Wrist thrusters are the heart of BLASTEMOIDS. Thrust always fires out of the palm, so point a hand where you want the exhaust to go and you accelerate the other way. Hands back = fly forward. Hands down = rise.

Glowing orbs drop from wrecks — fly through one to collect it. Cyan restores shields, green repairs the hull, violet reloads a pulse charge, and the amber, pink and lime orbs grant overdrive, scatter shot and time dilation. Every fourth hostile wave brings a Dreadnought: strip its four turrets, then put everything into the exposed core.

The off-hand fires a grapple tether (Settings can switch it from hold to toggle). Latch onto something big and it reels you in — keep your sideways speed and you will swing around it. Latch onto something small and it comes to you instead: hold it, then release to sling it at whatever is behind it. Orange rocks detonate when destroyed and will happily take your shields with them; green ore rocks are tougher but always drop an orb. Enemy fire is stopped by asteroids, so a big rock is cover.

The lance. Holding the trigger fires exactly as it always did — but every bolt also winds the chamber. Four shots in and the sight dot turns violet: let go and the stored charge leaves as one heavy bolt that punches clean through several targets in a line. It runs hot, so it is a punctuation mark on a burst, not a replacement for one.

Violet crystal geodes shrug off ordinary fire — crack them with a lance, a slung rock or a pulse bomb and they burst open with a guaranteed power-up. Lancers are needle-thin interceptors that paint a warning line along their firing solution before they snipe: when you see the line, move off it. Wardens carry a projector ring and blanket every ship near them in a shield that eats most of your damage — kill the Warden first and the whole wing softens.

Clear a wing and a salvage cache ejects ahead of you: three canisters, each labelled with an upgrade. Shoot the one you want — the other two burn. Upgrades stack and last the rest of the run. Ion squalls roll through periodically: your blaster runs hot and the wrist panel breaks up, but everything is worth more while it lasts, and the lance vents into the charged field for far less heat than normal fire.