Key is a game mechanic in Ultimate Omelette, Cluck of the Dark Side and Chicken Invaders Universe. They are used as currency to buy Unlockables. They are found in-game through destroying enemies with a yellow glow around them, which has a chance to happen roughly every minute. If Cheats have been used in a mission, the Keys will no longer spawn. Once collected, they give 11111 points (except Universe).
First, a yellow glow needs to appear around the enemy. Said glow will last for around 15 seconds.
After that, the enemy needs to be destroyed. Once they are destroyed, a Key will fall out.
Once the Key falls out, you can collect it.
On average, unless you're planning to farm Keys on purpose, you'll receive 50 of them per mission. While playing on Superstar Hero, that number can go up to a hundred per mission.
Uses[]
In this game, you'll need a total of 3040 Keys to purchase everything. Unless you want to play through 60 missions (or less if you're lucky enough, or you're playing on a higher difficulty), you'll have to farm them, and here there aren't any unlockables that help you collect more keys.
The Keys can be spent on 20 different Unlockables - 5 weapon related, 5 satellite related, 1 cosmetic, 1 Difficulty related, 4 UI related and 4 spaceship related. You can read more about them here.
Cluck of the Dark Side[]
Collecting[]
First, a yellow glow needs to appear around the enemy. Said glow will last for around 15 seconds.
After that, the enemy needs to be destroyed. Once they are destroyed, a Key will fall out.
Once the Key falls out, you can collect it.
On average, unless you're planning to farm keys on purpose, you'll receive per mission 50 Keys in Rookie, 75 Keys in Veteran, and 100 Keys in Superstar Hero. You're able to make keys spawn more often (by 25%) if you're using the Gold Digger unlockable. The Scoring unlockables also help. By making the game harder, they will also let you collect more Keys because you'll spend more time on completing waves.
Uses[]
In this game, you'll need a total of 3710 Keys, which without the helpful unlockables would require 37 missions. Gold Digger brings the number down to 30, and Scoring unlockables even more.
The Keys can be spent on 31 different unlockables - 5 cosmetic, 5 spaceship related, 4 UI related, 5 difficulty related, 5 weapon related, 4 satellite related and 3 special paint-jobs. You can read more about them here.
Universe[]
Collecting in missions[]
Keys can be obtained from killing enemies with a yellow glow, like in the earlier games. In Boss Rush, Retro, Comet Chase, Supernova, Meteor Storm, Feather Fields and Double Team missions or these stages in Hybrid missions, base keys are not dropped from enemies, but instead automatically dropped after every wave. Key Rush missions have keys from enemies normally, but also have a bonus key dropped after every wave.
The skill that the player has chosen (Tourist, Rookie, Seasoned, Veteran, Virtuoso, Superstar Hero) affects key drop rates, on higher difficulties keys are dropped more often.
At the end of a mission, players receive multiplier bonuses to their collected keys:
Base multiplier: depending on the type of the mission.
Difficulty bonus: depends on the base difficulty of the mission (the arithmetic mean of the minimum difficulty and maximum difficulty of the mission, up to a maximum of +100%), ignoring equipped skills.
Location fluctuation: a random small bonus or small penalty on your base keys, and awarded differently from the score location fluctuation. Use Keys Insight to locate lucrative regions.
Equipment perks: awarded if the player uses the H&C spacecraft family:
Unoriginality penalty: this penalty is applied if the same mission has been played too many times in the last 12 hours. The unoriginality penalty applied for each attempt of the mission is -10% multiplied by the number of times the same mission has been flown before in the last 12 hours, minus 3. There is no upper cap for unoriginality penalty.
Other key sources[]
Keys can also be collected by:
Opening the game daily to get 20 keys every day.
Galaxy exploration:
27 keys for each new constellation
9 keys for each new star system
3 keys for each planet (except suns and regional shops)
5 keys for each asteroid belt.
12 keys for each sun (including Sun and Binary Suns)
100 keys for each wormhole.
Achieving enough score to advance to the next tier, which pays off an increasing amount of keys per tier.
Selling food at the Space Burger (base rate is 0.07 key for each food unit, rounded down to the nearest integer, actual amount depends on galaxy fluctuation).
Purchasing key packs with real money or being gifted by another player.
Rank
Daily Mission (Easy)
Daily Mission (Intermediate)
Daily Mission (Hard)
Space Race
Weekly Challenge
Ironman Competition
Most active recruit (daily)
Most active recruit (weekly)
1
30
60
90
150
300
900
100
500
2
27
57
87
135
270
810
90
450
3
24
54
84
120
240
720
80
400
4
21
51
81
105
210
630
70
350
5
18
48
78
90
180
540
60
300
6
15
45
75
75
150
450
50
250
7
12
42
72
60
120
360
40
200
8
9
39
69
45
90
270
30
150
9
6
36
66
30
60
180
20
100
10
3
33
63
15
30
90
10
50
Advanced from
Keys
Qualification phase
100
Group phase
200
Knockout phase - Round 1
300
Knockout phase - Round 2
400
Knockout phase - Round 3
500
Knockout phase - Round 4
600
Knockout phase - Round 5
700
Knockout phase - Round 6 (Finalist)
800
Knockout phase - Round 7 (Winner)
900
Winner's total
4,500
Uses[]
Keys are used to buy different items in the Galactic Store and regional shops. Sell prices are better on regional shops than the Galactic Store, with highest discounts offered by Shady Dealer.
Ion Blaster Gift • Neutron Gun Gift • Laser Cannon Gift • Vulcan Chaingun Gift • Lightning Fryer Gift • Plasma Rifle Gift • Utensil Poker Gift • Boron Railgun Gift • Photon Swarm Gift • Positron Stream Gift • Hypergun Gift • Riddler Gift • Corn Shotgun Gift • Atomic Powerup
Ion Blaster Gift • Neutron Gun Gift • Laser Cannon Gift • Vulcan Chaingun Gift • Lightning Fryer Gift • Plasma Rifle Gift • Utensil Poker Gift • Boron Railgun Gift • Photon Swarm Gift • Positron Stream Gift • Atomic Powerup