NeonSwarm

Racing drones, armed

NEON SWARM puts FPV drones against each other in closed show arenas, in front of a crowd. The biggest one, HELIX SPIRE, is an 80 m tall vertical stadium. The drones have their real dimensions: a 5-inch HOLESHOT tops out at 190 km/h and turns on a dime, while a 10-inch FORTRESS-MK3 moves slower, behind a 1,200-point shield.

Fly in Assisted to learn, in Hybrid to fight, or in Acro, where nothing self-levels, just like a real quad. On first launch, a five-minute tutorial has you try each control, then a first fight.

The drones

HOLESHOT, interceptor. Blade Pulse bursts, a Flechette that flies through walls, and Pit Mode to vanish for three seconds. After a tight turn, its shots deal 20% more. FORTRESS-MK3, armored. A slow, heavy Pulse Cannon, Anchor Missiles that slow the target, and a front shield it keeps firing from behind. INFERNO-X, artillery. A flamethrower, a rocket that splits into six bomblets, and Backburn: it anchors itself in a fire zone and doubles its damage, out in the open. BLACKBOX, support. A beam that weakens armor, a bomb that scrambles enemy HUDs, a healing beacon for the team. Whatever it detects, the whole team sees.

Modes

Relay, 5 vs 5. Three relays stacked on the central spire. Each relay you hold scores a point every 10 seconds; at 3:00 and 6:00 the Mast lights up above the roof and is worth 10 points to the team that takes it down. Dogfight, 3 vs 3. First team to 15 kills wins. Energy and boost charges refill at the pylons, and the map revolves around them. Duel. One round you chase, the next you run; the chaser has 40 seconds to destroy the other drone. Against a bot that feints, or against a friend. Biathlon, solo. Six time-trial courses: fly through the gates, destroy the targets on the way. Records, a ghost of your best run, medals, and a Steam leaderboard per course and flight mode. Free flight. The training dome, at real scale: a 600 m speed lane, race gates, a slalom, a multi-level structure.

Read the fight

Three ways to aim. Soft Aim helps you track, Hard Lock locks on but takes 15% off your damage, Free Aim gives no help at all and adds 25%. A hard turn breaks the locks on you; two flares per life pull missiles away. Under fire, a drone can lose a rotor, its battery or its processor, and with the processor, its aim assist.

With friends

In this version, online play is with friends: you host a Relay, a Dogfight or a duel, invite your friends through Steam, and bots hold the open slots. Every friend who joins takes a bot's place. There are no public matches or dedicated servers yet.

Gamepads and radios

Xbox and PlayStation gamepads work out of the box, and the screen shows their buttons. An FPV radio plugged in over USB (EdgeTX, OpenTX) flies the drone like it does outside. Everything can be remapped in the options, text size included. The game is in English and French.