How to lock on in CYGNI: All Guns Blazing

The lock-on mechanic in CYGNI: All Guns Blazing is an effortless way to keep swarms of enemies at bay. But even though you are introduced to the lock-on feature early on, it’s not obvious how to use it.

CYGNI: All Guns Blazing has frantic gameplay with no dodge mechanic to speak of, so a good way to neutralize an enemy’s threat is by taking them down before they can attack.

Your primary fire is great—as are missiles—but it’s easier if you don’t need to completely rely on the power of manual aiming to get the job done. You’re taught the basics of locking on, courtesy of the tutorial. But it doesn’t reveal everything.

How to unlock lock-on in CYGNI: All Guns Blazing

You need to unlock the ability to lock-on by purchasing the “Homing Projectiles” ability in the Upgrades section of CYGNI: All Guns Blazing‘s main interface.

Here’s how to unlock the lock-on ability and how to use it:

1. Start a new game of CYGNI, or carry on your current playthrough.
2. Choose one of the earlier levels.
3. Select Easy difficulty and keep replaying the level until you can complete the mission without dying to accumulate Energy Points.
4. Avoid using missiles because each uses Energy Points.
5. When you have enough, go to the game’s main menu and scroll to the “Upgrade” sub-menu option.
6. On the right-hand side, scroll down to the “Homing Projectiles” option under “Special Upgrades Air To Air” and buy it.
7. Equip it and go into a game.
8. Click L3 on PlayStation or LS on Xbox, and you still control your main fire, but you now have secondary fire homing in on the nearest target.

Although locking on is taught in the tutorial, it’s not a default gameplay mechanic, and you need to buy it from the Upgrades tab. It feels counterintuitive and can take a while before you unlock it, but this is how you lock it on in CYGNI.

The Homing Projectiles upgrade requires Energy Points, and the only way to earn these is by collecting a surplus of Energy Point drops throughout CYGNI‘s levels and making it to the end of a level.

If you’re on easy, you get three lives, but dying resets your earned Energy Points for the level. For example, if you die to the final boss, you’ll likely walk away with between five and 20 Energy Points—and you need to try again.