Nova
Shoot em up · 300 coins to play · free in your browser
A vertical shooter that fires for you. Your ship auto-fires continuously, which moves the entire skill of the game into movement: dodging, positioning to catch power-ups, and deciding when to be somewhere dangerous because that is where the drops are.
Is this your next game?
For dodging patterns while the ship fires automatically. It rewards controlled positioning more than large, frantic sweeps.
Choose a cabinet in the arcade →How to play
- Drag anywhere and the ship follows your finger; arrow keys work too.
- Your ship auto-fires — just dodge and steer.
- Destroy enemy waves; every fifth wave is a boss.
Mouse and keyboard
- Arrow keys — fly in all four directions, one nudge per simulation step so a fast display cannot aim faster than a slow one.
Controls on a touchscreen
- Drag anywhere on the playfield and the ship follows your finger. The ship sits above your fingertip so your own hand never covers what you are trying to dodge.
Scoring
- Enemies pay when destroyed; the tougher formations later in a wave pay more.
Combos and multipliers
No multiplier. Your fire rate and spread are what scale, through the RAPID and WIDE drops, so a run compounds by collecting rather than by chaining.
How a run ends
Losing your last of three lives.
Worth knowing
- Every fifth wave is a boss.
- Three power-ups drop from wrecks: RAPID doubles your fire rate, WIDE turns your shot into a three-way spread, and SHIELD absorbs one hit.
- You have to fly into a power-up to collect it, which means the drops pull you toward where the shooting is.
Your first run
- Keep some horizontal escape space on both sides. Move through a gap as it opens rather than waiting until bullets reach your ship.
- Watch the bullet closest to your route before crossing for a power-up. A missed pickup is cheaper than a lost life.
A mistake to avoid
Parking at an edge until the next pattern pins you there. Re-centre when the field is clear so you can dodge either way.
Worked example
A row-formation enemy pays 100 points; a V-dive enemy pays 150 and a side-entry enemy 200. RAPID and WIDE help you reach those targets, but do not multiply each enemy’s point value.
Examples describe in-game points or resources. Wallet rewards are calculated separately after submission.
Try next
Entry, rewards and fair play
Sign in to play. A run costs 300 coins. You need the full fee: with a lower balance, the run does not start and no coins are charged. Claim an available daily bonus before trying again. Your score can earn coins back and is validated by the server before ranking. How the economy and verification work →
Nova is in the daily rotation: 3 of the 16 games in the rotation pool carry a ranked board and a share of the community prize pool each day, drawn from the calendar date. This pool includes legacy BlockDrop and differs from the public catalog. On its day this cabinet wears a gold star.
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