Porchlight › How to play › Twin Sky Scramble
How to play Twin Sky Scramble
A real-time shooter for two players. Each player flies in their own sky, against the same waves of enemy ships. Blowing enemy ships up in chains sends fireballs into the other player's sky.
The aim
Outlast the other player. You have five hearts and lose one each time something hits you. Lose all five and you're out of the round. The first player to win enough rounds wins the match.
Setting up
Both players choose a ship, then press Ready. If the 15 seconds run out, you fly the ship you were looking at. Ships are kept for the whole match.
Every round, both players face the same waves in the same order.
Flying and shooting
| Keys | What they do |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys or W A S D | Move. Hold Shift to move at half speed. |
| Space, Z or J | Tap to shoot. Hold to charge, and let go to fire a charge shot. |
| X or K | Hold for rapid fire. |
| C or L | Set off a bomb. |
On a touch screen there is a joystick under your left thumb, and Fire, Rapid and Bomb buttons under your right. A small push on the joystick moves at half speed. During a round the game fills the screen, upright or on its side; the menu button beside the other player's field leaves that view for the chat, the sound control and Resign, and Back to the game returns to it.
Your ship is hit only when an enemy ship, a fireball or a boss reaches the dot at its center. After a hit, nothing can hit you again for about a second.
Pick the music under the other player's field: A, B, C or Off. Your browser remembers it, and everyone hears their own pick. It starts from the top with each round. The site's sound control beside the game sets the volume of the music and the sound effects together.
Chains
An enemy ship that is shot down blows up, and its blast takes any others near it. Those blow up in turn. All the enemy ships brought down this way make one chain.
- Small enemy ships go down in one shot, medium ones in two, and large ones in three.
- A blast is worth two shots. It brings down a small or medium enemy ship, and a large one that has already been hit once.
- An enemy ship you shoot down next to a blast that is still burning joins that blast's chain.
Which one you shoot first decides how far the chain runs, so it often pays to hold fire and pick your target.
Fireballs
A chain of three or more enemy ships sends fireballs to the other player.
| Enemy ships in the chain | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 or more |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fireballs sent | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
Fireballs come in three levels. A higher level is faster and aimed straight at the ship.
- A marker at the top of your sky shows where each fireball will come in, a little under a second before it does.
- Shots bring down a level 1 fireball in two hits and a level 2 fireball in four. A level 3 fireball can't be shot down.
- A fireball caught in a blast goes back to the other player, one level stronger. A level 3 fireball goes back at level 3.
Charge shots and the gauge
Hold the fire button for two thirds of a second and let go to fire a charge shot. It passes through everything.
- Each enemy ship it meets blows up as a chain of its own. Enemy ships off to the side are still caught by those blasts as usual.
- Each fireball it meets goes back to the other player, one level stronger.
The gauge along the bottom of your sky fills by one for every enemy ship brought down by ordinary shots and their chains. Enemy ships brought down by a charge shot don't fill it. Keep holding the fire button to charge further, as far as the gauge allows:
| Level | Gauge needed | Hold for | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | None | ⅔ second | A charge shot. |
| 2 | 40 (uses 40) | 1⅓ seconds | A charge shot, and your ship's special attack is sent to the other player. |
| 3 | 100 (uses all of it) | 2 seconds | A charge shot, and your ship's boss is sent to the other player. |
Bosses
A boss arrives in your sky when the other player fires a level 3 charge, or brings down three glowing enemy ships in one chain. Every ninth wave is a row of five enemy ships, three of them glowing.
A boss stays for 11 seconds and then leaves. It can be shot down first: it takes 40 hits, a charge shot counts as 12, and a blast beside it counts as 3. Shooting a boss down adds 10 to your gauge. Its fireballs can be sent back like any others.
Bombs
You have two bombs each round. A bomb clears every enemy ship and fireball from your sky and keeps you safe for a second and a half. It takes 15 off a boss. Nothing a bomb clears counts as a chain, fills the gauge, or is sent back. Fireballs that have been announced but haven't come in yet still arrive.
The ships
| Ship | Speed | Shot | Charge shot | Level 2 sends | Boss |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shining Star | Medium | Twin shots | One, straight | Three level 2 fireballs | Blue |
| Devil Tiger | Fastest | One thin, fast stream | One, narrow and fast | Two level 3 fireballs | Red |
| Fighting Falcon | Slowest | A spread of three, fired slowly | One, wide and slow | Six level 1 fireballs | Blue |
| Gray Viper | Slow | Twin shots worth two hits each, fired slowly | One | One fireball of each level | Green |
| Killer Bee | Fast | Twin shots, set wide apart | A pair | Two level 2 and two level 1 fireballs | Yellow |
| Lightning Eagle | Fast | Twin shots that spread outward | A fan of three | One level 2 and four level 1 fireballs | Green |
| Red Comet | Medium | One big shot worth two hits | One, wide | One level 3 and three level 1 fireballs | Red |
The four bosses:
- Blue sweeps from side to side, firing spreads of three at your ship.
- Red stays near the middle and fires quick bursts straight at your ship.
- Green drifts across, laying rows of five fireballs with gaps to slip through.
- Yellow lines up over your ship, dives at it, and climbs back.
Long rounds
Waves come faster as a round goes on, and fireballs fly faster. From 50 seconds in, extra fireballs start arriving that nobody sent, more and more often. From 90 seconds in, they are level 3.
Winning
The first player to lose all five hearts loses the round. If both go out at the same instant, the round is played again and counts for nobody. Hearts, bombs and the gauge start afresh each round.
The first player to win one round, two rounds or three rounds wins the match, depending on its length.
Leaving a match gives it up.
If your connection drops
Your sky keeps moving while you are away, and your ship stays where it was. When you come back, you carry on from where your ship is now. If your connection is gone for a minute, you give up the match.
Table options
- Match length: one round, best of 3 (the default), or best of 5.
- Computer player: easy (the default), normal, or hard.
Ranked games are best of 3.