Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Save the Universe

Shoot Em’ Ups (or Shmups for short) have been a long-time genre associated with video games. The mobile gaming market is no stranger to them as titles like Sky Champ, Sky Force Reloaded, or Shootero have been around to entertain thousands of shmup fans all across the globe. One such game riding the wave of blasting baddies across the skies (or in space) is Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter.

Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter features a colorful fleet of ships for you to pilot and an even more colorful fleet of alien forces ready to ruin your missions. Unlike most shmups available today, you do not collect new weapons, but you transform your ships mid-fight.

This is a core mechanic of the game. It is your duty to keep the galaxy safe from the alien invaders by blowing holes through their ranks and formations, but sometimes skill alone won’t save you!

In this Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter guide, we will show you how to win your battles as well as survive this grand-scale galactic war. If you wish to improve your skill as a pilot, read our guide below!

1. Spend Your Gold And Crystals Efficiently

Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter will throw you several different options on where you might want to spend your gold. Some of these would be upgrading your ships, learning new talents ala Archero, buying new ships, and a few others. Depending on you, you might think that buying any of these would be a good idea.

Sure, some of them will help, but let us tell you now that getting new talents is a gamble. You might get something completely useless (e.g. drone upgrades when you don’t have drones) or something that doesn’t impact your performance in the long run (e.g. event item drops).

Spending your hard-earned gold on new ships is also not that great of an idea since you don’t exactly start with the new ship you buy, you just have a greater chance of having it pop up as a drop.

Crystals are just as important as gold. Gaining crystals is easy even if you aren’t sending the developers some love. Completing achievements and participating in PvP will net you a few crystals here and there and thus, saving these for when you really need them will definitely benefit you greatly.

Instead of spending your resources on better ships or more gold through crystals, focus on upgrading your first three ships and save your crystals for extra lives. With enough upgrades, these three basic ships, while lacking any of the fancy guns the later ships have, will definitely carry you far. The next item in this guide explains why.

2. Understand And Upgrade Your Ships

Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter heavily relies on the transforming mechanic. Every time you collect the icon of a different ship, your current ship changes into that very ship that dropped. But while transforming ships can aid in different situations, it’s best that you stick to a favorite and focus your upgrades on that one ship.

But as the game goes, the ship transformations are dropped by chance, so buying the transformation before a mission starts (at a very low 500 gold for the first three starters) will greatly benefit you if your chosen ship is your favorite. Naturally, rarer ships are more expensive but the chances of you getting such ships is slim. This is why we will focus on the first three beginner ships.

Let us briefly talk about them and their abilities:

Pulse Blast – This green ship fires a cone of energy at the enemy fleets. You always start with this one and compared to its two counterparts, it is the most balanced. The cone consists of several shots fanning out into a wide spread. Having enemies dive into the energy cone will guarantee them certain death since the shots funnel into a narrow, compressed group.

In other words, they receive damage from the shots all at once. The Pulse Blast is great for both focused fire and crowd-clearing, but not as good at either compared to the other two ships. Upgrade this one plenty if you want to conserve gold; you won’t have to buy a ship of your choice if this one is stronger than the others. Additionally, keeping the Pulse Blast could give you a headstart in most PvP matches since everyone starts with it.

Hurricane Hawk – A bright red ship that fires a steady stream of searing energy bolts. Its shots fire rapidly in waves of red-hot blasts that easily melt enemy spacecraft.

However, unlike the Pulse Blast and the Wisdom Glory, the Hurricane Hawk does poorly when it needs to annihilate multiple enemies at a time. Instead, its strength lies in columnar destruction. It can make short work of columns in the enemy fleet while still flaunting plenty of style.

Wisdom Glory – Despite looking like a chunky, blue hunk of metal, the Wisdom Glory has a nasty surprise for any enemy wave it encounters. It fires a barrage of shots in a wide fan pattern, hitting several enemy ships at once. This ship excels at crowd control and can cause continuous damage to bosses while you focus on dodging attacks.

Unfortunately, it fails where the Hurricane Hawk succeeds: rapid, focused damage. Either way, the Wisdom Glory offers good damage output if you have a defensive playstyle since its wide arc of bullets allows the player to hit the enemy even if they are on the other side of the screen or while they are busy dodging.

Simply upgrading these three ships will not only save you gold, but by the time you have succeeded in making all of them strong, you’ll be able to make your rarer ships more powerful because you’ll have gained more gold than you started with.

To put this into perspective, investing in these three will be super cheap since you only have them to worry about. If you might have bought the Thunder Blade early (which costs 20k gold), you will have to upgrade that one, too, but the 20k has already blown a hole in your finances.

Speaking of things being blown up, let’s not have your ship be one of them!

3. Dodge!

This is the quintessential method of survival in any shmup! Dodging is what keeps any shooter intense and fun, especially if they’re bullet hells like Touhou or pseudo-bullet hells like Gemini Strike. Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter, on the other hand, plays similarly to these as the game gives you a neat little way to dodge any form of oncoming enemy fire.

Your ships, though wide and much bigger than the ships on the hostile alien fleet (save for the bosses, of course), are actually not vulnerable in all areas. Your ships only truly blow up if they are hit in the absolute center. This tiny area should allow you to weave through enemy fire like a leaf in the wind.

If the bullets pass your wings or your ship’s nose, your ship will not be affected. But if you take a direct hit from anything that hits you dead center, well, let’s just say you’ll have a great view of the whole galaxy around you and the enemy fleet mocking you for failing to dodge their shots.

Sometimes you have to watch your back, too. When a group of enemy ships come up from behind you, move your ship forward and observe their patterns. Collision is one of the many pilot killers in this game.

Arguably, you can also practice dodging during a wave of asteroids. Certain asteroids split into smaller, indestructible chunks. These chunks are a little bit hard to see (unless they are teal-colored), but as long as you observe the movement of the asteroids, you should be able to slink your way through them without a hitch.

Bullets on the other hand are a little bit more complex. While the basic enemy bullets are bright yellow rockets that travel in a straight line, they may occasionally fire red laser bolts upon death to try and take you out in a flash. These bolts either fly straight or they follow your ship; the latter is more dangerous so be on the lookout for these at all times. The red laser bolts will only be fired coming from enemies that have small, red, pulsating auras on them.

Another dangerous bullet to look out for are the red bombs; hefty rockets that disperse a shockwave after exploding. In higher difficulties, this shockwave lingers. Touching them will mean your end.

Instead of making wide, drastic movements to avoid enemy fire, try to squeeze in between bullets to maximize your damage output. In a way, you’re dodging enemy fire whilst firing back at them. This tactic will allow you to gradually destroy them.

As powerups rain, taking them should be a piece of cake. But what if you’re caught in a storm of bullets and the next upgrade for your gun started to make its way down one side of the screen?

4. Do Not Get Greedy

Greed is the killer of many a pilot, especially in this game. Sometimes a powerup could come around and appear on the other side of the screen while you are being barraged by enemy fire. Don’t get it.

Your priority should be the annihilation of the enemy fleet. As much as possible, you should exercise patience and prudence. What we mean is that if you see something you can collect and it’s in a place too dangerous, ignore it. It should come around again another time and perhaps, you’ll be luckier.

Staying alive will always be more important than risking your ship to get that one item since death isn’t exactly a slap on the wrist in this game. You could spend gold, watch an ad, or even use crystals to revive (we will discuss this later).

Much like what we touched upon earlier, your gold usage can actually contribute to your survival and success through every level. Here’s how.

5. Use Boosters Whenever Able

Before you start your flight, you will be shown a screen of various items. These are boosters. Buying any of them will slightly increase your chance at success. For instance, the first two boosters increase the likelihood of you picking up ship upgrades as well as super modes. Beware that using these (if you don’t have any) will cost you gold.

Below that section is an icon of the Pulse Blast. Upon tapping it, you are given the chance to start with a ship of your choice (see item #2). The Wisdom Glory and the Hurricane Hawk are equally worth 500 gold and the other ships are slightly more expensive.

If you excel in any of these three or have a later ship that has been upgraded, don’t be afraid to buy these. Piloting a ship you are comfortable with is what matters the most in a mission and it gives you an edge in completing it.

Speaking of an edge, here’s a brief technique that could help you dispatch the enemy slightly more quickly.

6. Rush Your Shots

Your shots travel in a straight path and there is a way you can group them together for extra damage. For some ships, this technique will work. Because we suggested using the first three ships, this technique will definitely come in handy.

As you let your ship fire at the enemy fleet, lightly jerk it forward and bring your ship back to its original position in one quick motion. This will cause your shots to group and converge, causing a minute burst of damage to any enemies hit. Doing this could easily allow you to eat through the enemy fleet and take out any of their dangerous ships right away.

This technique is especially useful if your ship has not yet picked up any upgrades. Think of it as your ship trying to fire two or three shots at once. If they all hit the enemy, that enemy will be so much closer to destruction since the shots behind that burst will fill it with holes right after.

Pulling this off is quite rewarding since a whittled-down enemy fleet will allow you to breathe. Eventually, you’ll also realize that this technique helps in the higher difficulties.

7. Raise The Difficulty For Better Rewards

After completing a couple of missions in the campaign, you will be able to raise the difficulties of previous stages. Here, the enemies will be much more difficult to defeat. But what good will that do if your rewards remain the same?

Don’t worry! After completing harder missions, your reward yield will increase drastically. This means more gold, upgrade stones, and more goodies to be had. The increase in gold certainly makes for more upgrades for your ships.

Be warned that in higher difficulties, some of the behaviors of the enemy’s bullets as well as the enemies themselves will change drastically. For instance, some of them will have lingering shockwaves, they fly faster at you, etc. The enemy might even be more aggressive as they will put their ships to hyperdrive and attempt to ram your ship at full speed.

Completing missions should be a no-brainer: get to the last wave, beat it, and you win. But if you can’t win, there are still some ways that could help you.

8. Ads Will Help You Win

Ads are a love or hate feature in many mobile games today — some players love them for the freebies they give while others absolutely despise them for breaking their immersion or interrupting their game time. For Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter, ads come with a slew of benefits for every player, so consider what we have to say here.

After completing any mission, you are given the choice to double your gold by watching an ad. This is an opportunity that shouldn’t be passed since gold and upgrades are the heart of your success in this game.

Another part of Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter that features ads is a reward page where after viewing a number of ads, you receive a reward. Some of the rewards available are crystals. What are you waiting for? Get watching!

The best benefit ads can give you in this game is an extra life after you’ve crashed your ship. The game will occasionally allow you to revive yourself using a reasonable sum of gold or by watching an ad. Right after that, it’s using crystals.

Death and dying is a normal part of this game. Just because you can’t beat a certain level doesn’t mean you should give up. That’s why you should…

9. Never Be Afraid To Start Over

You failed to dodge that one bullet and you’re only at the first wave! Don’t spend your gold or waste your time watching an ad; start over!

The reason behind this is that dying so early into the mission can be quite common among players of Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter. To circumvent frustration and financial loss, only consider pressing forward if you are halfway through or far into the mission. To be exact, if you die anywhere before Wave 5, don’t bother spending your gold or watching that ad. Instead, save it for when you are beyond that.

To give another example as to why this is important, you are only given two lives per mission. As we’ve mentioned in the previous item, your first life can be bought with gold and by watching an ad, and your second life can be bought with a crystal.

If you die in Wave 3 and revive, then die in Wave 4, you might die again and fail the mission entirely. You’ll have spent that crystal for nothing. That’s why starting over is important.

If you feel that the campaign is too hard for you, you could always take a break from it by visiting the PvP section of the game (if you aren’t going to put your phone down yet).

10. Try PvP Once In A While

A shmup with PvP? Oh yeah!

The way PvP works in Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter is essentially that you and an opponent (or opponents) go head to head in a match of survival and quick thinking. You will be pitted against each other and the person to outlast their opponent(s) is the winner.

Between each wave, three random power-ups will appear before the player and taking any of them could result in various things. Some of the vanilla upgrades are still there but others will allow you to drop traps into an opponent’s game in an attempt to take them out. Adding to this are different ships that you have not yet unlocked and many of these are quite powerful.

PvP in Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter requires quick decision-making where the idle pilots fall first. It’s intense, it’s brutal, it’s not for everyone. But if you’re after even more crystals and if you’re out to prove to the world that you’re the greatest pilot the galaxy has ever seen, then this mode is for you.

Galaxy Attack: Alien Shooter is a reasonably difficult shooter out there to challenge both new players and veterans alike. If you feel like you’re up to test your skills, the game is worth your time. We certainly hope that this guide has prepared you or even propelled you forward in your quest to make the galaxy a safer place.

Got something to tell us? Do you have more tips or tricks to add to this list? Drop them in the comment section below!