The Sky Force games, particularly Sky Force Reloaded, developed by Infinite Dreams are classic-styled top-down scrolling arcade shooting games, where the control scheme is touchscreen based on iOS/Android and keyboard & mouse based on the PC. Herein, the Plane and its weapons shoot automatically. Swiping movements (iOS/Android) or pressing the key and moving mouse cursor (PC) are only necessary to move the Plane about in general.
Device Control Overview[]
- The mobile version of this game is compatible with smartphones/tablets running iOS or Android. One touchscreen input is used to control the Plane's movements, preferably with either a finger or stylus pen. (An additional finger is to be added for performing Main Weapon Supercharge)
- A widescreen version has also been developed for play on PC/Console, which can be found on platforms like PlayStation, Steam and Xbox. The control system is as such completely different and less convenient than that of the mobile versions. Controlling the Plane about the screen requires holding down on the mouse while moving it around, or moving the mouse while holding on a certain key.
- The Plane passively shoots its own firepower all the way till the end of a Stage.
Menu Screen[]
The unnamed world map of Sky Force. A total of 13 main stages, with 3 bonus stages and a Tournament stage are playable.
A total of 16 Stages are available for play in all, with the 13 main sequence story line Stages and 3 Bonus Stages (B1, B2, B3). A total of four Difficulty Modes are featured, which are Normal, Hard, Insane and Nightmare. Insane is the most intense of the Difficulties available for play until clearing Stage 13 for the first time, when the Nightmare Mode is unlocked for all Stages with the Insane Difficulty perfected.
- Each Stage begins with only the Normal Difficulty Mode. To progress up the order of Difficulty Modes, all Medals on the preceding Difficulty Mode must be acquired.
- As higher Difficulty Modes accelerate screen scrolling, the Plane will fly faster and faster across the Stage, which will give you increasingly less time to fend off enemies that count to your tally. It is worth noting that the screen scrolling speed in the PC version is slower than that in the mobile versions to balance out the difference between control on the two versions.
- The same enemies in a certain Stage also get more defensive in a high Difficulty Mode. When they are destroyed, they provide increasingly large amounts of Stars and points that are added to the respective tallies.
A special Tournament Stage is available for play during the weekends. In this event, players and their in-game friends battle in endless Stages, accumulating scores to compete with each other.
Overview of Difficulty Modes[]
- Normal: The easiest and starting Difficulty mode of every Stage, with merely just a satisfactory effort needed with adequate firepower to rapidly blast away enemies.
- Hard: Enemies get tougher and more defensive, an ideal spike of a challenge if you are retaining the magnitude of your Plane's combat ability.
- Insane: Your screen will be scrolling down noticeably faster, giving even less time to whittle down enemies alongside themselves becoming more resistant to firepower damage. It serves as a good warm-up for Nightmare Mode.
- Nightmare: Qualities of enemies, screen scrolling speed, damage your Plane is less resistible to and many other factors that hinder a successful run of the Stage are at their very best. A hoard of Stars and score can be earned through a sense of perseverance and resilience through this intense mode.
General Interface[]
The overview of the gameplay interface below is for the mobile version of Sky Force Reloaded.
| Right below the Stage number, the highest score amassed for said Stage will be displayed, which varies by separate Difficulty levels. | |
| Below that, the Difficulty mode of the chosen Stage is shown, along with the score multiplier and a multiplier value indicating the number of Stars accumulated from destroyed enemies. | |
| Each Stage has a total of sixteen Medals that can be acquired, four per Difficulty. Their names clearly imply the conditions that are needed to be fulfilled in order for them to be achieved. Once all four Medals are acquired for a certain Difficulty mode, the next one is unlocked. | |
Right below this is the button that you press to start the Stage. In the mobile version, the remaining number of Planes/lives the player have in the hangar is indicated, originally with a maximum capacity of ten, which later increases by three with the "Larger Hangar" Bonus Card.
In the PC/Console version of this game, you can play indefinitely for as long as you like, since the Plane fleet is "infinite" and nothing will be affected no matter how many times you lose your Plane. | |
| The Options Menu button is found to the left of the Start button, and on the right lies the Loadout and Leaderboard features. (Read more below) |
Options Menu[]
| Trophies - When a Boss is beaten for the first time, a gold-plated trophy carved out of their shape is earned. The date the Boss was defeated for the first time is also shown, along with the number of previous attempts and the Difficulty modes it was beaten on. | |
| Settings - General game settings (Sound volume, music volume and game control modes, etc...) | |
| Planes - Shows the full arsenal of nine Planes. Each Plane requires five parts to be obtained through playing a Stage and silhouettes of each the parts obtained are shown once collected. The full appearance of the Plane can be seen once unlocked. The Stages where you played each Plane as are also shown. | |
| Prestige - A whole list of several in-game achievements (Not related to those from Google Play Games), that can be obtained through extensive and repeated runs through any Stages that allow chances of adding progress to each achievement's bar. Once a Prestige tier is unlocked, a Technician will be unlocked as a result. | |
| Cards Gallery - Views the entire list of Bonus Cards, obtained at slim chances throughout gameplay. Here, players can read the descriptions, stories and functions of each Cards. You can also access the Card Radar to manually randomize a certain Stage number to obtain a random Permanent Card. | |
| Technicians - Little buddies that accompany you on a Stage to help out with the combatting task. The menu shows an overview of the different abilities each of them offers. |
Pre-Game Menu[]
| Once the Stage loads up, player may change the Planes if necessary, as well as the Technician you want to use, and spend stars to purchase any Power-ups (Shield, Laser or Mega Bomb) if necessary. The number of available Stars is displayed at the top. | |
| The cost of purchasing a Shield, Laser or Mega Bomb will increase for each loaded charge of the same type, but note that there are opportunities throughout the gameplay where those power ups can be obtained for free. For example, active Dispensers as seen in almost every Stage will release a free charge of a certain power up according to the silhouette displayed on them. Some Bonus Cards also enhance their powers or allow the starting of a Stage with a free charge of a certain power up/special weapon. | |
| Upon confirming the desired Plane and Technician, tap on the Plane to start the Stage. |
Main Gameplay[]
Control Schemes & Interface[]During the Stage, keeping one finger on the screen all the way to allow constant and ready movements of the Plane to ease the evasion of attacks from enemies. At the top is a continuously-increasing score display, along with "Chain Bonus" ranking words (See below). Each time, the amount of score required to advance a rank increases. When reaching the Dominating rank, the next tier requires a prohibitive amount of destroyed enemies. In addition, it is unknown whether the subsequent rank exists due to lack of evidence. Chain Bonus Tier Levels[]
Keeping the Chain Bonus intact for as long as possible requires a continuous streak of enemy destruction (may or may not be easy to achieve in some cases). As soon as one enemy travels off the screen, a "Chain lost" quote will be heard shortly afterwards, and the Chain Bonus itself will be reset. A sub-menu will appear if you lift off your finger. The Stage progress will be drastically slowed down, and several functions are revealed. Right above the Plane are the buttons that activate a charge of an Energy Shield, Laser or Mega Bomb (Power ups/special weapon). An indication of the percentage of your Plane's remaining health is displayed below these buttons. A camera icon at the top left corner can be tapped to take a screenshot of the gameplay and the pause button can be found at the top right. Lastly, the ten-stage bar of the Plane's current firepower level can be seen at the top below the Chain Bonus bar which increases for each collected Weapon Upgrade item. In the PC/Console version of this game, there is no slowdown effect or even a simple sub menu to bring up. Respective keys are available to trigger power ups, screenshot or pause the game. |
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Enemies/Obstacles[]Enemies of different combat ability -- from simple tanks and gun turrets to super powerful fighter helicopters -- are littered throughout the Stage along with other obstacles such as tanks and oil drums. These destructible objects will produce either Stars, Power-ups, aircraft parts or simply extra score when taken down. Bosses that take place at the end of most Stages are also counted as enemies (Destroying their armor will fill up the Chain Bonus bar too). Bright projectiles, laser beams and several types of Prop Planes and Gunships are the main hazards, which reduce the Plane's health upon direct collisions. Apart from few other types of threats (such as airborne barrels, Nuclear Ballistic Missiles,...), other entities lack collision hitboxes; the Plane simply flies past them. Visit the Enemies page on this Wiki for more information about the Sky Force Reloaded enemy rolling stock. Survivors[]Littered throughout the Stage are also humans who can be rescued for score that counts towards the Stage Medal "Rescue All People". When they are in sight, a speech bubble will be seen above their heads. Coming near the Survivor will drop a rope for them to climb. Maintain your Plane's position until the Survivor is pulled up inside your Plane, and a "Human rescued" voice quote signals that and the necessary score will be awarded. The Ambulance Plane has a special ability of rescuing Survivors almost instantly due to a high-tech rope ladder being used to pull them up in a flash. Dispensers[]Dispensers are special platforms found in every Stage which drop a free charge of a Power up. All of them start off as blank and insignificant objects looking like scenery decor. To activate the Dispensers, the three respective Bonus Cards for Energy Shield, Laser and Mega Bomb have to be acquired, which will summon special teams to do the aforementioned operations. Likewise, active Dispensers have flashing lights and glowing icons. Hover your Plane directly over the Dispenser for few seconds to release the free Power up charge from it. |
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Legend of Pick ups[]
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End of Stage[]Most Stages are completed when the final Boss is defeated, otherwise they will end when the Plane reach a point at the end. When that happens, a "Stage Complete" message will play as the Plane flies off toward the top edge of the screen.
Calculation of Scores[]
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100% Completion Synopsis[]
There are several avenues which much be fulfilled to acquire "100% Completion".
Medals[]
By beating a Stage with 70% Enemy kills, 100% Enemy kills, 100% Survivors rescued, and Staying Untouched, the Player will be given Medals. These are not only shiny, but also a requirement to unlock further Stages. There are 256 Medals of in the game, four requirements for each of the four Difficulties for each of the 16 Stages.
Hangar Upgrades[]
Buying every Upgrade for the Plane in the Hangar is not only useful for staying alive and un-aliveing Enemies, but also boosts the ability to complete other avenues of 100% by aiding in overcoming harder Stages and Difficulty levels.
Cards & Planes[]
Both Cards and Plane Parts need to be acquired in a stage by collecting their item, surviving to the end without dying, and watching the reveal of what it is. Collecting every Permanent Card (and every Temporal Card at least once) gives many boosts such as the Overcharge or Lucky Shield mechanics. Plane Parts are a little trickier, but there are 8 Planes that need to be unlocked with five parts each, totaling 40 collectibles. The different Planes have different properties, which are more pronounced on PC compared to Mobile platforms.
Technicians[]
Like Hangar Upgrades, Technicians allow benefits to Player power. There are eight Technicians, each with unique properties that aid in other completion activities. The player can unlock later Technicians by completing objectives and filling the Prestige system.
Objectives[]
Objectives are the second largest (see Medals) and likely most tedious road to 100% is by completing Objectives. These include destroying Enemies and rescuing Survivors, but also other parts of full completion such as Planes and Cards. Objectives reward points that contribute to the Prestige road and allow for the unlock of Technicians, as mentioned above.
Arguably the worst part about Objectives is the fact that it requires competing in a Tournament with Friends. The reason this is not enjoyable is because the randomness of having people play against others while connecting to them in some way is nearly uncontrollable. This is also required to get the eighth and final Technician, because completing all Objectives is required to get that same Technician.
Trivia[]
- The battlefield can be extremely chaotic at certain times. To make it easier on the eyes, the Humans bear a speech bubble above their heads, initially with a smiling face. If you break off the retrieval partway, their speech bubble scrambles into a variety of symbols, as if cursing at you for comedic effect. This does not affect your bonuses in any way.
- Some enemies in the game requires two parts to destroy, the example being the Battle tanks, it requires to destroy the turret along with the chassis itself. Failure to destroy the chassis as it leaves the screen will ruin your chain bonus.
- The only unique object that bears mentions for collision damage are the huge rockets in Stage B2 and a large steel gate in Stage B1. They look seemingly harmless until they launch/open. Yet any attempt to graze pass them will result in instant death of your Plane, be it whether they are on the ground or in launch.