Chorus Tips: Five Tips to Help You Master Space Combat

These Chorus tips are vital if you're playing the newest entry in the space combat simulator genre. Deep Siver Fishlabs’ fast-paced, zero-g combat is the highlight of the game, but whether it’s zooming through the cosmos or blasting your way through waves of the vicious space cult known as the Circle, you’ll want to know as much as you can so you can survive. While Chorus steadily builds Nara’s arsenal by slowing the rate you get new powers and upgrades, the game gives you very little advice on how to survive deadly space battles thrown at you. That’s where we come in - here are five top Chorus tips to help make you the best star-pilot in the galaxy.

• Wondering how good this space combat game is? Read our Chorus review

Chorus Tips: Use Your Rites

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Nara’s ability to channel the aether and bend reality around her is what makes the combat in Chorus unique. Weaving these Rites in with your piloting skills can take your gameplay to the next level. While most of the Rites are given to the player so they can complete some minor puzzle solving to escape a surreal space temple, many of the Rites also have an application in combat.

You can use the Rite of the Hunt to instantly teleport and get behind an enemy ship to line up an easy shot. This can be made even stronger by an extra perk you can find that increases weapon damage by 50% after teleporting. Your Rite of the Storm is introduced as being effective against the Faceless entities from the Void. However, the Rite can be used to stun enemy ships and give you an easy opening. 

Chorus Tips: Keep Moving

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Speed is key if you want to keep yourself and your sentient spaceship companion in one piece. Your enemies will find it much harder to hit you if you can keep moving. The second you stop moving in Chorus you are a sitting duck. To ensure you are constantly keeping your speed you should be using your boost as often as possible, combined with the barrel roll mechanic this will make you as hard to hit as possible. 

One way you can maintain your speed in tight turns is to boost, then use the Drift Trance Rite to keep your momentum in one direction while shooting in another. When your drift is finished boost again and you can change direction quickly, while still keeping your speed up.

Chorus Tips: Explore as Much as Possible

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The semi-open world of Chorus is surprisingly large, with each new system you jump to having a number of items hidden around. These hidden items can range from extra credits, useful mods, or hull and shield upgrades for your ship. 

Make sure when travelling to spam your Rite of the Senses. This will highlight any hidden items that are hidden around (usually hidden in wrecks or behind asteroids). Simply fly your ship over to the item and bag yourself a cheeky upgrade.

Chorus Tips: Mod Your Ship

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Throughout your playthrough, you will find and be rewarded with various mods for your ship. These can be equipped to boost the stats of your ship and make you more effective in combat. However, you only have three mod slots so you need to make some choices on what you equip. While you might be tempted to focus on boosting your offensive capabilities, keeping at least one of the mod slots reserved for a defensive mod is a good idea. Some of the better defensive mods are those that lower your shield recharge delay or decrease the recharge time of your repair drones.

You can also upgrade your stats by completing the mastery challenges. You’ll probably complete most of these just by playing the game, but investing some time into completing them can seriously upgrade your abilities. 

Chorus Tips: Time Your Dodges

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Playing Chorus you’ll quickly realise that the enemy ships have one really dangerous attack, the timed charge blast. You’ll also most likely die to this attack repeatedly throughout your playthrough as it has a large range and hits hard, so learning how to avoid it can be a lifesaver. The charge attack can be dodged by timing a barrel roll just right. You’ll want to delay rolling until the last second when you hear the sound cue. You’ll roll out of the way, avoid the attack and be rewarded with some sweet slo-mo. Practice this dodge as much as you can in the early sections of the game, as by the closing chapters of the game almost every enemy ship will have this ability. 

You’ll also come up against frigates and capital ships with multiple turrets. When these massive ships appear focus on destroying the charge turrets. This will make dealing with the rest of the enemies significantly easier. 

Whether Chorus is your first time in a spaceship or you are a seasoned space combat veteran, these tips should help you in your space-faring quest as you explore the galaxy, battle in the cold void of space, and hunt the cult in an effect to find redemption.