How it works
FPV: Last Signal puts you behind the goggles of a first-person-view drone. You see only what the drone's camera sees. Every round gives you a task, a crate of drones and a clock, and every round asks a little more of you.
The story
The Sereth Valley is farm country: wheat, sunflowers, and long windbreaks of poplar planted by grandparents. When the armoured columns of the Dravan Directorate crossed the river in the second autumn of the war, there were no jets left to stop them. There were farmers with drones.
You are Wren, a crop-survey pilot from the town of Velmora. For ten summers you flew spray routes over these same fields. Now you sit in a dugout behind the line with goggles on and a crate of seven-inch quads at your feet.
Sergeant Maro runs the team and talks you through every launch. Lark flies the high recon drone, finds the targets and watches every strike. Between them and you, one drone at a time, the valley holds.
The world, its nations and its people are invented. The game is about the people who fly these machines and the towns they protect, not about any real conflict.
The campaign
Ten chapters teach you a new skill each. Finish them and the war goes on in the long autumn: endless operations that keep getting harder, with more wind, heavier jamming, more air defence and less time.
- First LightFly through six gates over the farm strip and learn the controls.
- Supply LineYour first strike: a fuel truck hidden under a tree line.
- The ColumnHit moving vehicles on a country road before the convoy reaches cover.
- Eyes on TolvikNo warhead today. Hold your camera on three enemy positions to mark them.
- Electronic FogDestroy a jamming truck while your video breaks up around you.
- Guns of Hollow CreekFly a bomber drone and drop munitions on an artillery battery.
- Night ShiftThermal camera at night. Engines glow white, and so do you.
- SwarmIntercept slow attack drones before they reach Velmora.
- The BarnA tank is hiding inside a barn. Thread the open doors.
- ThreadA fibre-optic drone through total jamming to the enemy command post.
- The long autumnEndless operations, each one harder than the last.
Flying the drone
The drone flies in angle mode: push a stick and it tilts, and tilting is what makes it move. Let go and it levels out. With full assist (the default) it also holds its height and brakes when you centre the sticks. Pro assist, in Settings, hands you raw throttle and keeps your momentum, like a real racing quad.
The camera is tilted up slightly, as on real FPV drones, so the faster you fly forward the more level your view becomes.
| Action | Phone or tablet | Keyboard | Gamepad |
|---|
| Fly forward and back | Right thumb up and down | W S or arrows | Right stick |
| Slide sideways | Right thumb left and right | Q E | Right stick |
| Turn | Left thumb left and right | A D or arrows | Left stick |
| Climb and descend | Left thumb up and down | Space and Shift | Left stick |
| Drop a bomb | Drop button | F | A or right trigger |
| Pause | Pause button | Esc | Start |
On a phone, touch anywhere on the left or right half of the screen and a stick appears under your thumb. This is the same "Mode 2" layout real drone pilots use. Landscape gives you the widest view.
Reading your video feed
The white text on your feed is the on-screen display, the same kind real pilots read in their goggles.
LQ 87Link quality. Distance, hills between you and the antenna, and jamming all bring it down.
24.6VBattery voltage. It sags when you push hard and drops as the pack drains.
87 KM/HGround speed, with altitude and distance from home under it.
T 3:42Time left for the mission, then drones left in the crate.
TGT 342mLark's marker on the objective. When it is off screen an arrow points to it.
GROUND FIREWarnings flash in the centre: low battery, weak signal, jamming, damage.
When the link weakens the picture tears, loses colour and fills with static. If it drops out completely for a few seconds the drone fails safe and falls. Fly low behind a hill and you lose signal, just as you would in real life. The fibre-optic drone in later missions ignores jamming but trails a cable with a fixed length.
Strikes and drops
Most of your drones carry a warhead and explode on impact. Fly into the target to destroy it; hitting a tree, a wire or the ground on the way costs you that drone. A direct hit matters: tanks need the warhead right on the hull, while trucks are more forgiving.
Bomber missions give each drone drop munitions. A green ring on your feed shows where a bomb would land at your current speed and height. Slow down and drop from low for accuracy.
After every strike the feed cuts to static, then Lark's overhead camera shows you what happened.
What can go wrong
- Air defence guns fire tracer at anything they can see within about 400 metres. Trees and hills block their view. Each hit damages your airframe.
- Jamming grows stronger as you get closer to a jamming truck. Fly fast and straight to get through it.
- Power lines run along the main road. You will not see the wires until it is too late.
- Battery and time are limited. Do not circle.
- Civilian houses cost you points if your blast reaches them.
Scores, stars and the hangar
You score for every target, for time left on the clock and for drones you did not need. Harder missions multiply the total. A mission earns one star for completing it, a second for finishing with more than a third of the time left, and a third for losing no drones and causing no civilian damage.
Scores also pay credits. Spend them in the hangar on bigger batteries, stronger motors, a directional antenna, a reinforced frame and a heavier charge. Your rank rises with your total score.
Install it like an app
FPV: Last Signal works offline after your first visit. On Android, open the browser menu and choose Install app or Add to home screen. On iPhone and iPad, tap Share and then Add to Home Screen. On a computer, use the install icon in the address bar.
A note on the subject
Small, cheap first-person drones have changed how wars are fought, and the people flying them are often ordinary civilians who learned to fly for other reasons. This game draws on that change to tell a human story. Its physics, weapons and tactics are simplified for play and are not a guide to anything in the real world. No real country, army or person is depicted.
FPV: Last Signal