Captured Fighters Galaga

Perhaps the most famous element of Galaga is the ability for the player's ship to be captured by the enemy. Boss Galagas (the green enemies at the top of the formation) will occasionally stop mid-dive and attempt to capture the player's ship with a tractor beam. If the ship is captured, the boss carries it back up into the formation. If the captured ship is the player's last ship, this ends the game.

The captured player ship acts as an escort to the boss Galaga that captured it, and dives down simultaneously with the Galaga. To free the ship, the player must destroy the Galaga in mid-dive — if the Galaga is destroyed in the formation, the player ship will attack on its own and disappear off the bottom of the screen. (It returns as an escort to another boss Galaga in the next round.) The player can also destroy the player ship, which awards 1000 points.

If the player successfully frees the captured ship, the two ships join together side-by-side at the bottom of the playfield, and they move and shoot together (resulting in a double-shot that makes it easier to hit enemies). However, the combined double-ship is also twice as wide as a single ship, and thus harder to defend. If one of the ships is hit, only that ship is destroyed and the player continues with the surviving one. Because of the obvious benefit of double firepower, a common Galaga strategy is to purposely let a boss Galaga capture a player ship early in the game, then immediately free it.

Contrary to rumor, the double ship cannot be recaptured and released to form a "triple ship". Boss Galagas will only attempt to capture when only a single player ship is in play. However, the triple ship is a feature in the sequel game Galaga '88.