Mandris knowledge base

What Mandris is #

Mandris is a desktop-first, true 3D browser combat game. Pilots fly over hostile battlefields, aim independently of movement, fight airborne and ground enemies, collect credits and upgrades, and take complementary ships into private co-op for up to four pilots. Missions link into a run: each victory opens the Field Store before the next sortie.

Each mission belongs to its own faction with distinct attacks, warnings, scenery, and a multi-phase boss. The missions and ships currently in rotation are listed below; retired content is left out of this reference.

The long-term ambition is a replayable, seeded, six-stage cooperative roguelite lasting roughly 25–35 minutes. That complete campaign generator is a future design target. The current linked-sortie system is its foundation.

Design intent and identity #

The visual direction is severe, mechanical, cinematic, and worn. Player craft read as military hardware with recognizable silhouettes, weapon mounts, engines, and damage states. Foundry machines, predatory hive organisms, and abyssal sea life each have their own visual and combat language.

Moment-to-moment control takes priority over presentation. Cinematics are skippable, and enemies announce committed attacks on the unit itself: weapons glow, bays open, hoppers spin up, and bodies wind up. Floor markers are reserved for impact areas, never for showing where an enemy will move. Effects should communicate range, danger, ownership, and impact without concealing the fight.

• Run power comes from combat pickups, weapon drops, and store purchases, then resets when the run ends.
• Persistent cosmetics and non-power progression are a future goal, not a completed account economy.
• Large crowds make area abilities satisfying, but readable threats and bounded simulation/rendering cost constrain density.
• Suggestions may challenge these choices. Separate observations about the implemented game from proposed changes.

How to read this snapshot #

Current means implemented and selectable in the source revision shown on this page. Proposed means an idea or incomplete roadmap objective; it is not promised or automatically present in the game.

Numbers are base values on Medium difficulty unless a row explicitly names a modifier, rank, profile, player count, difficulty, or boss phase. Damage per hit, damage per second, projectile count, warning time, and cooldown are different quantities. Do not multiply them into a DPS claim without accounting for misses, energy, targeting, and active windows.

This is a manually published snapshot, not a live feed. Game changes and ordinary deployments do not refresh its text or images. The source revision and date identify what was reviewed, and the live game may have moved on.

In rotation now #

Missions: CRUCIBLE DRIFT, BROOD SCAR, FROSTFALL. Ships: Ratajack, Garmo, Jivadin, Michen.

Black Horizon, the experimental Shattered Armada fleet battle, Kaibur, and Theben are out of rotation in this revision. The game still supports them internally, but players cannot select them, so this reference leaves them out.

• CRUCIBLE DRIFT
• BROOD SCAR
• FROSTFALL
• Ratajack
• Garmo
• Jivadin
• Michen

Explore the reference #

• How to play: controls and basics for your first flight
• Ships: 4 playable hulls and their abilities
• Enemies: 30 regular enemies, heavies, bosses, and summons
• Levels: 3 selectable missions
• Systems: combat, economy, pickups, difficulty, and private co-op
• Upgrades: 49 store, orb, and weapon-drop entries
• Controls and settings
• Technical design and implementation constraints
• Roadmap and open design questions

Give this to Claude #

Copy the prompt below with this page URL. The full Markdown export contains every chapter; individual chapter files provide a smaller reading path. Text and diagrams cannot substitute for playing the game when assessing feel or difficulty.

• Complete Markdown reference
• Download the starter prompt

Read the Mandris reference at https://mandris.app/knowledge/. Start with the overview, how to play, ships, enemies, levels, systems, upgrades, controls, and technical chapters. The complete text is https://mandris.app/knowledge/full.md; use individual chapter Markdown links if that file is too large. Treat the publication date and source revision as a snapshot, not proof of the current live build.

First summarize the implemented game and its main design tensions. Before reading the roadmap chapter, independently propose improvements to combat, enemy behaviors, ship identities, cooperative interactions, progression, levels, and presentation. Challenge existing choices when warranted.

Then read the roadmap chapter and identify which of your ideas overlap, differ, or fill gaps. Distinguish implemented facts, your inferences, and your proposals. Do not describe proposed features as completed.

For each strongest idea, explain the player decision it creates, which existing mechanics it uses, the smallest useful prototype, likely implementation and readability costs, and how we would judge whether it improved the game. Include a few unconventional ideas rather than only incremental upgrades. Cite the reference entries you used. State which pages you actually read and disclose any fetch or context limitations. Do not claim to have played the game from reading this reference.