A “bare-minimum”, barely presentable guide on Invading, Dining & Slaying in Chicken Invaders Universe 🐔

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“I am not responsible for any potentially devastating decisions made after reading the guide!” Edition. v3/8/23 maintenance. Game version: v136.1

Welcome👋

Hey there, welcome to the UHF! It’s been a while since we got any recruits on this part of the galaxy. Are you brand new or did you transfer from somewhere else? Regardless, you have much potential! I’m sure you will do great exterminating the Henpire forces. I can already see them clucking in fear already, mhm.

Oh sorry, am I getting ahead of myself? *ahem* Don’t worry, I’ll show you the rope and get you some refreshers. Here, follow me. I’ll show you your brand new ship! Do you have any questions? Feel free to ask me anything, I will try my best to assist you!

Use the outlines on the left side and/or the table of contents to skip to your desired section. Most of the information here is covered by the in-game help menu. You don’t even need this guide to be honest!

Table of Contents

Use this for navigation. You can click on the titles of each section to return here at any time.

What is all this?

This is Chicken Invaders Universe, a “shoot-em-up” game where you, a UHF (United Hero Force) recruit, fight against the Henpire, the evil chicken empire which plans to take over the entire universe. This game is also an “MMO” where there can be many other players like you on the map, and you can join up with them (provided that they have a multiplier game right now and you don’t have Symmetric NAT).

Tutorial (Recap?)

Oh? Did you do it already? Wow, that saves me the trouble of explaining then. I’m sure you got the gist of it already. In case you skipped it for some reason, I can recap it real quick:

• You move your ship, kill chickens with your weapon of choice, and dodge their projectiles (egg, bird poop, etc.)
• When you shoot, your heat bar goes up, but if it fills up, your weapon overheats, and you need to wait for it to cool down before using it again.
•  You can equip special weapons: Deadly consumables that can wipe the screen, clear projectiles, and more (Dimensional-Phase Out, Damage Amplifier, etc.)
• Sometimes enemies glow yellow; glowing enemies drop keys, the most important currency in the game.
• Also, you may want to rely on the in-game help button because it IS useful!

Eh? You’re wondering if I have tips before you get started? Well… in my opinion, there are two important settings that can improve your quality-of-life:

• Pro-gamer mode: It reduces explosions, screen shakes, and the time it takes to transition stages (saving time!). In addition, it makes powerups and bullets visible at all times, which is a HUGE benefit in missions and multiplier games where explosions and chaos are constant. I highly recommend you turn it on!

(Optional) Colorblind mode: Adds a letter on top of each weapon gift box: P for Plasma Rifle, LF for Lightning Fryer, etc. However, it should be noted that if zoomed out, the letter may cover some parts of the screen and make it distracting.

Both these options can be found in the Gameplay section of the Options menu. You can change up any other options, such as key binds and frame limits, for your liking. There is another notable option in the Graphics menu:

• Self-explanatory & optional. High-contrast text can improve readability in some cases. On by default on mobile versions, off by default for desktop.

The Bigger Galaxy

You did it! Now the galaxy is open to explore to your heart’s content. Try to zoom out and see how big it really is.

Chickens… chickens everywhere…

Each dot represents a star system that you can go to, and those systems contain many planets and other anomalies that can offer you many challenges. Prepare to cr- I mean, have fun exploring!

Help, I’m lost!

Lost? Don’t worry. Just click the magnifying glass button on the left, and voila, you’re back at your ship! Works anywhere, 100% guarantee. Now moving on…

Map Buttons!

You will use these a lot, trust me.

First, let’s look at the top right corner. This is your Status Overview.

• The large number on top is your total accumulative score. The more missions you do, the more your score goes up. Your tier will increase as you earn more points.
• Key icon: Shows the amount of keys that you have.
• Water drop icon: Shows the amount of fuel. Fuel is used to travel from system to system
• Food icon: This shows the amount of food that you have acquired from defeating the nefarious Henpire forces. Food can be sold to a Space Burger for keys. Some Space Burgers accept your food for higher prices, so pick your shop wisely!
• Staircase icon: Your tier. Your tier increases as you gain more points (up until tier 99, which is 4,851,000,000 points). Some missions have a minimum tier restriction, so get that number up, up and up!

• Special note: If you’re looking to add a contact, you cannot send a request to someone that is more than twice your tier. So get that tier up.

Coordinates (Numbers on the bottom left)

These are your coordinates! The coordinates start from (0+0) from the bottom left corner to (999+999) at the top right corner. They are used to share locations, such as a store that sells legendary gear, wormholes, key rushes, and more!

One of the best example of coordinates being used: legendary tracking chart.xlsx (It is important to note that the coordinates being listed are the coordinates of the dealerships when they were visited, remember that due to their orbits, their coordinates will slightly change).

Fleet Customization (Loadouts)

Okay, now that you have decent knowledge on how to explore and use the map, let’s skip to the fun part! Let’s open up your Profile, and Fleet Menu! This is where you customize your ship. This will be a two-parter lecture, so please bear with me. I’ll try not to bore you too much. Prepare yourself!

I know! I know! It can be very overwhelming at first, but let’s look at it one step at a time. Let’s look on the right side, with all the numbers and sliders. (Ship Stats)

• Mass (10^3 kg)

Ignore this stat. It is often viewed as the most worrying stat, but in fact, it does absolutely nothing. Speed is not related to mass at all.

• Reactor power produced (kW)

The amount of power that your reactor produces. Your “reactor power consumed” must not exceed this value.

• Reactor power consumed (kW)

The total amount of power that your engines, heat sink & weapon uses. It must not go above the value of your “reactor power produced”.

• Fuel efficiency (parsec/liter)

The fuel efficiency of your engine/thruster. Higher value means that you travel more while using less fuel.

• Maneuverability (m/s2)

How fast you move in missions. Some would argue that you don’t need speed as long as you kill everything. I’m not so inclined to agree.

• Thermal Capacity (J/gK)

This value dictates how efficiently your heat sink performs. Get this higher, so you can fire more without overheating often.

• Hardpoints

Decoration slots for you to express yourself even more! Or irritate your friends by blinding them with trails and shields! There are many customization options, from custom shields to dust trails. Some ships have more hardpoints by default, and if you have a CHL (Chicken Hunter License), you can spend keys to buy up to 6 extra slots.

An example. This is my loadout, using Plasma Rifle as a weapon and 6 hardpoints. Oh, you noticed the crystals next to my parts. They are legendary parts, and I will explain it later~!

Now onto the left side! You now know the basic stats of your ship. Now it is your turn to pick your parts, and make them fit together.  Your ships consist of six parts (components):

• Weapon

Your starting weapon. You have many choices! I will dedicate pages to weapon selection later on! For now, upgrade your Moron Railgun to level 3 as a safe starting point and then discover which weapon you really like.

• Weapon Booster

There are two types of weapon boosters available in the game: Overdrive and Accumulator. You get Overdrive for free, but I highly recommend you get Accumulator too and try it out. Your ship only has 1 slot, so you can only use one. (You can swap boosters and use them for different types of missions).

• Overdrive: Increases firing rate at the cost of extra heat. Useful for short and brutal missions where time is important and you don’t mind spending coolant to negate overheat.

TLDR: +50% fire rate, double heat.

• Accumulator: Now this is an interesting case. It works like Overdrive, but with one key difference. Whereas Overdrive is always available, the Accumulator is not. You build up - or rather, accumulate charges by waiting for it to fill up naturally (the first 3 bars) and killing enemies normally (the latter 2 bars) .

Double-clicking your fire button will cause the Accumulator to begin discharging and grant you a boosted firing rate just like Overdrive, but the huge difference here is that until you either disengage your booster or run out of charge, your heat gauge will stop increasing.

The capacity of the Accumulator allows at most 6 seconds of continuous discharging. While discharging, you get 50% extra fire rate and suspends your heat level.

If you stop using the booster, it will take 2 seconds to cool down before you can begin building up charge again. The cooldown can be bypassed by collecting powerups.

The trade-off is that you can only engage for a short time and it is not always available as charge is limited, meaning you cannot sustain a heavy barrage during waves with a lot of tough enemies. But take the time to master this booster and your heat gauge might as well look like this, because you will (almost) never overheat!

• Reactor

Reactor powers the heat sink, engine & weapon. Think of this as a capacity: Stronger heat sinks and engines require stronger reactors. There are currently 3 reactors in the game:

• Mr. Fusion Plutonium: Cheap, lowest power capacity
• Proton-Proton: Expensive, highest power capacity
• Uranium Fission: Medium premium

Proton-Proton Reactor is the best reactor due to having the most power capacity.

• Heat Sink

Heat sinks are responsible for your weapon’s heating. Hate that overheat? Get a better, more efficient heatsink. There are currently 5 heatsinks in the game:

• Aluminum Nitride
• Beryllium Oxide
• Copper (You start with this!)
• Cubic Boron
• Pyrolytic Graphite

Comparison of heat buildup for all heat sinks. TLDR? Legendary Cubic Boron heatsink is twice as effective (double capacity) as your starting heatsink

Some extra stuff: Currently, all heat sinks have the same cooling speed when not overheated. However the time to fully cool down after overheating is always 3 seconds, which means that heat sinks with more capacity actually cool down faster when overheated.

Cubic Boron Heatsink is the best heat sink due to having the highest heat buildup.

• Engine

Engines(thrusters) are responsible for your ship’s maneuverability and fuel efficiency. A better engine helps you move faster in missions and travel farther using less fuel. There are currently 4 engines in the game:

• Electrostatic Ion
• Hall-Effect
• Magnetospheric Plasma
• Pulsed-Inductive

Hall-Effect Thruster is the best engine due to having the most maneuverability & fuel efficiency.

Mission Configs

*sigh* That was quite a lot of information to process, wasn't it? Feel free to take as much time as you need, that was quite a wall of text. Be warned though, this section is going to be… worse.

Mission Config is what your loadout is before slaying chickens. Not to be confused with ship loadout, the Mission Config lets you prepare items & more to go with your mission. Like a famous tactician once said: “Preparation is key before dinner” or something like that. Each ship comes with a different amount of slots available too, so keep it in mind.

Let’s take a look at the equipment (mountable) slots.

As you can see, there are currently 4 lives, and three missiles equipped.

Eventually, you will be able to purchase more slots and have more equipment to deal with harder missions.

There are three types of equipment: Auto-use, Perishables and Manual (Special Weapon).

• Auto-use items are mostly considered to be “essential”. Extra lives and coolants are almost always needed to guarantee your survival. They are consumed upon death. Once they are consumed, they are gone forever.
• Perishables grant you an effect/modifier during the mission, and is consumed after finishing/surrendering the mission. However, if a mission is canceled, they do not get used up.
• Manual (Special Weapon) is activated manually; they unleash massive devastation on enemies.

Auto-use

My personal opinion?

Well, if you ask me… I mostly bring Extra Lives and Coolants on my missions. They are great for emergencies and are suitable for all types of missions. The others are not a bad choice at all either. Under the right circumstances, you can literally kill bosses instantly and end waves in under a second. Plus, you would be gaining a lot of style/epic points. Who doesn’t like being cool?

Others’ opinions? Spill the secrets, veterans!

• Coolants are good for Space Race, and so are Poultry Paybacks, they’re really good for skipping time. Trust me, I’ve won 10 Space Races (neonep)
• ^ What this guy said. Coolants are broken in Race and Payback suicide strats are great. But sometimes you’d be better off not exploding your spacecraft as the explosion itself takes one second and you still take time to respawn cos Speedy Recoveries are banned, meaning if the explosion doesn’t wipe the screen, you just wasted time. This knowledge will come from practising so give it a try! (Liam)

Perishables

Here is where it gets spicy. These items are literally game-changing, and depending on your playstyle, some of these can be good, and vice-versa.

My personal opinion?

Compared to Auto-use Items, perishables have many uses depending on your playstyles. Perishables are gone after one mission, so I usually don’t bring them unless it’s a really hard mission. My loadout varies:

• If there's a mission type that slows me down, I take some jets to compensate.
• If there’s a short but brutal mission, I take Power Preservers to minimize loss, and Repulsor to be safer.
• If I want a higher score, I would take Appetite Attractors.

Just experiment and find out! There are some crazy synergies with perishables (Preserver and Invul. Extender for example) out there that I can’t even begin to fathom.  

Others’ opinions? I would love some secondary inputs!

• Use some attractors, and uhhhh maybe like 3 jets to get more points in comps I guess (neonep)
• Manoeuvring Jets and Appetite Attractors are pretty much a must if you want to score high in competitive missions, though you can scrap the Jets if you don’t use a BX spacecraft. However many Jets you bring is up to personal preference; I generally bring 3-4.

When it comes to Space Races, I like to bring Power Preservers since I utilise suicide strats (though if I only have to do this once or twice, I can scrap them to save on keys) and I’ve also started bringing 3 Thrust Vector Controls (which are great since I don’t need a direct line of sight, nor do I have to move my ship as much) and 4 Bullet Spray Expanders (for Positron, they increase the reach of the beams, which synergises super well with the TVCs).

Also, in the rare event I decide to take on the Ironman Competition, in lieu of Dimensional Phase-outs, I bring 3 Invulnerability Extenders, which grants me 12.5 seconds of invulnerability every time I die; of course, I do still make an effort to avoid having to resort to what is essentially God Mode. (Liam)

Special Weapons

I see you looking at the red button over there. They are the key to release your Special Weapon, a consumable that obliterates the enemy. Huh? You’re asking if they are WMDs? Not sure…

Note: Using special weapons will disable certain bonuses (Multikill, Pecking Order, and Clean Sweep, though Early Bird is still possible to get)

My personal opinion?

Damage Amplifier and Dimensional Phase-out (DPO) stand out, because they have more utility besides clearing enemies and projectiles. With amps, you deal a whopping 3x damage to enemies (including bosses!). Combined with DPOs, you can literally turn into a god (as long as you don’t run out).

For explosions, I prefer Clucker Bombs over everything else due to instantaneous (and long-lasting) activation. Missiles are good, but they take time to travel and their explosions clog up the screen. Conversely, Mines are clean, but they have a delay before exploding, which can be dangerous. Shockwave Capacitor activates instantly and smoothly, but it has a smaller range compared to Clucker Bombs. Besides, I’m not cool enough to use it efficiently. (maybe you can!)

Others’ opinions? Contributors, feel free to add your own!

• If you wanna farm keys, you can use an amp on a Boss Rush to get rich. Even better if you have a CHL, in which you’ll get very rich using amps on a Double Team (neonep)
• To be perfectly honest, once you’ve gotten yourself established and gotten a handful of tough missions under your belt, you really don’t need to use any special weapons whatsoever. I won’t deny they’re good to have in a pinch though, but still, I believe it’s best that you make an effort to not rely on these weapons. Unless it’s Cup KOs and you get Comet Chase in which case bring a ton of DPOs to cheese it :) (Liam)

Always-on

These are equipment that can help you get more slots, optimize your traveling experience, and allow you to explore certain locations (such as gas planets, suns, etc…) I would emphasize on getting shields and more loadout slots first.

Color Theme: You can customize the color of the GUI of the game. Want your HUD to look purple? Orange? Multi-colored? Transparent? You got it!

Config Preset: Allows you to create presets which you can instantly load in the next time you need equipment for a certain mission, saving you a lot of time.

Extra Slot: Grants you an extra slot to equip more stuff in your loadout. Up to 24 extra slots can be bought. The total number of slots cannot exceed 30 (ship + extra), so plan your configs carefully (or don’t!)

EM shield: Allows you to explore planets with electric environments.

Event Horizon Stabilizer: One of two items that is needed to explore wormholes (You also need Gravity Nullifier)

Gravity Nullifier: Needed to explore suns and the component that allows you to explore wormholes. (You also need an Event Horizon Stabilizer)

Heat Shield: The other item that allows you to explore suns and hot planets.

Orbit Droid: Speeds up the process of entering/leaving orbit.

Warp Boost: Decreases time needed to reach top speed while traveling. Tip: Bear in mind that this does not make your ship travel faster, it only gets you to max speed faster. I highly recommend buying a Warp Drive first (Liam).

Warp Drive: Increases top speed during traveling.

Warp, Interrupted: Helps you stop traveling in case you change your mind (Let’s be honest, who uses this)

HUD/GUI Enhancements/Insights

Do you want more information, like the health of your enemies? Or maybe your weapon damage? Perhaps points earned on every hit? You got it! There are 6 types of purchasable HUD enhancement in the game, each serving different purposes. Each of them take up one slot in your mission loadout, so choose whichever you want to display (or use all 6!)

Damage Indicator: Shows how much damage you deal to enemies on your HUD.

Destruction Meter: Shows a “destruction meter” on the left side. Very fun to take in multiplayer! What does this even do…

Enemy Health Indicator: Shows remaining enemy health on your HUD.

Pecking Order Revealer: Shows the correct kill sequence in order to achieve Pecking Order. Pecking Order is one of the most important score bonuses, so take it if you plan to pursue a high score in competitive missions.

Points Indicator: Shows points earned on your HUD.

Progress Meter: Ever collected food, only to be ambushed by a swarm of chickens and die? With this, you will never let down your guard at the wrong time ever again. This shows the wave progress in percentages on your HUD.  It’s also super nice to look at.

List of Insights (Fortune Teller):

Heat Insight: Add a heat gauge on your spacecraft. Now you won’t have to look at the top left to check your heat!

Keys Insight: Missions have a “key fluctuation bonus” that varies between -10% and 10%. This insight will inform you whether the system will have a positive or negative key fluctuation by adding a filter on the Galaxy Map. Up arrows means positive fluctuation, and vice versa. As you can tell, this is very insignificant.

Note: Competitive missions do not have key fluctuations.

Score Insight: Just like keys, missions have a “score fluctuation bonus” that varies between -10% and 10%. This insight informs you whether the system will have a positive or negative score fluctuation… This is even less important than the Keys Insight.

Note: Competitive missions do not have score fluctuations.

Price Insight: Adds a filter on the Galaxy Map that shows systems with cheaper/expensive prices. Price changes daily, so keep it in mind. Up arrow means expensive, down means cheap. Sell at systems with up arrows, and buy at systems with down arrows! Profitable Burgers are worth it!!

Wave Insight: Adds an indicator at the bottom right that shows what the next wave will be. Helps you prepare for the next wave.

Countdown Insight: Adds an indicator below your spacecraft that tells you the length of special weapons, respawn time and multikills before they run out. This can be useful when using Invulnerability Extensions because you can prepare for when it ends.

Licenses

There are 2 licenses currently in the game, you can buy these for less at Fortune Tellers:

• Squadron License: Allows you to create a squadron, you can upgrade it to add more members, up to 10 maximum. As a squad leader, you gain the ability to “assign” missions that you played to your squadmates, allowing them to play it too. Once you buy a license, you are not allowed to sell it for… implementation reasons.
• Offroad License: Allows you to travel out of the Interstellar Highway. Sometimes it can be very useful when the highway isn’t just cutting it. See the below picture for an example. Do note that off-road travel costs ~3.75x the amount of gas compared to highway travel.

SPECIAL: CHICKEN HUNTER LICENSE (CHL)

This is a license that you can pay for to get benefits, like access to Ironman and Double Teams, more contacts, etc… Chicken Hunter License can only be bought with real life currency.

Is CHL required to be good at the game? No. Not at all. A common misconception is that you cannot buy the most expensive model of every spacecraft without a licence. This is simply not true, you can still purchase them, albeit for double the normal price. 

(Matter of fact, neonep, our first Supreme Admiral wasn’t licenced for almost 50 days after reaching SA). Still you gotta admit, it is pretty cool. Not to mention, you’d be aiding development of the game, which makes you doubly awesome!

Skills/Difficulty

If you take a look under your mission loadout, you can see a slot that says “Skills”. These are your difficulty sliders. Difficulty determines how easy/hard the mission is by modifying the mission. There are a total of 6 difficulties, each affecting how hard the mission is (ex: types of chickens, speed of their attacks), your score and key drop rate.

You start with “Rookie”, and you can purchase more skills/difficulties in the Galactic Store, or at a Heroes Academy for a discount.

• Tourist: Easiest difficulty. Scoring -25%, Weapon Damage +25% and a slightly reduced key drop rate.
• Rookie: Your default difficulty. Though you can still buy and equip it for some reason.
• Seasoned: Spice it up a bit. Scoring +50%, Mission Difficulty +10% and slightly improved key drop rate.
• Veteran: The “normal” difficulty in my opinion. Scoring +50%, Mission Difficulty +20% and moderately improved key drop rate. Oh by the way, every skill that’s harder than Seasoned also comes with a projectile speed boost for enemies too, starting with +10% for Veteran. Sharpen up your reflexes!
• Virtuoso: The “fun” difficulty in my opinion. Scoring +150%, Mission Difficulty +30%, Projectile Speed +20% and significantly improved key drop rate.
• Superstar Hero: The “most fun” and “why the fuck is everything fat” difficulty. Scoring +200%, Mission Difficulty +40%, +30% projectile speed and greatly improved key drop rate.

Backgrounds

Customize your background for your particular mission. Neat, but definitely low on the totem pole. Some people love the black background. I like the CI3 background. Yeah.

Music

You can buy different music tracks to use during missions, they’re absolute bangers, right? There are two types of music: Wave music that plays during waves, and boss music that plays during a boss battle. Yeah I’m just stretching this paragraph…

Cuisines

Cuisines change the type of food that falls out of enemies during missions, there’s even a rare cuisine only found at Shady Dealers. You can mix-and-match three types of cuisine for even greater variety… and an EVEN greater balance of nutrition!

Mission Types

Chicken Invasion: Waves of enemies coming at you in different formations, compositions, etc… This is the most popular mission type. Do I need to explain this? Come on, the game is literally named “CHICKEN INVADERS”!

Squawk Block: Remember Space Invaders? A big square formation of chickens will descend upon you slowly, before crushing you in their stampede. Kill all of them before they crush you! I promise you, it is not as boring as you think.

(Note: You can only move left and right in Squawk Block. As you kill more enemies, the block speeds up. Exercise caution.)

Supernova: Survive an onslaught of giant, fast debris that breaks off into smaller pieces upon being destroyed. Can be very brutal if not careful. As an extra note, raw firepower is the most important thing there, not mobility. BX (or Muller if you want a smaller hitbox) ships are recommended. Accumulator as well, since gaining charge doesn’t even take effort there with the sheer number of fragile debris. Now go out and blast some debris!

(Tip: Spread weapons, such as Ion Blaster can help. Avoid slow and/or straight-firing weapons like Absolver Beam, Laser Cannon, Plasma Rifle, etc.)

Meteor Storm: Rock and Stone! A mission type composed purely of meteors (well, almost, there’s a 5% chance to have a Meteor wave replaced by “Treasure Shower”). Meteors can appear downwards, sideways, or even behind you… in two directions!! Fortunately, they are slower than the regular “Asteroids” waves.

“Grazing” meteors give extra points here too. Don’t obsess too much over grazing though. Do you think risking your life for a few extra points is worth it? You will never be Reimu.

Feather Fields: As the name says, feathers are the main star of this mission type. Feathers are large and can be knocked back easily depending on your weapon. Easy, right? Nope. The biggest threat isn’t the feathers themselves, rather the lines of chickens hiding amongst them…

Boss Rush: A mission that consists of only bosses. Fun, especially with friends (and high ping!), but mistakes can be punishing. Be mindful of the mission’s difficulty level before diving in.

Darkness: Lights out! A Chicken Invasion, but you have severely limited vision, unless you use a spaceship that grants immunity (VF-76). Firing will slightly expand your vision, while damaging enemies will extend your vision so that you can see what was hit, so keep firing :>

Extra note: If a darkness mission features lightning environment, lightning strikes will light up the entire screen for 1 second too. Dying will fully light up the screen, though this is undesirable.

Key Rush: A rare mission that drops more keys than normal, but you can only attempt it ONCE. The base difficulty of those missions is always 25% -> 100%. Can have up to 5 stages, with each stage always being 10 waves long.

Comet Chase: A mission that can really bring pain if you’re unprepared. You may think this is similar to Meteor Storms, but they are not. Fast and large comets come up from behind you, overlapping each other and you have a pixel to squeeze through. Sometimes, RNG will hate you (more often than not), so bring DPOs to prevent yourself from being stuck and dying.

Tip: Use Vulcan Chaingun with Overdrive. When you fire Vulcan Chaingun for long enough, its accuracy will decrease and they can hit behind you. I prefer using Vulcans with an Accumulator + a bad heatsink and keep it at a high heat level constantly.

Double Team: Hey you! Yeah, you! Are you tired of boring old Boss Rushes? Do you feel the need for an extra challenge? Care to find out if you truly are a masochist? Well look no further! Introducing Double Teams! In these CHL-exclusive missions, you take on two (yes, two!) bosses at a time! This will truly test your knowledge of attack patterns and your ability to dodge. Expect to be defeated repeatedly during your first attempts, but keep at it and you’ll be dodging bullets like a pro! Oh, and did we mention that the key rewards for conquering these grueling missions is staggering? Does up to 13 keys a wave tickle your fancy?

Note: There’s a lot of bosses that are removed from DTs, these include every final, retro boss, bosses that can change the direction your spacecraft faces (Henperor’s Apprentice, Feather Brain), Multiplicity and Exponentially.

Note 2: Clarification! These bosses can appear in DTs: All UCOs, all Crabs, regular chicken bosses, Super-chick, Infini-chick, Blast from the Past, It’s too cold in space, Mysterious Ship, Iron Chef, Special Forces, and Party Time.

Droid Raid: Have you ever visited a Space Burger, and seen some droids doing deliveries? You can raid them for food. Droid Raid’s legality is quite… dubious, to say the least. Is it really piracy? You’re a hero, right? Regardless, destroy them to collect the food, easy and simple. Just be wary of any security escorts nearby and do not underestimate corpos! Warning: The UHF does not endorse the raiding of food delivery chains and will not take responsibility if you are apprehended by the space police.

Retro: Found at wormholes, this mission type makes you fight against… space invaders? The longer you stay, the more ferocious these… things become. Starting from “Beginner Loop” all the way to “Advanced Loop”, they are legion, an interdimensional enemy. Do not let them out! They’re also great for farming Pecking Orders, that is, if you have the patience.

Hybrid: Hybrid missions are missions that contain all types of chaos. The first stage may be a simple chicken invasion, but the next is a boss rush, then supernovas, then comets*… Long and varied. Want to play a hybrid mission? Check out the weekly or make it to the knockout stage of the Galactic Cup.

*This is not an accurate depiction of a Hybrid mission, a “special” stage is always followed by a Chicken Invasion.

Anniversary: Want to follow in the footsteps of The Authentic Hero? Now you can! Found exclusively at Heroes Academy, this mission consists of 120 waves that resemble Chicken Invaders 1 missions, including: saving several types of planets, asteroids, squawk blocks, diving chickens, etc…You can now save the world, Just like how the original Authentic Hero did!

Note: You can only move sideways, just like squawk blocks. You always start the mission with a 0fp Ion Blaster for authenticity’s sake.

Mission Environments

Each planet you visit might come with different environments. Combinations of two or more environments are possible, and should be expected on harder missions.

Massive: Immense gravity from nearby massive stellar objects will significantly impact your spacecraft’s maximum speed. Thanks Newton, you never should have discovered gravity in the first place! Its effect can be lessened with Maneuvering Jets.

Hot: The hellish temperature threatens to turn your craft into cinder. You will find your AC system less effective… and your weapon overheats 20% faster. Pack some coolants, and preferably a lot of water. (Unless you use Accumulator)

Cold (Frozen): The blizzard rages hard outside of your spaceship, and your seat is almost frozen. The cold cools your weapon down, helping it overheat slower(hey, it’s +15% time to overheat for free, Overdrive users surely love it <3). However, the snow accumulating at your windshield is making visibility a problem. Make sure to clean it after the wave is over.

Electric: Your seat is drenched with the sweat from your body as you maneuver carefully to avoid any lightning strikes. On Electric missions, lightning occasionally pops up and threatens to take your ship down. Avoid them. Fortunately, lightning strikes won’t appear immediately, as warning lines will be shown for around 2 seconds prior to a strike, and lightning strikes don’t linger after striking. They are only deadly if your ship is in the warning line right as the lightning strikes (which is precisely 1 frame). The bravery to cross those warning lines is another thing however…

COMPETITIVE Missions

I’m sweating just by typing this. Competitive Missions are challenging, high-level missions that require the best piloting skills. Just killing everything fast doesn’t guarantee you a spot in the leaderboards; you have to learn how pecking order works, maintain multikill chains for as long as possible, and try your best to collect every food & coin that drops. And of course, luck… rng…

Space Race: A 5 x 6 Chicken Invasion with 0-100% difficulty and Rookie skill; forget about score, time is what really matters here as you race against the clock to recover an undefined ancient artifact for our UHF science team to analyse. You would think mindlessly spamming special weapons would be the way to go, but you’d be dead wrong, as using a special weapon will incur a massive 30-second time penalty, ouch!! Nope, no specials here! Your best hope would be to pack as much firepower (and coolants) as you can, memorise wave patterns, and even employ unusual strategies such as deliberately crashing your spacecraft with Poultry Paybacks*. Furthermore, satellites won’t penalise you, so bring them as well for more damage.

*For some reason, this does not damage the artifact in any way, yet employing explosives like missiles, mines, and capacitors. We’re unsure of why this is the case.

Daily Mission: 20-wave Chicken Invasions, split into 3 difficulties (Easy, Intermediate, Hard). Easy covers 0% -> 35% with Rookie skill, Intermediate 35% -> 70% with Veteran and Hard 70% -> 100% with Superstar Hero. Daily Missions have 4 types: Today’s Scramble, Pot Luck, Budget Constraint and Weapons Training.

• Today’s Scramble is a standard challenge mission with any loadout allowed.
• Weapons Training changes your weapon every wave and disables gift drops.
• Pot Luck forces a predetermined loadout on everyone who participates (spaceship, weapon, satellites, mountables and perishables), while also disabling gift drops like Weapons Training.
• Budget Constraint is the same as Pot Luck, except there are no mountable/perishable items other than Extra Lives, and gift drops are available just like a regular mission.

Weekly Challenge: A lengthy 100-wave Hybrid, starting from 0-100% difficulty. Prepare for a long, arduous battle.

Ironman: A very difficult 50-wave Invasion only for the most courageous or most reckless of recruits. In here, the base difficulty is always 100% -> 100%, locked to Superstar Hero, featuring 3 environments, with 2 of them always being massive and lightning, the third is either hot or frozen, has its exclusive +80% enemy projectile speed boost that stacks with the boost from Superstar Hero (enjoy projectiles that leave the screen in less than half a second), with every 10 waves being a DT, exclusive to CHL owners. (The two projectile speed boosts stack additively so enemy projectiles are a whopping 110% faster.)

League: An arena where you dare fellow recruits for League Points. you can also send Friendly Dares to contacts that won’t affect your rating.

Galactic Cup: Only the biggest, baddest competition to ever grace the UHF. The Cup is split into three phases: Qualification, Group, and lastly, Knockout.

Phase 1 (Qualification, 3 days): The new Galactic Cup is announced, and all recruits are invited to participate. This phase consists of a single 6 x 8 Chicken Invasion with difficulty 0-100% and Rookie Skill. You may attempt the mission as many times as you like, but bear in mind that only your most recent attempt will be accepted at the end of the 3-day period.

Phase 2 (Group, 7 days): The top 256 scores from the Qualification phase move on to the next phase. All recruits are randomly divided into 32 groups of 8 and are matched against each other twice in a double Round Robin bracket.

Every day, you’ll face off against 2 other recruits (or sometimes the same recruit on the same day) in your group by participating in 2 separate missions (difficulty 34-100%) which can be just about anything, except Droid Raids and Retro Invaders. The recruit who earns the most points wins 100.0 points, the loser earning a fraction of 100 points depending on how their score compares to the winner. For example, if the winner had 40,000,000 points and the loser had 35,000,000 points, the loser would earn 87.5 points. Note that if one recruit plays their match, but their opponent does not, the former will earn 100.0 points by default. The maximum number of points you can win throughout the phase is 1,400.0 points.

At the end of the 7-day period, the top 4 recruits in each group will qualify to the next phase.

Phase 3 (Knockout, 7 days): Now this is where things get interesting (and brutal). The 128 qualifying recruits are paired off in 1v1 Hybrid missions (8 x 8, with 64-100% difficulty, sometimes having environments); the recruit who scores more points will move on to the next day while the loser is eliminated, simple as that. This is a single elimination bracket, so no second chances, you must pull out all the stops and put your best foot forward if your goal is to win! The recruit who emerges victorious at the end of Day 7 is crowned the victor of the Cup and is awarded the much-coveted Galactic Cup. Then there is a one-day break before the next cup begins. 

Tip: You should bring a lot of DPOs in case of Comets in the match.

Weapons! Finally, let’s move to the good stuff!

Okay, now that the boring pre-mission stuff is all in the past, time to focus on your weapon. So many choices! There are many types of weapons, and it can be overwhelming at first. This guide was or made as a “Weapons 101” guide after all.  

How do weapons and firepower work in this game?

You start with a weapon of your choosing that you equipped in your ship’s Weapon Slot. If you upgrade your weapon, you begin with more starting firepower (up to 8).

There are 11 firepower levels⚡ total. Collecting gifts of the same weapon and atoms increases your firepower (fp)⚡ by 1. You can get to 10fp⚡by just collecting gifts and atoms. Note: Switching gifts (weapons) does not increase your firepower.

Well, how do I get to the 11th firepower level then?

The 11th⚡level, (also known as MAX, or 20th) is the highest achievable firepower for your weapon. To get there, you must fulfill two requirements:

1. Your ship must have a “(+MAX)” next to the firepower cap. This indicates that your ship is eligible for the 11th⚡level.
2. You must have +10⚡ (10 more firepower) from your ship’s max firepower cap.

1. If you have any Muller-type spacecraft: 10 + 10 = 20⚡needed total. The max power like in other games! (CI3, 4 & 5)
2. If you have a BX9: 18 + 10 = 28⚡needed total. Firing two 10⚡pylons at the same time!

Are there any potential losses that I should be aware of?

When you die, you lose fp depending on difficulty, with the most being 5⚡. The⚡loss can be reduced by using Power Preservers. (it is more complicated than that, but… should there be a detailed explanation?)

Satellites

Satellites are auxiliary weapons that can be mounted on the side of your ship, and can offer various utilities such as projectile clearing, or extra area of effect damage. They are useful, however they are limited in ammo, so be wise in their usage. Make sure to check your ship for how many satellites you can mount, and their position (very important!)

VF-76 (Left) versus M404 (Right). Note the number of satellites you can mount & their position. Every ship is different, even if they are from the same family! In this example, the VF-76 has 6 slots, 3 on each side while the M404 has 3 slots, 2 on the side and 1 in front.

There are 4 satellites available in CIU:

Satellites are purchasable in the Galactic Store (not recommended), or at a discount at Heroware. You own these satellites permanently, and if you consume them during a mission, you will get it back after the mission is over. Occasionally, satellites can be collected in missions (Alien Containers), but they go away after missions are done.

Spacecrafts

If you made it this far, congratulations! This is THE section that you’ve been waiting for. If you already took a look around, you must have noticed that you can buy different types of spacecraft. Every single spacecraft is different, and they offer different characteristics that can be useful in different types of missions.

There are 4 types of spacecraft in total. Each type contains 3 variants with varying strengths.

1. H&C (by Henne & Cock): With their itsy-bitsy size, these nimble reconnaissance spacecraft are great for slipping through projectiles unscathed, which should more than compensate for their general lack of fighting strength. For unknown reasons, piloting these spacecraft into the battlefield rewards you with a fairly decent key bonus, good for key rushes (not really) and for getting you through that early game grind. We are unsure of what causes the key bonus: Is it magic? Is it the glow-in-the-dark keyhole? Who knows?
2. Muller (by Muller Industries): The Jack-of-all-Trades go-to pick for all purposes. Good speed and solid firepower with access to the 11th weapon level at firepower 20. It’ll do you no wrong!
3. VF (by Black Nesa Research): Cutting-edge fighter spacecraft from the mysterious Black Nesa Organisation, designed with ultra-fast speed and resistance against the brutal elements in mind. The more expensive models are hardened to resist more hazards, but at the cost of their maximum firepower. Situational, yes, but hey, they look cool don’t they?
4. BX (by Locken Lowd Heavy Industries): The big, chunky, heavy hitters on the battlefield. No chicken can escape from the sheer strength of their double weapon pylons & the fact that they also have access to an additional weapon power which grants them even more strength! They are pretty slow on the other hand, so it’d take some time to get used to.

Know your spacecraft 101

So, you open up the Galactic Store, and you start to browse the number of ships available. You see this:

What are all of these?

These are your spacecraft’s characteristics. It shows several important stats that you should keep in mind. If you’ve read the full guide so far, you may already know what most of these are. But in case you didn’t, here are some recaps:

• Hardpoints: The number of external cosmetic decorations that your ship can carry. In addition, CHL owners can purchase an additional 6 slots.
• Satellites: The number of satellites that can be mounted. Be mindful of their positions!
• Slots: The number of Mission Loadout slots that the ship comes with. In the example, the BX-9 comes with 20 slots, so you only need to purchase 10 additional slots to reach the maximum of 30.
• Weapon power limit: The maximum power level achievable while using the spacecraft.
• Licensed: These ships are sold at the normal price for CHL owners, but Non-CHL owners will have to settle for twice the price (oof), or find a Shady Dealer.
• Maneuverability: This is the “native speed” of your spaceship. Each spacecraft offers a different speed. Several factors affect the maneuverability, such as… you know what I’ll just link you to Emerald’s guide.

Is the image unclear? Use this link: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/355451797852258315/954789430193954826/SpeedGuide.png

In addition, every spacecraft has a different hitcircle. Hitcircle refers to the area where your ship can be damaged. The smaller the hitcircle, the easier it is to squeeze through deadly hails of eggs and guano.

Is the image unclear? Use this link: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/355451797852258315/943578226075242586/SpaceshipHitcircleComparisonV3.png

H&C Series

Analysis & Opinion:

• They’re… fine I guess. But once you start using SSH regularly, the key bonus becomes insignificant and you basically end up with a smaller, weaker Muller. Sure, one of my spacecraft is a Comet Chase-themed 201, but that’s just about it. I don’t use these anymore. (Liam)Don’t really got anything to say about these (neonep)
• I firmly believe that the H&C 101 has a high key bonus only because it is the cornerstone to getting better weapons, ships, etc… Once you get a better ship, the H&C becomes obsolete. I won’t stop you from taking these into key rushes to increase your yields, but… it will be a very brutal experience, which I highly discourage. You don’t want to fail a key rush! (suzu)

Muller Series

Analysis & Opinion (Warning: bad humor!!!):

• I think that M408 is the best because it has 2 engines at the back. That is an objective fact. But seriously, any of them are good. The M404 has a satellite slot in the front, a literal life-saving grace. And of course, the M400 is the smallest, and fastest. (suzu)
• In my very professional opinion, M400 is the best cause it goes brrrr, and I don’t really use satellites (neonep)
• When you use them all enough, you end up noticing no difference between them whatsoever. But if I must pick one, I will have to pick the M408. While it has the biggest hitbox and the slowest speed, being able to mount 4 Barbequers makes me feel safer when I use them. My first Legendary spacecraft was a 408 so that’s a contributing factor to my bias. (Liam)
• Pretty much the most used ship family by most players due to good firepower limit + good speed. People will often consider between M404 and M408, since M404 has one front satellite slot, while M408 has two rear satellite slots for each side. Though more people still choose the M404 because M408 is much more expensive without a CHL (_someRandomDude.VN)

VF Series

Analysis & Opinion (Warning: Negative comments ahead!):

• They suck. The only purpose they serve is to fulfill quest requirements and to look cool. In all seriousness, I don’t think environmental resistance is worth reducing your firepower for. But I’m just speaking as a seasoned player who isn’t bothered much by hazards (well, except Lightning and Darkness, but I avoid those anyway). (Liam)
• I agree with the Bri’ish man above, once you’re done with the quests, sell them (neonep)
• They look cool… but that’s it. Their environmental immunity is not worth the tradeoffs to firepower. If you really, really hate darkness, get the VF-76. (suzu)

BX Series

Analysis & Opinion (Warning, competitive rambling!):

• The BX-9 is the ideal pick for competitive missions, you absolutely cannot compromise on firepower when your overall score is what matters. I do have to admit that when it comes to Pecking Orders it struggles a fair amount because of the mess it makes and because of its ability to hit two enemies at once can completely screw it up. This aside, its firepower is staggering and to be honest, I sometimes struggle to re-adapt to the Muller’s lesser firepower when I switch back. It does wonders in Space Race and I would also argue it’s the best pick for Ironman; you can wipe the screen clean of enemies before they even have a chance to threaten you. You may have also noticed I refused to talk about the lesser models; that’s because I don’t care for them. (Liam) Bring back the BX-6 :( (no)
• The BX-9 is very good (screw the other models) it may be fat and slow, but the firepower makes up for it, if you want to win any competitive missions, then use this with jets (Except Daily Mission Easy and Intermediate), I would rate it 9/10 (neonep)
• Isn’t BX-7 good in League at least? If you know you’re not going to get more than 14 firepower and don’t need too many satellites (Emerald)
• Slow, fat and potentially overkill firepower. BX shouldn’t be your first ship you buy unless you can get familiar with the lower speed cap. Avoid losing too much firepower too, because BX’s firepower can only outshine that of Mullers when given enough firepower. Feather Fields and Supernovas are where BXs really shine; those two mission types don’t demand much mobility, and are more focused on raw firepower. Not really recommended for mission types that require more grazing (Comet Chases comes to my mind), or demand mobility(like Double Teams), unless you know what you are doing of course :) (_someRandomDude.VN)
• Unlike neo and liam, I don’t play competitive missions. However, despite that, I agree that the BX-9 is great. It might be slow, but I don’t need to move when I can just… kill them all. The BX-7 is also “decent” as the “fastest” bomber to ease yourself into playing a slow ship, but think of the missing firepower! BTW, please don’t look at the BX-8. (suzu)

So what ship should I focus on getting first?

As you probably already noticed from the tables above, there is a recurring pattern happening. The “upgraded” variants are slightly larger, less maneuverable and more expensive, with the last variant requiring CHL for a decent price. However, they come with more mission slots, higher firepower cap, more satellite mounts & hardpoints.

I recommend grinding for fuel, and then go for a Legendary Muller series. M400, M404, whichever is closer. M408 is good too, but be prepared to shell out keys if you don’t have CHL.

After getting your Muller series, go for BX-9 (or other BX variants such as BX-8 if you don’t have CHL!)

(Should I recommend lower rarities crafts? Or just discounted ships nearby? Feel free to add to and/or rewrite this section.)

Quests

Quests are tasks that you can do to gain keys and rank up within the UHF hierarchy. There are 10 ranks: Janitor, Ensign, Lieutenant, Commander, Captain, Commodore, Rear Admiral, Vice Admiral, Admiral and Supreme Admiral of the UHF fleet. Quests get harder as you progress higher and higher.

There are even unconfirmed rumors that the higher you rank, the more respect you have… Why not check it out on the forums?

Me? What quest level am I? Uhh… Ensign… Please don’t make fun of me. I’ll let neonep take the next section…

Super Epic Quest Strats (By neonep)

Hi! I’m neonep, and I’m a Supreme Admiral, so I’m one of the very few who has the expertise about quests, and I’m gonna share what I do to get through these dreadful tasks.

Impacted shots: This isn’t really a hard quest, you can kind of play normally, though you can use Riddler, Ion, Photon and other weapons that shoot a lot of projectiles to rush through this quest

Satellite shots: You can just buy like 6 Microguns and equip them to a VF, if you don’t have a VF, then use another ship, like a BX, each Microgun can shoot 250 bullets, so 6 Microguns is gonna be 1500 shots per mission, though it will cost a lot of keys, so buy them at a Heroware to save some keys

Collect Gifts and Atoms: Playing Boss Rushes will help with these quests

Kill enemies and Collect coins: Supernovas can get you a lot of kills and coins, so it’s recommended to play this type of mission for these quests

Earn medals:

1. Annihilation: Squawk is the go-to mission here, as there’s enough enemies to get a medal in every wave (and if you want, you can also play supernovas, though it does take a lot longer than squawks)
2. Meritorious Marksmanship: Squawk is also the go-to mission here, using Positron or Plasma Rifle will help, just don’t go too crazy shooting, as a few misses can rob the medal from you
3. Great Appetite and Extreme Appetite: Squawk is the go-to again, just move left and right, try to get every bit of food
4. Every stage and mission medal: Squawks again, no satellites, special weapons, deaths, and kill em’ all!
5. Unpreparedness: Don’t equip satellites, don’t put anything in the slots, and just kill em’ all!

Almost every exploration quest: Just go explore lol

Explore constellations: Wormholes also count as constellations, so you can revisit them to make the quest a bit easier

Explore Landmark (Wormholes): Here’s the coord of every wormhole

097+957

222+828

597+898

769+906

035+660

335+605

531+738

515+621

621+542

832+566

957+695

054+410

062+285

234+132

542+269

660+292

765+203

722+074

933+328

960+097

Fly competitive missions: The best way to do this is to send friendly dares to contacts in leagues ( Most contacts won’t immediately respond to the dares, so you’re gonna have to wait for them to respond)

Fly mission difficulty: Fly a mission with the corresponding difficulty, you can use a skill to easily reach the difficulty needed if the mission doesn’t reach the required difficulty

Flight time: Fly the amount of minutes needed, a strat you can do is after you complete all the other quests, you can use special weapons in Space Race to easily rush through the quest cause every time you use a special weapon, you’d get a 30 sec penalty so it’s useful for this quest (Though this will cost a lot of keys, so use this strat if you’re impatient and sort of rich)

Collect food: Squawks AGAIN, and also Droid Raids (though Droid Raids are kind of boring)

Clean sweep: Our lord and savior, Squawks

Multikill: Squawks for the 100th time, get the Absolver Beam, shoot 1 row of enemies, wait until you get the multikill and then repeat

Pecking order: I recommend this mission below, make sure to use the HUD Pecking Order Revealer to understand the orders (If anyone else has a better mission, then you can tell me and I’ll put it down here)

Overpowered: I recommend this mission below, only three waves but you can still get the Overpowered bonus, pretty sick, right?

i

Super Size Me: Find a high difficulty boss rush with a lot of Chicken Bosses that drop a Super Size Me (Feather Brain, Dr Beaker, etc.), especially “Show’ em who’s boss!”, since there’s a lot of Big Chickens, which drop a Super Size Me each.

Combo Tip:

A pretty good way to do quests is to do multiple at once, so when you take a look at your quests, the first you should do is the competitive quest, combined with “Use weapon, spacecraft”(If there are any), combine this with the Difficulty quest and whatever medal quest you have, and if there are environmental or “Fly mission” quest, then try to find dares with that environment and that specific mission (Except Retros and Droid Raids)

If there’s a coin quest, try to find supernova dares

Food quest? Find some squawk dares

Medals

Medals are achievements that you can get for doing certain tasks. Medals gain you bonus score at the end of your mission, and some are really important to get especially in competitive missions, such as not using lives, special weapons, and multikills. However, in this guide there's only gonna be medals that need some clarification.

Medal of Extreme Unpreparedness: Awarded for not using any equipment, this includes not putting anything in slots, not bringing satellites even if you don’t fire them, though boosters are allowed. Yes, you heard me right: bring nothing! HUDS are not allowed either!

Great Minds Think Alike: To get this medal, you have to contribute to the game either by translation and/or suggesting good ideas on the forums.

Bug Exterminator: Just like the Idea medal, this medal is acquired by finding bugs within the games and reporting them.

Squadrons

Squadrons are often one of the most overlooked aspects in the game. Squadrons can be called a group, or “clan” that consists of 1 squad leader and up to 9 members (10 total). Squadrons offer some benefits for both squad leaders and members. Members gain 10% extra score when doing assigned missions, and leaders get keys when a member finishes a mission.

• To become a squadron leader, you must purchase a Squadron License at the Fortune Teller. Then, invite people. (This is the hard part, as it is pretty much impossible to communicate effectively in-game. Most people communicate via the Forums or the Discord). You can upgrade your squadron license to have 9 more members in your squad. (please join my squadron uwu)

• Your duty as a squadron leader is to fly missions and assign them to members. To assign the mission, fly it one time to completion (win) and in the end (medal screen), there should be a button to assign that mission to the squadron. You can assign that mission to only 1 squadron, so if you have multiple, only 1 squadron can be chosen.
• Every time a member flies a mission, you gain keys. First completion earns you 2 keys and increases by 1 for every extra member who does it. If everyone in your squadron finishes a particular mission, you gain 54 keys. Plus, if your squadron gets the most points in a week, the whole squad gets the “Busy Bee Accolade” medal.

• To become a squadron member, just ask around for open slots. You get 10% more score when flying assigned missions. You don’t have to move anywhere to do missions, so it’s pretty neat. Plus you get medals.

Locations

Space Burger: This is where you can sell food that you’ve collected playing missions, and in return, you’ll get keys, which vary depending on the Space Burger you sell your food to. Space Burgers sell cuisines on a discount, except for the Red Herring Cuisine, which can sometimes only be found at Shady Dealers.

Tip: Look for Space Burger that offers you lower food:keys ratio. 14 food for 1 key is average, 13 is good, and 15 is bad. Find the ratio by dividing your food by the amount of keys that particular Space Burger is giving you.

(Note: Some Space Burgers can have a droid flying around it, which gives you droid raid missions)

Heroes Academy: This is where you can buy/upgrade weapons, presets, and travel passes on a discount. You can also play the Invasion Anniversary here.

Aftermarket Station: This is where you can buy Auto-use, Backgrounds, Mountables, Music, Perishables, and Special Weapons on a discount.

Heroware: This is where you can purchase entire spacecrafts, the components for said spacecrafts, and weapons. Herowares sometimes sell rarity spacecraft, heat sinks, thrusters, and reactors, which are cheaper and better than normal ones.

legendary tracking chart.xlsx(This is a chart that displays coords of rarity items around the galaxy, regularly updated, you can also contribute yourself. Teamwork makes the dream work!)

Shady Dealer: These are alien-like creatures on UFOs who travel around the galaxy, selling 1 to 15 random but very cheap things, even cheaper than regional stores. Sometimes they sell Red Herring Cuisine, arguably the rarest cuisine in the game! Of course, they do sell Legendary Items too.

Note: Shady Dealers stay in a system for only 2-4 hours. All purchases are non-refundable.  Don’t even try selling to them (they are very stingy).

Fortune Teller (Madam Madámme): This is where you can buy Insights and Licenses on a discount (Excluding CHL). Some of these Insights will help you a lot in the game!

Gus’s Gas: This is where you can buy fuel on a discount. If you’re lucky enough, you may find Shady Dealers selling fuel at a price lower than any of these gas stations.

Wormhole: Kind of like a black hole. There are 20 of them scattered around the galaxy. To be able to explore them, you’ll need the Event Horizon Stabilizer and the Gravity Nullifier. Wormholes contain retro missions, and if you’ve explored 2 or more wormholes, you can teleport between them, saving you quite a lot of fuel. Wormholes are the best way to travel around the map. (Check neonep’s Quest Strats for the coordinates of all wormholes.)

Asteroid Belt: A bunch of asteroids spinning around each other, containing only Meteor Storm missions (watch out for asteroids from behind you!)

Enemies

1. Chicks

Chicks are the newborns, the next generation of the Henpire. Do not underestimate them just because they are small & literal babies. They can be as fierce and determined as their parents and even more cunning when it comes to plotting revenge against anyone who harmed them.

2. Chickens

Chickens are the standard Henpire forces, outnumbering us by over a trillion fold. An endless legion, spanning the entire observable universe. We have defeated them in every single conflict, yet they always return in greater numbers than before…

3. Mini-bosses

The strongest chickens, trained in the art of warfare, seduction, espionage, weaponry, culinary, management and & psychological torture.

4. Others

These are enemies that aren’t chickens. They are niche, only appearing in certain waves and some types of missions.

Newbie Progression

Well, with all this information now hopefully crammed into your head, you may be wondering: “Ahhhh what the hell?! There’s so many choices with what I can buy in the game! What am I supposed to start with?!!” And frankly, we don’t blame you. Won’t lie to you either, the beginning game grind is BRUTAL. But knowing what you should go for will make the process a WHOLE lot less grueling. Consider this your first trial, recruit; only when you’ve broken through the tough shell that is the early game grind, can you truly call yourself a UHF recruit.

Of course, you shouldn’t take what is detailed in this guide as laws set in stone; ultimately, it’s up to you how you want to tackle the challenge of the early grind. All we can do is offer advice and guide you into not making the least optimal decisions. Which is what we’re going to do here.

WARNING! LONG & SUBJECTIVE ADVICE AHEAD!

Route 1: By Liam [ENG] (v129)

Item 1: The Vulcan Chaingun

Now for starters, we gotta replace that poor excuse that you call a starting weapon. Yes, I’m talking about your Moron Railgun which you pulled out of a box of breakfast cereal. There is a plethora of weapons available to you, and you’re free to pick whichever one tickles your fancy. But if you came up to me and asked me for advice, I would wholeheartedly recommend the Vulcan Chaingun.

Now, now, Positron mains calm down, at least hear me out first before you witch-hunt me on the forums or on social media. I won’t deny Positron Stream is incredibly powerful. But the reason I didn’t recommend it is simple: I just think the Vulcan Chaingun is far more versatile. Focused fire, good spread, and a consistently high fire rate all in one package, all qualities I would look for in a beginning weapon. Since you still lack a good heat sink, I would veer well away from weapons such as Absolver Beam and Plasma Rifle, which is ironic because I main the latter; these weapons are indeed very powerful, but if used recklessly, you’re gonna end up overheating again and again and again, which trust me, isn’t fun. Now with what I said, you would probably be thinking “Oh, I should invest in a new heat sink then.” To that I would say… you could, but I would actually recommend that you buy…

Item 2: The Accumulator

If my rambling about how awesome the Accumulator is hasn’t convinced you yet, then allow me to elaborate further here. As mentioned before, discharging the Accumulator grants you an increased fire rate and also freezes your heat bar. Not only does this mean you can indefinitely avoid overheating (which is significantly harder with a bad heat sink), it also does a great job teaching you about firing discipline because it’s not always available to you, meaning you’ll have to use the booster a lot more wisely instead of just going full Rambo all the time. A reckless recruit is a dead recruit! Oh, I should also talk about how this booster synergises well with the Chaingun; since discharging freezes your heat bar, it would mean the weapon’s spread stops worsening, granting you even better control over the weapon. In time, you will come to appreciate being able to restrict the Chaingun’s spread. I wouldn’t blame you if you end up being unable to live without it.

Beyond this point, I’m afraid I’ll have to say “I don’t entirely know what you should buy next.” You’re probably thinking of getting a better heatsink or a weapon upgrade. Both are valid choices, but you cannot forget that your equipment consumes Reactor power, and if you try mounting equipment which consumes too much power, you can’t use them.

Route 2: By neonep

This is gonna be short and simple (sort of).

One, play missions and get some keys, you can do quests, but it’ll get costly later on

Two, I don’t really recommend Superstar Hero, as you may lose a bit more often, so buy an easier and cheaper skill like Seasoned or Veteran, then work your way up as you get better

Three, don’t buy satellites just yet, those are very expensive.

Four, don’t go buying a BX so soon, I recommend you buy something cheaper like a Muller so you can get more firepower while still being fast. (Don’t do what I did by buying a BX-8 right away, played a comet chase with it, then sold it immediately)

Five, upgrade your weapon, I’d prefer Positron, it’ll push you through the beginning

Six, buy a better reactor, then engine, then heat sink, or whatever order you prefer

Seven, if you want the most firepower possible, then buy the BX-9, though you’re gonna have to get used to the slow speed and fat hitbox (make sure to buy the Legendary one, it’s slightly faster than normal, the coords are in the tracking chart).

Eight, upgrade your Always-on stuff to save time when traveling

Route 3: by suzu (me!!!)

Wow, you’re choosing this route <3! You’re so sweet and kind, you know that?

First, you need to learn weapon discipline. That means you might want to move on from your cereal box railgun and change it to another weapon that deals better damage. There are two potential choices: Plasma Rifle and Positron Stream. They deal good damage, even at a lower level. Downsides? Your heat level will skyrocket like crazy. How do you solve this?

Accumulator. Learning how it works is essential for heat management. The ability to store charges, freezing heat levels and its economy is just simply better than Overdrive, if you choose to use Positron/Plasma.

Once you are comfortable with this obnoxious playstyle (that relies on Accumulator), go for higher difficulty for more key yields. Seasoned is recommended, Virtuoso/Superstar Hero if you like suffering.

Of course, go along, upgrade your weapons and also upgrade/acquire reactors to make sure that your ship can mount your Positron/Plasma. The H&C 101 that you start with only goes up to 8 firepower total, so if you want more, go get a Muller spaceship. It is up to you if you want to get one for cheap nearby, or use the Legendary spreadsheet to hunt for ones with higher rarities. And remember, you can always go for things with rare or uncommon rarity, but keep in mind that later down the line, you will have to upgrade them to legendary. (You’re not gonna settle for less, right?)

And during all of that, you can get some of the QoL stuff too, such as shields for exploring planets, more slots, warp drive, etc!

If you’re confused about what reactor/thrusters/heatsinks to get, check out the equipment data spreadsheet. (It also has a loadout calculator) HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1eC1NbJW780MJgmGTPyPjx-sPvhyeDaW7d24LTgBp4ug/edit?usp=sharing

TLDR? Plasma/Position with Accumulator and a moderately high difficulty. Grind and grind so you can upgrade the weapon to a high level and buy a muller. During that, get better parts (reactor) and even QoL items that suit your needs.

Route 4: By [TPkR].Error_Bonnie

Well you have decided to choose my way of getting from a newbie to a somewhat decent player. Well I have some tips for ya:

Tip 1: Social Distancing!
No, it’s not a pun from Covid, what I mean here is that it’s a good idea to keep your distance away from enemies (generally, stay at the border of your screen the opposite direction you’re looking at, if you are facing up, stay at the bottom, if you are looking to the right, stay far back to the left and if enemies are omnidirectional then stay at the middle of your screen. If you’re flying Comet Chase, then stay at the top of your screen). The idea here is to give you more time to react to certain enemies and projectiles if you are far away. And side note: don’t linger around corners for too long, you might find yourself getting cornered or enemies come in and brutally smite you that way.

Tip 2: Be (well) prepared!
Remember to bring a suitable number of equipment before you fly a mission, depending on how hard the mission is. I generally bring with me at least 4 Extra Lifes because making a mistake can cost you your in-game life, statistics and missions. If you’re a pro and pretty much dodge everything with superior accuracy, that’s great!

Tip 3: Inspection first then fire!
Generally, it’s a good idea to inspect a wave first before you fire, inspecting it first before shooting will help you to have an idea and plan routes. (Especially the “Among Us” wave)

Tip 4: Heat Management.
Depending on what weapon you use, it would be better if you use the best and upgraded heat sink in the game: fully upgraded Rare or Legendary Cubic Boron Arsenide Heat Sink. And use Accumulator if you want the most out of your weapon, always (and I mean always) listen to the beep while you’re firing, it’s a good time to give your weapon a break when that happens.

Tip 5: Use a better weapon.
There are a lot of weapons that you can use in the game but the most ideal is to use Positron (Vulcan is good too). If it’s your first time playing, you’ll be provided Moron Railgun as your primary weapon, replace it asap and upgrade it! You can play with it but you’ll have a difficult time when you’re playing long and hard missions.

Tip 6: If the mission is too hard, call for support.
In Chicken Invaders Universe, we have the ability to fly missions with other recruits and you have the ability to host a mission for everyone to join, if the mission you’re flying is way too hard for you, host multiplayer with that mission (keep in mind that you’ll need adequate bandwidth, CPU and GPU power and at least Port-Restricted NAT for others to join in. Read more about CIU Multiplayer here)

Tip 7: Play easier skill levels first and then slowly make your way there.
There are 6 skill levels in Chicken Invaders Universe: (Tourist, Rookie, Seasoned, Veteran, Virtuoso and Superstar Hero). Don’t go straight to Superstar Hero right away, you’ll have a bad time with it. Instead, play on Rookie or Seasoned first before advancing to harder skill levels.

Tip 8: Use a good spaceship for missions.
When you just started your experience in Chicken Invaders Universe, you’ll be provided with H&C 101 spaceship which is average for missions. But you would need a new spaceship overtime, it’s recommended to use M family spaceships, although they are heavy and quite slow, they are the most popular spaceship in Chicken Invaders Universe (and probably will always be) and they are good in firepower too, and as always, rarity matters.

Tip 9: Use the best spaceship equipment if possible.
The default spaceship equipment that you will use when you first started the game is Electrostatic Ion Engine and Mr. Fusion Plutonium Reactor, it won’t matter in normal mission but in massive environments, it will matter, your ship will move slower in massive environments so it’d be ideal if you have these 2: Hall-Effect Engine and Proton-Proton Chain Reactor (primary for the engine of course, but for weapons too) and have them fully upgraded for the best mission experience (massive environments like always).

Tip 10 (last one): If you're playing multiplayer, don't be a hoarder.

I've seen some players hoarding firepower in multiplayer, not only is it annoying, you're also putting yourself at risk. It's because when you hoard, you will move very fast but sometimes you'll end up ramming into enemies or barriers without even knowing that it's been there the whole time.

(OBSOLETE) (Please read carefully!) Key farming missions and coordinates

As of (v130), the unoriginality penalty is changed, and it covers keys gain too. What does that mean for us?

• TLDR, the more you repeat a mission WITHIN 12 HOURS, the less keys you gain, until you gain nothing at all.
• The penalty starts taking effect at tier 10 and ramps up to full effect at tier 50, so don’t worry if you’re just starting out.
• You can still “farm” using multiple missions in a cycle, but expect less payouts compared to before. So get a lot of missions in your list!

Key Rush (remember, key rushes can only be completed ONCE!)

Precious Shellac: 5x10-697+718
Svelte Birdcage: 5x10-093+652
Stained Gorgon: 5x10-177+796
Skeletal Mineshaft: 5x10-876+438
Striking Marguerite: 5x10-888+292
Periodic Friary: 5x10-655+431
Enormous Egoist: 5x10-669+447
https://forum.chickeninvaders.com/t/all-the-key-rush-locations/25357?u=neonep

Boss Rush

Flashy Fractionation: 1x9 93-100% 034+861(Recommended by DePeeper, good boss rush)

Vague Rebelliousness: 1x10 92-100% 140+688 (An epic mission, be well-equipped)
Conventional Bandbox: 1x10 93-100% 682+658
Colossal Compulsiveness: 1x9 82-90% 624+699
Royal Fencerow: 1x9 79-88% 621+700
Physical Charity: 1x10 90-100% 732+713
Mature Pseudopod: 1x4 82-86% 744+712
Decisive Haziness: 1x10 98-100% 802+799 (Expo is the first boss in here)
Jumbo Listenership: 1x10 95-100% 887+424
White Tooth: 1x10 94-100% 926+293 (ECCC is the first boss in here)
Dependent Appurtenance: 1x10 94-100% 136+687
High Conjugation: 1x10 94-100% 907+865 (Hend Game is the first boss in here)
Sweaty Pollution: 1x7 83-90% 832+468
Lean Adverbial: 1x5 94-99% 748+735 (Metal egg will be the second boss)
Affectionate Presider: 1x9 95-100% 475+649.

Dizzy Requirement: 1x9 82-91% 920+123 (78 keys per 2-3 minutes, 2.3k per hour) (Tested by TposerYT with M404, copper heatsink, tourist)

Shameless Wife: 1x7 73-80% 909+297 (59 keys per 2-3 minutes, 1.4k per hour on Tourist) (Tested by your mother)

Other types of missions (I will clean up this section later)
1: Meteor Storm (Recommend for Vulcan mains lol, and you should play it with superstar hero difficulty) (All tested by Cuongg, aka N.T Linh btw)
Excited Ganache 1x7 95-100% 661+417
2: Sudden Plantsman 1x12 86-98% 665+466 (Hot environment)
3: Funny Flyboy 1x7 90-97% 661+417 (If you play this with SSH difficulty,some waves will be rocks flying from behind you,so be careful.)
4: Necessary Regency 1x7 77-84% 661+417

5: Capital Youth 1x13 91-100% 702+507

Double Team Missions (Ultra hard, massive key gains, CHL only)

1: Huge Furrier 1x10 91%-100% 199+037 (Best DT to farm, used by 100% of CHL people!)

2: Hideous Picketer 1x9 97-100% 687+610

3: Shocking Proprietress 1x4 99-100% 402+519 (tested and recommended by N.T Linh, 100 keys in 1m30s)

To-do List

Wiki has entered maintenance mode! This guide is mostly finished, but there’s still a lot to do!

Defaultname has provided more lightweight weapon gifs, and it seems to be working fine for now. Will change if people say it's lagging (ok I think the gifs have calmed down now, still lagging, but at least it’s a little better than before)

RARITY SECTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (maybe?)

Better quality screenshots of missions (I’m sure you want to see your spaceship on there, mhm mhm)

Get better images overall (i have bad screenshot skills)

Formatting (Table errors, paragraph spacing, etc…)

Spell Checking, grammar checking (bad sentences, etc…)

Info checking (correct any wrong or misleading info)

Terms rewriting

Colorizing (better colors?)

Other tips, tricks & opinions

Keeping guide updated as the game progresses

Mobile Viewing… might be impossible, due to google docs.

Maybe more maps sections?

Emerald suggested adding scoring section (explaining score bonuses)

Result assessment = -10% if you lose all lives, -20% if you surrender

Mission factor = specific to each mission type, don't remember which ones had what

Difficulty bonus = average value between mission start and end difficulty, if the end difficulty is shown as 100% then for the calculation it likely goes beyond that, for example a 100%-100% 40 wave invasion should give 120% bonus

Unoriginality penalty = up to -50% lost depending on how soon you replay the mission, wears off after 12 hours

Lucrative boost = depends on each environment (15% frozen, 20% hot, 25% electric, 30% massive) Location fluctuation = -10% to 10% depending on what's shown with score insight on planets, star system and constellation, no bonus on competitive, look for up arrows

Skill premium = depends on the chosen skill, easy enough to describe

Weapon virtuosity = normally up to 15% (+3% if moron start, +25% if moron kept through the whole mission, both don't apply to competitive), it takes the most used weapon time and checks it against the others, for example after using positron for 20 seconds and neutron for 10 seconds you should get 1.5%

Squadron loyalty = 10% if you're playing an assignment mission

for keys difficulty bonus is the same, base multiplier has a different set of values per mission type, location fluctuation is different but still in the range of -10% to +10%, equipment perks are 12% with H&C 101, 9% with 201, 6% with 301 and 0% with other ships (this is already mentioned at the table)

mission factor for score: 

• 300% on ironman,
• 50% on darkness,
• 0% everywhere else

base multiplier for keys: 

• 400% on darkness
• 300% on ironman, squawk, invasion
• 200% on key rush
• 100% on anniversary, hybrid, droid raid
• 60% on double team
• 50% on retro
• 30% on boss rush
• 0 on comet, supernova, feather, meteor

Other Resources

These are the list of resources that can provide more information to help you in your journey. Do not rely on this guide too much, it is not gospel and should be cross-checked with other resources.

Chicken Invaders Wiki

Mod installer and public mods - Early Access - Chicken Invaders Universe

https://forum.chickeninvaders.com/t/guide-to-ironman-competition/26301/4

https://forum.chickeninvaders.com/t/all-the-key-rush-locations/25357?u=neonep

📊 Weapon data spreadsheet - Early Access - Chicken Invaders Universe

Chicken Invaders Wiki + Discord

Equipment data

legendary tracking chart.xlsx

Equipment data

Contributors

Finally, we have reached the end of the guide! All of this is not possible without everyone’s help. It might have started with just me, but in the end it can no longer be called “my” guide. This project really took a while, and I really appreciate everyone’s help with reading and contributing to the guide! This guide will be continuously updated, and I appreciate any and every feedback! (suzu)

How to contribute? Check the todo list! Additionally, if you think that I’m not clear on some things, just suggest what needs to be clarified/changed.

Special thanks to:

_someRandomDude.VN

Emerald

Enty

ErnieRainbowz

Liam [ENG] (I type using British English so if you spot any, you’ll know it was me! ;))

neonep (Bob Johnson)

N.T Linh (Cuongg)

Stary

Post-Creation (Maintenance) contributors!

PlasmaX

neonep

Maikien1111 (idea)

defaultname (thanks for the gifs! i luv u!)

omar uvu (key rush go brrrr)

TPoserGamingYT

your mother (owoing)

_someRandomDude.VN

TPkR

Red_Fox_01

Changelog

3/8/23 v131 update (updating Accumulator stats, again)

2/26/23 v130 update (Rewriting Accumulator & Farming section)

2/17/23 added some minor stuff, wiped out neonep

2/4/23 Reworked weapons section, deleted neonep

2/2/23 beginning of weapons page reworking, deleted neonep

1/31/23 updated things, added images, etc (maintenance tasks)

1/27/23 Last edit before the guide goes live!!!

1/27/23 Added basic navigation, cleaned up formatting

1/26/23 freshening guide, requesting cucuries

1/25/23 Added Ships

1/23/23 Added COMPETITIVE missions content and revised weapons (thanks liam & randomchad!)

1/22/23 Little polishing, updated game version

1/20/23 Finished rough draft of Weapons section

1/19/23 Added rough draft of Weapons section (also stole neonep’s keys)

1/16/23 added more content, neonep’s Quest section

1/15/23 rough outline, heatsink table, content!

1/14/23 Added shortener link (cutt.ly/ciuguide)

1/13/23 Minor edits

1/12/23 Beginning

If u read all of this,this is a free CHL guide for u (video by nt linh): https://youtu.be/CEXWLbJHOaQ 

epic