Astrobatics/Gameplay

Main menu
The game has 7 options to choose from, New Game opens up the level selection menu, if there is no progress yet then only Mission 1 will be selectable, Options opens up the menu for volume adjustment, keyboard or mouse control, weapon auto selection, and key readjustment, Hall of Fame opens up the local leaderboards, Help opens up the Help section of the game comprising of 5 pages, this will also show the pictures of all power-ups so the player knows what the power-ups will look like in-game, showing various information to the player about the interface, and power-ups, the About button shows the game version and people involved with the game, Registration minimizes the game and asks the player for some information such as their name and e-mail address which will be used for submitting their scores in the Worldwide Leaderboards as well as game updates, this will be greyed out when the player has successfully registered, and Exit closes the game.

Dashboard
The Dashboard can be found on the top section of the screen which shows various information about your ship while playing the game, the 5 icons on the left section represent the extra weapons, if they are greyed out it means don't have them yet, however when they are lit up with numbers besides them then that means you can use these extra weapons until the number goes to 0, the number represents the lives you have and you always start with 5, the green bar represents your HP and it will change in color to yellow and red when you have lesser HP, the blue bar represents your cannon charge and it will recharge when you stop firing for a while, upon firing again when the blue bar is fully charged your ship will release a "super-shot", and then the numbers beside the blue bar is your score, and on top of your score is the mission name.

Scoring
The game gives out additional score every time you finish a mission based on your lives, primary weapon firepower (maximum is 500 additional score), and secondary weapons remaining, while the formula for secondary weapons is unclear, each Life is worth 100 score points, and the Normal and Rocket Cannon turrets are worth 50 score points each for a total of 200, the rest of the 300 points comes from the firepower strength of your primary cannon and rear cannon as well as Spread-fire and Advanced Spread-fire, which is both likely to also have 50 score points each.

If your goal is to get as much score as possible, one thing you should do is to avoid using your secondary weapons a lot, and if you can, you can avoid using the Support Airstrike and Shield as these secondary weapons are worth a lot of points, or at least just avoid using the Support Airstrike, you can also stock up on lives and ensure that you won't lose your turrets as these will all contribute to your additional score bonus.