How to play
Humans vs AI .IO is a free space shooter that runs in your browser. You fly a small ship along the bottom of the screen and fight your way through waves of AI machines, then a boss, and then it begins again a little harder.
The goal
Survive. Waves of AI drones come down the screen in different shapes, and every few waves one of nine AI bosses turns up. Destroy what you can, avoid what you cannot, and keep your lives. When you have beaten every boss the cycle starts again with tougher machines.
Controls
Your ship only moves left and right along the bottom of the screen. It fires upward on its own, so the whole game is about where you stand.
- Keyboard: the arrow keys or A and D.
- Mouse: an option on the pause menu's Controls page makes the ship follow your cursor.
- Tablet: you control the ship by touch.
- The speaker button, or the M key, mutes the sound, and the pause button opens the pause menu.
Waves
Three waves of ordinary enemies come before each boss. They are not all the same:
- formations that line up at the top and drift down while some of them shoot;
- a rain of single drones, each falling at its own pace, from basic drones to ones that dive, hover or drop mines;
- a wave of pillars before each boss, each guarding a group of drones and coloured to match the boss that follows;
- mini-boss waves led by the Gecko King or the Bot Machine King, with their own rules, such as coin bubbles to pop or walls to break.
Being hit by shots hurts, and in some waves so does touching a drone, so keep moving. In the rain waves a drone that gets past you comes back for another try.
Gold and upgrades
Enemies and coin bubbles drop gold. Between waves you can spend it on upgrades, offered as cards in three rarities: common, rare and legendary. Cheaper upgrades make your ship faster or let it shoot more often; rarer ones change how you fight, such as extra projectiles, piercing or bouncing shots, missiles, shields and turrets, and the legendary ones are the most expensive and the most dramatic.
Each card shows its cost in gold, so deciding what to buy and when to save up is part of the game. Extra Life is worth planning for, because a run ends when you run out of lives.
Power-ups
Temporary power-ups can appear during a wave. They give your ship a temporary boost to speed or attack, so grabbing one is usually worth a small detour.
Bosses
Every boss has two sides to its fight: a first phase where you deal with its drones or defences, and an attack phase where it is open to damage and throws its full set of attacks at you. There are nine, and each one is described on its own page.
Tips for a first run
- Stay near the middle where you can reach either side, and drift rather than darting.
- Look for the gap in every pattern. Almost every attack leaves one, and it moves.
- Spend your first gold on speed and attack rate; they help against everything.
- On a boss, clear its drones first. A crowded screen is the main reason runs end.