Classic Ship-Crafting Roguelike Space Shooter Nova Drift Lands on Android

After more than a decade of development, the ship-crafting roguelike space shooter Nova Drift is out on mobile. The game blends arcade-style space combat with the progression systems of an action RPG. It spent 5 years in early access before getting the full release.

Nova Drift brings ship-crafting arcade combat

The game puts you in control of a constantly evolving bio-mechanical spacecraft traveling through hostile space. You fight through waves of unusual and dangerous enemies while modifying the ship with new upgrades and abilities during each run.

A central feature of Nova Drift is the depth of its ship-building system. The game allows thousands of possible combinations through its modular upgrades. So, you get to construct dramatically different strategies from one session to the next.

Take BUILD # 457: Infused Blade, for instance. It begins with the Blade weapon, which deploys a shuriken-like construct that cuts through enemies, fires at them, and then returns to you. But then, you can alter the weapon through a series of modular upgrades.

The Splinter Shot mod causes the blade to fragment into numerous sub-projectiles when destroyed, expanding the attack’s area of effect. Adding the Self Destruction mod causes both the blade and its splinters to explode, damaging nearby targets.

On the other hand, Charged Shot lets you build up a massive projectile that amplifies the effectiveness of this combination. The Infuse mod causes the blade to release lightning every time it strikes a target.

Finally, combining this setup with the Architect Body changes how constructs behave by limiting deployment to one construct at a time. Architect Body also lets you manually detonate the construct, enabling precise timing for the entire combo.

Will you get the game?

Typical sessions in Nova Drift are relatively short, usually lasting between 15-45 minutes. Throughout the game, you gradually unlock over 200 modular upgrades.

Nova Drift was created by the indie development studio Chimeric, with music and promotional support by Pixeljam. The premium mobile version costs $9.99 on the Google Play Store. A free lite version is also available.

Also, read our scoop on Retro Pixel Art Dungeon RPG Dungeon Antiqua 2.