HOW TO PLAY NEON ASTEROIDS
Everything you need to know to win a duel: controls, scoring, how rounds work and a few tricks the best pilots use.
THE GOAL
Matches are best of three rounds. Each round lasts one minute. You win a round in one of two ways:
- Outscore your rival by breaking more asteroids before the clock runs out, or
- Destroy your rival's ship. Every ship's hull takes three hits — it shows more damage with each one — and the third hit ends the round on the spot.
Win two rounds and the match is yours. If a round is tied, another round is played.
CONTROLS
Phone and tablet
- Fly: touch anywhere on the left half of the screen and drag. A joystick appears under your thumb; push further to thrust harder.
- Fire: tap or hold anywhere on the right half of the screen.
- The on-screen FLY and FIRE hints fade away once you've used them.
Keyboard
| Action | Keys |
|---|---|
| Thrust | W or ↑ |
| Turn | A D or ← → |
| Brake | S or ↓ |
| Fire | Space |
| Menu | Esc or P |
Mouse
Your ship turns to face the cursor. Right-click to thrust and left-click to fire. You can mix mouse and keyboard freely.
SCORING
| Target | Points |
|---|---|
| Large asteroid | 20 — and it splits into two medium rocks |
| Medium asteroid | 50 — splits into two small rocks |
| Small asteroid | 100 |
| UFO | 150 |
Small rocks are worth the most because they're the hardest to hit. Breaking a big rock all the way down is worth 20 + 2×50 + 4×100 = 520 points.
THE THREE ROUNDS
- Round 1 — Light field: three large asteroids.
- Round 2 — Denser field: four large asteroids.
- Round 3 — UFOs inbound: four large and one medium asteroid, plus rainbow UFOs that arrive during the round and shoot at both pilots.
When a round starts, both ships get a short spawn shield (you'll see a ring around your ship) and nearby rocks are pushed away, so nobody gets flattened in the first second.
PLAYING ONLINE
- LAUNCH on the main menu drops you straight into Quick Play.
- Online → Host gives you a 4-letter room code. Send it to a friend.
- Online → Join lets you type in a friend's code.
- Online → Quick Play puts you in a pool and pairs you with the next pilot searching.
Games connect your device directly to your rival's for the lowest possible lag. If a connection won't start, the Network Test button on the main menu checks your network step by step and tells you what's wrong. Some strict Wi-Fi networks (offices, schools, some routers) block direct links; the game falls back to a relay server, and switching to mobile data usually helps too.
PRACTICE
- Solo: three rounds against the clock. Your total score across all three is your run score — try to beat it.
- With Bot: a full best-of-three duel against a computer pilot. Good for learning to aim while dodging.
TIPS FROM THE COCKPIT
- Drift, don't fight it. Your ship keeps sliding after you stop thrusting. Short bursts of thrust and letting momentum carry you is faster and safer than holding full throttle.
- Use the edges. Everything wraps around the screen — fly off one side and you reappear on the other. Shots wrap too, so you can hit a rival from "behind".
- Finish what you start. A large rock is only 20 points, but its small fragments are 100 each. Chase the pieces.
- Pick your moment. If you're ahead on points late in a round, play defensively and make your rival come to you.
- Watch the UFOs in round 3. They're worth 150 points but shoot at everyone — a rival distracted by a UFO is an easy target.