Pulse Squadron

Overview

Pulse Squadron is a formation-switching space shooter where every gun draws from one shared energy core. Three flight arrangements change both the shape of your attack and how quickly the core recovers. Wedge launches a concentrated three-shot lance with high damage, Line spreads five lighter shots across the screen, and Ring fires in every direction while consuming less energy and recharging fastest. Five escalating waves combine dart columns, aimed turrets with escorts, and weaving pursuit craft before a large command ship enters for the finale. The boss alternates between aimed triple volleys and radial bullet rings, demanding the same formation awareness used during ordinary encounters. The squadron has three lives, a brief invulnerability window after damage, and a persistent best score. Enemy patterns and starfield generation are deterministic in the automated mode, while normal play keeps the same authored encounter structure. Original vector graphics make formations, hostile types, projectiles, energy, lives, and boss health readable without external assets.

How to Play

Move with WASD or the Arrow keys and hold Space to fire. Press Q or E to cycle backward or forward through Wedge, Line, and Ring, or select a formation with the visible controls. Pointer and touch players can hold and drag the squadron; dragging also fires, while the three buttons remain available beneath the field. Press P to pause. The energy bar refills whenever consumption falls below recharge, so releasing fire is sometimes necessary. Survive five encounter waves and destroy the boss to clear the sector. Losing all three ships ends the run and records the best score locally.

Tips & Strategy

Use Wedge when a durable target sits directly ahead. Its three heavy shots overlap well against turrets and the boss, but sustained firing drains energy quickly. Line is strongest against broad dart columns or several enemies entering at once; position near the centre so its outer projectiles remain on screen. Ring is a defensive reset tool. It clears threats around the squadron, spends the least energy, and restores the core fastest, but much of its fire misses targets above you. Switch formations before the situation becomes critical rather than after energy reaches zero. During turret waves, keep moving laterally so aimed shots trail behind, then focus Wedge fire into one turret at a time. Weavers chase the current position, so wide arcs and occasional direction changes group them for Line fire. Against the boss, move across aimed triple volleys and find the widest gap in radial rings. A short pause in firing during a difficult dodge often produces more damage overall because the recovered core supports a full burst once a safe lane opens.

The Energy Core: Reading the Real Health Bar

The shared energy core is a second survival resource disguised as an ammunition meter. An empty core does not kill you, but it leaves the squadron toothless at exactly the moment a wave peaks, and a toothless squadron takes hits. The three formations form a simple economy: Wedge borrows against the future, spending the core fast for burst damage; Line spends moderately for coverage; Ring is the savings account, costing little and refilling fastest. Strong play treats the energy bar like a rhythm — burn Wedge into a priority target, drop to Ring or stop firing entirely while repositioning, then spend the recovered core again. The worst habit is holding fire in Wedge until the bar empties mid-wave, because recharge during sustained fire is slow and the next ten seconds decide whether you keep all three lives.

Wave Guide and the Command Ship

The five waves teach one formation lesson each, in order. Early dart columns reward Line: broad, evenly spaced targets that waste Wedge's overlap. Turret waves flip the priority — aimed shots force constant lateral motion while Wedge burns one turret down at a time, escorts first only if they block the firing line. Weaver swarms are the movement exam: they chase your current position, so fly wide arcs, reverse direction occasionally, and let them clump before answering with Line. The final command ship combines everything. Its aimed triple volleys are crossed the same way turret fire is, and its radial bullet rings are a Ring-formation problem — stop firing, drift to the widest gap, and let the pattern pass. After each ring there is a safe window where a fully charged Wedge core unloads into the boss's hull. Losing a life is not the end; the brief invulnerability after a hit is enough time to re-form, refill, and re-engage.

What Makes It Distinct

Formation is more than a cosmetic ship arrangement: it changes projectile coverage, damage, energy cost, cooldown, and recharge. The player is effectively choosing an offensive stance several times per wave while still handling arcade movement. That link between spatial pattern and resource management gives Pulse Squadron a tactical rhythm that ordinary hold-to-fire shooters lack, without slowing the pace for menus or upgrade screens.