Walkthroughs

Space Frontier tips and tricks - How to send your high score soaring

Tap, zoom, to the moon

Space Frontier tips and tricks - How to send your high score soaring
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| Space Frontier

Space Frontier is the latest two-minute arcade time-sink from Ketchapp. The goal this time around is to propel a multistage rocket as far into space as possible by detaching each stage at just the right moment.

The longer you wait before jettisoning a stage, the farther your rocket will travel. However, waiting too long will result in the remainder of the rocket exploding into pieces as the propellant gets too close.

While the basic mechanics in Space Frontier are simply "tap at the right moment," we have a few tips for rocketeers looking to improve their flight times.

3, 2, 1… tap

The challenge in Space Frontier is to tap to jettison pieces before the rocket explodes, but late enough that you maximize every stage. If you tap too early, you'll lose the extra fuel and time that you could have flown with that stage intact.

There is a green line that indicates the ideal place to tap—when the edge of the current stage reaches that line, you'll want to tap.

We've found two ways of looking at the rocket that make this tricky timing slightly easier: one option is focusing on the gray line of the rocket stage. The body of the rocket shrinks upward as it's burned away, like a fuse on a stick of dynamite. You want to tap as soon as you can no longer see any gray.

The other option is to watch the nozzle—the black rectangle at the bottom of the current stage—and to tap as soon as it touches the green line.

While these sound like essentially the same strategy, the main intent is to pick one area to focus on—the gray of the stage body or the black nozzle—and watch it closely for the right moment. Ignore the rest of the rocket and scenery and just focus on your component of choice.

Bigger is better

The money you earn on each launch—10% of the distance you travel—can be used to upgrade your rocket or purchase cosmetic changes. We recommend saving your money for upgrades and buying them as soon as they become available.

Each upgrade will add another stage to your rocket, which gives you an entire extra block of propellant and a chance to get a boost. Even if you only get "OK" or "Good" on each tap, simply having a larger rocket with more stages will guarantee you'll get farther into space.

Earning the highest score on the leaderboard is impossible until you've expanded your rocket enough. If you're wondering how other players get such large scores—they have upgraded rockets in addition to perfect timing.

Go big or go boom

If you tap at just the right moment, you'll earn a "Perfect!" rating and your rocket will receive a significant boost upward. Each rating gives some type of boost, but the better your tap, the greater the bonus.

Getting a Perfect is, of course, risky since tapping even a fraction of a second late will result in the remainder of your rocket exploding.

However, the risk is worth the reward: if you do miss and your rocket explodes, you'll still earn coins for the height you reached. And you have an unlimited number of rockets at your disposal, so you can always just try again.

Wish upon a star

Wondering what that shooting star flying horizontally across the sky is? It marks your highest score. Passing it means you just earned a new high score.

If you're achievement-hunting, here are a few notes on what certain achievements are looking for:

"Precise" requires you to earn a score in the range of 990-1010 without blowing up. This is tricky since the nose cone flies quite awhile after the final stage has been jettisoned. You want to boost up to about 650-750 meters and then quickly tap to jettison any remaining stages.

"Defense Test" is similar, except your rocket needs to explode somewhere within 495-505. This is a very tight window, but you have slightly more control over when your rocket explodes since you just stop tapping and it happens shortly after.

"Awesome Burn" says you need to "complete the last piece as 'Outstanding,'" but it simply means get a "Perfect!" on the final stage jettison before the cone.

"Touchdown" requires you to wait after a successful launch—your rocket did not explode—until the cone has landed safely back on the ground. Just wait long enough and the achievement will pop up.

Jillian Werner
Jillian Werner
When not hunting down food in buffet- or waffle-form, Jillian loves to play puzzle, adventure, and cat games. Yes, she insists "cat" is a legitimate genre.