, sometimes filling all their available slots with them. They can be handy, and if you are not skilled in fights, defense pods are ideal to help you.

Attack pods:
These pods shoot at players but do not target asteroids. It takes more skill to fight with only attack pods and nothing else since they do not help mine or shield you. They can, however, be lethal if used properly. If you are a healer, it would help you heal whoever you are shooting at.

Mining Pods:
These pods help you mine, but their lasers do not damage players. These are ideal for beginners trying to reach a higher tier ship, since getting gems increases with having an abundance of mining pods. These pods are good for team mode games because you can upgrade your station faster.

To see more on the other weapons, click here:
Secondaries

* If you want to get secondary weapons, then a good idea is to wait until you are a tier three+ so you have a bigger cargo. If you are a 3-tier, you could upgrade your ship to max and then start attacking other players that are close to your base.

### Teams

Teams can be found roaming the map all the time in Starblast.io. Some may be friendly pacifists like helping each other learn how to play the game, while others are aggressive "Frag Strategy" players.

A few tips for finding which team is right for you, and dealing with teams in a fight are listed below:

* Use the strategies page to see whether your team or team member (if you have one) will betray you.
* Be wary of level 3's. They may not seem like much, but coupled with some defense pods, and you have a major problem on your hands. Leaders such as these *are going to kill you* the second they have the chance. They will not team with anyone, so they don't feel like they are obligated to lose points.
* Level 6's will always win in a 1v1 fight, as long as they are experienced enough. It is best not to pick a fight with someone who's 2+ tier's higher than you, and it is also hard to befriend them. Teaming is a great strategy, as even accomplished players have stood dumbfounded when their maxed Scorpion was destroyed by a pulse fighter team.
* Another good thing to know is that those who only say "TEAM, TEAM, TEAM, TEAM..." are not likely to even start a team. When asking for somebody to join your team, or vice versa, *always* use the phrase "Team,?." This is expressed as T, Q, on the keyboard, and appears more friendly. It gives the other person the feeling of free choice.
* And also If you’re intending to win Survival Mode, try not to be the leader. Often times groups of players will “Team” up to try to kill you.
* If a team is chasing you with various types of ships and you're faster than the strongest of them and have more mass than the lower tier and faster ships in the team, run. This will get the weaker teammates far away from the stronger teammates and give the opportunity to use your mass and firepower to knock and kill the lower tiers and give you a better chance of surviving.
* Teaming is frowned upon because of low-level teams killing everything that moves.
* It is really good to have your befriended guys from previous matches.
* ~~There is also a mechanic in survival mode known as bouncing lasers that can help kill teams by your laser bouncing from one ship to another until they are too far away or one dies (best with pulse ships)~~ **Removed**

### Endgame Survival

If it just so happens that you make it all the way to the end of survival mode without quitting, congratulations. Almost. At the very end of the match, when a certain time limit is up or a player levels up to Tier 7, the game goes into a mode in which death is permanent, and players are all forced together.

Especially if you are an inexperienced player, or a low-level ship, fighting a Tier 7 or other high-level ships can be extremely difficult. Since Tier 7 ships have the highest bullet damages and DPS in the game, it is quite difficult not to get insta-killed by one. With this said, it is actually quite possible (and possibly very easy) to beat a Tier 7 as a lower level ship.

A good strategy to beat Tier 7's or other big ships is to use RCS-off and try to evade their fire, whilst still aiming and shooting at them. This can be a bit difficult for newer players, but it is quite easy once you get the hang of it.

Never team, as this destroys the fun for other players, and you are very vulnerable to team members turning against you.

Finally, there is a good strategy if you have enough credits left. Some people call it the Mine Pile. Buy 3-6 stacks of small mines, find a good spot in the middle of the closing area, and place them all in the same spot. Then you lure the unsuspecting player right into them, and deal a massive amount of damage, most likely killing them. Although this is effective, it might be considered poor sportsmanship, and the other player might be upset.