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Build guide for becoming the most powerful force in the known universe: a supersonic, superheated, self-guided, nigh-indestructible kinetic energy penetrator.

Nova Drift is a “Roguelite” space shooter that melds a classic arcade experience with modern action-RPG elements. Your ship rapidly evolves as you defeat enemies, allowing you to shape its abilities and weaponry to your desires in a matter of minutes. Nova Drift is Jeffrey Nielson’s neon-tinged daydream as to what the genre of asteroid shooters can be in the enlightened age of opportunity.If you were to ask me what I feel defines the asteroid shooter genre — please, don’t all ask at once! Let's Play Nova Drift - PC Gameplay Part 54 - From Hale To Fail In No Time Flat by Wanderbots. Play next; Play now; Let's Play Nova Drift - PC Gameplay Part 55 - I'm Not Rusty Yet!

Introduction: Become the Weapon

This build guide covers one of, if not the most, powerful builds currently possible in Nova Drift. The basic idea is to become incredibly fast and durable, then ram into things while also burning everything around you. You don’t need a weapon when the most powerful weapon is you! I didn’t invent this build, but I’ve tried to optimize it. Feel free to comment with suggestions.

My best run so far reached wave 2050 and 22.4 million score. It was previously #2 and is currently #4 on the Wild Metamorphosis leaderboard. Note that I accidentally took Streamline by pressing Spacebar twice, so that may have shortened my run.

Gear

Weapon: Flak

• Flak is effective even without upgrades, so it makes a great early-game weapon.
• You can choose a different weapon if you prefer, but in my experience this is the best option.
• When you take Hidden Power, you’ll be refunded this point.

Shield: Standard

• You’ll be taking Rapid Reconstruction, so there’s no point upgrading the shield.

Body: Hullbreaker

• This is necessary for crashing through enemies and taking reduced crash damage.
• The increased recovery rate is also very helpful.

Mods: Standard

Rapid Reconstruction

• Necessary to sustain the self-damage from Celestial Lance and the constant crash damage.
• Get this as soon as possible in order to banish the shield upgrades.

Force Armor

• You want this entire tree, both for the durability and the crash-related buffs.

Core Shielding

• This is important for reduced the self-damage from Celestial Lance, and it also provides good defense in general.
• You want the whole tree. Rebuke is a great way to increase your damage output while transitioning into Hidden Power, after which it still gives a large bonus to armor stack duration.

Skirmish

• You mainly want the +25% crash damage, although the other effects are useful before you transition to Hidden Power.

Celestial Lance

• This deals good damage when moving at high speed. Although it’s dwarfed by your crash damage, it has a wider area of effect and will trigger the regen from Purification.

Deadly Wake

• You move fast enough in the late game that this will leave fire trails over a good portion of the screen, further improving your area of effect.
• It also triggers Purification regen and makes it easier to keep track of where your ship is while zooming across the screen.

Purification

• This will scale your Celestial Lance and Deadly Wake damage, while also improving your regeneration.
• Corrosion is basically useless for this build, so take Purge on your way to Purification.

Efficiency

• Once you take Hidden Power, this will provide a constant regen increase.

Agility

• This is optional, but recommended in the late game. It improves your maneuverability significantly while traveling at insane speed.

Mods: Super

Hidden Power

• Between crashing, Celestial Lance, and Burning Wake, you have all the damage you could want without needing a weapon.
• Ideally, you want to get this around level 20 after your main mods.

Ataraxia

• It’s probable that you’ll run out of rerolls in the late game and still have unspent upgrade points. With Ataraxia, those points will function like a weaker version of Rampage.
• I tend to get this around level 30 when level-ups are still fairly fast, but I don’t leave points unspent unless I’m out of rerolls.

Mods: Wild

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Hypermetabolism

• I recommend getting this fairly early. You may want a second copy in the very late game.
• Even with the hull strength penalty, you’ll have 200+ hull in the late game with proper mods.

Chaotic Ambition

• You’ll eventually want ~4 of these because you’ll take nothing but wild mods in the late game. The extra rerolls are also nice.
• This is a rare mod, so take it whenever you find it unless you already have enough. Not having enough Chaotic Ambition can cause your run to stall out.

Bravado

• This gives nice bonuses with no real downside for this build, since we easily overkill the vast majority of enemies.
• Get this whenever it comes up, after your build feels competent.

Defiance

• This is great for reducing self-damage from Celestial Lance and damage taken in general.
• You want 10+ of these eventually. You should take them whenever they’re available.

Rampage

• This mod provides huge value to the build, increasing both damage and durability.
• Since we are eventually moving nonstop anyway, there’s no real downside to this mod.
• In the late game, you’ll want to take this anytime Defiance isn’t offered on level-up.
• If you get too fast that Celestial Lance starts to overtake your regen, you can just stop manually thrusting and let the auto-thrust from Rampage take over while you recover health.

Slipstream

• This is inferior to Rampage, but it’s a decent pick if you’re short on rerolls and there aren’t any better options being offered.

Revelation

• Basically a free upgrade point, since you’re getting 3 mods for 2 points.
• Ideally, you want to use this on Defiance, or Chaotic Ambition if you don’t already have several. Just make sure you don’t use it on Hypermetabolism.

Winnow

• This is worth taking for the bonus rerolls if it’s offered with mods you don’t need.
• Banishing unwanted mods can also help the things you want show up more often.

Transmogrification

• Ideally, you don’t want to take this. But it’s decent if you’re low on both Chaotic Ambition and rerolls.
• Don’t take this if you have more than a few rerolls left.

Other Tips

Rerolls are very valuable in this build, so don’t waste them in the early game.

• If you aren’t offered the right weapon after killing the first enemy, restart until you get it.
• If you aren’t offered the Hullbreaker body right away, use the standard body until you find Hullbreaker on level-up. If you don’t find it by level ~15, then you may want to start using rerolls.
• In general, try to save rerolls for late game, where you’re going to be hunting for specific wild mods. Only reroll if there’s nothing being offered that you would eventually take for the build.

Obsession is a trap, in my opinion.

• Even though Obsession + Rampage gives a net bonus to hull strength, you’re still giving up a lot of hull from all the Defiance and other wild mods.
• You won’t need the extra damage and you’re typically losing 60+ total hull strength compared to a build without Obsession. I feel like Obsession is better in builds that aren’t taking 20+ wild mods.
• With that said, Obsession does make your run less reliant on luck to find the right upgrades since you can get 2 for each 1 you find. If you want to go this route, take Hypermetabolism first and then avoid recursive mods until you get Obsession.

Lean on Skirmish and Rebuke for mid-game leveling.

• There may be an awkward period where you’re not ready to take Hidden Power, but your Flak cannon with no upgrades and -30% attack speed from Hullbreaker is not enough to kill things at a decent pace.
• If you crash into things while constantly firing your weapon, Skirmish will give you +50% to both weapon and crash damage.
• The damage you take from crashing will fuel Rebuke, which will launch your armor stacks as Salvo-like homing projectiles that do pretty decent damage.

Screen wrap from top to bottom in the late game.

• This takes advantage of the fact that monitors are wider than they are tall. You’ll wrap more often going top-to-bottom than side-to-side, making it harder for enemies to aim at you.
• Once you get sufficiently fast, you may want to wrap at a 30-45 degree angle so you cover the whole screen after a few laps without having to constantly change direction.

Avoid taking low-value mods.

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• There are many mods that provide little to no benefit to the build. If you just take whatever is offered, you will run out of points and gimp yourself.
• This is why I recommend taking Ataraxia around level 30, so you can sit on unspent points until you have rerolls.
• If you have a lot of unspent points and you’re out of rerolls, you might consider taking a weak-but-harmless mod just to see if it will open up some better options. It’s a gamble, but sometimes it helps.
• Adrenal Module: In the late game, you’ll be at full health most of the time and you’ll also be one-shotting most bosses with crash damage. It does help in a pinch though.
• Terminate: It’s unlikely that an enemy would survive with exactly 1-12% health given how much damage you deal.
• Blitz: Things will rarely be at full health due to the burning everywhere.
• Phantom Strike: Sounds good for the crash damage and resistance, but it’s more trouble than it’s worth since it makes you change direction if you crash something without killing it.
• Scorching Wake: The extra damage is not needed. I guess it will trigger Purification more often?
• Discord: Again, you don’t need the extra damage. You’re also moving too fast for this to really have effective targeting.

Written by Effigy

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