CICADA drone combat: twin intent beams

Cobalt Core · Battle / Tactics

Art style Pixel art

Cobalt Core - CICADA drone combat: twin intent beams

About this game

Developer: Rocket Rat Games · Publisher: Brace Yourself Games · Platform: PC (Steam) · Art style: Pixel art · Screen type: Battle / Tactics

More Cobalt Core screens in the Gallery

What to study

The intent system stated plainly: each enemy cannon draws a beam to the player's ship with the exact damage number it will deal, so the player plans defense before committing cards. The hand answers with the other half of the vocabulary, cheap Cannon shots against Big Shield blocks, and the crew rail keeps the party present during a fight about numbers. This is the clearest single frame of Cobalt Core's telegraphed-combat design. Frame at about 0:07 in the Jan 2023 Trailer (Steam). No trailer burn-in or captions visible.

Patterns

How the screen is arranged.

hud-overlay side-panel bottom-dock

Components

Parts on screen.

Card Portrait Nameplate Vitals bar

Screen inventory

  • Enemy nameplate top right: CCD-62 "CICADA" Drone Mk3, with enemy portrait card and x.03 marker
  • Twin red intent beams from the drone's cannons with 6 and 6 damage previews
  • Player ship bottom center with low segmented hull bar
  • Hand: Cannon, Big Shield, Cannon, Shield Surge A, Big Shield
  • Crew rail left: Dizzy, Riggs, Peri; 3 energy; END TURN button

Top 3 colors

#0c0c2e 26%#544f89 22%#442052 21%

Top three palette colors by share. The remaining colors make up the rest.

Source and credit

© Rocket Rat Games / Brace Yourself Games, Cobalt Core screenshot: Launch Date Announcement Trailer (Steam) and Jan 2023 Trailer (Steam), shown for design study and commentary. PlayCraft is an unofficial fan project, not affiliated with or endorsed by Brace Yourself Games.

Source tier 2 (publisher-released) · screenshot: Steam store page · Steam page

Source details

Fetched 2026-11-03. verified 2026-11-02: scene frame from the official Steam trailer, inspected visually at full resolution; drone nameplate, portrait, twin beams with 6/6 previews, hull bar, all five cards, crew rail, and END TURN confirmed legible

Brace Yourself Games Video Policy (braceyourselfgames.com) supports Let's Plays, reviews, speedruns and other formats on all publicly accessible services including personal websites; Gallery use is free study/commentary, unofficial, not endorsed.

Rights holders: see Copyright & takedown.

More from Cobalt Core

Cobalt Core - Pick an Artifact: Berserker Drive tooltip Cobalt Core - Route map: Zone Sapphire Cluster Cobalt Core - Dizzy dialogue over the CATCORE boot screen Cobalt Core - Shop-encounter combat: Soggins's ship, crew rail, END TURN Cobalt Core - Desert-planet combat: full hand, sensor-error enemy Cobalt Core - Crystalline Entity: multi-cannon boss intent Cobalt Core - Upgrade a Card: deck grid with sort controls Cobalt Core - Crew roster over locked slots, CONTINUE

Similar screens

Stronghold 4 - Siege defence: pitch ditches burning before the towers Same type: Battle / Tactics; Shared patterns: bottom-dock, side-panel Company of Heroes 3 - Battle HUD: victory points, minimap, Riflemen Squad card and command grid Same type: Battle / Tactics; Shared patterns: hud-overlay, bottom-dock Company of Heroes 3 - Tactical Pause: queued move path and Tactical Queue bar Same type: Battle / Tactics; Shared patterns: hud-overlay, bottom-dock Homeworld 3 - Combat HUD: interceptor squad selected Same type: Battle / Tactics; Shared patterns: hud-overlay, bottom-dock Homeworld 3 - Control mode: production panel with ship preview Same type: Battle / Tactics; Shared patterns: side-panel, hud-overlay Cobalt Core - Desert-planet combat: full hand, sensor-error enemy Same type: Battle / Tactics; Shared patterns: hud-overlay, side-panel, bottom-dock