History VideoGame / StarlinkBattleForAtlas

* MoreCriminalsThanTargets: Outlaws are all the solar system with no one for them to attack but you. Planetside, you do have to defend outposts from them.

* AsteroidMining: A handy way for players to get electrum when in space.

* WildSamoan: Averted with Hunter, though he is still a capable soldier, pilot, and warrior whose talents focus on raw offense. He's basically the calmest playable character in the game. According to his data canister, he thought of himself as one when he first joined the military but realized that the "wild" part wasn't really in him.

* PsychoStrings: When you approach a Legion Prime, the music that plays begins with a low-pitched and ominous drone.

* KneeCapping: How you attack Legion Battle-Mechs; you have to shoot its glowing kneecaps first until it stumbles and expose the weak point on its back.

* NoWarpingZone: Outlaws prey on passing ships using hyperspace traps, circular energy nets that force any ship which flies into them out of hyperspeed. The traps aren’t infallible, however, as they have small holes which a skilled pilot can fly through to avoid triggering them. The Legion also uses such traps, only with even smaller holes that require even more skill to pass through

* SpiritualSuccessor:
** The Switch version of ''Starlink: Battle for Atlas'' is often referred to as being a new entry in the ''Star Fox'' series in everything but name. The open-world space gameplay is seen as one of the better experiments with the franchise's formula, and many previews had journalists impressed by how seamless the addition of Nintendo characters was done. More specifically, the game has a lot of similarities to ''VideoGame/StarFox2'', in which the player would defend Corneria from assault by destroying enemy weapons and strongholds. The difference here is that you have multiple planets to defend and you can set up bases of your own.
** The game in general may be a more successful version of ''VideoGame/NoMansSky'', taking the concept of exploring planets, harvesting resources, and interacting with sentient lifeforms, all without the monotony and questionable hurdles this time around.
** The open-ended and exploration-heavy nature of the game, combined with the idea of liberating/deploying outposts and uncovering undiscovered terrain brings ''VideoGame/FarCry'' to mind.

* Foreshadowing:

** Some dialogue in the Star Fox portion of the Crimson Moon DLC ''seem'' to be hinting at Falco eventually desiring to leave the team in ''Farewell, Beloved Falco'', an extremely obscure manga drawn for the Japanese release of Videogame/StarFoxAdventures that illustrates what happens between 64 and Adventures.

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: One optional Electral Sparks you can investigae [[spoiler:tied to the Arborwood Homestead]] has Eli exclaim, "Well, curl my stamen!"[[note]]The stamen is the male organ of a flowering plant which produces pollen. This makes what he said the Bion equivalent of "You're yanking my crank!"[[/note]]

* GoingCommando: When he's out on his own, Levi tends to fly his spaceship sans trousers.

** [[The Wardens. They conquered Atlas basically overnight, caused irreparable damage to the planets' ecosystems to produce Electum and Nova, and abandoned their projects just as suddenly as they had arrived. Their one saving grace was that they locked up the Legion when the Swarm began possessing the robots, to prevent them from killing all life outright.]]

** Any time you're in a planet's atmosphere, it's easier to just attack enemies with you on the ground. Sure, you won't be doing any fancy dogfighting, but given that there are almost no flight-based non-space enemies (Master and Inferal Primes, as well a the FinalBoss [[spoiler:on Atlus B itself]], force you to take to the air due to [[spoiler:setting the ground on fire]], and that's about it) and none of the weapons are designed around air-to-ground assault, it's much easier to just strafe and jump your way around enemies and their attacks as if you're in a humanoid-based ThirdPersonShooter. There are a few exceptions, however; Crush Giants jump around like crazy and their vortex attacks only really affect the ground.
** In particular, when facing a high-level Legion Prime, it's a bad idea to attack it from the air during its second and fourth phases. The crystals on its legs can fire multiple homing flame missiles that are almost impossible to avoid, and will easily overtax your blocking shield. It doesn't have this attack in its third phase, but you'll generally want to be on the ground as much as possible when fighting it (provided you can even stay airborne; you may end up fighting it inside an Extractor cloud).

* AbusivePrecursors: The Forgotten Legion seems to be. [[spoiler:Subverted, they're old, but they're just [[AIIsACrapshoot rogue army droids]] made by the BenevolentPrecursors.]]

* BenevolentPrecursors: [[spoiler:The Wardens, who immediately realized the Forgotten Legion had gone mad, and not only put them in a [[SealedEvilInACan can]] but left behind secrets on how to contain them if someone such as Grax let them loose. However, something of a subdued example since they also treated Atlas as their playground, tidally locking all of the planets are radically altering the environments to the point of mass extinction.]]

* BenevolentPrecursors: [[spoiler:The Wardens, who immediately realized the Forgotten Legion had gone mad, and not only put them in a [[SealedEvilInACan can]] but left behind secrets on how to contain them if someone such as Grax let them loose.]]

** Observatories may not have a whole lot of utility beyond revealing more of the planet's map, but they are still Alliance facilities where you can repair ships and sell valuable resources (especially cores) for a sweet price. If you don't have the Nova or Electrum to build fancier facilities like Armories or Refineries, Observatories are a good way to get the Alliance meter rolling at a low cost. They also reveal things like Warden Spires and other potential outposts.

** Any time you're in a planet's atmosphere, it's easier to just attack enemies with you on the ground. Sure, you won't be doing any fancy dogfighting, but given that there are almost no flight-based non-space enemies (the FinalBoss [[spoiler:on Atlus B itself]] forces you to take to the air due to [[spoiler:setting the ground on fire]], and that's about it) and none of the weapons are designed around air-to-ground assault, it's much easier to just strafe and jump your way around enemies and their attacks as if you're in a humanoid-based ThirdPersonShooter.

%%** The Shockwave weapon, it isn't flashy nor deals a lot of damage, but the wide blast means it is by far the simplest solution to deal with [[GoddamnedBats Imp hordes]], [[TeleportingKeycardSquad like the ones that tend to spawn when you open a Planetside Cache]], and being [[NonElemental Kinetic]] means it can deal with all variants without effort, [[BribingYourWayToVictory and it comes in the same Weapon Package as the]] GameBreaker [[BribingYourWayToVictory Gauss Gun mentioned below]].

* CoolShip: All playable starfighters are this, but special mention goes to the game's take on the Arwing.

** Fox's ''Rock 'n Roll'' summons one of his crew to fight alongside him. However, before they actually hit the battlefield, said member of Star Fox will first strike a targeted enemy for a ludicrous amount of damage. This potentially allows Fox to defeat "Wonder" bosses with relative ease no matter what level he is.

* DressingAsTheEnemy: The Outlaw Armor mod, only equippable on Outlaw ships, prevents enemy Outlaws from being able to target your ship. It also prevents them from attacking you, unless you provoke them. The effect is strictly functional; it doesn't make any cosmetic changes to your ship.

** Kharl is a member of the Expedition, using his research to aid the Starlink team even when he's not currently in a cockpit.

* FunSize: Invoked with the Star Fox crew. When put next to the main cast, they only come up a little above their waists, though they can still be [[KillerRabbit killer rabbits]] in the right hands.

* GuideDangIt: The final mission in the Star Fox questline for ''Crimson Moon''. At one point, you are tasked with firing mines at tractor beams to blow up a massive station. You'd think, normally, that you're supposed to throw the mines at the beams themselves, right? ''Nope''. Go to the Equinox, find the base of the tractor beams, and fire the mines at those. Not at the enemy station, not at the beams, not at the shield. ''[[ItMakesSenseInContext At the very end of the tractor beam, in the Equinox]]'''. ''No one'' will explain the process correctly and it ''will'' make you look it up in Website/YouTube.

* HoldTheLine: Every time you hack a ruins artifact or a crashed Drake, a timer counts down and you have to fend off enemy Legion that you've attracted until the timer runs out. The timer stops if you leave the defensive radius or go into flight mode, and the hacking attempt is aborted entirely if you don't land or get back in the area in 10 seconds.

* LastLousyPoint: Trying to get OneHundredPercentCompletion for each planet? Have fun finding the final sample for a given planet, because the only thing tha tells you that [[CrueltyIsTheOnlyOption attacking the local fauna]] is what will get you that last sample is the occasional outpost quest.

** Every time you open an Electrum Ruch Cache, Eli gives a little history lesson on the days of the Electrum Rush.
* MythologyGag: The ''Star Fox'' trailer has Fox SpeakingSimlish on the ship's communicator in the same manner as [[VideoGame/StarFox1 the original game]] before his onscreen reveal, even down to using the same sound effects.
** Also, [[spoiler:the final boss battle]] is extremely similar to that of ''VideoGame/StarFox64'', with you having to confront [[spoiler:Grax]] alone. And as you travel through the Dreadnought to the Warden Station, [[spoiler:Grax]] will taunt you. The similarities are even more apparent if you choose to play as Fox for the mission.
* NoWarpingZone: Outlaws prey on passing ships using hyperspace traps, spherical energy nets that force any ship which flies into them out of hyperspeed. The traps aren’t infallible, however, as they have small holes which a skilled pilot can fly through to avoid triggering them. The Legion also uses such traps, only with even smaller holes that require even more skill to pass through

* PeninsulaOfPowerLeveling: The Trade Sector, particularly Krite, become this with Mason's Mentor Skill combined with easy-to-gain Experience-boosting mods. The relative lack of danger, combined with the planet's small size, makes completing quests for the various outposts a breeze for the same reward you'd get from any other planet. And then there's the [[MetalSlime Spirit of Electrum]] that often spawns while you're out questing.

** The Crimson Moon update introduces a Shield Ram attack, in which you shield and boost at the same time to crash into an enemy, damaging and knocking it down.

* RefusalOfTheCall: Peppy, if only briefly. He's quick to remind Fox of their original mission and how helping Starlink would be a distraction, but the others quickly leave to join the fight before he can argue further, begrudgingly lending his assistance as well.

* ScaryAmoralReligion: Grax and his followers view the BenevolentPrecursors as gods who uplifted them. They further believe that gives them a right to conquer the galaxy in the**ir name.

** The Arwing's standard laser cannons work almost exactly as they do in ''Franchise/StarFox'': they typically fire in short machinegun-like bursts, and each one can also be [[ChargedAttack charged]] to fire a highly damaging HomingProjectile.
** The Levitator. It's a homing missile that does a lot of damage and can be used either as a siege weapon or a combat weapon. Its status effect, Stasis Overload, slows down enemies and can be comboed with other elements to create an explosion that damages the target and surrounding enemies. And since there's no Stasis-elemental enemies, it works well on 99% of all enemies.
** The Frost Barrage. It's the closest thing to [[MacrossMissileMassacre homing cluster missiles]], making it a godsend in space combat. It helps that in space combat there's no elemental enemies. It's also really helpful against the Fire Giants, which can be quite mobile for their size.

* UniversalDriversLicense: Levi, who despite being a stowaway with no training whatsoever, can somehow pilot a starfighter as easily as the rest of the team, and his LimitBreak provides an InvincibilityPowerUp.

* SpiderTank: The Primes are robotic variants of this.

** The Switch version of ''Starlink: Battle for Atlas'' is often referred to as being a new entry in the ''Star Fox'' series in everything but name. The open-world space gameplay is seen as one of the better experiments with the franchise's formula, and many previews had journalists impressed by how seamless the addition of Nintendo characters was done.
*** More specifically, the game has a lot of similarities to ''VideoGame/StarFox2'', in which the player would defend Corneria from assault by destroying enemy weapons and strongholds. The difference here is that you have multiple planets to defend and you can set up bases of your own.

* WildSamoan: Averted with Hunter, though he is still a capable soldier, pilot, and warrior whose talents focus on raw offense. He's basically the calmest playable character in the game.

** Fox is, [[VideoGame/StarFox of course]], an experienced mercenary doing business as usual, [[GuestFighter just not in his usual star system]].

** An ''Equinox'' upgrade allows you to teleport to any Warden Spire that you've solved, even if you're currently not on the planet the Spire is on. A similar upgrade lets you teleport to destroyed Legion fortresses.

** An ''Equinox'' upgrade allows you to teleport to any Warden Spire that you've solved, even if you're not on the planet the Spire is on.

** Once you've visited a planet, you can quickly jump to it next time as long as you're in space and you have a line-of-sight to it.