Cozy Puzzle

Starlight Launch

Catch digits, read the colors, and open three locks before Pip the fox opens its own.

Play Starlight Launch Back to all games Read the game guide

Starlight Launch cozy code-breaking game cover artwork

What you do

Starlight Launch is a cozy code-breaking race on a festival night. Fireflies drift across a lantern-lit meadow, each glowing with a digit, and three catches make a guess at the 3-digit lock on your rocket. Gray digits fade from the meadow and green digits stay in their slots, so every guess narrows the search without any note taking. Across the meadow, Pip the fox cracks its own locks at the same time. Open all three of yours first and your rocket lights up the sky. A festival night is three rounds, and each round you win brings a helper that stays with you.

Win a round to adopt an Owl, Glowworm, Frog or Moth helper that works on its own, up to three of each.
Your rocket bursts in the firework color you choose.

How to play

Tap a firefly to catch its digit. Digits fill your three slots from left to right, and the race starts with your first catch.
When the third digit lands, the lock reads your guess. Green means the right digit in the right spot, amber means the digit is in the code in another spot, and gray means it is not in the code.
Gray digits fade out and cannot be caught, and green digits stay in their slots for your next guess. Tap a caught digit to release it before the third one lands.
Open all three locks before Pip the fox opens its three. Pip guesses on a timer, and the strip at the top shows its open locks and its last clues.
Win a round to pick a helper. A night has three rounds: Pip gets quicker each round, and in round three a digit can appear more than once.
Win all three rounds of a night and Pip practices: next night it guesses quicker, up to level 5. A night with one win or none eases Pip back down a level.

Controls

Touch or mouse: tap a firefly to catch it, and tap a filled slot to release its digit.
Keyboard: press 0 to 9 to catch a firefly showing that digit, and Backspace to release the last digit. Tab reaches the slots and the card buttons.
Shared toolbar: pause, restart, sound, help and fullscreen. Pausing stops Pip too.

Tips worth knowing

Open with three digits you have not tried. Even three grays dim three digits for the rest of that lock.
An amber digit belongs in a different slot. Move it on your next guess instead of dropping it.
Slots fill from the left, so look for the digit your leftmost empty slot needs first.
If the digit you need is missing, wait a moment: every digit that could still be in your code drifts back within four seconds.
Listen to the chimes. Each digit has its own note, so a code starts to sound familiar.
Owls pay off when a lock takes many guesses, Moths calm a busy meadow, and Frogs forgive near misses.

Accessibility

Clues use a symbol as well as a color: a check for the right spot, a dot for the wrong spot and a cross for not in the code.
Keyboard play: number keys catch a visible firefly with that digit, and Backspace releases the last digit.
Guesses, clues, open locks and Pip's progress are announced to screen readers, and the slots and cards are real buttons.
This is a timed race: fireflies move and Pip keeps guessing. Pause at any time from the toolbar, and losing a round still moves the night on.
Reduced motion stills the stars and lanterns, trims the fireworks and removes the camera tilt. Fireflies still drift, because catching them is the game. Sound is never required.

Questions

What happens if Pip wins a round?

Pip's rocket goes up first and yours still launches after it. The night moves on to the next round; you only miss that round's helper.

Can digits repeat?

Not in rounds one and two, where the three digits are always different. In round three a digit can appear more than once, and a digit you guess twice only turns amber as many times as the code holds it.

How does Pip play?

Pip cracks its own separate codes with the same clues, guessing every 12 seconds in round one, 10 in round two and 8 in round three. It slows down by 30% when you are two locks behind and speeds up by 15% when you are two ahead. It never sees your code.

What does the game save?

Your helpers, Pip's level, your best time for each round, your firework color and a few totals are saved in this browser on this device. A night in progress is not saved.