Level Guide: The Grand Tour, Route by Route

The game's ten routes form one long journey outward from Earth to the moons of Jupiter. Each route unlocks when you clear the one before it. Below you will find what every route asks of you, using the same stops, labels and camera frames you see in the game. Starting fuel figures are for a ship with no tank upgrade.

1. Lunar Shuttle

Earth–Moon · Earth-centered · 5 legs · 66 fuel · no gates. You shuttle crew between an orbiting Gateway station and the Moon: board, deliver, pick up, deliver, home. This is the tutorial. The tank cannot fall below a safety floor, one stray tap per leg is forgiven, and on your first play the game eases off as each ring closes. Use it to learn what PERFECT feels like; it is the only route you cannot fail.

2. Free Return

Earth–Moon · Earth-centered · 6 legs · 66 fuel · 2 gates. The arcs get longer and loop around the far side of the Moon, and the first optional gold gates appear. One stray tap per leg is still forgiven. Practise gates here, where the tank is generous, because later routes punish a bad gate tap much harder.

3. Venus Swing

Earth → Sun → Earth-centered · 6 legs · 58 fuel · 1 gate. Your first frame shift. After boarding at the Moon, the camera lets go of Earth and re-centres on the Sun, so Earth itself starts moving. You swing in to Venus and back twice before returning to the Moon. Venus orbits faster than Earth, which makes the inner legs feel quicker than you expect.

4. Red Planet Line

Earth → Sun → Mars-centered · 6 legs · 47 fuel · 1 gate. Depart Earth, cruise to Mars in the Sun-centered view, then switch to a Mars-centered view to work between Phobos and Deimos. Phobos circles Mars in a couple of seconds of game time, so its rings close fast. Coming home reverses the frame sequence. The tank is noticeably smaller from here on.

5. The Belt

Mars → wide Sun-centered · 7 legs · 49 fuel · 2 gates. Starting at Mars, you survey Vesta, stop at the Ceres depot twice and visit Pallas on its lopsided, eccentric orbit. The view zooms out so the asteroids look tiny. Pallas speeds up and slows down along its path, so judge each catch by the ring, not by where the rock seems to be heading.

6. Jupiter Approach

Earth → Sun → Jupiter-centered · 6 legs · 44 fuel · 1 gate. Three frames in one run. Board at the Moon, slingshot past Mars, call at Ceres, arrive at Jupiter, then deliver to Callisto and Ganymede as the giant planet fills the screen. It has the smallest starting tank of any route, so every GOOD instead of GREAT matters.

7. Io Furnace

Jupiter-centered · 7 legs · 48 fuel · 1 gate. Everything happens around Jupiter. You keep descending to Io, the fast inner moon, with a skim past Amalthea, which is faster still. Legs are short and rings close quickly, so this route rewards rhythm more than patience.

8. Europa Ice Run

Jupiter-centered · 8 legs · 51 fuel · 2 gates. Io, Europa and Ganymede move in a locked 4:2:1 rhythm, and this route bounces between all three plus Amalthea. Eight legs on a stingy tank make it the route where many players first stall. Learning the repeating rhythm of the three big moons is the key.

9. Callisto Long Haul

Wide Jupiter-centered · 8 legs · 48 fuel · 2 gates. You plunge from slow, distant Callisto to blazing Io and climb back out, several times. The cycler's speed changes wildly from one leg to the next, so the timing you used on the last ring is useless on the next one. Re-time every catch from scratch.

10. Grand Tour Finale

Earth → Sun → Jupiter-centered · 11 legs · 58 fuel · 2 gates. The whole tour on one tank: Moon, Venus, Mars, Pallas, Jupiter, then all four large moons (Io, Europa, Ganymede, Callisto), a perijove skim at Amalthea and a final return to Jupiter. Timing windows are the tightest in the game. Clearing it ends the tour and shows your total score and stars.

Difficulty at a glance

Routes 1 and 2 teach the basics. Routes 3 to 5 add frame shifts and smaller tanks. From route 6 onward, timing windows keep narrowing and only consistent GREAT and PERFECT catches get through. If you are stuck, earn spare stars on earlier routes and spend them in the Hangar; the tips page suggests an upgrade order. For the real astronomy behind each stop, see the science section.