Kill the Controller

Kill the Controller is a turn-based tactics roguelike played on a small grid. Inspired by Chess and Into the breach. Each side gets **one action per turn**: move one ship, or attack with one. Every move matters, and every threat zone is a question you have to answer before the enemy does.

Early Access Game - Still in development

How it plays

• Read the board. Tap or hover any enemy to see everything it can hit next turn. The enemy moves first, so plan around its reply.
• Pick the right tool. Hammerheads and Interceptors ram. Gunships fire along a line. Bombers lob over asteroids. Grapplers drag enemies into position. Phantoms blink across the board.
• Break the Controller's defences. Armored Bulwarks shrug off energy fire. Relay Pylons shield the Controller until they fall, sometimes in a fixed order. Detonators chain-explode. Stasis Frigates freeze your fleet, and Fabricators keep building new drones.

The run

• Three phases (Outer Belt, Inner Ring, The Core), each a branching route map ending in a boss: the Command Nexus, the twin-Controller Nexus, and Controller Prime's three-stage last stand.
• Build your fleet from 9 ship types in three rarities, with 10 ship upgrades, each visible on the ship, and 6 fleet powers such as Overdrive, EMP and Initiative.
• Enemies get upgraded too the deeper you go, and from phase 2 the Controllers themselves can move diagonally.
• Lose a battle and the run is over. Your profile keeps your records, lifetime stats and run history.

Also included

• 90 puzzles in three tiers (Cadet, Commander, Admiral): set positions to win in 1–3 moves, each one proven solvable by the game's solver.
• An interactive tutorial that teaches the rules in five short lessons.
• Undo: take back your last turn while you learn.
• Controls: touch (portrait and landscape), mouse, keyboard or gamepad. It plays well on the Steam Deck.
• Settings: volume, battle speed, reduce motion, screen shake, a colour-blind-friendly threat pattern, and vibration on Android.

Demo

The free demo includes the whole of phase 1, the tutorial and the Cadet and Commander puzzles. Your progress carries over to the full game.

Controls

• Select / act: tap or click · Arrows + Enter · D-pad + A
• Back / cancel: tap elsewhere or right-click · Esc · B
• Undo: UNDO button · Z · X
• Next ship: Tab · RB
• Start battle / deploy: button · E · Y
• Pause: MENU · P · Start

Platforms

Windows, Linux (including Steam Deck), Android, and the demo in your browser.