History VideoGame / Steredenn

''Steredenn'' is a HorizontalScrollingShooter developed by Pixelnest Studio, and published by Plug In Digital on Oct 1, 2015. It can be found on UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}, UsefulNotes/XboxOne, UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, UsefulNotes/PlayStation3, and UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch.

* DropTheHammer: The Gloryhammer. It's a flying hammer that your ship can throw at enemies, dealing a huge amount of damage when it hits, plus continuous extra damage if it remains embedded in its target. You can recall it back to your ship at will.

* BonusBoss: The game has a few special non-standard bosses that only show up if you fulfil certain conditions. Destroying them gives you access to powerful artefacts.

* AluminumChristmasTrees: Fire actually ''can'' burn in space; or rather, certain chemicals can. Therefore, it actually isn't impossible that the flame weapons can set enemies on fire. It seems like the game designers may have known this; they facetiously acknowledge the fire-in-space issue with one of the after-death tips: "In space, flames burn, yes".

* EverythingsBetterWithSpinning: When you choose a perk pickup after defeating a boss, it forms into a ring which spins faster and faster around your ship until it's absorbed in a flash of energy. There's no clear reason for this. [[RuleOfCool It just looks really cool]].

Your {{Mothership}} [[AllYourBaseAreBelongToUs has just been attacked]] by [[SpacePirate Space Pirates]] - in the middle of [[ForcedTutorial the tutorial]], no less! Take your SpaceFighter and go teach those jerks a lesson.

* FrickinLaserBeams: All laser beams obey the RuleOfCool rather than any kind of physical laws; they're fast, but technically dodgeable.

** MechanicallyUnusualFighter: The Specialist is a PuppetFighter that can only use Bots as weapons. It has an aura around itself that can render Bots close to it invincible. It also has Booster Bots that greatly increase their effectiveness at the cost of longevity.

* DamageSpongeBoss: All bosses are these.

* SentryGun: All the Bot weapons (with the exception of Shieldbots, which aren't armed) are these.

* GiantSpaceFleaFromNowhere: The only real plot in ''Steredenn'' is that you're fighting space pirates who blew up your mothership; in ''Binary Stars'', however, alien bosses can show up randomly between levels.
* GoodColorsEvilColors: Your beam weapons are blue or white; theirs are red.

* PowerAtAPrice: If you defeat one of the special bosses, you're presented with a choice of several epic-level powers, such as being granted a massive damage bonus or extra upgrades on defeating bosses; however, every choice comes with an equally weighty trade-off, such as halving your armor, or making all enemies explode into bullets on death. Fortunately, the game does allow you to reject all the choices if you're not ready to make such a sacrifice.

** The Boomerang is one of the hardest weapons to use in combat; it's a thrown weapon that comes back, and if you fail to catch it you have to wait a few moments for your ship to generate a new one to throw. Catching it is easier said than done when you're dodging a barrage of enemy fire at the same time. But the killer advantage of the Boomerang is the fact that you can use it ''simultaneously with your other weapon'' (because you can throw the Boomerang, switch to your other weapon, blast away, then catch the Boomerang), effectively allowing your ship to [[DualWielding Dual Wield]]. And the Boomerang does great damage in its own right.

* BonusBoss: Some special non-standard bosses show up between levels. Destroying them gives you access to powerful artefacts.

** "[[Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy Infinitely improbable]]"
** "[[VideoGame/{{Darius}} Warning! A huge battleship is approaching fast!]]"
** Two to Music/DavidBowie, both from "Music/SpaceOddity": "Commencing countdown, engines on", and "Floating in a most peculiar way". Bowie died a few months after the game's release.

* ArmorPiercingAttack: This is the Crusher's speciality; it can break enemy shields. The Ultralaser and the Death Ray can do the same, and you can also collect an upgrade that will allow you to do this with any weapon.
* AsteroidThicket: The game is full of floating rocks, many of which are booby-trapped or have turrets and guns mounted on them. Energy weapons are particularly effective at dealing with them. There is also a level event which greatly increases the density of asteroids, making this trope even more apparent.

* CuttingTheKnot: The Carrier deploys a field of SpaceMines at the start of its battle, which you have to blast through in order to start doing damage to it... unless you have the Impaler or the Death Ray, which are unblockable and thus will pierce straight through the minefield and the boss.

* GuideDangIt: The Shield-type upgrade "Last longer & reload faster" apparently also applies to the "Build a shield when not firing" upgrade, in a way that completely contradicts the weapon type system established by the game. This is why the upgrade appears even on daily runs where it isn't possible to obtain a Shield-type weapon. This fact isn't mentioned anywhere in game, and was only revealed by one of the developers on the Steam forum.

** If the player has chosen their weapons poorly ([[SelfImposedChallenge or, perhaps, intentionally]]), it's possible for them to be in a situation where their only useful weapons are impractically destructive; for example, they might find themselves using the Death Ray to take out a tiny fighter, because that's all they have.
** This is taken to its literal conclusion if you use the "Supermassive Glorious Survivor" upgrade to acquire the Gloryhammer, as it then becomes your sole weapon for the rest of the game; you literally only have a hammer!

''Steredenn'''s combat is fast and frenetic. Enemy placement in each stage is randomized, stages may have random modifiers, such as [[DeathFromAbove meteor showers or an off-screen laser cannon trying to zap you]], The first three stages also have randomly-selected bosses.

At the beginning of the game, your ship is equipped with just the BoringButPractical rapid-fire Blaster, but you'll quickly get the opportunity to replace it. Weapons come in a wide variety of categories: [[KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter kinetic weapons]], [[EnergyWeapon energy weapons]], [[AttackDrone autonomous drones]], and even some [[RammingAlwaysWorks melee weapons]]. Choosing a good combination of weapons forms part of the game strategy; the ship can only hold [[ChoiceOfTwoWeapons two weapons at a time]], which forces the player to make quick decisions as to which weapon to discard or keep when a replacement becomes available. Every weapon has merits and drawbacks, and [[TacticalRockPaperScissors each kind of enemy reacts differently to each one]] (indicated by the color they flash when you hit them).

Every stage ends with a BossBattle. Defeating the boss [[AfterBossRecovery restores your armor]] and leaves you fresh and ready to face the next stage, and additionally, you get to [[RPGElements select a perk]] for your ship. The first time you defeat a boss unlocks it in the [[BossOnlyLevel "Arena" mode, which allows you to re-fight that boss at your leisure]], using any loadout of weapons you have already found in a normal run.

* CripplingOverspecialization: This can happen if you haven't chosen your weapons carefully enough. Typically, the Carrier boss is where this will bite you; your overpowered weapons don't mean anything if you can't land a hit with them...

** This is taken to its literal conclusion if you use the special upgrade to acquire the Gloryhammer, as it then becomes your sole weapon for the rest of the game; you literally only have a hammer!

** Less obviously, ''all'' Bot weapons can be used as cover in a pinch. Even though they can only block one or two shots at most, that can sometimes make the difference between life and death.

* DropTheHammer: The Gloryhammer, an epic-level weapon that can only be obtained by defeating a special boss. It's a hammer that your ship can throw at enemies, dealing an ''insane'' amount of damage when it hits, plus continuous extra damage if it remains embedded in its target. You can recall it back to your ship at will. The catch? It's your ''only'' weapon for the entire rest of the game.

** This is taken to its literal conclusion if you obtain the Gloryhammer, which becomes your sole weapon for the rest of the game; you literally only have a hammer!

* FlashStep: The Fury's special ability is like this, allowing it to instantly tele-hop to another location.