Galaxiga Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Dominate Galactic Wars

An intergalactic infestation has broken out. Spanning various galaxies, the L’oc bugs have begun to spread and devour all forms of life in any planet they touch. Their swarms are endless but an alliance of different races from across the stars have decided to go to war with these gargantuan monstrosities.

Hopping into different starships, these brave souls swear to take down every last L’oc bug they come across and crush their massive swarms before the universe itself could be eaten inside out. This is the story of Galaxiga.

OneSoft, the publishers of 1945: Air Force, Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter, and Jackal Squad, have released yet another space shooter where players take to the stars and annihilate armies of the L’oc bugs in a war that will leave the weak turned to space dust.

Galaxiga is an action-packed pixel shoot-’em-up (or shmup for short) filled with tons of enemies to fight, bad bosses, and challenging levels to conquer. The road to prestige and power is a long one, and only the strong and skilled stay on. Think you could handle the swarms of the L’oc?

If you’ve just completed cadet training and hopped into the cockpit of your first ship, strap yourself in and set your autopilot to cruise mode. Give our Galaxiga guide below a read and we’ll be sure to help you survive through the bug attacks!

1. Weave Through Gunfire

Dodging, moving through seas of enemy fire, this is the crux of any good shmup!

Sure, it may take skill and practice, but perhaps you may have a better grasp of doing it if we explained where your ship is vulnerable and what bits of it are completely unaffected by enemy fire. You might notice that every ship is a little bit bigger than the average L’oc bug. Maybe you’d think that they’re clumsy and not as agile as they look, but that’s quite far from the truth. What you need to look out for is their cockpit.

The cockpit and its immediate vicinity, as pictured above, is the only part of the ship that takes enemy fire. This means that any shots fired by the enemy will only be able to crash your ship if they hit the cockpit. As much as possible, you should stay far, far away from any bullets, but there are some sources of enemy fire that are difficult to avoid like beams for example.

Despite being fired in a straight line, some beams are difficult to dodge especially when they are fired in a sweeping motion. Case in point, the boss called Winter Storm has a four-point laser which it will rotate counter-clockwise. The beams will sweep the screen slow enough for you to move out of their way, but carelessness or a slow reaction time may get you vaporized.

One thing you may notice when fighting any enemy is that they give off a little shimmer before firing at you. Pay very close attention to this as you might be able to decide quickly where your ship needs to be. After the enemy fires their rounds and you’ve successfully dodged their attacks, get in there and go in for the kill!

Easily the best way to have a screen devoid of bullets, is to annihilate the bugs completely. Sure, you can simply just fire at them but what if we told you that there are better ways of doing it?

2. Destroy Your Enemies With Finesse

Leeroy Jenkins! If that’s a reference that tells you what to not do, let us explain. Going all out on the enemy with no strategy could put your ship in the floating graveyards of space forever. You’ll need to take these bugs out with skill and precision.

There are a few ways you can do this:

• Opt for narrow-fire ships like the Fury of Ares. Ships like these fire concentrated streams of ammunition onto the L’oc waves. Because they’re concentrated, they have a higher likelihood of destroying enemies much quicker compared to ships that have spread-shot guns. This is particularly important in the later levels where the L’oc bugs have thicker carapaces.

• Rush your shots. Some ships have slightly slower fire rates, like the Sirius. Shot rushing means to “push” more shots out in quick succession. To give you an idea of how this works, imagine yourself flying a ship and keeping it stationary. If you fly it forward, slightly or otherwise, you’ll make its firing pattern bunch up together and cause slightly more damage. Try this by flying your ship back and forth repeatedly, just don’t get hit!

• Use your skills or drives when fighting elite enemies or bosses. Don’t use these to take out the small fry, save it up for the bigger fish. Trust us when we say that you will need that substantial damage boost if you’re trying to take the boss down. Patience is a virtue, after all.

Remember that your first priority is to dodge. Getting greedy will only get you killed in the long run. If skill fails, then it’s time to give your ships a little tune-up.

3. Upgrade Your Ships, Equipment, And Cores

While Galaxiga is a shooter by itself, it also has some interesting RPG mechanics as well. These come in the form of upgrading your ship and its equipment.

The ships by themselves behave differently from one another. Some possess focused fire while others shoot their bullets out in wide, scattering spreads. Both are advantageous in their own right, but as we’ve mentioned earlier, focus fire carries you far. If you can’t seem to afford new ships, concentrating on upgrading your existing ones is important and apart from using gold, you can use the cards of the ship you’re trying to upgrade. These cards can be found in special stages in the campaign.

Supplementing your ships with extra firepower are the drones. Each drone, much like the ships themselves, have their own gun. How you pair your ships and drones together is entirely up to you, but it’s better to get drones that have firing types that complement that of your ship.

Suppose that you are using the Space Wraith ship that uses a scattering barrage of bullets. Giving it drones that fire homing missiles or concentrated shots, would make it even more powerful.

There are also the stones. These mysterious objects support your ship with powers bordering the arcane. The Deneb Stone, for instance, releases an astral swan that flies through the screen, erasing all bullets it touches. It has a long charge time, however, so you may have to stay alive until then.

Lastly, there is the technology upgrade which grants your squad a slew of passive upgrades. Each of these require you to use a Megaforce Core, however, but upgrading your squad’s technology will definitely bring you far. The upgrades are at random, but make your ships much more powerful. Take note that every upgrade will require more gold and more Cores than the last.

If you can’t stay alive or have problems doing so, try making a reactive squad.

4. Form A Reactive Squad

The fleet of ships that you own? That’s called a squad. What’s a reactive squad, then?

It’s tempting to put your strongest ships first and use them to breeze through the level, but once you’re left with your weakest ones, it’s game over. You’ll find yourself struggling, especially when it comes to damage. Instead of doing this, try lining up your squad in a reactive order.

The weakest ships go first. If you have any drones or stones with you, divide them among your stronger ships and save them for later. The strongest ship you have will be put in the last slot. This way, you’ll be sure to take tougher enemies down after you’ve crashed your weaker ships. There is another way you can make your squad reactive and that’s especially if you’ve crashed all your ships and chose to revive.

After you revive, you have one last shot at trying to beat the level. When you do come back, you will be piloting the first ship in your squad. If your first ship is your weakest ship, it could be dangerous. To avoid this, arrange your ships in this order:

1. Squad 1 – Strongest
2. Squad 2 – Weak
3. Squad 3 – Strong
4. Squad 4 – Weak

OR

1. Squad 1 – Strongest
2. Squad 2 – Weak
3. Squad 3 – Weak
4. Squad 4 – Strong

Being on your last ship will be tough, but consider this a contingency plan in case you crash them all. Of course, the placement of your ships is entirely up to your choosing, but it never hurts to be prepared. Though, this may also be looked at in a more positive manner: piloting weaker ships is a means for you to test or improve your skill. The lack of firepower and equipment is sure to test your endurance.

Imagine that you’ve tried everything: you’ve exhausted all your resources to bring your ships to tip-top shape. You also tried to wing it by just flying your ship well and yet you still can’t beat the stage. If the stage you’re stuck in is still tough, try using boosters.

5. Use Boosters For Tough Stages

Before you start a stage, you will notice a few icons below that can be selected. These are boosters.

Boosters are a great way to increase your chances of getting through a level. They are powerful items that are usually picked up during a stage. These items are as follows:

• Overdrive – Boosts your ship’s power beyond maximum for a short period of time.
• Power 3 – Start with three upgrade levels.
• Shield – Activate an emergency shield at the press of a button.
• Damage Up – Increase your ship’s damage.

While these powerful items seem impressive, do know that they only last for the stage. If you’ve stocked up on, let’s say, 5 Shields and use one of them for a level, they’ll be down to 4 the next time you see them. They’re a limited commodity that you can purchase via gold or earn by stage rewards, so it’s always good to use these sparingly.

As we’ve mentioned in item number 2, Destroy Your Enemies with Finesse, it’s best to save up the overdrive or shield for the bosses, especially if they are particularly difficult and you can’t seem to beat them. The key here is to destroy the smaller L’oc bugs using your main weapons and saving your secret weapons for that significant damage boost. If you use it up too soon, you might find yourself in for a difficult and long boss battle.

Do you still feel that your ship might be a bit weak? How about repeating stages?

6. Repeat Stages On Higher Difficulties For Extra Prizes

There’s nothing like a good grind in a game that can help you get what you need. Sure it’s hard work, but the rewards are pretty great.

Grinding in any game with RPG elements can be essential since these often reward the player with tons of material to work with. They can range from weapon upgrades, character upgrades, money, and sometimes premium currency. In Galaxiga, this mechanic is very present and it does indeed give the player a ship-load (get it?) of stuff to make their squads stronger.

Repeating levels on increased difficulty will give the player extra cards for their ships and equipment as well as extra gold and gems, the game’s premium currency. This all depends on the stage, of course, as some levels specifically give ship cards over other prizes. As the difficulty increases, so does the amount of rewards given, but this means that you’ll have to fight the same enemies that have become slightly more powerful. There is an advantage to this.

Every stage operates on a series of patterns. If you are trying to beat this one level solely on the level’s sequences, then it’s time to start memorizing. Be observant as to where the enemy appears: the sides of the screen, the top, whether or not they fly in using zig-zag patterns, if they have an elite bug with them, etc.

Just memorizing particular portions of the level should be enough to get you far. You’ll be able to dodge attacks in advance, especially if you know what’s coming next. This is going to be very useful for boss levels if you wish to repeat them.

As you get through a level and complete all its stars, you should at least have a couple of gems at your disposal. Here’s how you should spend them.

7. Spend Gems On Important Items Only

In almost every mobile game today, there is a form of premium currency. These may come in the form of diamonds, gold bars, or precious stones and gems. Galaxiga uses gems.

Gems are a commodity hard to come by. Earning gems could be done through in-app purchases (if you’d like to support the developers of this game) or other means like beating stages. Only gems get rewarded to the most skilled pilots of the galaxies, so this item on this list ties in with the last one. Beat stages, earn gems. But with only so many gems to earn and a lot of ways to spend them, what exactly is the best way to spend these?

Pictured above, you should at least save these for ship upgrades. The more stars your ship gains, the more expensive they become with gems. Save these up and spend them well on your ships. The same goes for a ship’s equipment like drones and stones. Much like the ship, their gem prices also increase as their upgrade levels rise.

Trying to upgrade your ship’s stars but don’t have enough cards? Try the gem store. This store can be found by tapping the shopping cart icon at the bottom of the main menu and then tapping Supply Shop in the shop menu. Here, a stock of daily cards for ships and drones, and boosters will be available. If you happen to have a ship with its cards on sale, by all means buy them out. Slow but steady! The boosters are also available if you need to restock.

In the end of it, your gems are your own. These are all merely suggestions from us to you, but your decisions on how you’d like to spend your gems are completely on you.

Did you know that some boosters will also help with the different game modes Galaxiga has?

8. Try Other Game Modes

While some may think that Galaxiga is just a long-winded campaign full of baddies everywhere and bosses every five levels, that’s far from the truth.

It’s true that the game tempers its players through its challenging and rigorous campaign. Oftentimes, you are introduced to new enemy types every other level and it also helps you keep you on your toes when you’re out there blasting the bugs. But what Galaxiga also has is a few other modes that players may try to help strengthen their foresight and skill when flying any of their ships. Upon trying any of these, you can consider them a way to sharpen your reaction time since these modes can be more unforgiving than the campaign.

Here are the modes that are available as of this article:

Multiplayer

What better way to play this game than play alongside another pilot?

While Galaxiga’s dev team still has plenty of other modes to offer and release, the only multiplayer mode available as of this writing is a PvP mode called Chase Mode. Here, two pilots are pitted against each other to fight off several waves of enemies. Each enemy destroyed grants points and the pilot who finishes the enemy onslaught with at least one ship remaining or has the higher score is the winner.

This mode is particularly difficult since some of the enemies and hazards that show up are advanced and could catch players off guard if they haven’t seen them before. Some of the L’oc bugs that appear are old ones that have a new mechanic. Take the four-way laser bug for example: this bug may fire its beams in either a plus (+) pattern or an X pattern. Instead of simply firing the beams and keeping steady, this bug will try to rotate and sweep the beams at you. Look out!

Adventure

If the campaign wasn’t hard enough for you, try out Adventure Mode.

In Adventure Mode, you’ll encounter more powerful L’oc bugs and old bosses with increased stats. The goal of this mode is to go as far as you can, beating wave after wave of bugs while trying to stay alive. Naturally, the farther you go, the better your rewards. If you’re looking for the ultimate test of skill, look no further than Adventure Mode.

Hunter

Think you can handle waves of enemies and bosses?

In Hunter Mode, the pilot faces alternating waves of minion L’oc bugs and bosses. After every minion wave, a boss arrives to test the pilot. You will have to fight each and every boss from the planets you’ve liberated so far but don’t let this mode fool you by thinking that each boss you meet will be the same as when you last defeated them.

The bosses in Hunter Mode are more aggressive and have more health. You may need to have upgraded ships and equipment before tackling them since they might surprise you with new attacks and resilient coats of armor. The hardiest of bosses are truly a test of endurance for the pilot since taking any of these out is indeed a monumental task.

Just like Adventure Mode, however, you will gain better rewards per boss defeated. Defeat all the bosses and you’re qualified to face the next batch of bosses that are even tougher than the last. Good luck!

Titan Boss

A large L’oc bug several times the size of regular ones is looming from across the stars. It will take an entire fleet of pilots to destroy it. But its immense power easily thwarts the effort of unprepared pilots. Do you think you have what it takes to destroy this massive monstrosity?

These modes are more ways that you can improve your skill as a pilot. Try them out and use what you win to strengthen your squads. If you seem to be lacking some of these, try completing quests or achievements.

9. Complete Quests, Claim Achievements

What is your motivation for playing a game? Is it to reach a high score? To be number 1? To be the very best that no one ever was? If you can’t think of a solid motivation, don’t worry; most mobile games like Galaxiga has you covered.

Just like most mobile games, Galaxiga has a quest system. These quests are a list of short tasks that are made available to the player every day. Each quest item offers the player prizes which they can claim upon completion. The prizes vary and are usually an assortment of gold or gems. Doing this repeatedly will definitely give you that boost if you need to upgrade your squads.

Aside from quests, there are also achievements. These are long-term goals that take a while to finish but reward you with lots of gold and gems. This will most likely be your primary source of gems since many of the achievements reward them. The road will be long but definitely rewarding. Now get winning!

For the last item in this guide, let’s address the elephant in the room.

10. Watch Ads For Gold, Materials, And More

“Are you a bad enough dude to watch 80 ads to unlock this elite ship?”

While it seems like watching ads is tedious and can be quite annoying to do, it actually should help you out as you play the game. Watching ads can grant you the following benefits:

• Gold reward increase after a stage
• New ships
• New drones
• The Deneb Stone
• Provision Boxes in the Free Gift menu
• An extra try in a stage

In other words, ads are actually rather helpful than intrusive. If you wanna get ahead, watching ads really is one of the best ways to earn all these cool prizes. Of course, if you would like to remove ads altogether, the game offers a subscription plan.

Galaxiga is a shooter that’s both simple yet challenging. Weaving through the L’oc swarm’s barrage of projectiles and killing them with well-timed skills and overdrives will guarantee you a better chance of surviving each level. Upgrade each and every one of your ships and form them as a reactive squad rather than a squad with the strongest ship to the weakest. If you can’t beat a level, try using boosters.

To gain more materials and gold during the campaign, repeat levels on higher difficulties. While the game is quite generous with gems, do spend them on important things like ship upgrades. Think the campaign mode is a bit too long? Try out the other modes for a breather.

Not only are they a breath of fresh air, but they also help you improve your piloting skills. To gain more gold and gems, try completing every quest or achievement. Lastly, remember that ads are your friends; give them a watch sometime!

That sums up our guide to Galaxiga! If you’ve got your very own strategies on exterminating the L’oc bugs, leave them in our comment section below!