Aeronivra guide: controls, aces, combos and the ten operations

How to play

Pick an unlocked operation in the hangar and select Initiate Flight. A briefing names the target and the ace.
Bring down the number of hostiles shown under the operation name: 5 in Operation 01, rising to 16 in Operation 10.
The ace then joins the fight, with its own health bar. Defeat it to clear the operation, unlock the next one and see your score.
Lose all your hull and the aircraft is lost: select Fly Again to retry the operation.

Steer: W, A, S and D or the arrow keys, or drag on the screen. On a phone, drag with your finger.
Boost: hold Shift, or hold BOOST on a touchscreen.
Cannons: they fire on their own when a hostile is in your sights. Hold Space for rapid fire on a keyboard.
Missile: Q or X, or MISSILE. It needs a target lock and rearms in 6 seconds.
EMP pulse: E, or PULSE. It recharges in 18 seconds.
Pause: P or Escape, or the pause button.

Cannons do steady damage and score a few points for every hit, so keep the reticle on a target for as long as you can.
Missiles track the locked target. Save them for armoured gunships and aces, which take far more cannon fire to bring down.
The EMP pulse damages every hostile close to you, wipes out incoming fire, seeker missiles included, and tops up your shields. Fire it when you are surrounded or when a seeker is closing in.

Hits drain your shields first and then your hull.
Every third hostile you bring down earns a field repair: +10 hull and a little shield.
Flying into the sea, the islands or the cloud deck damages the aircraft. When PULL UP flashes, climb.
Arrows at the edge of the screen point to hostiles you can’t see. Turn towards the nearest one rather than chasing the farthest.

Fighters (150 points): the backbone of every operation.
Drones (120 points): fast and weaving, but fragile. They join from Operation 02.
Gunships (260 points): slow and armoured, firing in bursts. They appear from Operation 04, sometimes from the flanks.
Aces (2,400 points): tougher, faster and better armed. From Operation 07 they fire seeker missiles, and Operation 10 sends two aces, Umbra and Penumbra, at once.

Bring down another hostile within seven seconds to build a combo. Each one multiplies the points for the next kill, up to 5×.
Aces score their full 2,400 points whatever your combo.
Clearing an operation adds a bonus of 1,500 points, plus 9 points for every point of hull you have left, plus more for later operations.
Your best score for each operation is kept on your device and shown after every flight.

01 Sapphire Run: a tropical archipelago at dawn. Fighters only, so learn the controls here.
02 Solar Front: a golden-hour strait. Drones join in.
03 Nightfall Veil: moonlit isles under the stars. Watch the arrows at night.
04 Frostbite Ridge: glacier fjords and icebergs. Gunships appear, some from the side.
05 Mirage Dunes: desert mesas and turquoise lagoons in the heat haze.
06 Tempest Wall: a supercell storm with rough seas. Escorts guard the ace.
07 Aurora Drift: the polar night under the northern lights. The ace fires seeker missiles.
08 Ember Caldera: a volcanic chain with lava and smoke, and low visibility.
09 Cloudsea Citadel: islands floating above a sea of clouds. Fly between them, not into them.
10 Eclipse Prime: a total eclipse over crystal isles, with two aces at once.

Keep your height. Flying a little higher keeps you clear of the islands and gives you room to dive on a target.
Boost in, ease off to aim. Boost to close the distance, then let go so the target stays in your sights.
Missiles for the big ones. Use a missile the moment a gunship or ace is locked; the cannons handle the rest.
Hold the pulse. Keep the EMP for incoming fire and seekers rather than firing it as soon as it is ready.
Chain your kills. Pick targets that are close together to keep a combo alive for a higher score.