The arena

Rocks are walls

Every shot stops at rock: yours, theirs, even a fully charged railgun. So cover is the most useful thing in the arena. Duck behind an asteroid when a fight turns, make them come around it, and pick the angle you come back out on. Just don’t lean on one rock for too long, because many of them break apart under enough fire.

Same rocks, different cut

Every match is drawn from one asteroid field, but each match shows a different cut of it: sometimes the whole field, sometimes open lanes through it, sometimes only a few rings or the biggest rocks. Some rocks drift slowly, too. So learn the field, then check which version of it you got. Flags and goals also land somewhere new each match, and the hill moves during one.

The whole fight is on your minimap

The entire arena fits on it, with flags and the hill drawn exactly where they are. A glance tells you where the fight is, where it is heading, and who is about to arrive behind you. Pilots who watch it get caught out a lot less.

Fly through friends, not rocks

Ships pass straight through each other, so a teammate is never in your way and you can pile into a crowded fight without bouncing off anyone. Rock is the only solid thing in the arena. Reach the edge and the ring turns you back inside; it never kills you.

Now and then a gravity well opens. It drags ships toward it, bends shots that pass close, and burns hull if you sit in its core. It fades in and out, so you can see it coming, and it does not last.

Grab what’s floating

Up to 4 pickups drift in the arena at once (more in Battle Royale), with a new one arriving every 10 seconds while there is room:

• Health, the most common. Patch up and get back in.
• Shield, to soak up the next hits.
• Speed: 60% faster for 12 seconds.
• Damage: 50% harder hits for 10 seconds.
• Sonar, a ping that lights up the map.

Whatever you are carrying is gone when you die, so nobody rides one lucky pickup for a whole match. Use it while you have it.

Down is not out

Get blown up and you are flying again a few seconds later, somewhere away from the fight that killed you. A freshly respawned ship shimmers and can’t be hurt for a moment, so don’t waste shots on one, and use your own shimmer to get moving.

Battle Royale opens it up

Battle Royale is played on the same arena at nearly twice the width, with room for twelve pilots to start well apart. Then the storm closes in. Outside the safe zone you lose 5 hull every second at first, and close to four times that by the final ring. The zone shrinks toward a different spot each time, so nowhere stays safe for long. There are no respawns in this one.