- SURVIVE - EVOLVE - DOMINATE -
Nova Drift is a 'rogue-lite' space shooter that melds a classic arcade experience with modern action-RPG elements like theory-crafting and deep player choice. Your ship rapidly evolves as you defeat enemies, allowing you to shape its abilities and weaponry to your desires in a matter of minutes. Unlike many ARPGs which can absorb hundreds of hours of time, Nova Drift allows you to take a ship build from inception to execution in a single game session.

Features

Create a unique build every run. Games are quick, allowing for rapid experimentation, iteration, and advancement.
Cunning and creativity are rewarded as you chain upgrade modules for powerful synergies, reminiscent of deck-building games.
Access over 200 modular upgrades as you progress and expand your arsenal.
Build to play how you want. Snipe, command a drone army, discharge your shields, charge up, burn enemies with your thrusters, or smash right through them... there's a way to make it work.
Unlock various challenge modes, providing greater risk and rewards. The stakes are high, as death is permanent!
Every game is randomly generated, keeping the fight intense and unpredictable. Fight through the campaign or play endlessly...

Nova Drift is a living game. Frequent updates will continue to expand the depth and content of the game world.
Upcoming Updates:

Enemies 2.0
Draft Mode
Weapon Mutations: 1-2 variations for each existing weapon
Translation into French, Spanish, German, Russian, Chinese, Japanese & more...

FULL ROADMAP

Ship EvolutionsMods & Gear can be unlocked, upgraded and combined to make unexpected and powerful combinations:Example Build #1: Seeking Cluster GrenadeGrenade + Body: Assault + High Explosive + Splinter Shot + Heat Seeking + Charged Shot

This build focuses on creating as many grenade splinters as possible using the Grenade weapon and sends them tearing toward targets using the Heat Seeking mod. The overlapping blasts from the initial explosion add up to a huge amount of damage at the epicenter, while the seeking clusters handle crowd control.

Example Build #2: Celestial Shield-BomberHullbreaker + Amp Shield + Volatile Shields + Flash Shielding + Emergency Systems + Celestial Lance

This build takes advantage of the Hullbreaker's speed and resilience to crash damage to slam directly into enemies. The fragile Amp Shield is used not for defense, but to augment Hullbreaker's strongest aspects, gaining increased speed and force. The shield will break on impact, but we can capitalize on that using the Volatile Shields mod, which detonates the shield when it goes down, blasting all nearby enemies. Flash Shielding gets it running again quickly while Emergency Systems grant a moment of damage immunity, making charge attacks safer. Finally, Celestial Lance is used to deal burning damage to everything around the ship at high velocities!

Nova Drift is developed by Jeffrey Nielson of Chimeric, a mostly 1-man development team, featuring music and audio by Miles Tilmann of Pixeljam.

Nova Drift

Sonic Rainboom Achievement

Sonic Rainboom

Guides

Players