Operation STEEL
Box art
| Developer: | Undermog Games aka. BB |
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| Music: | Dolphin |
| Release date: | January 2022 |
Contents
Operation STEEL
Operation STEEL is a roguelike horizontal shoot-em-up with a focus on a good shmup feel combined with randomised levels and powerups.
The game also features a soundtrack by Dolphin and a hand-painted art-style.
Gameplay Overview
Levels have a set number of randomly generated waves of enemies, one or more random midbosses, and a random boss (from a pool for each level.)
Mid and level bosses drop a selection of three items, of which you can choose one to take. Items dropped include weapons, usable items, passive items, ship upgrades (weapon power/speed/armour), repairs, and coin purses if there is nothing desirable available.
Before each level you can choose between two planets to visit, and after each level you will visit a shop to upgrade/buy weapons and items.
Controls
Controls listed are for Xbox controllers. Keyboard and other controller types are supported, with rebinding available. 8-way movement is standard, but analog is supported too.
- X: Fire weapon
- X (Release): Charge weapon & attract coins
- Y: Use item
- B: Use bomb
- A: Focus / Slow movement
- RB: Switch weapon
- LB: Switch item
Characters / Ships / Styles
Cid Cobra: The default ship, and most well-rounded.
- Speed: ★★☆
- Armour: ★★☆ (starts with 3)
- Weapon: Blaster (Spread-shot)
Pignon: First unlockable ship. Unlock by playing the game. Has more armour than the default ship, but moves slower and has a larger hitbox.
- Speed: ★☆☆
- Armour: ★★★ (starts with 5)
- Weapon: Charger (Fires straight ahead, can charge up for high damage)
Weapons
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Arrow | Homing shot. | |
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Blade | Very short-range, high damage. | |
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Blaster | Spread-shot. Default weapon for the Cid Cobra ship. | |
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Bore | High-powered laser. Increased damage at close proximity. | |
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Charger | Straight shot which increases damage while not firing. Default weapon for the Pignon ship. | |
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Devastator | Rocket launcher with high fire-rate. Rockets damage in a small area of effect. | |
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Flamer | Fires multiple rotating flame jets. Short range with high damage. | |
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Gatling | Fast fire-rate and swivels to match your vertical movement direction. | |
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Helix | Fires in a helix pattern. | |
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Nova | Fires large slow moving projectiles that deals damage to nearby enemies. | |
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Plasma | A wibbly-wobbly pink laser that locks onto enemies hit. | |
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Poison | Straight shot that deals damage over time to any enemy hit. | |
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Shotgun | A short-range, high-damage spread shot. | |
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Threeway | Fires ahead, above and below your ship. The angle of spread is related to your horizontal movement. |
Usable Items
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Dash | Teleport a short distance in any direction. | |
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Flash | A short-range bullet-cancelling effect. | |
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Railgun | Fires a beam that deals large amount of damage and destroys bullets it touches. | |
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Slicer | Fire a buzzsaw boomerang which damages enemies and clears enemy bullets. | |
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Squadron | Call in help from a few friends to provide additional fire and cover. | |
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Stopwatch | Slows time temporarily. | |
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Swarm | Fires a salvo of homing rockets. |
Passive Items
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Backshot | Fires behind your ship in a wide spread. | |
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Bombbot | Gives a bomb and enables autobomb when you have 1 armor remaining. | |
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Corgi | A furry friend to provide additional firepower. | |
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Homing | Periodically fire homing missile(s). | |
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Magnet | Draws coins to your ship automatically, and increases coin drops. | |
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Mine | Periodically fires slow moving mines forwards. | |
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Option | Follows your ship and fires a copy of your ship's main weapon. | |
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Orb | Two or more orbs rotate around your ship and fire lasers. Laser trajectory is tied to your horizontal movement. | |
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Pods | Two options which fire Blaster bullets and rotate toward the opposite direction of your movement. | |
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Repairbot | Repairs one armor at the end of each level. | |
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Rocket | Periodically fires a high-damage rocket straight ahead. | |
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Saw | Two or more buzzsaws orbit your ship, blocking enemy fire or damaging enemies if they come into contact. | |
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Shield | Provides a regenerating shield which can negate one point of damage. | |
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Tesla | An electrified rod orbits your ship and zaps nearby bullets and enemies. | |
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Turbo | Increases ship speed and max speed by two points. |
Upgrades
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Weapon up | Upgrades your currently equipped weapon by one level (to a maximum of 5). | |
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Armour up | Increases your ship's armour by one point. | |
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Speed up | Increases your ship's speed by one point (to a maximum of 5). | |
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Repair | Restores one point of lost armour. | |
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Bomb | Adds one additional bomb charge. |
Level Layout
Starting the game you can choose from two levels (A and B), and after each level you can pick the next from two more choices.
The levels are structured in a branching pattern as shown on the right.
After completing a run or game over, you can view your chosen route and your personal best distance.
Rank
Rank increases when you score points, and decreases when taking damage or using a bomb. There are five levels of rank, from very easy to very difficult. Rank begins at level 2/5.
Scoring
Kill enemies and collect coins dropped for score. Enemies are spawned in waves, and each wave survived contributes +5% to a score multiplier. Each wave completely cleared contributes a further 5%.
Multiplier is reduced by 50% if damage is taken, and caps at +100%. Score per enemy is increased based on the current rank level.
Story
Fleets of robotic ships are invading planets and causing destruction all over the galaxy. It is up to you to search for the source of the electronic legion and shut it down once and for all.
References & Contributors
- This page was assembled by BB.
