How to play Comet Courier
Fly as far as you can, keep your fuel tank from running dry, and deliver humanity's message on the photon ring of Sagittarius A*, the black hole at the heart of the galaxy. One hit ends the run.
New to the game? Press Training on the game's home screen. It walks you through every move at a slow speed with a full tank, and replays a lesson if you crash.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard | Phone or tablet |
|---|---|---|
| Change lane | ← → or A D | Swipe left or right |
| Change level | ↑ ↓ or W S | Swipe up or down |
| Fire the Blaster | Space or F | Tap the screen or the Fire button |
| Pause | P or Esc | The pause button at the top |
On touch screens you can switch steering in Settings: Swipe (one swipe, one move), Drag (slide your thumb and the ship follows square by square) or Pad(tap the square you want on a 3 × 3 pad). The game also pauses itself when you switch to another app.
The flight grid
You fly in a 3 × 3 grid: three lanes side by side and three flight levels, low, middle and high. Moving up or down works just like changing lanes, and your ship stays at its level until you move again. The small grid under your score shows which square you are in.
Three cues tell you your level at a glance. The level indicator, three slim ticks beside your ship, lights up at your level. Your engine burns like the stars, hottest at the top: blue on the high level, yellow in the middle and red down low. And obstacles that fill two levels, like shard asteroids and station decks, show a row of teal guide lights at the level that is still open. The level indicator can be turned off in Settings.
Every row of obstacles leaves at least one square open, and the course always gives you enough room to reach it. Early on you never need more than two moves to reach an open square.
A flight-path marker, four corner brackets ahead of your ship, shows the square you are heading into. It flashes red when something is about to hit you there, glows amber while a raider is aiming at you, turns teal for fuel and takes on a power-up's colour when one is coming. You can turn it off in Settings.
Fuel and flameouts
Your tank drains as you fly, a little faster as you speed up. Each fuel cell refills 4.5 percent of the tank. If the tank runs dry, the engine flames out and the ship coasts. Reach a fuel cell within three seconds to reignite; otherwise the run ends.
Obstacles
| Obstacle | Fills | How to get past |
|---|---|---|
| Station deck | Low and middle levels | Fly over it on the high level |
| Low laser gate | Low and middle levels | Fly over it on the high level |
| High laser gate | Middle and high levels | Fly under it on the low level |
| Plasma arc | Middle and high levels | Fly under it on the low level |
| Shard asteroid | Two levels, low or high | Fly over or under it, or blast it with the Kestrel |
| Full laser gate | A whole lane, top to bottom | Change lane |
| Asteroid wall | Every square but one | Find the gap |
| Loose asteroids and debris | Single squares | Move to a clear square, or shoot them |
Power-ups
- Warp: about six seconds of bending space at extreme speed, smashing through anything, but it burns fuel four times as fast and cuts out before it can strand you on an empty tank.
- Shield: absorbs one hit.
- Magnet: pulls nearby fuel cells to you for nine seconds.
- Blaster: twelve shots per pickup, up to 24, for asteroids, debris and raiders. Shard asteroids only break under the Kestrel's heavy fire, and gates, arcs and decks can't be shot at all.
Ships
Every ship trades one strength for one weakness, so none is simply better. Pip and Kestrel are ready from the start; the others unlock as you play. Pick your ship on the home screen or after a run.
| Ship | Strength | Trade-off | Unlock |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pip | Balanced and easy to learn | Nothing special | Starter |
| Kestrel | Heavy fire: the only ship that can break shard asteroids, and raiders go down in half the shots | 15% smaller fuel tank | Starter |
| Hauler | 25% bigger tank, longer Warp | Slower lane and level changes | Deliver 1 message |
| Skiff | The fastest lane and level changes | Fuel cells refill less | Reach the Pleiades |
| Lodestar | A built-in magnet pulls in nearby fuel cells | Warp is 30% shorter | Collect 500 fuel cells |
| Wraith | Starts every loop with a Shield | Can't pick up Blasters | Deliver 5 messages |
The signal
Every message you deliver decodes another piece of the signal Earth received from beyond the galactic core. There are five pieces to find. You can reread the ones you have decoded in the Signal log on the game's home screen.
Raiders
Further into a run, raider gunships drop in ahead of you. Each one paints your square with a red targeting beam, then fires. Move out of the beam before the shot lands, or hit the raider four times with the Blaster (two volleys from the Kestrel) to destroy it.
Scoring
- 1 point for every kilometre flown.
- 10 points for every fuel cell.
- 25 points for every asteroid or piece of debris you shoot.
- 250 points for every raider you destroy.
- 2,500 points for delivering the message, more on each loop: 5,000 on the second, and so on.
After a delivery the wormhole sends you back to Earth with the next message, and each loop runs a little faster than the last.
Tips
- Watch the marker. If it flashes red, move before you look for where to go.
- Stay on the low or high level when you can. The middle level is blocked by the most obstacles.
- Save Warp for when your tank is healthy, because it drains fuel fast.
- Near Sagittarius A*, the black hole's gravity makes your engine work harder, so fuel drains faster. Top up before the final stretch.