There are 8 enemy types: Flippers, Tankers, Spikers, Spikes, Fuseballs, Pulsars, Fuseball Tankers and Pulsar Tankers. "Tempest" features sixteen unique geometric shapes for the playing fields, some of which are closed tubes that allow the player to loop around, while others are open fields with distinct left and right endpoints. When all 16 screens have been played, the sequence repeats with a different color scheme and higher difficulty, including the "invisible" (black) levels (65–80). Each sequence of levels adds additional faster, deadlier enemies. After level 99, the level number stops incrementing, and one of the 16 variations randomly appears after each player death or the successful completion of subsequent levels.