M3A Labs / Vortex Shift / Guide

Boss Guide

Every few levels the core fights back. Boss levels don't have a gem quota. Instead the boss has an HP core, and your gems become charged: each gem you collect fires a bolt into the core for one damage, and Prisms and Pulses hit for three. Empty the core to win the level and your whole score gets a boost: +20% for your first boss kill in a run, +30% for the second and +40% from the third onwards.

Tier one

These are the first bosses you'll meet, one per boss level, in random order.

Boss	Pattern
THE WARDEN	Launches seeker mines that crawl along your orbit toward you. Outrun them or blast them.
THE VORTEX	Pushes gems away from your ship - chase them down before they drift out of reach.
THE OVERSEER	Warps time faster and charges blasts that detonate your whole orbit - never stand still.

How to fight them

The Warden sends out seeker mines that crawl along your ring towards you. They expire after a while, so you can either outrun them around the ring or switch and make them lose track of you. The Bomb build (PULSE ECHO, GEM DETONATOR) deals with seekers really well.
The Vortex pushes gems away from your ship. You can't chase them against the push for long, so switch rings and come at the gems from the other side. TRACTOR BEAM and the Magnet pickup help a lot here.
The Overseer speeds everything up and, after a blinking warning, blows up the orbit you're on. The ring flashes faster and faster right before it goes, and that's your cue to leave. If you're airborne between rings when it detonates, you're safe.

Tier two: PRIME

Later in the run the same three come back as PRIME versions, lit from below in their complementary color. In the in-game Codex each one stays locked until you've fought it.

Boss	Pattern
WARDEN PRIME	The Warden reborn: faster seekers, and more of them on the hunt at once.
VORTEX PRIME	Repels gems harder and fires expanding shockwaves - hop rings as the wave passes through yours.
OVERSEER PRIME	Warps time harder still - and charges TWO orbits at once.

Warden Prime sends faster seekers, and more of them hunt you at the same time. Keep moving and don't let two of them close in on the same ring.
Vortex Prime pushes harder and adds expanding shockwaves: a warning ring appears and then grows outwards from the core. Switch rings as it passes over yours, since ships in the air don't get hit.
Overseer Prime charges two orbits at the same time. If the two flashing rings are yours and the one next to it, jump two rings instead of one.

The final boss

Boss	Pattern
THE SINGULARITY	The last light. It wields the stolen powers of every fallen boss - and bends the orbits themselves.

THE SINGULARITY is bigger, bright white, and uses the stolen powers of the three bosses one at a time. Its body changes color to show which one it's using: seekers, shockwaves or ring detonation. Every so often it also warps random orbits into flux orbits, which reverse your direction, and later turns them back to normal. Its core is tougher than any other. Beat it and the run ends in victory with a +100% score bonus. That's the real ending of Vortex Shift, and it also unlocks the SINGULARITY SLAYER achievement.

A few general tips

Grab every Prism and Pulse you can during a boss fight. At three damage each, a single one takes out roughly a third of a small core.
After a boss kill the next few levels run a little slower. Think of it as your reward for getting through the fight.
Beating a boss late in a run with only one hull point left earns the CLUTCH PILOT achievement.
If you die right after beating a boss, you might be offered a revive in exchange for watching a short ad (accounts only, once every two hours).