Score, Lives & Progression

ASKGameModeBase · USKRunStateSubsystem · USKSaveSubsystem

The game mode is the single authority for score, currency and lives. Anything that awards points goes through it, and killing an enemy or collecting a Score pickup already does. A separate run-state subsystem carries progress between levels, and a save subsystem writes high scores to disk.

Score and currency

Function / Event	Purpose
Add Score	Adds to the run score. Negative values subtract.
Add Currency	Adds to the currency total, clamped at zero so spending can't go negative.
Get Score / Get Currency	Current totals.
On Score Changed / On Currency Changed	Bind on the HUD to update the display.

Score is a 64-bit value, so the scoreboard-breaking totals the genre expects are safe.

Lives, death and respawn

Property	Default	Purpose
Starting Lives	3	Lives at the start of a run. 1 makes a single death final.
Respawn Delay	1.5	Seconds between dying and the new ship appearing.
Respawn Invulnerability	2	Seconds of immunity on the fresh pawn, so it isn't killed instantly. 0 disables it.

Function / Event	Purpose
Notify Player Died	Spends a life and starts the respawn, or triggers game over at zero. Called automatically by the player pawn.
Add Life	Grants or removes lives — what an extra-life pickup calls. Ignored once the run is over.
Is Player Alive	False from the instant of death until the respawn completes.
On Player Alive Changed	Fires on both edges. Bind it to hide anything that only makes sense while playing.
On Lives Changed / On Game Over	HUD hooks.
Restart Game	Starts a fresh run from the first stage, wiping all carried progress.

Stages

The stage list lives in Project Settings → Game → ShmupKit. Clearing a stage waits for Stage Clear Delay, then travels to the next entry. Running off the end of the list means the run was won.

Function / Event	Purpose
Notify Stage Cleared	Ends the stage. Called automatically when a boss dies; call it yourself for a stage with no boss. Guarded, so a second call is ignored.
On Stage Cleared	Fires immediately, before the delay — for a "STAGE CLEAR" banner and the ship's exit flight.
On Game Completed	The final stage was cleared. Distinct from game over.
Is Game Completed / Is Game Over / Is Run Over	State queries. Is Run Over covers both endings — use it for a results screen so winning isn't left out.

Banked weapon levels

Weapon upgrades are banked per mount slot for the whole run, not per weapon. They survive death and stage changes, so dying never costs firepower.

Setting	Purpose
Max Weapon Level	Game-mode cap on banked levels, regardless of any single weapon's depth. Default 10.
Get / Add / Set Banked Level	Run-state functions for reading and adjusting a slot's level.
On Banked Level Changed	Fires with the slot and new level.

A weapon fires at min(banked level, its own top level). Levels collected past a shallow weapon's maximum are not wasted — they still count toward the next weapon picked up.

High scores

High scores work out of the box with no UI at all, which matters because a name-entry screen is a menu feature you may not have built yet.

Setting	Default	Purpose
Auto Submit High Score	On	Records every finished run automatically — both endings, losing the last life and clearing the final stage.
Default High Score Name	AAA	The name automatic submissions are filed under.
Max High Scores	10	Table size. In Project Settings.
High Score Slot Name	ShmupKitHighScores	Save-slot name on disk. In Project Settings.

Function / Event	Purpose
Is Run High Score	Would this run's score make the table? Call it at game over to decide whether to show name entry.
Submit Run High Score	Files the run under a name. Returns the rank, or -1 if it didn't qualify.
On Run Score Submitted	Fires with the rank, for a "NEW HIGH SCORE" banner. Fires for automatic and manual submissions alike.
Get High Scores / Clear High Scores	Read or wipe the table.

Restart

A player-facing restart is wired on the player controller. Its input context is applied only at game over and removed before travel, so the key is inert during play — meaning it can safely reuse a key the ship already uses. Assign a restart input action and a game-over mapping context on the controller Blueprint.

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