What is Nova Cypher
Nova Cypher puts two things on the same screen: a ship that has to dodge and a matrix that has to be solved. The nodes sit in the middle of the field and the only way to move them is to hit them — except each shot flips the node you hit and a few around it, so firing at random takes you further from the answer, not closer.
There are fifty levels across ten sectors. The matrix grows from three by three up to level ten, becomes four by four to level twenty-five, and is five by five from there on. Meanwhile the drones keep coming, and some are not after you: they are there to unset nodes you had already put right.
How to play
- Fly with WASD or the arrow keys, aim with the mouse and fire with the left button or the space bar. On a phone there is a stick on the left to steer while the rest of the screen aims and fires at once. There is no button for hitting a node: you hit it by aiming and shooting, like any other target.
- There are three shapes of matrix, one per sector, and they change how a shot spreads. In sync, every node has to end up lit, and each shot flips the node plus its four neighbours above, below and to the sides. In pattern, there is a design to match and the shot flips the node plus its four diagonal neighbours. At level fifty, the boss, the shot flips the node and all eight around it.
- Memory sectors are a different animal: a sequence of three to twelve nodes lights up in order and you have to shoot it back. The demonstration speeds up with the levels — it starts at eighty-five hundredths of a second per node and comes down to thirty-eight. A wrong node costs hull and sends the sequence back to the beginning.
- Each level closed pays a hundred points times the level plus half the hull you had left, returns some hull, and pays credits. Credits are kept between runs and buy four permanent upgrades: hull, weapon, engine and fire rate. Every purchase of the same upgrade costs forty-five per cent more than the one before.
Strategies that work
- Before firing at the first node, count how many nodes are wrong and in which rows. In sync and pattern matrices the answer is always a set of nodes hit once each — hitting the same node twice undoes the work and puts you back where you started.
- Clear the drones before you start on the matrix. Some drones corrupt nodes on purpose, and one corrupted node in the middle of a solution forces you to redo all the counting; the time spent clearing the field is always less than the time spent starting over.
- In memory sectors, look at the shape rather than at the nodes one by one. A ten-tap sequence memorised as loose positions always falls apart; memorised as a path across the board — corner, middle, bottom corner — it holds to the end.
- The hull upgrade pays best early, because it is the cheapest and because each level closed returns hull in proportion to your engine. Weapon and fire rate cost sixty per cent more and only pay off once you already survive whole sectors.
- Credits carry from one run to the next. A short run ending at level eight is not wasted time: the credits you brought home pay for the upgrade that lets the next run go further.
A little history
The grid of lights that switch each other off has a name and a date: Lights Out, a Tiger Electronics toy from 1995, five by five, where pressing a button flipped it and its four neighbours. What made it a case study was the mathematics behind it: since each button only matters by parity — pressing twice is the same as not pressing — the whole toy is a system of linear equations modulo two, and you can say, with algebra rather than trial and error, which of the twenty-five buttons belong to the answer. That is also why some Lights Out boards have no solution at all: the system simply has no answer. Nova Cypher never lets that happen — each matrix is built backwards, from an already solved board, with a run of random taps; undoing those taps is always possible. What the game adds to the toy is haste: in Lights Out nobody unset your buttons while you thought.
Frequently asked questions
Are there impossible matrices?
No. Every matrix is built backwards: it starts from a solved board and takes a run of random taps to scramble it. Since a repeated tap cancels itself out, repeating those taps always solves it — you only have to work out which they were.
Do I lose everything when I die?
The levels and the score of that run, yes. The credits and the upgrades you bought are kept, so every run leaves the next one a little stronger.
Can drones ruin the matrix?
They can, and it is deliberate. Some types head straight for a node and corrupt it instead of attacking you, undoing part of your work. It is always worth clearing the field before settling into the puzzle.
