I promised some of the people who bought the game that I would post some tips about how to beat the hard levels with 100% cargo. Hopefully this will help you on your way to beating the game and getting all the Achievements. I’ve been posting in the forum, but this is easier for people to comment and read. This post also accounts for all the latest game balancing tweaks we made. Feel free to ask me questions.

Gathering Storm
This is a pretty challenging transition going from super easy. And all you have are regular gatlings.

In the beginning, I’d run to the front of the ship and take out the 2 jets. But if you don’t take them out, don’t keep chasing and focusing on them. Because you’ll need to brace for the next wave on the left, and another wave on the right (left/right is assuming if you’re facing the front of the ship). Basically, the key to the level is to survive and manage the beginning, as the intervals between waves of enemy planes are short. It’s hard for me to give a play-by-play of exactly when enemies would show up and how exactly to respond to each wave or each enemy, because a lot of how easy or difficult getting through a level depends on timely repairs, especially of engines. The bottom line is – you need to keep shooting and aim relatively well, and you need to take down planes quickly to keep up. Meanwhile, keep a close eye on the health of the cargo bay and don’t let it go to red. For this level, I would primarily stay at the back of the airship, manning the 2 gatlings on either side of the cargo bay. This is so that I can get to the cargo bay and the engines quickly. Also, the planes in this level tend to circle to the back of the airship.

Your priority of repairs should be cargo bay, engines, zeppelin, and rigging. Don’t let your engine slow down or remain damaged for long. Otherwise, you’ll be caught in a perpetual cycle of repairs as enemies accumulate. After a bit of fighting, the spawning of planes would slow. This is a good time to repair things. If you have 1-3 planes left on screen, and you’re wondering if you should repair first, by all means do. A couple of enemy propeller dusters can’t do too much damage to your ship.

After this brief break (15-20 seconds), more planes would appear, but nothing you can’t handle. Dispatch as many as you can. You might need to check on your cargo bay one more time, but at this point, you should be able to cruise to the finish.

After the level, take your reward of 2 cannons.

Snow Raid
Recommending ship config: 4 Gatlings on the sides and 2 cannons front and back.

The beginning is a little sneaky. Two planes would appear, and they would be followed by a big wave shortly after. Don’t spend too much time on these guys. They are to distract you from a bigger wave coming. Brace for the wave. So run to the front left of the ship and stay there for a little bit. Take out as many planes as you can, and once the planes pass you by, run to the back and keep firing. While you’re mauling the planes down, keep an eye on your cargo bay and repair if necessary (when the dial is solidly in yellow and going towards red).

After the initial onslaught, you’ll have time to repair, that is assuming you take down all but 2-3 planes. You only have about 10-15 seconds though, move fast. First repair your cargo, and then your engines. This is probably all you have time for. More planes will come, so get on your gatlings at the back and keep shooting. Your zeppelin and rigging would be sufficiently damaged by now, but you’re almost there. Unless you feel that you’re about to perish, I would hold off repairing the zeppelin until I absolutely need to. In fact, you should get through the level without repairing the zeppelin and the rigging.

Take the 2 super cannons as your reward.

Snow Pursuit
Recommended ship config: 4 Gatlings on the sides and 2 super cannons front and back.

This is one of the harder levels in the game. If you disagree, it could only mean one thing – you’re pretty damn good at this game.

Here, the big key is to position your super cannons correctly – at the front and back gun slots of your ship. It is imperative that you configure your ship like this before the start of the level.

When the level starts, both your engines will be completely out. Dash to fix them as fast as you humanly can before the wave of planes descend.

When the wave arrives, quickly take down some planes with your gatlings. As soon as the planes are out of range (you may likely have 2-3 planes left on screen after some intense fighting), dash to the back top deck and aim your cannon at the 2 enemy zeppelins looming in the distance. Let your cannon rip, and take them both down as fast as you can. This is the key to this level. Take the 2 zeppelins down before they can do much, if any, damage to you.

After that, fix your engine and cargo first, and fix your zeppelin if you need to. Then, casually pick off the rest of the planes for a sweet choice between armor upgrade or 2 super gatlings.

I would take the armor because you have chances to get gatlings later.

The Wastes
Recommended ship config: 4 Gatlings on the sides and 2 super cannons front and back.

You start off having to deal with a wave of 9 propeller planes coming towards you from the front. These planes will make a circle around the back of the airship, and as they circle back towards the front, more planes (3 jets and 2 propellers) would appear. So basically your sky would be filled with planes right off the bat. My best advice is to fight and repair your way through this. Get to your cargo bay before it sustains any significant damage. More planes would emerge – 3 more jets and a few more propellers. Once you repaired the cargo bay, hop back on your gatlings and try to take down more planes. If you keep shooting with good accuracy, you should be left with 2-4 planes on screen pretty quickly. At this point, your cargo bay would need more repairing, and your engine would start to catch fire. Take the time to repair your cargo bay and both engines. If your zeppelin is also catching fire, you’ll have no choice but to repair it as well. I know, it’s a bit nerve wrecking when there are still planes in the sky and your repair points are catching fire…

While you’re repairing, a small squadron of propellers would appear to harass you, but they are not a big threat for the moment, so keep your focus on repairing your ship. By the time you finished repairing all the repair points, there should be about 6-7 planes on the screen. Now you can turn your attention to taking them down. Your distance remaining here should be 7K something.

As you are blasting planes away, a few more would emerge in the same pattern as before (3 jets accompanied by a few propellers). When you clean them out, repair your cargo. And you should be done!

For finishing this level with 100% cargo, you get the choice of 1 or 2 super gatlings. Hmmm… Let me think for you. Take the 2 super gatlings please.

Cyclone
Recommend ship config: 2 super cannons front and back. 2 super gatlings at the back sides, and 2 regular gatlings at the front sides.

When the level starts, you’ll be greeted by 3 propellers from the front and 3 front the back. These planes would be quickly followed by 2 more in front and 2 more behind. Sacrificial lamb for your super gatling? You got it. Rip into them and take them all down in no time. After every last one of them fall from the sky, you shouldn’t even bother to repair. But you might as well just to kill some time before the next wave of 10 propellers appear.

After you take down this wave of 10, you’ll be at a good point to repair. Fix the cargo bay and the engines. You’ll be harassed by 2-4 propellers that would show up, but don’t worry about them. Keep on repairing your both of your engines. Repair quickly, for you’ll need to brace yourself for the onslaught that is the finale of this level.

You should be a shade under 2,500 meter when a swarm of planes fill the sky. But since you had just repaired your ship, you can concentrate on taking the enemy planes down. The only thing you may need to keep an eye on is the cargo bay. Make sure you repair it in a time fashion so that you don’t lose any cargo. You’ve come too far!

For your reward, you have some tasty choices. I would take the armor upgrade, for it is harder to come by in the game.

Dust Storm
Recommend ship config: 2 super cannons front and back. 2 super gatlings at the back sides, and 2 regular gatlings at the front sides.

Dust Storm! My favorite of the game. This is one of the funnest level of the game.

The 2 armor upgrades if you got them would definitely help here. Once again, I would position the gatlings at the back, above the engines, so you can protect your engines and cargo bay easier.

There is a strategy to this level, and it will make the level much more manageable. Forget the engines. Let them get shredded in the beginning. This is because the re-spawn would slow down in both rate and the quantity of planes as the level progresses. So shoot to your heart’s content in the beginning and rip into the swarms of planes with your super gatlings. Stop only to fix your cargo and zeppelin/rigging as needed.

After you shoot down most of the propeller dusters, there would be a longer interval before the next wave of plane comes. That’s when you can take some time to leisurely repair stuff. This coming wave would include an enemy zeppelin, so hop on the cannon and take it down asap. Remember to always take the zeppelin down first. That’s a top priority in battle.

After the wave with the zeppelin is squashed, you’ll have plenty of time to repair stuff. Repair your engines now if you didn’t have time to before. The rest of the level or distance covered should be a breeze.

For the reward, I would actually go with the 2 super gatlings here, and by now, you should have outfitted your ship with all super type weapons.

Eye of the Storm
Recommend ship config: 2 super cannons front and back. Super gatlings on the sides.
Note: If you are going for the Nikola achievement, position your tesla gun on either sides in the front.

In the beginning, you’ll have 3 ace planes coming from the left. Aces are tough to bring down with gatlings, but you should be able to take down one of them on first pass. After that, 9 propeller planes would emerge back left. Now the fighting gets a bit intense. Stay on the back left gatling and take down as many as you can, and then run to fix your cargo. As you are doing this, a few jets would appear, as well as an enemy zeppelin… Oh oh…

No time to waste. Hop on the back super cannon and start ripping into the enemy zeppelin right away. You need to take it down asap. Then, you’ll need to go fix your cargo bay and your engines. As soon as you do that, hop on the gatling gun for a brief moment to take down a few propellers and jets just to lighten the load a bit. But DO NOT linger, for another enemy zeppelin would appear on your right. As soon as it appears, get on the back super cannon again to take it down asap.

At this point, your airship is probably pretty beat up, so get to fixing right away. Repair your cargo, zeppelin, rigging, and then engines. While you’re shuffling between repair points, get on your gatlings to take a few planes down. There will be a lot of planes in the sky still, but you don’t have a choice. Fix and survive. While you’re fixing one of your engines, your cargo bay may be damaged again, so fix it on your way to fixing the other engine. You should be at the 1,500 meter mark right about now.

After you finished fixing the engines, get on the super gatlings and shoot. Do as much as you can to fend off the enemy attack the rest of the way. There is another enemy zeppelin that would appear, but you shouldn’t have to worry about it, and you should be done with the level right when it appears.

Whew, this level is tough, but the reward is sweet. Pick up the multirocket. You’ll enjoy it for sure.

Acid Rain
Recommend ship config: 2 super cannons front and back. Multirocket at the back left, and a super gatling at the back right slot. 2 super gatlings at the front sides.

You’re almost there – almost to Into the Breach to confront your impending fate of doom. At the start of the level, a big wave of enemy propellers would rush in from the front left. As it approaches the ship, get on your multirocket at the back left and blast them. While your multirocket is recharging, you can hop on your back cannon and pick off a couple more planes. Then, another big wave would appear from the left. Hop on your multirocket again and blast