Progression and Rankings

Guide reviewed for the August 2026 ranked-combat build.

Guest play and account play are both complete paths

You can start, finish, and restart runs without creating an account. Control bindings, sound preference, tutorial state, local scores, and other local settings remain in that browser or app storage. Clearing site data, using private browsing, or changing devices can remove those local records.

Account login is optional. It adds server-synced achievements, Career Points, permanent Career upgrades, and account-linked score records. Google login is used only when selected. The game receives an authenticated account identifier and the profile fields supplied through that login flow; it does not receive the Google password.

Run research changes choices, not account power

The Progression Lab contains separate preparation layers. Run research is a six-point loadout that changes the weights used when upgrade cards are drafted. It helps steer what may appear during that run, but it does not directly purchase a permanent stat increase. Use it to make a planned build more consistent: charge tags for a Burst route, projectile or fire-rate tags for sustained ATK, or defense/control tags for an orbit route. The Tactical Module choice works differently: select either Pulse Bomb or Black Hole in PROG, and that single module remains locked for the next sortie.

Because research influences weighted pools, it cannot guarantee a specific card. A flexible plan should include a primary direction and one fallback. For example, a charge plan can use orbit control as its defensive fallback without spending every point across unrelated themes.

Achievements turn completed activity into Career Points

Account achievements track completed runs, kills, boss kills, destroyed meteors, survival time, best score, and best wave. Progress is submitted after game over. Each defined achievement reward can be granted only once per account. Repeating the same completed run does not create duplicate Career Points because the server processes the account and run identifier together.

If the connection fails at game over, an account-scoped browser queue keeps the unsent run report and retries during a later synchronization. The local display may show the last successful snapshot while the request is pending; the server remains the final source of truth.

Career upgrades apply at clean run boundaries

Career Points can purchase server-validated ranks for starting lives, starting Tactical Module charges, starting Burst, starting ATK, shield, movement speed, and role-specific gauge calibration. Rapid nodes improve ATK recovery; Mobility improves Boost capacity and recovery; Guardian improves RFX capacity and recovery; Energy improves general soft capacity and recovery; Ordnance improves Burst recovery. These small bonuses accumulate across every node in the route, rebuilding deliberately lower fresh-account gauges over time. The game takes a snapshot of owned bonuses—including the locked Tactical Module—when a new run begins. Buying an upgrade or changing preparation while a run is already active does not rewrite that run's lives, gauges, speed, or Tactical Module.

This boundary protects both clarity and ranking integrity: two players know the rules of a run cannot change because an asynchronous account response arrived mid-fight. Start a new run after a successful purchase to use the new rank.

Choosing an early Career purchase

• Starting life: broadest forgiveness, useful while learning boss patterns.
• Starting Tactical charge: an additional use of the locked module, valuable when deaths come from overlapping pressure.
• Starting Burst or ATK: earlier offensive consistency for a preferred build route.
• Shield: protects against one mistake without changing damage timing.
• Movement speed: powerful for players who already use small corrections; excessive movement can make oversteering worse.

Combat Rank is a live gauge, not a final score conversion

The centered Combat Rank panel tracks a separate 0–100 gauge throughout the sortie. Combat Grade is earned only when both the gauge and run milestones are met: C needs 50 gauge and Wave 4; B needs 78, Wave 9, and 2 fast clears; A needs 94, Wave 15, 1 boss, 4 mastery actions, and 4 fast clears; S needs 100, Wave 25, 3 bosses, 12 mastery actions, and 8 fast clears. D covers every run that has not completed the C gate. Mastery actions combine Just Evades, Just Counters, and Pattern Breaks. Earning score adds gauge immediately. After 2.4 seconds without any score increase, the gauge begins to drain continuously. Its base drain already rises with the gauge value, and the current grade then multiplies that pressure by D x1.0, C x1.2, B x1.45, A x1.8, or S x2.35. Crossing a qualified boundary in either direction upgrades or demotes the active grade and its drain multiplier at once.

Every wave also judges real clear time, so Time Slip cannot make the clock easier. The target starts at 28 seconds, rises gradually with wave number, and adds time for elite and boss waves. Clearing at or under 65% of the target grants +9 gauge; 85% grants +7; target time grants +5; up to 120% grants +2; up to 140% is neutral; up to 170% loses 4; and a longer clear loses 8. The Mission Report preserves the final gauge, peak grade, total wave-pace adjustment, and decay instead of recalculating a generous grade after the run.

Maintaining a grade provides immediate run-only convenience power. C gives +3% damage, +3% fire rate, and +2% movement; B gives +7%, +6%, and +4%; A gives +12%, +10%, and +7%; S gives +20%, +15%, and +10%. A demotion immediately switches to the lower set of bonuses.

Combat Rank also improves high-efficiency card odds. Each wave draft snapshots the grade when that reward opens and adds grade-specific Rare, Unique, and Legend chances to only that set of cards. Each Signature card makes its own one-tier promotion roll. The rank probability is recalculated and reset for every card reward: it never stacks into the following reward and is not a persistent pity counter.

Every grade queues one supply package for the next non-tutorial sortie. D grants BST +10 and ATK +10; C grants BST +20 and ATK +20; B adds one charge for the locked Tactical Module with BST/ATK +25; A adds one shield and one Tactical charge with BST/ATK +35; S adds one life, one shield, and one Tactical charge with BST/ATK +50. A package is consumed when that sortie starts, does not stack, and does not create Career Points or retroactively alter the run that earned it. Because this automatic package is part of the normal core loop, consuming it does not by itself make the next run Assisted; the package is still recorded in that run's detail for comparison.

What leaderboard records describe

The current board is season adaptive-s2 using ranking model combat-rank-v2. Combat Grade (D–S) describes the live gauge and milestone result; Board # is the separate online placement. Ranking Points are rounded from score + (wave × 10,000) + (final Combat Rank gauge × 1,000) + (grade tier × 50,000), where D=0, C=1, B=2, A=3, and S=4. Entries are ordered by RP, then wave, grade tier, final gauge, and score, all descending; remaining ties use shorter positive survival time and then the earlier record date. Difficulty modes have separate boards.

Online submission requires a signed-in account and a finalized version-4 run snapshot. The snapshot includes Combat Rank performance, Career tree version and active bonuses, consumed prior-rank supply, adaptive relief, monetization assistance, duration, and build details. Accepting a rewarded Continue immediately replaces the public result with an Assisted revision; the next Game Over replaces that same run ID again with the complete extended snapshot rather than creating a second run.

A run is marked Assisted when it uses a rewarded Continue or bonus, a rewarded ad/card unlock, or adaptive relief. Assisted and incomplete/legacy snapshots are excluded from online ranked placement but preserved under Me so the run is not lost. Guests also keep personal device history and can view boards, but they must sign in before a new run can rank online. Career bonuses, consumed prior-rank supplies, and each difficulty's built-in rules are snapshotted for context; modes are never mixed.

A high RP is more useful when its run detail explains how it happened. Review the grade, upgrade order, assistance badges, and survival time alongside the number. The service authenticates ownership and checks the current ruleset, revision, and plausible field ranges, but these checks are not an authoritative anti-cheat guarantee.

Regional rankings use coarse location only after permission

Location permission is optional and is requested for Nearby or regional ranking features, not for basic play. When used, exact latitude and longitude are converted into a country code and an approximate area cell. Exact coordinates are not stored as the leaderboard field. The Global view exposes an explicit Disable Location control after consent; disabling it clears coarse location from the account's ranking rows and records a durable account preference so a stale tab or device cannot silently restore it. Denying or revoking permission leaves personal and global categories available.

Account, leaderboard, regional, advertising, provider, and retention details are documented in the Privacy Policy. Public operator and support information is provided separately on the Business Information page. Direct purchases are not enabled.

Account synchronization troubleshooting

1. Confirm that the LOGIN panel shows the account you intend to use.
2. If the status says a run is queued, stay signed into that account and retry sync after the network returns.
3. Do not switch accounts while an old run is pending unless you intend to leave it associated with the original account. Client queues are account-scoped.
4. If the display looks old, reopen the account panel to request a fresh server state. Avoid repeatedly purchasing the same rank while a response is pending.
5. For a persistent mismatch, send the approximate time, visible status message, platform, and browser version through the support routes. Never send a password or login code.

Fair play protects meaningful rankings

Automated play, modified score submissions, client tampering, exploit abuse, impersonating display names, and attempts to access another account are prohibited. Suspicious records may be withheld, corrected, or removed. This is not meant to punish experimentation in ordinary play; it keeps public rankings comparable.

Report a reproducible scoring exploit before using it in a public run. A useful report includes the sequence of actions, expected result, actual result, and whether it repeats after a clean restart. Screenshots are welcome, but remove account email, tokens, or other private data before posting publicly.

Progression without pressure

Career bonuses are long-term goals, not a requirement for learning the game. The tutorial, first boss, item systems, and core build decisions are available to guests. A good first objective is simply to reach wave ten with one emergency tool unused. Account progression can then reward repeated play without replacing the combat skills described in the Combat and Build Manual.