The game was built from the ground up to ensure that all players can complete and enjoy the game without ever making a stop into the Crystal Shop. The rate at which players earn crystals scales nicely with each mission, the large Crystal Pouches, for example, in later missions, are worth well over a thousand crystals. Every Achievement, every rank, every mission unlock rewards the player handsomely with bigger and bigger crystal rewards. The Crystal Shop is there only as a convenience for players who wish to move things along just a little faster!
Occasionally we send out secret access codes that award bonus crystals or mercenaries. Follow us on Twitter.com/fungunner or become a fan on Facebook (here) as we often will post codes, contests and such there.
Sometimes we just don't see the world the way others do. The Select Mission screen actually scrolls to the right, where, as you unlock missions, new missions will appear. We will make this more obvious in the next update :P
All Gunner apps on the same device will share the same saved game state. However, games do not carry over between 2 different devices, such as iPod and iPad. If you install the iPod and HD versions of Gunner on your iPad, we generally don't recommend you switch apps within the same mission, as bad things will happen! Progress, purchases, however will be fine.
At this time, to reset everything to the starting point, send @fungunner a message on twitter and we'll send you a code you can enter into the terminal window in options which will reset everything. This includes all upgrades, missions and Achievements. If however you have purchased crystals from the shop, then these crystals will be returned to you, to spend anew.
In the latest update, we have unlocked the novice mission by default. We do recommend you complete the training mission any way, as it does give you an Achievement, and the first time through is filled with crystal abundant asteroids.
Each mission in the first mission pack is divided into rounds. At the end of each round, players have the option to enter the Supply Depot. In the Supply Depot, you can spend crystals to replenish your shield, buy additional power ups to use on demand in the game and even visit the Hangar to permanently upgrade your ship.
Unlike other games, earning Achievements is crucial to succeeding in Gunner. Every Achievement is worth a certain number of points, the tougher or trickier the Achievement, the more points it's worth. As you accumulate points, you earn rank promotions, which unlock new upgrades in the Hangar. Later missions, though still theoretically doable without a single hangar upgrade, are much easier to tackle with than without.
Really the trick to getting through the later missions, is getting the right hangar upgrades. There's upgrades that will increase the duration of good power ups, and there's upgrades that will decrease the duration of bad power ups. There's upgrades to help you earn crystals up to five times faster, and over double the durability of your shield. All these upgrades will go a long way to making [?] Mission a lot easier.
There's really 3 reasons to play or replay a mission. Compete for high scores. Earn Achievements and promotions. Farm for Crystals. The right combination of Nexus abilities can really help, if you know what your goal is. For example, the Novice mission, though not very challenging, can be a great place to work on your achievements. The Normal mission, on the other hand, with Crystal Vac and Crystal Torrent, is farming heaven.
backThere are two ways to shoot, you can either hold down the Shoot button, OR you can rapidly tap the Shoot button. This achievement is all about tap endurance - not only how fast you can tap, but for how long?
Offensive power ups are power ups that temporarily upgrade your weapon. Defensive Power ups are things like Power Shield and Time Warp. Standard Power Ups are things like Shield Boost and Crystal Pouches. To achieve Power Pack you must only shot Offensive Power Ups (purple bubble). Keep in mind that even if you don't pop a non Offensive power up, if you hit it once, the counter resets. Also, you must hit the next power up before your current power up has expired.
| Rank | Pts Required | Reward |
| Recruit | 25 | 500 |
| Ensign | 100 | 1,000 |
| Lieutenant | 250 | 2,000 |
| Commander | 500 | 5,000 |
| Captain | 750 | 10,000 |
| Admiral | 1200 | 25,000 |
| Fleet Admiral* | 1850 | 50,000 |
| Mission | Crystals |
| Training | 100 |
| Novice | 250 |
| Easy | 1,000 |
| Normal | 5,000 |
| Hard | 10,000 |
| Pro | 25,000 |
If only I could remember... OK just kidding. If you browse the Hangar you'll see that MOST upgrades have anywhere from 3 to 5 ranks or levels. When you purchased the first 2 levels in any seven of the many available upgrades, you will receive the achievement the next time you start a mission.
At this time achievements are only awarded during missions. At the start of the next mission you play, the game will determine if you have become eligible for any new achievements and award them at that time.
Offensive power ups are things like Grenade Shot, and typically have a purple bubble. Standard power ups, like Crystal Pouches, are in a white bubble. Defensive power ups, like Time Warp, have a blue bubble. Negative power ups, like Drunken Chicken, have a red bubble.
The level 5 upgrade of Rapid Fire should tie you over until we release more upgrades in the future :)
To play the game? No. To unlock content? No. To bring in an additional Crystal revenue stream? Definitely! But here's the good news. The squadron system was designed so that even with a few friends, your squadron will grow and grow without any effort from you. I added 8 friends. I posted my squadron code in my app review in Itunes. I now have 261 friends!! Because unlike other games, when someone adds you, they are added to yours. When they recruit friends, your squadron grows. Every few days I see my squadron grow again and again, with NO EFFORT from me. We've made this as awesome as we can, and hope you feel the same!
Crystal rewards for posting your squadron code to Twitter or Facebook scale up with Rank, as follows:
| Rank | Reward |
| Trainee | 100 |
| Recruit | 200 |
| Ensign | 400 |
| Lieutenant | 600 |
| Commander | 800 |
| Captain | 1,000 |
| Admiral | 1,200 |
| Fleet Admiral | 1,400 |
To keep the game fair, the total number of mercenaries you can recruit is limited by your current rank. Also, the Squadron crystal rewards have a maximum cap in each mission. This cap might be raised in future missions, as more Hangar Upgrades become available.
The Squadron Crystal rewards are capped for each mission, the limits are as follows:
| Mission | Bonus Cap |
| Training | 0 |
| Novice | 500 |
| Easy | 500 |
| Normal | 500 |
| Hard | 750 |
| Pro | 1,000 |
| Insanity | 1,500 |
Please note that Hangar upgrades are applied at the beginning of the next round.