RAID ENCOUNTERS has been described as a "pinball RPG," and that's pretty accurate. You control an Avatar which behaves like a pinball, bouncing off of enemies and walls, and your mouse, or finger, compels it in any direction you choose.
The main game revolves around ENCOUNTERS, the story mode which takes you from Encounter to Encounter defeating Monsters and Raid Bosses. You are presented with a sort of "World Map" which will show all the Encounters, but they're not all immediately accessible. Upon defeating the Raid Boss in an Encounter, the next Encounter will unlock. You can play any Encounter you've unlocked however much you want, and the Monsters and Raid Bosses within it will scale in power to match your Raid Party's level.
To vanquish enemies, you control one of six Avatars, all with unique damage and abilities. By clicking or tapping anywhere on the screen when your Shoot Timer is filled up, your Avatar will fly in that direction. Its velocity is based on how many Skill Points you've spent into your Speed ability and so is the frequency of your Shoot Timer, so if things seem sluggish at first, you'll need to spend some points on Speed (but at the sacrifice of other skills such as Power).
While aiming your Avatar at Monsters, you'll also be responsible for moving your Raid Party out of harm's way. You can drag them with your mouse or finger on PC or mobile respectively, or use your cursor keys or WASD keys on any keyboard you may have.
Encounters are broken up into Waves, and after killing every Monster in a given Wave, you will advance to the next Wave up until you reach the Last Wave which includes the Raid Boss of the Encounter. When you defeat the Raid Boss and all of the accompanying adds, the Encounter will be complete and your scores recorded. It's important to note that an Encounter is not finished until all Monsters are killed, and most Raid Bosses will constantly spawn adds to defend itself which all must be killed after you've defeated the Raid Boss. If you defeat the Raid Boss and are then killed by adds, this will not count as beating the dungeon!
When hitting regular Monsters with your Avatar, they will spin and not take any damage or collide with your Avatar for a very small amount of time. Elite Monsters do not have this same behavior and are always solid so they will always bounce your Avatar off of them. Raid Bosses are the same as Elite Monsters but they will completely block your Avatar from passing through them if you're trying to drag your Avatar to another location of the dungeon.
There are a few intricacies to combat in RAID ENCOUNTERS which can greatly impact your DPS, time, and overall effectiveness. There is a Combo System in place which ramps up damage based on consecutive Monster hits and a Snipe ability which allows you to pick off Monsters from across the dungeon for a ton of damage.
When you begin to build up Combo Points, the sounds of hitting Monsters will rise in pitch and there will be unique sounds each time you go up a Damage Tier; and you will begin to see pop-ups over hit enemies reflecting any damage bonus (such as 2X Damage or 3X Damage). Your current Combo Points are reflected by the circles on the right side of your screen.
When you are lining up to Snipe stray Monsters, your Avatar must be very far away from the target, and you must tap on the target to initiate the Snipe mode. When a target is far enough between where you click or tap and the location of the active Avatar, a Red arrow will shoot toward the Monster signaling that it will be a Sniper shot. Your Avatar must not make contact with any other Monster or wall before it hits the intended target or you will not receive the Snipe Damage bonus.
There is a Combo System in place which will track how well your Avatar travels from Monster to Monster, and your damage will steadily increase as your Combo Bar builds. Hitting a left or right side wall will reset the combo you're building, but you can still bank shots off the top and bottom walls. Combos also play a large part in the Achievement system.
The Combo Bar will fill in a circle starting from the bottom after each successive hit, and will turn the circles purple when your combo builds to 3, 5, and 10, resulting in 1.5X, 2X, and 3X damage respectively.