The essential gestures
The same play area handles movement and attacks. Drag to steer, tap to act, hold to charge, and swipe to dash. What a tap does depends on the situation: while exploring it scouts or uses a nearby interaction; in battle it attacks your locked target.
A forward swipe helps you close distance. Sideways swipes are your main evasion tool. Do not treat every movement as a dodge: a slow drag steers, while a decisive swipe triggers the dash. The tutorial is the best place to become comfortable with the difference.
| Input | Use |
|---|---|
| Drag | Fly and reposition |
| Tap in battle | Use a basic blast or melee attack at the appropriate distance |
| Hold and release | Charge and release a stronger basic attack |
| Swipe | Dash; use direction to approach or evade |
| Tap a skill card | Cast that skill when it is ready |
| Hold a card | Inspect its current effects |
| Hold your portrait | Read your current stats |
Read both resource meters
Stamina and blast energy serve different jobs. The base stamina meter has three segments. Blast energy has four pips; a basic blast spends one and a charged blast spends two. Both recover, but a sequence of attacks or evasions can leave you short when the enemy changes its plan.
Energy Surge and Second Breath are useful because they solve different shortages. A full blast meter does not pay for a dash, and full stamina does not let you keep firing without energy. Watch which resource your playstyle runs out of first before choosing support cards or relics.
How a Perfect Dodge works
A Perfect Dodge rewards a well-timed evade against an eligible incoming attack. The base timing window is 450 milliseconds, but timing alone is not enough: the attack must actually threaten you within its relevant range and direction. Swiping around an idle enemy does not trigger the reward.
A successful Perfect Dodge refills stamina and blast energy, refreshes skill cooldowns, and grants a short damage and movement-speed boost. This makes it an opportunity to reverse the fight. Identify your next attack while the enemy is telegraphing so that you can use the opening immediately.
Bullet Time widens the Perfect Dodge window. It helps with timing; it does not remove the need to read the attack. Avoid spending the resulting resource refill on movement that takes you out of range of your strongest ready skill.
Charge, guard and commitment
Hold to charge when the enemy guards. Charging is a commitment, so begin when you have enough space and a clear view of the enemy intent. Releasing a charged attack too casually can leave you recovering while a different threat arrives.
Barrier lets you keep attacking and casting while its protection is active, but charged attacks and enemy specials can break it. Power Shield protects the front even from specials, so facing still matters. Protection, damage absorption and resistance to interruption are different mechanics; read the card instead of assuming every shield solves the same attack.
Desktop controls
Desktop controls provide another way to practise the same movement and combat. Use WASD or the arrow keys to steer. Space or Shift dashes in your movement direction, with a forward dash when no direction is held. Q toggles target lock, E interacts, and J or Enter performs a basic attack.
Number keys cast the corresponding hand slot. The visible hand contains up to four cards, so use 1–4 for normal play. During a beam clash, follow the tap prompt and press your attack input repeatedly. Pointer controls remain useful for charging and inspecting cards.
