Mechanics

Several key Mechanics are relevant in Steambirds Alliance. They are presented here with commentary on how they can best be exploited.

Star Rule
If a player is hit by a large number of bullets within a very short time interval, they will become invulnerable to further damage for a short duration. Seemingly designed to prevent shotgun deaths (dying due to being on the spawn point of a high number of shots without any warning), the effect causes the plane to produce stars whenever it triggers.

Death and Revival
Fully depleting the health bar of an enemy usually destroys that enemy immediately, potentially causing any of its minions to self-destruct after a short time. A few enemies, such as the boss of Reeducation Camp, instead change forms upon health bar depletion.

Player planes do not disintegrate immediately upon full depletion of armor. Rather, overkill damage is stored as "armor debt" and, if left unchecked, the plane spins out of control for approximately one second before finally exploding in a burst of revenge bullets. Damage-over-time effects may continue to apply during the death spiral, further increasing "armor debt".

Healing received by the plane during the death animation can cancel the death spiral -- this outcome, informally called revival, only occurs if the plane receives healing in excess of the "armor debt" before the end of the animation.

Commentary

 * The Medic's Healing Blasts provide powerful Armor restoration which is usually more than sufficient to overcome "armor debt" of dying allies. However, due to its short duration, it is very hard to self-revive as a Medic.
 * The Paladin's Healing Aura provides weak Armor restoration for a long duration. Though its low healing power does not usually allow it to revive planes with high "armor debt" before they explode, its long duration makes it useful for revival in low-damage, high-volume bullet patterns.

Elemental Damage
Five elements exist in Steambirds Alliance: Enemies can have elemental resistances (indicated on hit by an elemental icon on a shield) and weaknesses (indicated on hit by an elemental icon on a black triangle), and both player and enemy bullets can deal elemental damage. Player planes have no innate elemental resistances; however up to ~20% damage reduction for each element can be obtained from Upgrades.
 * Lightning: Super-effective against Water, but ineffective against Ice.
 * Water: Super-effective against Fire, but ineffective against Lightning.
 * Fire: Super-effective against Poison, but ineffective against Water.
 * Poison: Super-effective against Ice, but ineffective against Fire.
 * Ice: Super-effective against Lightning, but ineffective against Poison.