The Earth is under attack by hostile rebel forces and invaders from the stars beyond and you’ve joined the world’s only hope in keeping it safe. IVYGAMES, the creators of Jewel & Gem Blast and Galaxy Sky Shooting, have released an addictive shooter for iOS and Android devices called WinWing.
The game hurls you into the pilot seat of a plane belonging to a group of brave warriors of the skies called WinWing. As a member of this organization, it is your duty to fight for the fate of the Earth and all who inhabit it.
In WinWing, you will be pitted against rebel forces who use stolen alien technology against you, sky pirates who want to profit off of the conflict, and the alien invaders themselves who wish to subjugate all of life on Earth. Three factions against one, one entire planet at stake, who will emerge victorious? The war is brewing and you’re in the middle of it.
WinWing plays similarly to Archero where after collecting a set of experience points, you will level up. The game will then give you a choice of three upgrades to choose from and from there, you will continue on fighting. Much like Archero, this game also has some Bullet Hell elements.
For anyone unfamiliar, a Bullet Hell is a type of game (for Shoot-Em-Ups in particular) where there is an innumerable amount of bullets on the screen at a time and your ship or character has a tiny hurtbox that will allow you to weave through said bullets with ease. Much like a Bullet Hell, however, WinWing is not a walk in the park. The road is long and quite challenging.
Perhaps you’ve had your plane blown to smithereens a few couple of times by those pesky bosses or there is this one group of hostiles that you can’t seem to easily overcome. If you’re one of those out there having trouble fighting off the baddies, then you’ve found the right intel. Grab that pilot helmet, suit up, and fall in, soldier. Read our WinWing guide below and you should be all set for your next mission!
1. Change Your Control Type
This is something that may need getting used to.
Your default controls enable your plane to move wherever your finger is. Where your finger goes on the screen, your plane follows. While this does feel intuitive at first, you will soon notice that this gives you a few different problems along the way.
The most common problem the basic controls give you is that you cannot see any enemies or bullets coming from behind you because your finger is constantly in the way. This will prove very meddlesome especially in the later levels where enemies may pop up at the bottom of the screen or bullets that have flown past you may actually release more bullets as they explode. The only time you notice it will be the moment when it’s too late.
Another inconvenience the basic controls may give you is when you try to hit the pause button. Most of the time, in the heat of battle, especially, you will miss the pause button with your touch. In doing so, your plane will mosey on over to the upper-right corner of the screen. This will put it in a very compromising position and it’ll be a real pain to bring it back down to the bottom of the screen, most evidently when the enemy has already opened fire at you.
Instead, we highly encourage you to try the alternative control style. As opposed to having your plane follow your finger, your plane will only follow your finger’s motions wherever it is on the screen.
This will allow you to see your plane from all angles, making it much easier for you to stay alert and dodge bullets and/or oncoming enemies. It may take some time getting used to, but trust us, it will save you so much frustration and headaches once you actually get the hang of it.
Let’s talk about dodging now!
2. Practice Your Dodging Skills
Dodging is the heart of any shooter out there. Sure, you can score all the combos you want by shooting down enemy planes or ships in quick succession, but can you keep yourself from taking damage or crashing into terrain or traps? Dodging in WinWing is just as important as taking down squadrons of enemy aircraft before you.
As pictured above, your plane will generate a small, glowing circle in its center. This is its hurtbox. This means that any bullets that happen to graze its nose, wings, or tail, will not cause it any damage whatsoever. Instead, having the hurtbox be hit by any bullets will definitely have your plane take damage. The reasoning behind this is actually a principle for most Bullet Hell games.
This principle is what makes Bullet Hells exciting. For a ship to have a tiny hurtbox means to be able to weave through storms upon storms of bullets. Not only does this make the Bullet Hell more bearable, but it also offers a decent challenge to anyone behind the controls.
Pulling off such insane dodge moves will give you that sense of accomplishment as well as feeling like a total pro. Aside from this, you might even be able to fire back at the enemy amidst the bullets. This is possibly the biggest key to your success in this game.
As mentioned earlier, you eventually gain a choice among three upgrades as you level up. Time to learn how to choose wisely.
3. Pick Out A Consistent Upgrade Style
As you play through the many different waves and levels of WinWing, you will encounter a slew of upgrades for your plane. These upgrades only last the run but each of which greatly impact the way you play.
Maybe you’d take a Reflection Shield here, an Attack Up there, and probably an Erosion Laser to boot. But soon you realize that maybe you’ve been a bit too spread out. Maybe you could have replaced one of these with a Crit Boost or a Shocking Bladelight instead. This is where consistency helps in a fight.
Being consistent in your upgrade choices will compliment your playstyle or even change your approach to the completion of a level. For instance, having many defensive choices in your upgrade lineup (e.g. Reflection Shield, Shocking Bladelight, Rotation Guard, any Laser, Freeze Strike, Bullet Time, etc.) will keep you from dying more often but upon reaching the boss, your damage output may suffer. This will allow you to safely exercise your evasive maneuvers, so you’ll be able to trade shots with the boss without much hassle. It will just take longer than usual.
On the other hand, opting for a more offensive string of upgrades (Attack Up, Attack Speed Up, Crit Boost, any Missile, Superior Firepower, Shocking Restoration, etc.) will allow you to plow through the enemy squadron along with the bosses that come with it.
The only downside to a build like this is that this is where your dodging skills will truly be tested. Your plane won’t be able to sustain too much damage or else it will go down in flames but what’s there to dodge when all your enemies have stopped shooting at you because they’re dead?
If you kill a boss without taking damage, you will gain the attention of non-hostile sky pirates who will offer to upgrade your plane. Know that if you dare choose to trade with these pirates, they will ask you to pay with your armor but in exchange for that one powerful upgrade. Make this choice count!
Speaking of upgrades, let’s talk about the duds you fit your plane with and how they can affect your missions.
4. Upgrade Anything And Everything
You’ll begin collecting lots of loot as you play the game. As you fight on, your plane will be more and more fitted with increasingly powerful addons.
The equipment of WinWing can be put in 8 different slots on your plane:
- Main Gun – Your plane’s primary mode of offense.
- Armor – Your plane’s overall health booster.
- 2 Chips – Separate from the 2 Skill Chips, these give passive bonuses to your plane like movement speed or crit chance.
- 2 Wingmen – Drones that fire their own style of weapon alongside your plane. They have their own damage.
- 2 Skill Chips – Chips that allow your plane to start with upgrades the chips come with (e.g. Electric Laser, Anger, etc.)
Having a full loadout at the level you are currently at may increase your chances of winning. However, upgrading any or all of these items will carry you through that one stage you’re stuck at. Small changes make huge differences, after all.
Occasionally, you will get duplicate items. Here’s what you can do to use them instead of have them gather dust in your inventory.
5. Fuse And Remodel Your Equipment
When you have duplicates, always make it a point to fuse them together. This fusion results in a tier upgrade, allowing for the item to perform way better in a fight. Getting these will take great patience and luck but you can make your chances of getting them greater with the use of the Wishing Bottle.
After making your choice, open your loot crates with keys and any chance that you get (except for gems and we’ll talk about that later) since, after using the Wishing Bottle, your chances of finding your chosen equipment is boosted by 300%. Once you have received three copies of the equipment, fuse away.
There is the other choice of remodeling equipment with gems. This is like fusion, but you get to use different items of the same grade to make something entirely new. The gem price varies per rarity and the outcome is random, so only do this if you have gems to spare.
Upon getting the equipment that you want, it is mostly your plane’s main guns and its wingmen that make up most of the difference in how you should fly it.
6. Use Guns Or Wingmen That Suit Your Playstyle
Compared to most shooters created, WinWing allows you to fit your ship with the guns that you like with each gun behaving quite differently from the rest. This opens up multiple playstyle choices for every pilot out there.
One example would be the Boomerang type weapon that allows your plane to fire small, fast-flying projectiles that make their way to the opposite end of the screen and bounce back to the plane. If these projectiles hit the borders of the screen, they rebound and strike at all the enemy planes they hurtle toward. This type of gun offers a more defensive playstyle since the pilot needs not worry about the accuracy of their shots, but dodging the bullets since the projectiles are bound to hit something anyway.
Another example is the Spiral Cannon. This weapon fires a spiraling trio of beams that greatly damage the enemy overtime. It fires in a narrow cone, allowing for some area coverage as it reaches the opposite end of the screen. While its damage output is consistent and rapid, its beam being narrow may require some manual aiming at bosses and most enemies. This weapon is ideal for pilots who prefer to go on the offensive since the beam’s damage increases the longer the enemy takes fire from it.
Wingmen follow a similar principle. You can equip two different types of Wingmen at the same time, but they do not hit as hard as your main gun. The damage that they contribute, however, makes a significant difference in any fight. So, it’s better to have Wingmen than not have any at all.
Much like your main guns, Wingmen have shot types of their own. Some excel at clearing out small groups of enemies, while others focus their fire on the first enemy that they see. The former is good for quickly progressing through a wave, while the latter can deal sustained damage to bosses. In other words, Wingmen give you plenty of room to experiment with your main guns, but your plane’s behavior will remain constant.
Because the plane itself has a set of passive bonuses, the basic Thunder Knight is not recommended to progress through the game. Let’s talk about that.
7. Get New Aircraft As Soon As Possible
As mentioned earlier, the Thunder Knight, albeit a basic plane, does not have any useful passives that could change the tide of a fight. As soon as you get the chance, ditch it for a better plane.
The earliest new plane you can get is the Screeching Hawk. Unlike the Thunder Knight which has no passive bonuses whatsoever, this prop plane shoots stronger missiles than any other plane, so picking missile upgrades during a mission will be to your advantage if you’re in the Screeching Hawk’s cockpit.
Occasionally, the game will give you gems, and thus spending these on a new aircraft is among the better choices you can make here. Picking out a gem-priced aircraft opens up more possibilities since their skills appear to be more specialized. One example of this is the Gold which allows you to earn 20% more coins for every enemy shot down.
As we’ve mentioned in the previous paragraph, the game will give you gems and saving them should be for new aircraft or equipment remodeling, not Loot Crates.
(Fun Fact: The Gold is modeled after the real-life F-22 Raptor.)
8. Open Chests With Keys, Not Gems
Like every game released today, lootboxes are commonplace. While these are often frowned upon as a mechanic that develops a gambling addiction in players, they are unavoidable and will be here to stay for many more games to come. WinWing is no stranger to such a feature.
Lootboxes or chests which are available in the shop reward players with all sorts of goodies. But opening these may range from watching ads, using keys, or using gems. We strongly discourage you from using gems to open these chests since the rewards within are purely by chance. Instead, use keys to open these chests when you receive them. You’ll save gems for the more important things we talked about.
One last thing we forgot to mention for you to spend your gems on are Co-Pilots whose skills may prove quite valuable to you in a fight.
9. Use Your Co-Pilot’s Skill Sparingly
Co-Pilots possess powerful abilities that can turn a wave around. Some shooters have similar features and if you’ve played your fair share of these, Co-Pilots have smartbombs.
They can come in many forms and functions. Some can clear out enemies and bullets on the screen, fire a salvo of missiles, give you a force field, etc. The first Co-Pilot you start with is Larry who is the quintessential smartbomb of this shooter.
Larry allows your plane to drop a bomb that destroys all enemies and bullets on-screen as well as greatly damage the boss. Such a powerful skill, however, comes with a very long cooldown.
At most, you might only be able to do this once or twice in a mission so the timing of this skill’s usage is tantamount. It’s preferred that you perform a skill like this when you’re in a bind and don’t wish to die so early in and it’s completely unwise to do this a few waves into the level.
Death is inescapable in WinWing and it’s actually failure that will pave your road to success. If you can’t move forward, go back one level and grind.
10. Repeat Older Levels Or Play Special Missions If You Are Stuck
Can’t kill that one boss? Weapons not outputting enough damage? Plane too soft? Wingmen too insignificant? There is a way you can fix this, and that’s by going back.
That’s right, play through old levels for money, materials, and weapons. Amassing these is the key to improving your aircraft or making your weapons stronger. Conversely, special missions may also test your skill and help you become a better pilot whilst showering you in prizes.
This is one easy and special way to make yourself stronger and ready for the next mission. If repeating the same mission you’re stuck at isn’t working, then there is no shame in going back a level and grinding. After all, it’s the small changes that count.
We hope we filled you in on your mission details. WinWing and the Earth need you, so get in that plane and fly the unfriendly skies. Good luck out there!
If there is anything we might have forgotten or missed, send it over in the comment section below!