How to Play Airframe Ultra

Airframe Ultra is a PS1-styled cyberpunk hoverbike battle-racer from Videocult, published by Akupara Games. You race airframes, hop off whenever you want, and score both from race legs and from knocking rivals out. The full game is still listed as coming soon on Steam (app 2522120, Windows only, English only). This page is the first-hour plan: get into a match, pick a sane loadout, and understand how a circuit ends.

Stay on Bluntnose, use a Standard body with the Rider Suit, and do not dry-boost until you can finish a lap with coolant left.

Wishlist, demo, and first launch

Open the Steam page, wishlist so you get launch mail, and download the listed demo. Steam also lists online PvP, online co-op, and split-screen, so you can practice with friends in the same room or over the network. Bot matches exist for solo reps. The contents of the demo change: it has been tutorial-only, and it has also carried every previous beta track during the February 23–March 2 2026 open beta. Confirm what you actually downloaded in the demo guide before you expect Ocean Drive.

Minimum spec is modest: Windows 10, 6 GB RAM, a GTX 650-class GPU, DirectX 11. Plug in a gamepad. Keyboard is playable and keys were rebindable as of the February 2026 open beta, but analog throttle is the difference between riding the overheat gauge and eating it. Read controls after this page if stick inputs still feel alien.

Airframe Ultra official open beta trailer

Tutorial loop

The tutorial is the only quiet place to feel throttle, brake pitch, a coolant boost, a dismount, and a punch. Complete it on the default Bluntnose with the HUD in mind: bike health is not rider health. If the airframe explodes, you wait for a respawn while everyone else is already in the next arena. That wait is how new players leak circuits. On foot, jump, punch, kick, and a basic flip are the whole melee language until you pick up a bat. Sprinting drains stamina and will dump you if you turn like a racer. The bike is the movement tech; the rider is the scoring tool.

First loadout: Bluntnose and Standard

Bluntnose is the default generalist. It starts with three coolant boosts, adds no specialist difficulty star, and sat near a 50% pick rate in beta telemetry because it does not trap you. Gear steps land around 80 / 110 / 140 / 165 / 190 / 220 / 250 km/h. Fifteen of the twenty-three preset riders use it. That is the bike you should lock until you can boost without crashing and dismount without eating pavement.

Leave Vector, Cruiser, and Hopper for later. Vector takes 1.3x damage and only sings when you ultraboost in a ground-hugging glide. Cruiser is heavy and slow to launch. Hopper is tiny, takes 1.6x damage, and boosts upward. Those chassis add specialist stars. They are not beginner bikes. Compare them on Tools and the tier list after you can finish a circuit on Bluntnose.

Body type: Standard. Light is faster with chain flips but takes more damage. Heavy is tanky with slower swings and no jumping forward kick. Tall lengthens melee and grows the hurtbox. Light and Heavy each add a difficulty star. The Rider Suit is a 15% damage cut; leaving it off also adds a star. First hour loadout is Standard plus the suit. The twenty-three presets, including specialist riders, live under Riders.

Dismount, arenas, and scoring

You can leave the bike at any time. Do not treat that as a stunt button on a highway. Race sections want you mounted. Arena sections want you off the seat with a weapon in hand. Tracks break into those arenas on purpose. When the fight timer is live, a clean KO is as real as a checkpoint. When the timer ends, get back on and ride the next leg. Sitting on a pipe in the middle of a race line is how you get run over and then late to the vote.

You carry one melee, one ranged, one throwable, and one special. For the first hour, grab a Bat or Pipe. The combat guide is the next read after you survive one brawl. Bike HP is independent of the rider. You can scrap someone’s airframe — or your own with a panic dry-boost — and wait out a respawn.

First circuit and Warehouse votes

A circuit is three races with points carrying over. After a race you return to Warehouse, which is the lobby you walk around in, not a pause menu. When voting starts, two random tracks highlight. Walk into the zone in front of the board to vote. Most votes wins. Ties break randomly, so do not AFK in a corner and then complain you got Estate. Learn the six beta tracks on the tracks page so you know whether you are voting for rain, a quarry pit, a night highway, a chasm, a megashipyard, or a mansion.

Between races, check bike health and coolant. Do not switch to Hopper because a friend picked Zane. Second-session goal: finish a circuit without a dry-boost, with one intentional KO, and a vote you walked into. Then open boosting. Keep Updates nearby. The first hour does not change: Bluntnose, Standard, suit, coolant only, dismount for arenas, remount for legs, vote with your feet.