Geometry Wars 3 Dimensions Evolved: Comprehensive Enemy Guide

Passive enemies are enemies that exist to fill the playing area. They are a great source of geoms to increase your score multiplier early on and they become a threat when you are not paying attention.

Wanderer

Also known as: Pinwheel, purple fan
These little guys spin their sprite around and wander around the map. As they spawn in, they pick a direction to travel and go there at varying speeds. For every unit of time that has passed, they randomly increase or decrease their speed slightly and pick a new direction to travel. The new direction they travel in appears to be a probability bell curve that favors their current direction of travel. For example, doing a complete 180 degree turn is impossible. A 90 degree turn is unlikely. 45 degree? Probable. 15 degree? Very likely. The same direction it has been traveling in? Most likely. They do not follow the player. They bounce off of walls.
Score: 5
Geoms: 1 to 3

Duck

Also known as: Pink square, paper
These mostly stationary enemies move around by flipping their sprite one unit in the 4 cardinal directions. Contrary to popular belief, they do follow the player. They just do it very, very, slowly. For example, if the player if 3 units to the right of this enemy, they might move in this sequence: right, up, right, down, and right. This is most evident on level 49 in adventure mode, Super Sequence. The second wave of enemies are all ducks. If you sit in a corner with the sweep drone, you will eventually kill all the ducks by letting them come to you.
Score: 10
Geoms: 1 to 3

Rocket

Also known as: Arrow, airplane
Spawns in facing a direction indicated by their pointy tip, and travels straight in said direction at a constant speed. Their speed is about 1.1 times the player’s top speed. Upon reaching a wall, it slows down and faces the opposite direction, then continues.
Score: 15
Geoms: 3 to 5

Neutron

Also known as: Top, gyroscope, deflector
This enemy spawns with an initial random direction and continues in a straight line, reflecting perfectly off of walls and obstacles. Their speed is about double the player’s top speed. These guys are very annoying to deal with. They are essentially upgraded Wanderers.
Score: 30
Geoms: 2

Golden Gear

Also known as: Yellow cross
The most misunderstood enemy. It spawns in the map traveling slowly in a random direction while spinning. As soon as there exists any amount of geoms in the map, it becomes attracted to it and goes in its direction. When it makes contact with geoms, it consumes it. Upon consumption, it spins faster and moves quicker. If it consumes enough geoms, it spins rapidly then explodes, disappearing out of existence. The explosion is a small particle effect that does not damage the player. The only apparent threat that this enemy serves to the player is that it steals the geoms. They bounce off of walls.
Score: 100
Geoms: 1 to 2

Hostile enemies actively seek out the player, keeping you on your toes. They are the only reason why this game becomes difficult. Learn their patterns and behaviors to avoid them.

Grunt

Also known as: Rhombus, blue diamond
Grunts are a very basic and easy enemy that becomes one of the most dangerous enemies in the game. They follow the player in a straight line and start out very slow, about a quarter of the player’s top speed. If they are kept alive for over a minute, they begin to match the player’s top speed. If they are somehow alive after 2 minutes, they can travel faster than double the player’s top speed. They bounce off of walls and are very predictable. You can kite them around in a circle.
Score: 50
Geoms: 3 to 6

Mayfly

Also known as: Jacks, tiny triangle, dorito
Small enemies that usually come in hordes from the corners of the map. They are fantastic at increasing your score and multiplier. They move in a slow, sporadic pattern towards the player. They seem to glide instead of bounce off of walls. It takes one bullet to kill them as with most enemies, but the bullet will pierce through them. You can kill 50 of them at once with a single bullet if they were all lined up or on top of each other.
Score: 75
Geoms: 7 to 9

Weaver

Also known as: Green square
One of the most hated enemies in the game. It travels towards the player at an average speed of 0.8 times the player’s top speed. If left going in a single direction, it can increase its speed to about 1.1 times the player’s top speed. This enemy does not move entirely in a straight line. As the player twists and turns, it applies momentum against its trajectory, appearing to have inertia, as if the object was a car slippery car making a hard turn. The most notable mechanic of this enemy is that it avoids projectiles fired by the player by weaving in and out of suppressed fire. An easy way to deal with these guys is to pin them against a wall with a line of bullets, closing them into the line of fire. Alternatively, a much more convenient method is go to right in front of them without firing bullets, then just do a little burst tap while aiming at them and they will not have time to react. They bounce strongly off of walls. You can kite them in an awkward oval shape.
Score: 50
Geoms: 3 to 5

Spinner

Also known as: Pink box, octahedron
My personal least favorite enemy in the game and one of the more difficult enemies in the game. It is very similar to the weaver in terms of movement. It travels towards the player at an average speed of about 0.85 times the player’s top speed. If left going in a single direction, it increases its speed to about 1.25 times the player’s top speed. This enemy moves like the weaver as described by the slippery car analogy, but more exaggerated. They take one shot to kill. The gimmick is that they spawn 1 to 3 smaller spinners that may catch you off guard and kill you. They bounce off of walls. You can kite them in a very narrow U-shape.
Score: 150
Geoms: 3 to 5

Spinner Spawn

Also known as: Tiny pink box
This enemy is spawned after killing a spinner. It explodes outward from the parent, and orbits quickly around its ghost. It does not follow the player, but its quick movement can be hard to kill, even with a barrage of bullets aimed directly at it. More than one spinner spawn orbits similar to a binary or trinary star system in outer space.
Score: 75
Geoms: 1 to 2

These enemies appear at the end of game and are the most likely to kill you.

Snake

Also known as: Worms
Move towards the player in an S-like motion. It can only be killed by one bullet to the blue head. The other segments absorb the player’s fire. These enemies cause other enemies to overflow the map with multiple spawns because they protect them from stray fire. They coil up when making contact with walls.
Score: 1,000
Geoms: 6 to 8

Repulsor

Also known as: Rhino, charger
Spawns in the map pointing toward the player indicated by its orange tip, then charges at over four times the player’s top speed! After two seconds, it faces the player and repeats the process. Similar to the snake, it is invulnerable in the orange section, but can be killed with one bullet in the blue section at the back of of the repulsor. Shooting head-on towards the repulsor causes it to slow down. It has the most powerful bounce against a wall in the entire game.
Score: 5,000
Geoms: 7 to 8

Proton

Also known as: Black hole spawn
When a gravity well consumes enough material, it blows up into 6 to 9 of these guys. The travel swiftly across the map towards the player, bouncing off of walls and obstacles. They travel slower when making a turn, but their top speed is about triple the player’s top speed.
Score: 250
Geoms: 2 to 3

UFO

Moves in a straight line towards the player at 4 times the player’s top speed. It takes one shot to kill and drops a lot of score and geoms. If it misses, it goes outside of the map and disappears.
Score: 10,000
Geoms: 20

NUFO

Spawns in as a horde outside of the map and travel across the map in a straight line, sometimes shuffling their position slightly.
Score: 1,000
Geoms: 0

These things can kill you and are considered enemies, but they are more helpful and necessary in getting high scores.

Gate

The orange ends of it kill you, but if you pass through it the orange ends explode, effectively killing the enemy. It also kills surrounding enemies inside of the orange end’s explosion radius. Shooting at it reflects bullets off of the gate, but these reflected bullets have more score to them. Killing an enemy with a reflected bullet gives you 4.5 times the amount of score you would have gotten than just killing the enemy normally. The same is true when you blow an enemy up near a gate. Going through multiple gates in a short amount of time triggers a multi-kill combo score effect, indicated by the gate dying sound getting pitched higher and higher. The combo score drastically increases the score you would have gotten without the combo, including the enemies killed near the gate. The gate rotates around in a random direction slowly, and moves around the map while rotating. It bounces lightly off of walls.
Score: 50
Geoms: 11

Golden Gate

The same as a regular gate, except it provides more score, geoms, and an even higher combo if chained successfully. Disappears after 7 seconds.
Score: 150
Geoms: 22

Stationary Gate

The same as a regular gate, except it does not rotate nor move.
Score: 50
Geoms: 11

Mine Layer

Drops mines around that can be activated if the player makes contact. Mines blows up enemies and other mines in its radius. Moves in steps in random directions. Can kill the player if contact is made.
Score: 0
Geoms: 0

Gravity Well
Also known as: Black hole

While inactive, it slowly moves towards the player to kill them. If a bullet hits it, it becomes activated, sucking enemies in and warping gravity. It becomes harder to escape the close you go near it. Bullets curve around it and the only way to kill it is to go close to it while shooting. Killing it causes an explosion that kills nearby enemies. It does not seem to have an effect on score, but if you let it consume enemies and then kill it, you can turn 100,000 points into 1,000,000. Drops geoms based on how much material it sucks up.
Score: 500
Geoms: Variable