One gun, many ways to fire it
The Lifeline carries a single main gun. Every level-up card either changes that gun, adds a weapon that fires on its own beside it, or improves the ship. Cards come in four kinds, and each kind has a fixed number of slots per run:
| Card kind | Slots | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Main gun | 1 | The weapon you aim. You start with the Pulse Cannon. |
| Fire pattern | 4 | Reshapes how the main gun fires, the moment you take it. |
| Support | 2 | A second weapon that fires by itself. |
| System | 3 | Passive boosts: damage, fire rate, hull, speed, pickup range, shield. |
Once a kind's slots are full, new modules of that kind stop appearing, and only upgrades to the ones you own are offered. So the first four fire patterns you accept define your build. Cards for modules you already own are weighted to come up more often, and new fire patterns slightly more often than other new modules.
Main guns
| Gun | Base shot | Upgrades to level 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Pulse Cannon | Rapid bolts, 16 damage, about 3.7 shots a second | Damage, fire rate, and at level 5 bolts pierce once |
| Scatter Blaster | Short-range fan of 3 shells, 11 damage each | Up to 5 shells, a wider fan, and knockback at level 5 |
| Railgun | A 70-damage slug that pierces every ship in line, one every 1.5 s | Damage, faster reload, two slugs at level 5 |
The Scatter Blaster and Railgun are not found on cards. You unlock them in the workshop (below) and then launch with them instead of the Pulse Cannon.
Fire patterns
| Pattern | Max level | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Extra Barrels | 3 | +1 shot per volley per level |
| Burst Fire | 2 | Volleys in bursts of 3, then 5 (the gun cycles slower between bursts) |
| Piercing Rounds | 2 | Shots pierce 2, then 4 more ships, and fly longer |
| Ricochet | 2 | Shots bounce to the nearest ship; level 2 adds a bounce and +20% damage after it |
| Splinter Rounds | 2 | Shots burst into 3, then 5 shards on hit |
| Charged Shot | 2 | Every 5th, then every 3rd volley is a plasma orb with 4x damage that explodes |
| Crossfire | 2 | A rear barrel, then side barrels; extra directions hit at 75% damage |
| Heavy Rounds | 2 | +40% damage per level, bigger shots, knockback |
| Seeker Rounds | 1 | Shots curve toward ships |
| Volatile Rounds | 2 | Ships killed by the main gun explode; level 2 enlarges the blast |
Patterns stack on each other. Extra Barrels multiplies everything that happens per shot, so it pairs with Splinter, Ricochet and Volatile. A charged orb glows at the nose just before it fires, which helps you time it onto a boss weak point.
Support weapons and systems
| Module | Kind | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Seeker Missiles | Support | Homing missiles that explode; more missiles and bigger blasts with levels |
| Wing Drones | Support | Drones orbit you, shoot what they face and ram nearby ships; up to 4 |
| Photon Lance | Support | A beam fires in bursts and sweeps toward your aim, cutting every ship in line; a second beam behind you at level 5 |
| Nova Mines | Support | Drops a mine every 2.4 s; at level 5 mines pull enemies in |
| Reinforced Hull | System | +25 max hull per level and slow repair over time |
| Overclock | System | +12% fire rate for all weapons per level |
| Plasma Core | System | +15% damage for all weapons per level |
| Afterburners | System | +8% speed and 20% longer afterburner per level |
| Tractor Beam | System | +35% pickup range per level |
| Deflector | System | A shield that blocks one hit, recharging in 12 s, 1.5 s faster per extra level |
Evolutions
Raise a weapon to level 5 while owning its partner system at any level, and a gold Evolution card appears in your next pick, ahead of the normal cards.
| Evolution | Recipe | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Storm Cannon | Pulse Cannon 5 + Overclock | A piercing gatling stream |
| Inferno Scatter | Scatter Blaster 5 + Plasma Core | Every shell explodes on impact |
| Lance Rail | Railgun 5 + Overclock | Slugs fly twice as far, hit 50% harder and reload fast |
| Hellfire Swarm | Seeker Missiles 5 + Plasma Core | Missiles in volleys of 6 with huge blasts |
| Aegis Wing | Wing Drones 5 + Deflector | Five larger drones that hit harder and block enemy shots |
Because a system slot is needed for the partner, decide early. A Pulse Cannon run should take Overclock as one of its three systems before the slots fill with other things.
Experience, levels and ship levels
Destroyed enemies drop crystals worth 1, 5 or 10 experience. Small skiffs give 1, raiders 2, wedges 3, gunboats 4, brutes 9 and elites 40. The first level needs 20 experience, the next 40, then 66, rising each time. Each level opens a pick of three cards: press 1, 2 or 3, or click or tap a card.
At levels 3, 6, 8 and 11 the Lifeline itself upgrades, up to ship level 5. Each ship level adds 8% damage to every weapon and 15 max hull, and the upgrade fires a shockwave that deals 60 damage to everything near you and clears enemy shots around you. A ship level-up is a free escape when you are surrounded.
The afterburner
Hold Space (or Left Shift, or touch the right half of the screen) while moving for 80% more speed. It runs on a fuel bar under your hull: about 2.2 seconds at first, longer with Afterburners and the Reserve Tank. Fuel refills after you let go for a moment. Empty it completely and it locks, red, until it has refilled past about a third. It gives no invulnerability: it is for escaping pulls, crossing lanes and reaching the far side of a boss, not for passing through shots.
Power-ups
A supply capsule drifts through about every 30 seconds; shoot or ram it open. Elite ships drop one when destroyed, and some objectives reward a supply drop. Fly over it to use it.
| Power-up | Duration | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Overdrive | 8 s | Double fire rate and +30% damage |
| Phase Barrier | 7 s | Invulnerable; ram enemies to break them |
| Rocket Storm | 6 s | Homing rockets pour out of the ship |
| Time Warp | 7 s | Enemies and their shots slow right down |
| Nova Blast | Instant | A shockwave wipes the nearby swarm |
| Tractor Pulse | Instant | Pulls in every crystal |
| Repair | Instant | +50 hull |
Salvage and the workshop
Salvage is the currency you keep between runs, including runs that end in a fold. You earn it from objectives, from the bonus at each sector end, from the boss bounty, from salvage crates and bounty ships, and from kill chains: kills within 2.2 seconds of each other build a chain, and chains of 25, 50, 100 and every 100 after pay 5 salvage plus a burst of crystals. Spend it with Moss in the workshop:
| Item | Cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Card Reroll | 60 | 1 reroll of level-up cards per run (press R) |
| Card Reroll II | 150 | 2 rerolls per run; needs Card Reroll |
| Reserve Tank | 90 | Afterburner fuel lasts 30% longer |
| Scatter Start | 120 | Launch with the Scatter Blaster |
| Seeker Start | 160 | Launch with Seeker Missiles beside the cannon |
| Railgun Start | 220 | Launch with the Railgun |
Start weapons can be swapped freely once bought: tap an owned one to equip it, tap it again to return to the Pulse Cannon. The workshop sells choice and convenience rather than raw power, so skill and your in-run build still decide the fight. For which routes pay the most salvage, see Star map, routes and medals.
Aiming
With no button held, the main gun aims itself at the nearest target in range, including boss parts. Hold the left mouse button to aim at the cursor instead. Manual aim matters in boss fights: auto-aim prefers parts that can be hurt but otherwise picks by distance, which is not always the part you need to break first. On touch screens aiming is always automatic, so use your position to choose the target.