Space Typing Game

How to play

Asteroids, enemy fighters and motherships fly at your starfighter's cockpit from every side, each with a word on it. Type the word to fire your lasers. If you still look down at your hands, start with the typing lessons.

1. Lock on. Type the first letter of a word. The nearest enemy whose word starts with that letter becomes your target and the crosshair moves to it.
2. Fire. Every correct letter fires a laser. The last letter shoots the enemy down.
3. Mistakes. A wrong letter doesn't fire and resets your combo.
4. Switch targets. Press Esc or Backspace to let go. The word you left starts over.
5. Protect your shields. You have five shield cells. An enemy that reaches the cockpit, or a missile you don't dodge, costs one. The glass cracks at three, and at one the warning lights spin and you hear your heartbeat. Lose all five and the run ends.

Enemies and missiles

• Big asteroids carry 5–7 letter words. Shoot one and it splits into two or three fragments with short words, each starting with a different letter.
• Fighters zigzag toward you with short words.
• Shield cruisers carry two long words: the first pops the shield bubble, the second destroys the hull.
• Missiles. When an enemy fires, a DODGE box with a timer bar appears in the middle of the screen. Type dodge before the bar runs out and your ship rolls aside for bonus points. While the box is up your keys go to dodge, and your target stays locked. You get about 5 seconds on Easy, 3.5 on Normal and 2.7 on Hard.

Sectors and the mothership

There is no last sector. Each one has a theme (asteroid field, asteroid storm, fighter squadron or shield cruisers) and brings more enemies, a little faster.

Every fifth sector a mothership arrives with a red alarm and its own music. Destroy its three weak points in order: SHIELD (a short sentence, typed one word at a time with the spaces skipped for you), CORE, then REACTOR. Between parts it fires two missiles, and it keeps firing if you take too long. The final hit triggers a huge explosion and a slow-motion kill cam.

Combos, close calls and help

• Combo hits. Enemies shot down without a mistake build your combo. At 10 you fire two lasers per letter, at 25 three, and at 50 a thick beam, with points ×2, ×3 and ×4. A mistake or a shield hit resets it.
• Close call. Shoot an enemy right in front of the cockpit and time slows for a moment. That kill scores double.
• Supply drones cross the screen from sector 2. missile destroys every enemy in view (and a mothership's current weak point), shield restores one cell, and warp slows everything for four seconds.
• Rescue signal. Sometimes an ally sends an SOS. Type its message and the pilot flies as your wingman for the rest of that sector and the next, taking one enemy at a time. Enemies it has claimed are marked WINGMAN and can't be targeted.

Score

Each letter is worth 10 points plus a bonus for distance, times your combo multiplier. A dodge is worth 150 times the multiplier, and a mothership adds 1,000 points for every five sectors.

Difficulty and mission

If you type steadily at the built-for speed, a run lasts about three to five minutes and ends around sector 8 on Easy, 7 on Normal and 6 on Hard.

Daily Sortie sends the same enemies and words to everyone on the same date, and you can put your score on today's leaderboard for that difficulty. Endless makes a new random sky every run. Your best score and sector are saved on this device.

Share your run

When a run ends you get a 9:16 highlight video of the last seconds of play (or your latest mothership kill) and a story card with your sector, WPM, score, ships down and motherships destroyed. On a phone, Share opens the share sheet. Save downloads the file. Copy challenge link makes a link to the same daily sortie with your score to beat. The video is recorded in your browser and never uploaded.

Tips

• Shoot the closest enemy first. Asteroid fragments start close, so finish them quickly.
• Keep your combo clean. The beam and the ×4 multiplier are worth more than a few rushed words.

FAQ

Is the Space Typing Game free?

Yes. It runs in your browser with no download and no sign-up.

Does it work on a phone?

Yes. Tap the game to open your phone's keyboard. The view shrinks to fit above the keyboard so you can still see the enemies and their words. A physical keyboard is faster.