How to Play Space Destroyers 3D
Space Destroyers 3D is a full-3D rebuild of Space Destroyers. You fly the Vibe 1, a ceramic-and-titanium strike fighter, from colony to colony through twenty sectors of the Neon-Drift: a dark asteroid belt lit by a distant star and the nebula behind it. The camera rides behind the ship, so the belt is a real space to fly through: rocks pass over and under you, drift, tumble and throw shadows. Press V (or the rear-view button) to look behind you at anything chasing you or at the black hole you just dropped.
Each sector asks for a number of Vibe-Cores: three in the first sector, rising slowly to seven by the last. Only a few asteroids hold one, most of them medium and large rocks your lasers can break, and the game does not point you to them. A cored rock shows violet veins that you can make out once you are within about 190 m, but not from far across the belt, and it bleeds violet sparks when you shoot it. Crack it open and fly through the core. Every core lights a chevron on the colony gate; with the last one the gate energizes, a rippling event horizon forms, and flying into it warps you home for a 5,000-point sector bonus and a repaired hull.
Everything else you crack open drops matter: silver, gold and rare diamonds. Matter is score, and it is also the currency of the ship's AI Printer, which refines it into Vibe Matter and prints upgrades onto your hull while you keep flying.
Rules and Scoring
- Silver 10 points, gold 50, diamond 250, Vibe-Core 1,000.
- Sector cleared: +5,000. Boss destroyed: +10,000 × the boss cycle (the second Hivebarge in sector 20 is worth 20,000).
- One ship, one life. The hull has three plates. Enemy fire, a boss attack, grazing a rock, being rammed or burning in a planet's atmosphere costs a plate; the colony restores them all when you dock. In flight the AI Printer can lay a new plate (a Repair Plate, 50 Vibe Matter), and Armor Plating (120) adds a fourth. Losing the last plate ends the run.
- Planets have gravity. Near a planet the ship is pulled down and the HUD calls PULL UP. Inside the atmosphere the hull heats, faster when you dive, and at full heat a plate burns away. Climb out and it cools.
- Giant asteroids are fatal to touch, and so is the event horizon of a black hole. A running shield protects you from both.
- Giant asteroids shrug off lasers and missiles. A faintly violet giant carries a core and a faintly gold giant carries a cache of three to seven pieces of matter. Only a Black Hole can crush one. Cores are never only in giants: every sector can be finished with lasers alone.
- Your score carries across all twenty sectors. It is submitted to the leaderboard with the sector you reached when your ship is destroyed or when you finish the run. Your personal best is shown on the title and pause screens.
The Inventory and AI Printer
Open the inventory with P or the INVENTORY button; it lights up when you can afford something new. Its Refinery turns silver into 1 Vibe Matter, gold into 5 and diamonds into 10. The Printer spends it, and every upgrade is a physical part printed onto the Vibe 1: point at one and the camera shows you where it will go, then a small printer drone builds it in place, first as a glowing blueprint and then as solid metal behind a hot print front. The Triple Gun (50) adds rotary blasters to both wingtips, Target Lock (60) is a chin sensor that locks the best Raider within 30° of your nose, Afterburners (20) add augmentor rings to the engines for ten seconds of boost, the Shield Generator (100) mounts two projector domes for ten seconds of invulnerability a minute, a Repair Plate (50) lays one new hull plate over the damage when you have lost one, Armor Plating (120) wraps ablative saddles over both engines for a fourth hull plate and repairs the whole hull when it is fitted, Missiles (25, then 10 per ten) ride on under-wing rails, Black Holes (50 for three) drop from a ventral dispenser, the Treasure Magnet (80) is a tractor coil under the nose, the Radar Array (75) extends your scanner across the sector and picks up Vibe-Cores within 350 m, and the Wingman Drone (90) docks on your spine and launches when Raiders close in. Printing pauses while the inventory is open.
Controls
- Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD steer, Space fires, Shift boosts, X brakes, Z fires a missile, Q drops a black hole, C raises the shield, V toggles the rear view, P opens the inventory, R shows the star map, N mutes and Esc pauses.
- Mouse: move the cursor over the view and the ship turns toward it. Hold the left button to fire; the right button launches a missile. Click the scanner for the star map.
- Touch: drag anywhere on the left half of the screen to steer with a floating stick; hold FIRE, BOOST and BRAKE on the right (brake to turn tightly around nearby rocks); tap the missile, shield and black-hole buttons once they are printed, and tap the scanner for the star map. The fullscreen button gives you the whole screen.
Arena Boss Battles
Every fifth sector, a Void-Raider guardian warps in the moment you take the last core and slams a metal iris shut across the gate. A combat zone forms around it, and it will chase you down if you try to leave. The first guardian tells you where its weak point is; the others leave that to you. Every attack is telegraphed with light and sound first, and every attack leaves an opening. When the guardian dies, the iris spirals open and the gate comes alive again.
- Hivebarge (sectors 5 and 20): a carrier the size of a city block, hull lit by hundreds of windows. Its armour barely feels your guns; watch what happens when its flank hangars open.
- Lanceform (sector 10): a black interceptor that circles you and strafes. When it stops and its lance starts to strobe, a translucent magenta fan shows where its beam will sweep.
- Aegis Monolith (sector 15): an obsidian fortress behind a hexagonal deflector shield, guarded by four tracking turrets. The shield does not stay up forever.
Strategy Tips
- Hunt up close. The violet veins cannot be seen from far off; they start to show at about 190 m and are clear within about 120 m. Medium and large rocks are the likeliest to hold one. Sweep slowly through a cluster, and put a few shots into rocks you are unsure of: a cored rock sparks violet.
- Print Afterburners first. At 20 Vibe Matter they are the cheapest upgrade, and speed is what gets you out of a boss attack and home before the Raiders close in.
- Target Lock makes Raiders easy to hit. Keep the lock inside the 30° cone: the trail of green boxes bends toward the target and shows you which way to turn.
- Save a Black Hole for the giants. A giant holds a core half the time. Drop the bomb, then boost away: the well pulls you in too. It also drags in the ordinary rocks within about 175 m (a little farther on lower graphics settings, where the belt is thinner), the nearest fastest, and releases their matter when it collapses, so a giant in a thick cluster is the richest drop. Glance back with the rear view to watch it collapse.
- Mind the red arcs. A red arc at the screen edge means fire is coming from that side, including from behind you.
What Makes Space Destroyers 3D Different
Most browser space shooters are flat: a ship at the bottom of the screen and waves coming down. This one keeps the original's rules, scoring and bosses and rebuilds everything else in real-time 3D with physically based materials: panelled ceramic and titanium hulls, planets with oceans that catch the sun and city lights on their night side, an event horizon that ripples like liquid, and a black hole that bends the light around it. Your upgrades are printed onto the ship in front of you, and the three bosses are fought in open space, where a beam can be dodged by leaving its plane.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find Vibe-Cores in Space Destroyers 3D?
Look closely. Only a few asteroids in each sector hold a core, most of them medium and large rocks your lasers can break, and a cored rock shows faint violet veins that start to show at about 190 m and are clear within about 120 m, but cannot be seen from far away. Within about 140 m, a violet marker picks it out. Shooting a rock is another test: a cored rock bleeds violet sparks. The Radar Array upgrade detects cores out to 350 m on the scanner. Break the rock open and fly through the core to collect it.
Why can't I destroy the giant asteroids?
Giant asteroids are immune to lasers and missiles, exactly as in the original Space Destroyers. Only a Black Hole can crush one. Print Black Holes in the inventory, drop one near a giant with Q or the black-hole button, and move away while it pulls. The well also drags in the ordinary rocks within about 175 m. When it collapses it releases what the giant held, a Vibe-Core if it glowed faintly violet or three to seven pieces of matter if it glowed gold, plus the matter of every rock it swallowed. Giants are a bonus: every sector has enough cores in ordinary rocks to finish it with lasers.
How does the AI Printer work?
The Refinery converts matter into Vibe Matter: 1 per silver, 5 per gold and 10 per diamond. The Printer spends Vibe Matter on upgrades that are printed onto your ship in real time while you keep flying, by a small printer drone that builds each part from a glowing blueprint: Triple Gun 50, Target Lock 60, Afterburners 20, Shield Generator 100, Repair Plate 50 (one new hull plate when you have lost one), Armor Plating 120 (a fourth hull plate, and a full repair when it is fitted), Missiles 25 (then 10 per ten more), Black Holes 50 for three, Treasure Magnet 80, Radar Array 75 and Wingman Drone 90. Upgrades last for the whole run.
What do Target Lock and the Wingman Drone do?
Target Lock locks onto the best Raider or exposed boss weak point within 30 degrees of your nose, draws a green lock box with a trail of reticles that shows you which way to turn, and aims your guns at it. The Wingman Drone docks on your spine and launches automatically when Raiders come within about 400 m. It flies off your wing and shoots at the nearest Raider for up to 45 seconds or until it takes a single hit, and then the printer rebuilds it on the dock over 40 seconds at no cost.
How do the boss battles work?
Sectors 5, 10, 15 and 20 each end with a guardian that warps in when you collect the last core and closes an iris over the colony gate until it dies. The first guardian, the Hivebarge, tells you its weak point; the Lanceform and the Aegis Monolith leave you to work theirs out from how they move and what they light up. Each boss telegraphs every attack and leaves a window where it takes 50% more damage, and a boss kill is worth 10,000 points times its cycle.
What happens if I fly into a planet?
You will not hit a wall. Within reach of a planet its gravity pulls you down and the HUD warns GRAVITY WELL; inside the atmosphere it calls PULL UP, the hull glows with re-entry plasma and heats up, faster when you dive. At full heat one hull plate burns away. In the thickest air the flight computer eases the nose up for you, so climb out and the hull cools.
How is this different from the original Space Destroyers?
The rules, scoring, economy and bosses are the same, but the game is now flown from a chase camera in a real 3D asteroid belt instead of a top-down view. Because fire can now come from outside your view, the Vibe 1 has three hull plates (four with Armor Plating) instead of dying to a single shot, and there is a rear view. Giant asteroids and black holes are still instantly fatal, and it is still one ship and one life per run. The original 2D game stays at /games/spacedestroyers with its own leaderboard.
Can I play Space Destroyers 3D on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Drag anywhere on the left half of the screen to steer with a floating stick, and hold the large FIRE, BOOST and BRAKE buttons on the right; braking tightens your turns for lining up on nearby rocks. Missile, shield and black-hole buttons appear once you print them, the scanner sits where your right thumb can tap it for the star map, and aim assist is stronger on touch screens. The game adjusts its graphics quality to the device. A browser with WebGL is required.
