Set a callsign
Use the suggested callsign or enter your own. In multiplayer, this is the name other pilots see in the crew list and in mission events.
Pilot handbook
Mine the worlds. Build around the star.
A Project Helios run is a cycle of descent, extraction, recovery, and preparation. Learn the loop in minutes; mastering a hostile world with an overloaded hold takes longer.
Before launch
Choose the kind of survey
The mission console supports immediate guest play. A cloud profile is optional and is useful when you want compatible progress, cosmetics, campaign history, and achievements on another device.
Pick a destination
Planet Drop creates one direct survey. Star System charts three to five worlds and lets the crew choose among different biome conditions.
Host or join
Launch a sandbox run to create a code, or enter a crew’s code to join it. Hosts can add an access key and decide whether the room appears in the crew finder.
Story mode is separate. “Begin Campaign” starts the Helios Sphere story for one to six pilots. Each chapter supplies its own shared objectives and narrator events. Sandbox surveys remain open-ended.
Core loop
One expedition, five decisions
Helios Refinery is your processing and construction hub, but it is not a mandatory reset point. Crews can deploy Orbital Mass Drivers underground, refine and launch complete payloads, and continue the same expedition while station visits remain important for upgrades, logistics, and shared infrastructure.
Open a transect
Leave Helios Refinery and choose a route. Your rig can fly, steer, recover cores, and fire instruments, but thrust consumes charge while impacts threaten its shell and payload.
Extract resources
Aim the oscillating corer into reachable terrain. Common material appears near the surface; rare collector feedstock, anomalies, liquid caverns, and guardians become more likely deeper down.
Protect the payload
Every resource has mass and a construction yield. Variety, depth, payload integrity, heat exposure, and refinery systems determine the output; filling the hold with one common material is not always the best choice.
Refine or continue
Refine resources at Helios Refinery or process and launch them through a deployed Orbital Mass Driver. The station can run one integrated logistics cycle, install rig upgrades, and requisition field instruments.
Build the sphere
Commit refined mass to the shared Dyson collector. Once it reaches design mass, the crew approves deployment around the system star. A successful deployment awards Helios Marks for persistent cosmetic rigs.
Follow the survey brief
Active surveys add goals beyond raw profit: recover a material mix, preserve integrity, reach a depth, complete a rescue, investigate an anomaly, or defeat a deep threat.
Input guide
Controls
Touch controls
Touch the left side of the playfield to place the dynamic movement pad, then drag to steer and aim. The right-side buttons fire the equipped array, apply thrust, and run the corer. The action bar opens Operations, refines a payload when a refinery or mass driver is available, opens the cargo manifest, opens the field pack, and arms self-destruct.
| Move and aim | Drag the dynamic pad on the left side of the screen. |
|---|---|
| Thrust | Hold the thrust button. An upward movement gesture also engages lift. |
| Extract | Hold the drill button while aiming into a reachable tile. |
| Fire | Hold the fire button while aiming toward a threat. |
| Field gear | Open Pack, choose an item, then use its active on-screen control. |
Keyboard controls
| Move and aim | WASD or the arrow keys |
|---|---|
| Thrust | Shift, Enter, or X; moving upward also engages lift |
| Extract | Space, J, K, or F |
| Fire | C or V |
| Field pack | B toggles the pack; E opens it; 1–9 use assigned items |
| Operations shortcuts | Q refine payload, R or T run the integrated logistics cycle, O open Operations |
| Close a panel | Esc or Backspace |
Connected controller
Standard mapped controllers use the left stick or directional pad for movement, with the right stick available for aim. The bottom face button, right trigger, or an upward movement input engages thrust; the right bumper runs the corer. The right-stick button toggles Operations. The right face button opens the cargo manifest or closes the top panel, while the left bumper refines the payload and the legacy service shortcuts both run the integrated logistics cycle at the station.
Controller layouts can vary by browser and operating system. The touch controls return automatically if the controller disconnects.
Survival systems
Read the meters before they read zero
- Charge powers thrust and field instruments. Helios Refinery restores it through the integrated logistics cycle; Induction Reserve and Vector Gimbal protocols change the rig’s range.
- Shell absorbs collisions, pressure, heat, liquid exposure, projectiles, and other damage. The same logistics cycle restores both shell and charge.
- Payload shows raw resource mass and type diversity. Refine it, release individual resources, or clear the hold when capacity matters more than low-yield material.
- Integrity tracks cargo condition. Clean recovery and careful flying protect the refining value of the payload.
- Heat rises around rare material and dangerous zones. High thermal signature can contribute to seismic surges.
- Pressure increases with depth and in hostile liquids. Protective gear and upgrades reduce the load.
- Resonance improves when crew members extract close together, rewarding coordinated routes.
Helios Refinery
Authorize the next investigation
Refining produces construction mass, but higher rig tiers also require completed Helios contracts. The Engineering Deck covers Cargo, Mobility, Hazard, and Recovery systems, so progression is tied to field work rather than only to extracting more material.
Field instruments include Phase Shears for sealed strata and guardians, Vector Pulses for directional route cutting, liquid protection, relay beacons, and Orbital Mass Drivers that refine and launch resources underground at full construction value. The nearby Field Foundry fabricates girders, ramps, boost pads, escalators, and elevator columns for shared construction.
Station capabilities are communal. The Logistics Fabricator reduces the combined charge-and-shell cost, the Refinery Core improves refining, the Engineering Fabricator discounts upgrades and instruments, and the Stellar Assembly Gantry improves Dyson construction and deployment rewards.
Crew tactics
Share more than a room code
The crew list can create a rescue tether to another pilot or an active rescue target. Nearby crews benefit from resonance, deployed relays improve local recovery and charge use, and Orbital Mass Drivers let one pilot process the crew’s payload while another keeps opening the route.
The map wraps horizontally. Continuing east or west eventually circles the planet. Vertical distance is less forgiving: plan a charge reserve, establish charge-free carrier routes, and deploy a mass driver before committing to the deepest zones.
Invite links can include an access key. Share private crew links only with the people you want in the survey. Anyone with the complete link may be able to use that key while the room remains active.
Recovery
A destroyed rig is a setback, not the end
When a rig is destroyed, the pilot can respawn and rejoin the expedition. Unrefined cargo and some run progress may be lost, so process complete payloads at field mass drivers instead of risking one overloaded climb. Self-destruct uses a confirmation step and returns the pilot to the same planet with the expedition economy reset.
Optional rewarded ads may be offered at certain natural breaks, such as a resupply choice after destruction. Rewards remain inside Project Helios, and the non-ad continuation remains available. See the Privacy Policy for information about Google advertising data and choices.