Synergy Strike 3.0 · Artbook & manual
The Players Guide
Everything the storm will ask of you, and the art behind it: how to fly, what each element does, every one of the 29 synergies, the Oracle's reels, the Sovereign's trials, and the flock you build between runs.
01The geometric storm
Between realities, a battle blazes
“Brilliant, trippy triangles pulse with powerful synergy. A cosmic force connecting all things. But the sharp, sinister shapes of the Matrix march endlessly, harvesting that synergy for their barren bosses. Hold your ground. Charge your strikes. Survive the geometric storm.”
You are a Triangle Warrior, one small bright shape in a sky the Matrix is stripping bare. A run is one stand against the storm in three acts: Kindling, Storm and Sovereign.
Art note · the palette
Four seat colours carry the whole game: the wordmark, the players, the trails and the menus all draw from them, on a sky of deep navy, teal and violet.
#FFBF4C#48DD99#FF5F73#4AC8FF#05060F02The flock
Four seats, four colours
Seat 1 · Gold
Seat 2 · Emerald
Seat 3 · Ruby
Seat 4 · Cerulean
One to four players share the sky, each with its own colour, trail and score, and one team score between them.
- Joining. On the join screen each player presses a button on their own controller to take a seat. Hold A / Cross to start; B / Circle leaves your seat. Start without a controller for a solo run.
- Joining late. During an Oracle visit, press Start on an unpaired controller to join the run.
- Player colours. In Options choose a team scheme (Seat colours, Clear Sight, Tritan Safe or High Contrast) or one of sixteen single colours per player, with a hue shift. You can preview how they look with protan, deutan and tritan colour vision.
03Controls
Your body is the blade
There is no aim and no fire button. You attack by dashing through enemies, and the elements you carry fire on their own once used.
| Action | Controller | Keyboard and mouse |
|---|---|---|
| Move | Left stick | WASD or arrow keys |
| Dash strike | A / Cross, X / Square, RT / R2 | Space, Enter, left click |
| Use power-up fires your next filled slot | Y / Triangle, B / Circle, LT / L2 | T, B, right click |
| Pause | Start / Options (or Select / View) | Esc |
| Multi-monitor off | — | F9 |
Move, Dash strike and Use power-up can be rebound per player in Options › Controls. Each controller drives only its own player, and anyone can pause.
Flight School
New to the storm? Choose Story Tutorial on the title menu. Green, Red and Blue teach you to fly through rings, dash strike, catch a charge, make a synergy and beat a boss. “Fly fast. Strike together. And survive the geometric storm.”
04A run, minute by minute
One zone. Three acts.
| Act | Clock | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| I · Kindling | 0:00 – 3:00 | The first waves. Catch your first charges and find your formation. |
| The Oracle | 3:00 | A moment to breathe. Align the three seals. |
| II · Storm | 3:00 – 7:00 | Storm Sentries join the field. |
| The Oracle | 7:00 | The second visit. |
| III · Sovereign | 7:00 – 10:00 | More sentries, and a barren boss when the warning mark appears. A ten-second countdown starts at 9:50. |
| The Sovereign | 10:00 | The finale. |
The clock counts fighting time only. It stops while you are paused, in a menu or with the Oracle.
Charges and slots
A charge appears every 15 seconds. Its colour picks the element. Each slot counts down while it is live, and two abilities only combine while both are still running.
The Oracle's reels
At 3:00 and 7:00 the storm stops and the Oracle shows each player three reels, like a slot machine you stop yourself. Two alike switch that element on. Three alike add its synergy partner. Three Renewals heal you fully. More in chapter 07
Health
Each player takes 7 hits. There are no lives: the run ends when no player is left flying. A defeated boss restores health and brings downed teammates back.
Score and streak
Your streak grows with every enemy you defeat without being hit, up to ×20. Higher synergy tiers multiply it further. From the pause menu, Bank score & exit ends a run and keeps what you earned.
05The thirteen elements
Thirteen power-ups
Shield is yours from the start. The rest unlock as your total of defeated foes grows, and each can be raised through ten levels in the Power-Up Bank.
| Element | What it does | Unlocks at |
|---|---|---|
| Shield | Protection shield guards from damage. | From the start |
| Laser | Emits a pulsating laser beam. | 100 foes |
| Turret | A centre turret shoots at enemies. | 250 foes |
| Ice | Summons a chilling ice storm. Freezes and shatters; buys you room when you are surrounded. | 400 foes |
| Fire | Ignites a flame that burns everything caught in the strike. Best against a crowd. | 650 foes |
| Rapid Shot | Launches fast shooting orbs. Trades power for a far higher rate of fire; good on bosses. | 800 foes |
| Shock | An area of shocking zap around you that chains between nearby enemies. Rewards tight groups. | 950 foes |
| Wind | Big protective gusts guard from damage. | 1,100 foes |
| Water | Gushes a blast of water at foes. | 1,350 foes |
| Light | Wings of holy light vanquish foes. | 1,500 foes |
| Metal | Metal spikes pierce foes. | 1,750 foes |
| Shadow | Shadow dark power permeates. | 1,900 foes |
| Earth | Verdant earth emerges. | 2,150 foes |
06The 29 synergies
Two elements, one strike
Two live abilities combine into a stronger attack. Matching elements hit hardest: two of the same element produce the strongest strikes in the game. Powers fuse across seats, so strike beside a friend.
Each loop above shows the name the game itself stamps on screen when the synergy lands.
The full recipe book
Diamond Aegis is yours from the start. Each of the others is bought once in the Power-Up Bank.
| # | Synergy | Recipe | In the game's words |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | Diamond Aegis starter | Shield + Shield | |
| 02 | Prism Lance | Laser + Laser | |
| 03 | Frost Lance | Laser + Ice | Three cold lances cut through enemies ahead. |
| 04 | Solar Lance | Laser + Fire | Hot white cores burn inside three solar beams. |
| 05 | Pulse Lance | Laser + Rapid Shot | Violet lances pulse while dealing steady damage. |
| 06 | Sentinel Array | Turret + Turret | |
| 07 | Ratchet Volley | Turret + Rapid Shot | |
| 08 | Whiteout | Ice + Ice | |
| 09 | Frostburn | Ice + Fire | |
| 10 | Emberstorm | Fire + Fire | |
| 11 | Molten Forge | Fire + Metal | |
| 12 | Staccato Barrage | Rapid Shot + Rapid Shot | |
| 13 | Ignition Stream | Rapid Shot + Fire | Twin guns send piercing fire trails through enemies. |
| 14 | Hailstream | Rapid Shot + Ice | Twin guns launch icy piercing rounds beside rotating snowflakes. |
| 15 | Tesla Cadence | Rapid Shot + Shock | An electric field powers the fastest twin-gun barrage. |
| 16 | Thundercage | Shock + Shock | |
| 17 | Arcfire | Shock + Fire | Alternating arcs and fire sweep four flanks. |
| 18 | Glacial Arc | Shock + Ice | Blue lightning crosses frost in four sweeping arms. |
| 19 | Cyclone Veil | Wind + Wind | |
| 20 | Tremor Gust | Wind + Earth | |
| 21 | Aurora Gale | Wind + Light | Spectral ribbons and rotating halos surround a luminous gale. |
| 22 | Riptide | Water + Water | |
| 23 | Duskmire | Water + Shadow | |
| 24 | Seraph Flare | Light + Light | |
| 25 | Eclipse | Light + Shadow | A brilliant corona surrounds a dark disc and twin shadow sweeps. |
| 26 | Rootquake | Earth + Earth | |
| 27 | Silt Current | Earth + Water | |
| 28 | Iron Bramble | Metal + Metal | |
| 29 | Voidheart | Shadow + Shadow |
07The Oracle
A moment to breathe
Between the acts the storm stops and the Oracle shows each player three reels. You stop each reel with your own press. It is timing, not chance.
Two alike
Switches that element on for you.
Three alike
Also adds that element's synergy partner.
Three Renewals
Heal you fully.
Each reel carries up to three of the elements you own, plus Renewal. Sometimes an element you have not unlocked appears with a padlock: land it and it is yours for this run only. Nothing is ever taken.
08The Matrix
Sharp, sinister shapes
The Matrix marches endlessly, harvesting synergy for its barren bosses. Its shapes are drawn from sacred geometry: seeds, lattices, mandalas and stars, turned cold.
- Storm Sentries arrive in Act II and grow in number in Act III.
- Barren bosses come in the final act. When the warning mark appears on the field, a boss is coming. They hunger for your synergy.
09The Sovereign
The last and greatest shape
The trials
The Sovereign sets trials. Hit it with anything to fill the scarlet meter. A full meter staggers it and opens a short window; one hit from the family it asks for clears the trial for the whole team, and fallen players come back. Miss, and the same trial returns with a longer window. Each clear breaks a seal.
| Trial | Bring | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Shield | Shield or Wind | It bounces around the arena. This trial always comes first. |
| Burst | Rapid Shot, Turret or Water | It fires rings of bullets and calls enemies. Their kills drop the elements it asks for. |
| Sustained | Laser or any other element | Its tentacles glow before they strike. The pale lanes between them are always safe. |
The finale
With the seals broken, any synergy breaks it. Its bar fills through four stages.
Synergy Mirror
It turns away the last synergy that hit it. Answer with another.
Unravel
Its attacks merge, the arena's edge closes in and the Mandala Collapse ring sweeps inward.
Last Court
Eight seconds of everything at once. Survive, then strike.
Last Window
Everyone strike the core. If it closes, the bar drops back.
After the fall
- New Game+. Player 1 chooses to go again. Each loop adds a trial, up to five, and runs about ten percent faster.
- Overseals. Extra synergies you own and land on it raise the clear multiplier from ×1.5 toward ×2.0.
- Mastery. Every element of each trial's family must land. Opens after a first win with all 13 elements owned.
- Challenge. Every one of the 29 synergies must be formed and land on the Sovereign, each in its own trial. Opens after a Mastery win.
- Sovereign Assist. Longer windows and slower attacks. The win is marked Assisted, with a smaller bonus. Not available in Mastery or Challenge.
10Echo
A reflection of your light
Echo is a CPU player for one-person runs. Switch it on at the join screen and it takes seat 2, fights beside you, and gives you a share of everything it picks up: half to begin with, more as you grow its Fair Share branch.
- Echo goes down like anyone else. It returns when a boss falls or a trial is cleared, or by itself after a minute.
- Echo's Stand. Once a run, if Echo is the last one flying and goes down, you are brought back in.
- Runs with Echo post to their own With Echo leaderboard, and do not earn Mastery or Challenge badges.
Echo's Tree · 24 spheres
| Branch | Spheres |
|---|---|
| Strength | Quick Wings, Slipstream, Harder Dash, Breaker, Quick Recovery, Long Fuse. Echo flies faster, dashes harder and holds power-ups longer. |
| Smarts | Reads the Field, In Step, Combo Partner, Fetch, Plans Ahead, Mind of the Swarm. Echo dodges, times its power-ups with yours for more synergies, and leaves the near charges to you. |
| Hardiness | Sturdy, Tough Shell, Iron Feathers, Heart of the Flock, Back on Its Feet, Second Wind. Echo takes more hits, gets up sooner, and once a run lifts a downed player back up. |
| Fair Share | Generosity, Generous, Light Touch, Selfless, Open Hands. Each gives you 5% more of everything Echo picks up. Paid from Echo's own supply. |
Spheres are bought with banked score, refund in full, and apply from your next run.
11Synergy Rewards
Bank it. Spend it.
Score you earn is banked, and banked score is the only currency. Open Synergy Rewards on the title menu to reach the four banks.
Power-Up Bank
Ten levels for each element, each with its own stated effect, then Prestige: one more permanent base point per spark. Buy synergies here. An element can be kept out of runs so it stops dropping.
Music Bank
28 tracks. Joystick Venom and Glitchwave Frenzy are free; the rest unlock with score. Preview, queue the next track, build your playlist, and open the Visualizer.
Tail Bank
30 trails earned through score, defeats, dashes and plays. Ten carry augments that trade stats, such as Stone Rock's Tank: two more hits of health.
Echo's Tree
The sphere grid in chapter 10.
Beyond the banks: 58 achievements, the Compendium, a hidden Secret Flock of player colours, and Steam leaderboards for solo, two, three and four players.
12Screens, sound and comfort
Make it yours
Multi-monitor
Desktop only, and off until you turn it on in Options. With two or three displays the arena takes the middle, your HUD and the run's progress take the sides, and the music's sand runs across all of them. Scan Displays, Swap Left/Right and Bezel Gap fit it to your desk. F9 turns it off.
Portrait
Set Orientation to Automatic, Portrait or Always landscape. On a tall screen the game lays itself out tall.
A world that listens
Bloom, trails, water and the Sovereign's own moves follow the music. Audio-reactive graphics, Trail reactivity and Sovereign ultra reactivity each have their own switch.
Comfort and access
Full-screen flashes and Screen shake sliders, Reduced motion, Calm grains, menu text size, High contrast focus, button labels for PlayStation or Xbox, and vibration strength for each kind of feedback. See Health & comfort.
Your save
Options › Save Data lets you export and import your save, open the save folder, or delete your data. What the game stores, and what goes to Steam, is set out in the privacy policy.
13Plates
From the sky
“The Sovereign falls, and the stolen synergy flows home.”
14Credits
Made by one person
Synergy Strike is a game made by the solo game dev Jacob Alan Strange (StrangeBoltz), in their free time, and published as PGSX.
With thanks to family, friends and playtesters. The full credits, including Unity Asset Store credits and licences, are in the game.