How to play SHIP40 The Catch
SHIP40 The Catch is a free rocket catch game that runs in your browser. A reusable booster is coming home and there is no landing pad and there are no landing legs. Instead the launch tower catches it with two giant arms, like chopsticks. You have 40 seconds and a limited tank of fuel to make the catch.
How a catch works
- Line up. The rocket starts high up, a little to the left of the tower and tilted to the left. Steer across and come down beside the tower, between the two dashed guide rails.
- Hold steady. Hover with the grid fins (the little wings near the top) just above the arms. While you stay inside the rails, slow and upright, the arms swing shut. The tower light turns amber while they move. Drift out and they swing back open.
- Settle onto the arms. Once the arms are closed (the light turns green), ease off the engine and let the grid fins come down on them gently.
Hitting the tower, falling past the arms, or coming down on them too fast, too tilted or sliding sideways all count as a crash.
Controls
- Space or Up arrow: fire the main engine.
- Left / Right arrows: tilt the rocket.
- P or Esc: pause and resume. M: sound on/off.
- R: fly again after a mission ends.
- On phones and tablets, use the on-screen Left, Right and Thrust buttons. You can hold Thrust and tilt at the same time.
Difficulty levels
The rocket flies exactly as it does in The Landing, with the same gravity, fuel and speed and tilt limits on each level. The Catch adds a catch window and wind. Each level keeps its own personal best, separate from The Landing.
- Easy (default): wide catch window (16 m either side), calm air.
- Medium: 13 m catch window and a light breeze.
- Hard: 10 m catch window, gusty wind toward the tower and real gravity. Watch the windsock on the tower roof.
Scoring
A clean catch earns 4,000 points, plus up to 2,000 for precision (resting in the middle of the arms, perfectly upright), 1,500 for fuel left in the tank, 1,500 for a soft settle and 1,000 for time to spare. The maximum is 10,000. Your best score on each level is saved on this device only.
Tips
- Fix sideways drift early, while you are high up, then come straight down.
- Come down to the window slowly. Hovering burns fuel, so do not arrive too high.
- Once the arms close, the job is a gentle drop of a few metres, not a landing burn.
Also on SHIP40: The Landing
The original: land the rocket on its legs on a pad in 40 seconds. Play The Landing.
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