A wave shooter gives you one gun, a horizontal axis, and a formation that descends. The instinct is to shoot whatever is closest. That instinct loses, because the formation is what kills you — not any single ship.

Why the shape matters more than the count

The ships fire together, and their shots land along the shape of the formation. A tight block produces a wall of bullets you cannot pass through. A broken formation produces scattered shots with real gaps.

So the goal of every wave is not "kill the most" but "break the regularity". Kill ships that hold the shape together — the edges of a row, the corner of a block — and the rest of the formation loses its firing pattern.

Stay on one side, then switch once

The bottom of the screen is your only axis, and the formation usually mirrors your movement. If you drift left and right continuously, you will meet fire from both directions.

The pattern that works:

  1. Pick a side and hold it while you clear that side's column.
  2. Cross the middle in one decisive move, ideally right after the formation fires.
  3. Clear the other side.
  4. Never cross twice in one firing cycle.

Crossing the middle is the single most dangerous action in the game. Do it once, deliberately, and use the post-volley window.

Move after they shoot, not before. The safest second is the one right after a volley.

Priority targets

Not all ships in a formation are equal. In order:

  • The lowest ones. They have the least travel time to your line and the shortest firing arc, so they hit you soonest.
  • The outer columns. Killing them opens side lanes where you can hide from the centre's fire.
  • The shooters that fire most often. If a wave mixes firing rates, the frequent ones set the rhythm — remove them and the volley pattern becomes predictable.

The ones to ignore are the high, central ships: they are far from your line and their shots take the longest to arrive, so they are the last problem you need to solve.

Empty the lane before you commit

Because your ship is one column wide, your survival depends on having a column with no incoming fire. Before you move into a lane, spend half a second checking whether a bullet is already in it.

This sounds obvious, and it is where most deaths happen: players move to escape one bullet and move into another. A quick rule: never move into a lane that a bullet will reach within two seconds.

Wave transitions

Between waves there is a short pause. Use it, do not idle in it: recentre, take a breath, and pick the side you will clear first. Players who spend the pause where the last bullet left them usually open the next wave already cornered.