Machbound

About Machbound

Machbound is a flying game that takes the career seriously. You start in a Kestrel T-5 on a first-generation circuit and fly contracts for money — and the money, not a level counter, is what eventually puts you in something faster.

Four kinds of work are on offer. Skyline racing is gate-to-gate against the clock. Last wing standing is exactly what it sounds like. Air superiority is a fight you can lose by running out of energy rather than being shot. Freight contracts pay well and ask you to arrive intact, which changes how you fly everything else.

The hangar and the workshop

Aircraft are earned, not unlocked by a slider. The workshop then lets you push one in a direction — thrust, airframe, weapons, countermeasures — so two pilots in nominally the same jet are not flying the same jet. Credits are finite and upgrades are not cheap, which is the whole decision.

Flying it

Throttle, boost, missiles and flares are all on separate keys, because the interesting moments are the ones where you want two of them at once. A missile you have already dodged is not the thing that kills you; running the throttle wide open while you do it usually is.

Controls

W and S or the throttle keys for power, the arrow keys to fly, Space to fire, Shift to boost, and separate keys for missiles and flares. C changes camera and Escape pauses.

How to play Machbound

1. Choose Continue career on the home screen. The career page lists fifteen events across four chapters (Coastal Academy, Storm Front, Black Horizon and Elite Circuit), and the next one you have not cleared is highlighted.
2. Read the briefing. It gives the mission clock, the number of rings or hostiles, and the XP for clearing the event for the first time. Then press Launch sortie.
3. Steer with the mouse or the arrow keys, set throttle with W and S, and bank with A and D. Shift lights the afterburner, Space holds the cannon, M launches a locked missile, E drops flares and C switches between chase and cockpit views.
4. Complete the objective. In races, fly through every ring and finish in the top three. In combat, shoot down every hostile. In storm survival, be the last aircraft inside the shrinking circle. In freight runs, fly through each checkpoint and then slow down to deliver.
5. Collect your credits and pilot XP on the results screen and go back to the hangar. Buy a faster jet once your pilot level allows it, or spend credits in the workshop.
6. When you are ready, enter one of the three championships, each run over three rounds against eight seeded AI pilots.

Machbound tips and strategy

• Slow down to turn. Turn rate drops as your Mach number rises, so easing off with S before a sharp gate does more than pulling hard at full speed. Thrust-vector controls in the workshop help heavy jets most.
• Watch your fuel. Fuel burns faster at higher Mach and much faster with the afterburner on, and running dry ends the sortie. Long-range fuel cells add 30 per cent endurance per tier.
• Wait for the orange lock. Keep a hostile near your reticle for just under a second until the lock box turns orange, then press M. A missile without a lock goes nowhere, and you start with only a small rack.
• Freight is won on the approach. You have to be below Mach 0.65 inside the final zone to deliver, and the cargo is damaged as your hull is. Fragile freight also fails if your hull drops to 30 per cent or less.
• Buy the cargo module before freight work. The secure cargo module costs 1,600 credits, is bought only once and fits every jet you own. Without it, the freight events will not launch.
• A missed ring stays active. Race rings are compulsory, so if you miss one you have to turn back and take it. One tidy line is faster than a fast line with a loop back.

Aircraft, levels and the championships

Pilot level goes up every 400 XP, and each aircraft in the hangar has both a price and a minimum level. The F-35 Lightning II needs level 2 and 12,500 credits, the F-22 Raptor level 4, and the fictional sixth-generation concepts (Specter X-6, Astra NX-6 and Aurora R-6) need levels 6, 8 and 10. The Aurora tops out at Mach 3.10 but has the lowest handling in the hangar, so a faster jet is not always the right choice for a twisty route.

The workshop has eight systems, from engine tuning and composite hull plating to an extra missile rack and countermeasure dispensers. Each upgrade is bought once and fits every jet you own. Every further tier costs more than the one before.

The championships open at levels 1, 4 and 8: the Coastal Cup, the Black Horizon Cup and Mach Masters. Placings score from 15 points for a win down to 1 point for eighth. Every round pays credits and XP, and the cup winner gets a separate prize of up to 24,000 credits. If you fail a career event you still keep a tenth of its credits.