Time Wasters casts its action in the far reaches of space, where Time and Space Cubes can bend the battlefield to a player’s advantage. The central loop pairs fast-moving ship combat with choices about shaping a run: Time Cubes let players reroll possible upgrades or compress time to gain several upgrades at once, while Space Cubes can begin a run with Outposts developed and Captains upgraded.
Combat combines boost-enhanced movement with weapons that fire automatically, though the game also offers manual aiming for all weapons. Captains bring their own upgrade paths, turning primary weapons into Super Weapons and unlocking support improvements for their ships. Players collect Gold to unlock upgrades immediately, fight successive ten-second enemy waves, and take on Elites. Outposts add another objective: establish and protect them to earn bonuses, rather than focusing solely on defeating enemies.
The format extends beyond a single run through Space Cube meta-progression, Captain-specific Loyalty Challenges, and Endless Mode. Those systems frame Time Wasters as a single-player action game with both short, wave-based encounters and longer-term progression goals.
