This update is all about the charge attack: one-button controls, clear feedback while you charge and when you fire, and numbers that finally reward holding for a higher level. It also fixes 22 boss attacks whose warning markers did not match their real hit areas.
One-Button Charge
- Primary fire is automatic. You no longer hold the fire button to shoot.
- The fire button is now the charge button (Z / Space / pad A). Hold to charge, release to fire. The old charge key (X / pad square) still works.
- Primary fire continues at 100% while charging. Charging used to stop your shots completely, which made it a damage loss.
- A short tap fires Level 1 immediately as long as you have gauge.
- Pressing without enough gauge now plays a deny sound and flashes the gauge red instead of doing nothing.
- Auto-fire can be switched off in Options to restore the old scheme. A one-time notice explains the change on first run.
Charging Feedback
- An aura surrounds your ship, colored by level: grey while building, cyan at Lv1, orange at Lv2, magenta at Lv3 — pulsing faster and brighter as it rises.
- A progress ring shows how far you are from the next level, and locks full when your gauge cannot reach it.
- Reaching Lv3 triggers a white flash ring, sparks, a short screen shake and controller rumble.
- New audio: a charge loop that rises in pitch per level, plus three level-reached chimes.
- Gauge blocks, level text, aura, progress ring and release effects now all share one color language. Level text reads "CHARGE 1 / 2 / 3" in all 7 languages.
Release Feedback — Levels Now Feel Different
- Lv1: light shake, short rumble, quiet release sound.
- Lv2: stronger shake plus a low-frequency rumble, 0.03s hitstop, orange screen edges, louder sound.
- Lv3: strongest shake, 0.08s hitstop, full white flash, longest rumble, loudest release sound with added sub-bass, and a large centered popup.
- Each aircraft's own charge sound now drops in pitch and gains volume with level, with a tail at Lv3.
- The shared release sound is now split per level — previously Lv3 was actually quieter than Lv1.
- Screen flashes respect the "show flash" accessibility option.
Per-aircraft reinforcement
- IronBird — shockwave takes the level color; Lv3 scatters gold shards from every bullet it clears.
- Vanguard — rail beam widens 1.0 / 1.3 / 1.8x; Lv3 ends with a shockwave.
- Hornet — drone trails take the level color; Lv3 adds a blast per drone.
- Spectre — a ring shows how much invulnerability is left and blinks before it ends; Lv3 fires 1.5x larger bullets.
- Apollo — blast radius now varies per level (2.4 / 2.7 / 3.2) and some bombs home toward the nearest enemy.
- Titan — Lv3 pulse clears enemy bullets in range.
Balance — Holding Longer Now Pays Off
Damage per gauge now increases with every level on every aircraft, measured with a new in-game bot tool.
- IronBird 100 / 240 / 450 (was 100 / 120 / 140 — higher levels were a loss)
- Falcon 133 / 333 / 719
- Rayce 150 / 330 / 600
- Vanguard 250 / 700 / 1280 — beam 4.0s, invulnerability capped at 3s
- Hornet 80 / 320 / 600 — 40 / 80 / 150 per drone, Lv1 spends only half the swarm
- Bastion 250 / 600 / 1125 — invulnerability 10.5s to 3s, compensated with damage
- Spectre 120 / 330 / 720 — invulnerability 1.5 / 2.0 / 2.5s, and it now clears bullets that touch you
- Apollo 100 / 325 / 750
- Prism 112 / 288 / 600
- Titan 80 / 200 / 400 — pulse multiplier 1.0 / 2.5 / 5.0
- Charge invulnerability is capped at 3 seconds across the board.
- Apollo's primary fire interval goes from 2.0s to 1.0s — it had by far the lowest damage output of any aircraft.
- Hornet drone damage and Titan pulse damage were ignoring their configured values entirely. Both are now applied.
Boss Warning Markers — 22 Fixes
Warning markers were drawn at the wrong size or place on many boss attacks, so the danger zone you saw was not the zone that actually hurt you. Damage values and warning times are unchanged; only the markers were corrected.
- Vanguard Titan — crossfire quadrants and turret strikes drew at one eighth of their real size. Dangerous quadrants now fill properly and explode at the same size the instant the marker disappears.
- Aegis Overlord — the judgment cross was a third of its real width.
- King Gravity Well — the event horizon blast reached twice as far as the marker showed. Outside the circle is now genuinely safe.
- Storm Herald, Void Ascendant, Gravity Warden — storm convergence, annihilation and singularity had no danger marker at all; their kill zones are now shown.
- Gravity Warden — stellar erosion detonated with no warning; it now telegraphs each blast.
- King Iron Veil — the left and right danger bands of fortress lockdown were never displayed.
- King Storm Caller — safe circles were half their real size and did not follow the boss.
- Shield Crusher — the rotating beam swept through its own "safe" arc. It now leaves that arc clear.
- Marker sizes were also corrected for Judgment Omega, King Mirror Shade, Phantom Colossus, Stellar Devastator, Eclipse Engine, Twin Serpent, King Silent Fang, Crystal Sovereign, Railstorm Nemesis and Fortress Prime.
Other Fixes
- On-screen popups now actually appear. Power-up pickups, cosmic power activations, stage clear, anomaly results and sub-unit picks were never being shown at all.
- Charge levels now account for the gauge each level actually costs. A failed release no longer plays effects or triggers passives and sub-unit charges.
- Titan Lv3 is no longer worse than Lv1 and Lv2.
- Rayce dash damage against boss parts no longer depends on frame rate.
- Vanguard beam now ticks 10 times per second as intended, instead of about 8.6.
- Hornet no longer spends gauge when it has no drones or no target.
- Rush gauge block markings now match the real 40 / 60 / 100% thresholds.
- Charge hitstop now respects pause.
- Aircraft descriptions were corrected in all 7 languages to match what the weapons actually do.