Do you need some help in Rick Henderson? Here are a few tips to guide you along your journey through the game.

Before choosing Standard Endless, Hard Endless, or Boss Raid mode, there is a Tutorial mode that is a must-play upon booting up the game for the first time, as it will teach you all the needed mechanics. You have three different weapons that you can switch to at any given time: bullet, energy, and missiles. Learning when and how to use these are essential for survival. Some enemies will have shields. Take these out with the energy shot and then switch to bullet to kill them. Missiles are for larger enemies and bosses. Trust me, the bosses don’t last long if you use missiles.

There will also be random weapon pickups in each level, which can change a selected shot into something useful or useless. For example, a regular shot can be changed into a mini gun, a razor shot, or a boomer. This is where multiple plays will come in handy. If a weapon pickup appears that you don’t want, just don’t pick it up! A good rule of thumb is to only pick up weapons that you know how to use and bypass the ones that don’t fit your play style.

There is also a Graze mechanic. Fill this bar up to call in your co pilots to do some damage!! Do so by grazing the enemy shots as close as possible to fill this bar. Learn this skill early on as it will be helpful. Last is your special, and each pilot has a different one. Rick Henderson has a not so great hologram decoy, Ben X9 has a forward teleport, and Thoraxx has a missile barrage that clears the screen. It’s a lot to learn, but the more you play the more it becomes second nature.

Now you’re ready for the endless loops of levels, and this is where the game shines! Every run will be different, the enemies will come at you differently and every level has the potential for a random event. Also the end boss will be a randomized variant of itself. What does this mean? Well, you can’t memorize the levels at all, you’ll have to rely solely upon your skills! When you do kill the end boss, you will have a choice between 4 different upgrades. This can be anything, and they’re randomized between increases in shot damage, increase or decrease asteroids, 5-10% increase in score, double boss health, and plus double points. My favorites are the bullet or missile drones. This aspect of the game kinda gives it a roguelike feel to it and it’s a game changer.

As I’ve said before in my review, if you’re a fan of the genre, you’ll love Rick Henderson! It has that “one more game” feel to it, that beckons you to play again for a higher score.