Rocket Duel

How to play

• Objective: each ship has 3 lives. Land 3 hits on your opponent to win.
• Steering: the stick on the left aims your ship. THRUST fires the engine.
• Firing: FIRE shoots the loaded round. The buttons above it pick the weapon.
• Shield: SHIELD raises a shield for one second. Every shot that touches you in that second is blocked: standard rounds, shotgun pellets, Heat-Seekers and Grenade blasts. After it drops it needs five seconds to recharge. The ring on the button and the thin bar under the ammo bar show where it is, and the other player's bar shows theirs, so you can tell when it's safe to shoot. It doesn't stop a collision with the other ship or with a wall.
• Refuel and rearm: land gently on your own platform to refill fuel and ammo, and to change weapons.
• Hazards: cave walls and rocks are harmless, you just bounce off. Crashing into the other ship destroys you both, shield or not.

The same rules are always available in the app under HELP on the main menu.

Game modes

• PLAY NEARBY: two devices in the same room, connected directly over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. No internet needed.
• PRACTICE (ONE DEVICE): you against the computer. Pick how hard it plays in SETTINGS: six levels, RULES 1 (gentle) to RULES 5 (ruthless). Levels 3 to 5 use their shield and sidestep shots they have time to see, and the higher levels react faster. RULES 6 plays like level 5 but learns how you fly (see below). Each match the computer is in a slightly different mood (a little quicker or slower to react, a different fighting distance), so no two fights play out the same. STATS shows your record against each level.
• AI VS AI: sit back and watch two computer pilots fight it out. Every match plays out differently, even between the same two levels. The camera zooms out to keep both ships in view, and in as they get close.
• REPLAYS: every match is saved on your device (the last 30 are kept). Watch one back from the main menu, pause it, change the speed, and let the camera follow the action or zoom by hand with ZOOM MANUAL: the + and - buttons, or pinch and drag.

Coins, weapons and skins

Every match you play against someone pays coins: more for a win, a few for a loss. New players start with 300 coins, enough for their first weapon. Spend coins in the SHOP on the Shotgun, Heat-Seeker and Grenade, and on new ship colours. The standard round is always free.

How the Heat-Seeker works: it flies straight for one second (340 units). If it passes within 100 units of the other ship during that time, it locks onto that ship at once and chases it. Otherwise, after the second is up, it locks onto whichever ship is closest to it, and stays locked on that ship. It can see 1,500 units and stops steering while its target is farther away than that. It's slower than a normal shot, so a pilot who flies well can outrun it, and once it is chasing, it plans a route round any rock or cave wall in its way. If it does clip one, it bounces off and loses a fifth of its speed. Be careful: if your ship is the closest one when it locks on, it will come back for you. In practice that means it's a close-range weapon.

After a match you can choose to watch a short video to double the coins from that match. It's entirely optional.

Ads

Rocket Duel is free and shows ads through Google AdMob. There's a small banner on the main menu and the result screen. There's also an occasional full-screen ad when you leave a one-device match: not before your third match, and at most once every three minutes. There are no ads during a match, and none in Play Nearby matches. See the privacy policy for exactly what data the ad service collects. In the EU, UK or Switzerland, tap AD PRIVACY on the main menu to change your consent choice.

Rather not see ads at all? Tap REMOVE ADS in the top-left corner of the main menu for a one-time purchase. There's no subscription, and it removes every ad, including the optional coin videos.

Frequently asked questions

I tap a weapon and nothing happens.
That weapon isn't unlocked yet. The game shows its price for a moment. Buy it in the SHOP. You can also only switch weapons while landed on your own platform.

PLAY NEARBY doesn't find the other device.
Both devices need Wi-Fi or Bluetooth switched on, and both must have allowed Rocket Duel to use the local network. Check that under Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network. Both devices also need the same version of the game from the App Store.

My coins or unlocks disappeared.
They are stored only on your device, so deleting the app deletes them. They don't carry over between devices.

How does RULES 6 learn?
After each practice match you finish against RULES 6, it studies the recording of that match: how much of your speed you really keep when it leads its shots, whether you use your shield, and which fighting distance has worked best against you. It then plays the next match a little differently, and the result screen tells you what it noticed. It never gets faster reactions or more ammo than level 5, and it only learns from matches you finish. The first time you choose it, it also studies the practice matches already saved on your device. Everything it learns is stored only on your device. To wipe it, choose RULES 6 in SETTINGS and tap the "has studied" line twice.

The computer used its shield and I couldn't hit it.
The shield only lasts one second and then takes five to recharge. A shot fired right after it drops lands. The computer also can't react to a shot fired from point-blank range any faster than you could.

Where are my replays?
Tap REPLAYS on the main menu. Matches you quit after a few seconds are kept as unfinished. Tap the cross on a row twice to delete it. Replays are stored only on your device, so deleting the app deletes them.

I bought Remove Ads, but I'm seeing ads again.
This can happen after reinstalling or on a new device. Tap REMOVE ADS on the main menu, then Restore Purchases. The purchase is tied to your Apple Account, so you never need to buy it twice.

I don't want to sign in to Game Center.
You don't need to. Game Center only keeps the online win leaderboard. Everything else works without it.

Still stuck?

Email us and we'll get back to you. It helps to say which device you use and what you were doing when the problem happened.

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