Cindral

Fly the line. Break the Cinder fleet.

A PS1-style arcade space-combat sim that runs entirely in your browser. Fly a lone fighter through a branching campaign — dogfight Cinder raiders, escort convoys to the jump gate, recover salvage with a grappling tether, hold a relay station, and tear down capital ships subsystem by subsystem. Lock-on missiles, decoy flares, a spherical radar with off-screen threat arrows, and deadly gravity wells. Free to play on desktop or mobile, no download.

Play Cindral Now

Controls

• Arrow keys — Pitch / yaw
• A/D — Roll · W/S — Throttle · Shift — Afterburner
• Space — Lasers · M — Missile · F — Flares
• T — Target · G — Grapple · C — Scan
• V — Cockpit / chase view · Esc — Menu
• Virtual joystick — Steer (pitch / yaw)
• ⟲ ⟳ buttons (by the stick) — Roll / bank
• FIRE / MSL / FLR — Lasers / missile / flares
• TGT — Target · BOOST — Afterburner
• SCAN / GRAB — contextual (asteroids & pods)
• VIEW — Cockpit / chase toggle

How to Play Cindral

Steer with the arrow keys and manage throttle with W/S — Shift kicks in the afterburner. Tap V to swap between the chase camera and the cockpit.

Keep an enemy fighter in your forward cone to auto-lock it, then fire lasers (Space) or a homing missile (M). Watch the radar and the screen-edge arrows for threats out of view.

When a missile is tracking you, drop flares (F) to break the lock. Enemy fighters will juke and flare your missiles right back.

Hit T to manually target a capital ship’s subsystem (or an asteroid / cargo pod), then knock out every engine, turret and bridge to bring the ship down.

Each mission has its own objective — clear the picket, escort a freighter, recover a pod with the grapple (G), or defend a station. Win and you advance up the line; lose and the war reroutes you.

Stay clear of planets and moons — drift into a gravity well and your fighter is gone.

Cindral Strategy Guide

1. Auto-lock only grabs fighters — use it for dogfights and save manual target (T) for capital subsystems and salvage.
2. Missiles are scarce. Spend them on capital subsystems and tough targets, not fighters you can chip down with lasers.
3. Flares win missile duels — pop them late, just as the warning peaks, to seduce the incoming missile.
4. On defend and escort runs, resist the urge to chase — intercept the fighters diving on your station or convoy instead.
5. The gravity warning is your last call. Pull away the instant it flashes; the pull only gets stronger.
6. A flawless run — no mission losses across the whole campaign — earns the Ace ending.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Cindral?

Cindral is a free browser-based PS1-style arcade space-combat sim. You fly a single fighter through a branching campaign of missions — dogfighting raiders, escorting convoys to a jump gate, recovering salvage with a grappling tether, defending a relay station, and tearing down capital ships subsystem by subsystem.

Is Cindral free?

Yes, Cindral is completely free to play in your browser. No download, no signup, no paywall.

How do you play Cindral?

Steer with the arrow keys, manage throttle with W/S, and afterburn with Shift. Keep an enemy in your forward cone to auto-lock it, then fire lasers (Space) or a homing missile (M). Drop flares (F) to break incoming missile locks, manually target capital subsystems with T, and complete each mission’s objective to advance the branching campaign.

Does Cindral work on mobile?

Yes. Cindral has full touch controls — a virtual joystick to steer plus on-screen buttons for fire, missile, flares, target, boost, and the cockpit/chase view toggle.

What happens if you fly into a planet?

Planets and moons are gravity wells. If you drift too close an amber gravity warning flashes and your fighter is pulled in; cross the surface and you are destroyed. Pull away the moment the warning appears.

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