Game Play

The *Sky Force* games, particularly *Sky Force Reloaded*, developed by Infinite Dreams are classic-styled top-down scrolling arcade shooting games, where the control scheme is touchscreen based on iOS/Android and keyboard & mouse based on the PC. Herein, the Plane and its weapons shoot automatically. Swiping movements (iOS/Android) or pressing the key and moving mouse cursor (PC) are only necessary to move the Plane about in general.

## Device Control Overview

* The mobile version of this game is compatible with smartphones/tablets running iOS or Android. One touchscreen input is used to control the Plane's movements, preferably with either a finger or stylus pen. (An additional finger is to be added for performing Main Weapon Supercharge)
* A widescreen version has also been developed for play on PC/Console, which can be found on platforms like PlayStation, Steam and Xbox. The control system is as such completely different and less convenient than that of the mobile versions. Controlling the Plane about the screen requires holding down on the mouse while moving it around, or moving the mouse while holding on a certain key.
* The Plane passively shoots its own firepower all the way till the end of a Stage.

## Menu Screen

A total of 16 Stages are available for play in all, with the 13 main sequence story line Stages and 3 Bonus Stages (B1, B2, B3). A total of four Difficulty Modes are featured, which are *Normal*, *Hard*, *Insane* and *Nightmare*. *Insane* is the most intense of the Difficulties available for play until clearing Stage 13 for the first time, when the *Nightmare* Mode is unlocked for all Stages with the Insane Difficulty perfected.

* Each Stage begins with only the Normal Difficulty Mode. To progress up the order of Difficulty Modes, all Medals on the preceding Difficulty Mode must be acquired.
* As higher Difficulty Modes accelerate screen scrolling, the Plane will fly faster and faster across the Stage, which will give you increasingly less time to fend off enemies that count to your tally. It is worth noting that the screen scrolling speed in the PC version is slower than that in the mobile versions to balance out the difference between control on the two versions.
* The same enemies in a certain Stage also get more defensive in a high Difficulty Mode. When they are destroyed, they provide increasingly large amounts of Stars and points that are added to the respective tallies.

A special Tournament Stage is available for play during the weekends. In this event, players and their in-game friends battle in endless Stages, accumulating scores to compete with each other.

### Overview of Difficulty Modes

* *Normal*: The easiest and starting Difficulty mode of every Stage, with merely just a satisfactory effort needed with adequate firepower to rapidly blast away enemies.
* *Hard*: Enemies get tougher and more defensive, an ideal spike of a challenge if you are retaining the magnitude of your Plane's combat ability.
* *Insane*: Your screen will be scrolling down noticeably faster, giving even less time to whittle down enemies alongside themselves becoming more resistant to firepower damage. It serves as a good warm-up for Nightmare Mode.
* *Nightmare*: Qualities of enemies, screen scrolling speed, damage your Plane is less resistible to and many other factors that hinder a successful run of the Stage are at their very best. A hoard of Stars and score can be earned through a sense of perseverance and resilience through this intense mode.

## General Interface

The overview of the gameplay interface below is for the mobile version of *Sky Force Reloaded*.

 Right below this is the button that you press to start the Stage. In the mobile version, the remaining number of Planes/lives the player have in the hangar is indicated, originally with a maximum capacity of ten, which later increases by three with the "Larger Hangar" Bonus Card.
* At least one available Plane in the hangar is required to start. After completing a Stage successfully, the previously used Plane is retained for the next playthrough, meaning the life tally is not affected. Lives are lost due to one of the following conditions: the Plane reaches 0% health and is destroyed in flight; the player pauses the game and manually returns to the main menu; the game application is either closed or restarted.
* A lost Plane requires time to recharge, which increases in duration the longer the game is played (can take up to an hour). Players can spend stars to speed up the Plane production, or watch an advertisement to earn a free Plane when the hangar is exhausted. The "*Planes Generator*" perk found in the Loadout screen can be purchased to dramatically speed up the production.

 The Options Menu button is found to the left of the Start button, and on the right lies the Loadout and Leaderboard features. (Read more below)

### Options Menu

 Technicians - Little buddies that accompany you on a Stage to help out with the combatting task. The menu shows an overview of the different abilities each of them offers.

## Pre-Game Menu

 Upon confirming the desired Plane and Technician, tap on the Plane to start the Stage.

## Main Gameplay

During the Stage, keeping one finger on the screen all the way to allow constant and ready movements of the Plane to ease the evasion of attacks from enemies. At the top is a continuously-increasing score display, along with "Chain Bonus" ranking words (See below). Each time, the amount of score required to advance a rank increases. When reaching the Dominating rank, the next tier requires a prohibitive amount of destroyed enemies. In addition, it is unknown whether the subsequent rank exists due to lack of evidence.

**Chain Bonus Tier Levels*** Nice (100 pts)
* Good (500 pts)
* Great (1000 pts)
* Excellent (2000 pts)
* Wonderful (5000 pts)
* Superb (10000 pts)
* Godlike (20000 pts)
* Funky (40000 pts)
* Fantastic (80000 pts)
* Dominating (160000 pts)

Keeping the Chain Bonus intact for as long as possible requires a continuous streak of enemy destruction (may or may not be easy to achieve in some cases). As soon as one enemy travels off the screen, a "Chain lost" quote will be heard shortly afterwards, and the Chain Bonus itself will be reset.
A sub-menu will appear if you lift off your finger. The Stage progress will be drastically slowed down, and several functions are revealed. Right above the Plane are the buttons that activate a charge of an Energy Shield, Laser or Mega Bomb (Power ups/special weapon). An indication of the percentage of your Plane's remaining health is displayed below these buttons. A camera icon at the top left corner can be tapped to take a screenshot of the gameplay and the pause button can be found at the top right. Lastly, the ten-stage bar of the Plane's current firepower level can be seen at the top below the Chain Bonus bar which increases for each collected Weapon Upgrade item.
In the PC/Console version of this game, there is no slowdown effect or even a simple sub menu to bring up. Respective keys are available to trigger power ups, screenshot or pause the game.
Enemies of different combat ability -- from simple tanks and gun turrets to super powerful fighter helicopters -- are littered throughout the Stage along with other obstacles such as tanks and oil drums. These destructible objects will produce either Stars, Power-ups, aircraft parts or simply extra score when taken down. Bosses that take place at the end of most Stages are also counted as enemies (Destroying their armor will fill up the Chain Bonus bar too).
Bright projectiles, laser beams and several types of Prop Planes and Gunships are the main hazards, which reduce the Plane's health upon direct collisions. Apart from few other types of threats (such as airborne barrels, Nuclear Ballistic Missiles,...), other entities lack collision hitboxes; the Plane simply flies past them.
Visit the Enemies page on this Wiki for more information about the *Sky Force Reloaded* enemy rolling stock.

Survivors
Littered throughout the Stage are also humans who can be rescued for score that counts towards the Stage Medal "Rescue All People". When they are in sight, a speech bubble will be seen above their heads. Coming near the Survivor will drop a rope for them to climb. Maintain your Plane's position until the Survivor is pulled up inside your Plane, and a "Human rescued" voice quote signals that and the necessary score will be awarded.
The Ambulance Plane has a special ability of rescuing Survivors almost instantly due to a high-tech rope ladder being used to pull them up in a flash.

Dispensers
Dispensers are special platforms found in every Stage which drop a free charge of a Power up. All of them start off as blank and insignificant objects looking like scenery decor. To activate the Dispensers, the three respective Bonus Cards for Energy Shield, Laser and Mega Bomb have to be acquired, which will summon special teams to do the aforementioned operations. Likewise, active Dispensers have flashing lights and glowing icons. Hover your Plane directly over the Dispenser for few seconds to release the free Power up charge from it.
* *Fire Rate/Weapon Upgrade*: Adds on to your base firepower strength and can be acquired repeatedly until the bar consisting of ten stages is full. Certain enemies glow yellow to signify that destroying them will drop this pick up.
* *Health* - Restore missing health, reducing in effectiveness with higher health upgrades, about a tenth of your Plane's total health when maxed out. Extra score will be added if this is collected with a full healthbar.
* *Survivors/Humans* - Scattered across the Stage layout, to come near for rescue operations. Doing so will rewards 1000 score and counts towards the "Rescue All People" Medal.
* *VIP* - An infrequent and alternative appearance of a typical Survivor and rewards mass amount of Stars instead when rescued. They do not count towards the "Rescue All People" Medal and chances of seeing them are quite rare.
* *Laser* - An item that fills one charge of Laser Power-up. Quickly tears down enemies with a sharply-focused beam fired from the nose of the Plane.
* *Energy Shield* - An item that fills one charge of Energy Shield Power-up. A force field that can be activated to oppose almost all vulnerabilities and enemy damage for a short duration.
* *Mega Bomb* - An item that fills one charge of Mega Bomb Power-up. Blasts away inferior enemies with a huge shockwave.
* *Permanent Bonus Card* - Special enhancements for gameplay that can be obtained as pick up items in Stages at a slim, random chance. Permanent Bonus Cards stop appearing once the whole deck is finished.
* *Temporal Bonus Card* - Picked up at random chances during a Stage and a random perk is granted. They can be obtained from Stages more than once and last for a period of time (15 minutes).
* *Aircraft Part* - Collect in Stages to assemble the fuselages of the other eight Planes apart from The Classic.
* *Wingman Cube* - Occasionally spawns from smashed crates, and shifts colors at intervals. Quickly collect it to release another of eight unused Planes based on their key colors shown on the cube. The summoned Wingman has weakened firepower (except Limp Berserker*[verify]*), lack Wing Cannons, Missiles and Power-ups. Wingmen are destroyed either when their health is empty or when the player's Plane is shot down.
Most Stages are completed when the final Boss is defeated, otherwise they will end when the Plane reach a point at the end. When that happens, a "Stage Complete" message will play as the Plane flies off toward the top edge of the screen.
* Aircraft part, Permanent or Temporal Bonus Card collected within the Stage will be revealed immediately. To continue to the score calculation page, tap on the button at the bottom that will first bank the Stars collected.

Calculation of Scores* The base score is the total number of points accumulated from the destruction of the first enemy to right after obliterating a Boss. In Nightmare Difficulty, a Boss Bonus rundown bonus score will be automatically added that slowly empties. The quicker a Boss is defeated, the higher the Boss Bonus will be.
* Four objectives are featured, which highlight the percentage of Stars collected, percentage of enemies destroyed, number of Survivors rescued and whether the Plane have stayed unharmed. Perfecting each of these adds 5000 more points to the base score.
* Follow this, a Score Multiplier value will multiply the amassed score by an amount, increasing depending on the number of previously collected medals and the current Difficulty level.
* An additional "Full Deck" bonus is added if Card 24 is unlocked, which coincide with the completion of the Card deck.
* Lastly, if there is an Internet connection, a leaderboard will be displayed, where highest score records of the same Stage of in-game friends is compared and ranked with the player's own. After this, tap on the continue button to return to the main menu.

## 100% Completion Synopsis

There are several avenues which much be fulfilled to acquire "100% Completion".

### Medals

By beating a Stage with 70% Enemy kills, 100% Enemy kills, 100% Survivors rescued, and Staying Untouched, the Player will be given Medals. These are not only shiny, but also a requirement to unlock further Stages. There are 256 Medals of in the game, four requirements for each of the four Difficulties for each of the 16 Stages.

### Hangar Upgrades

Buying every Upgrade for the Plane in the Hangar is not only useful for staying alive and un-aliveing Enemies, but also boosts the ability to complete other avenues of 100% by aiding in overcoming harder Stages and Difficulty levels.

### Cards & Planes

Both Cards and Plane Parts need to be acquired in a stage by collecting their item, surviving to the end without dying, and watching the reveal of what it is. Collecting every Permanent Card (and every Temporal Card at least once) gives many boosts such as the Overcharge or Lucky Shield mechanics. Plane Parts are a little trickier, but there are 8 Planes that need to be unlocked with five parts each, totaling 40 collectibles. The different Planes have different properties, which are more pronounced on PC compared to Mobile platforms.

### Technicians

Like Hangar Upgrades, Technicians allow benefits to Player power. There are eight Technicians, each with unique properties that aid in other completion activities. The player can unlock later Technicians by completing objectives and filling the Prestige system.

### Objectives

Objectives are the second largest (see Medals) and likely most tedious road to 100% is by completing Objectives. These include destroying Enemies and rescuing Survivors, but also *other* parts of full completion such as Planes and Cards. Objectives reward points that contribute to the Prestige road and allow for the unlock of Technicians, as mentioned above.

Arguably the worst part about Objectives is the fact that it requires competing in a Tournament with Friends. The reason this is not enjoyable is because the randomness of having people play against others while connecting to them in some way is nearly uncontrollable. This is also required to get the eighth and final Technician, because completing all Objectives is required to get that same Technician.

## Trivia

* The battlefield can be extremely chaotic at certain times. To make it easier on the eyes, the Humans bear a speech bubble above their heads, initially with a smiling face. If you break off the retrieval partway, their speech bubble scrambles into a variety of symbols, as if cursing at you for comedic effect. This does not affect your bonuses in any way.
* Some enemies in the game requires two parts to destroy, the example being the Battle tanks, it requires to destroy the turret along with the chassis itself. Failure to destroy the chassis as it leaves the screen will ruin your chain bonus.
* The only unique object that bears mentions for collision damage are the huge rockets in Stage B2 and a large steel gate in Stage B1. They look seemingly harmless until they launch/open. Yet any attempt to graze pass them will result in instant death of your Plane, be it whether they are on the ground or in launch.