Harbor Pilot
Bring a big ship into eight harbors, from Istanbul to New York to South Florida, and lay her gently alongside her berth.
- Solo
Walkers
Lead the little walkers home. They march on no matter what, so give each one a job: build a bridge, dig a way down, or stand guard to turn the others round.
Paused: give jobs, scroll, then play
Rate
Pick
No jobs on this level: they know the way.
Levels
How to play
Bring enough walkers home through the door before the time runs out. Each level says how many walkers come out and how many are Needed: get that many Home and the level is won.
The walkers
The walkers drop out of the hatch one at a time and march on no matter what. They step up and down small steps and turn back at a wall. A fall that is too long is the end of a walker, and so is water, or dropping out of the bottom of the level. The door, a stone arch with a warm light, takes them home.
Giving a job
Pick a job under the level (only the level’s own jobs are there, each with how many are left), then tap or click a walker to give it that job. A walker that is falling, climbing or blocking takes only Climb, Float or Bomb. In a crowd, Pick narrows who a tap reaches: All, only those walking left, only those walking right, or only those with no job yet. With a mouse, pointing at a walker frames it and says what it is doing and how many are under the pointer.
Pause and Rewind
Pause freezes the level where it is: you can still give jobs and scroll, then play on. Under the level, the timeline runs from the start to now. Drag it back, or press Back 10 s, to see the level as it was then, and forward again. Play on, give a job or change the rate, and the game goes on from there; what came after is let go. A level lost can be rewound too.
Stars and the gem
A level won gives a star, two if its full count comes home (every walker, or as many as the level allows), and three if a walker also carries its gem home. The first walker to reach the gem picks it up and carries it over its head; if that walker is lost, the gem goes back to its place.
Climb and Float
These two stay with a walker for good, whatever else it does. A climber goes up any wall it meets and steps over the top; rock over its head makes it let go. A floater opens a leaf when it falls, so no fall is too long for it. Water is still the end of either.
Block
A blocker stands with its arms out and turns back every walker that reaches it. It stays there until the level ends, and a blocker still standing then counts as lost. Give it Bomb to clear it away; if the stone under it is dug out, it falls and walks on.
Build and Bash
A builder lays a stair of twelve steps rising ahead of it, one step every half second, then shrugs and walks on; a wall just ahead stops it and turns it back. A basher cuts a tunnel straight ahead through the stone and walks on once there is no more stone in front of it.
Plank, Swim and Fill
A planker lays a flat bridge straight ahead at its feet, a plank every quarter second, sixteen in all (about a hundred and thirty units), and walks on along it; a wall just ahead turns it back. Swim stays with a walker for good, as Climb and Float do: a swimmer crosses water at its top and climbs out where the bank is no higher than about half of it; a walker that can’t swim still drowns. A filler pours sand into the lowest spot within forty units ahead until it is level with its feet, or its sack is empty, then walks on; sand poured into lava cools it to rock.
Sign and Tunnel up
A walker given Sign plants an arrow pointing back the way it came and turns back. Every walker that reaches the sign from that side turns back too, while those coming the other way walk past. Unlike Block, the walker isn’t lost, and the sign stays. A tunneller digs ahead and up at a slant, a step up with every cut, and walks on once it breaks out into the open; iron, gates and one-way stone stop it.
What the levels hold
Lava is the end of any walker, swimmers too. One-way stone, marked with Amber arrows, can be bashed, mined or tunnelled only the way its arrows point, and never dug down; a bomb blows through it. A crumbling bridge holds a number of walkers, cracks as they cross, and falls once it has held them all. Gates open by a lever (touched once), a plate (only while someone stands on it: a blocker can hold it), a key (carried to the gate by the first walker to pick it up) or a timer. Crushers slam down and fire jets burst on their cycles. A lift carries whoever stands on it up and down. In a dark level only what is round the walkers, the hatches, the doors and the lava is lit, and where they have been stays dimly seen. A level may have two hatches, and two doors that each want their own number, shown over the door.
Mine, Dig and Bomb
A miner digs ahead and down at a slant; a digger digs straight down and falls once it breaks through. A bomber shows a count from five over its head, then blows a crater in the stone and is lost with it. Iron can’t be dug, bashed, mined or blown up: a walker that reaches it stops its job.
Winning a level
A level ends once every walker has come out and each is Home or lost (blockers aside), or when the time runs out; any walker still out then is lost. Get as many Home as Needed and it is won, and Next level takes you on. Once every walker is out, End now ends the level at once, so one stuck somewhere needn’t wait for the clock.
The levels
There are twenty-five, from First steps to All the way down: the first ten teach the first eight jobs, the next five the new jobs and what the levels hold, and the last ten are long and hard, with every kind of job needed many times over. Each has its own walkers, time (three to thirteen minutes) and jobs on hand. Finishing one opens the next. In the list under the game its stars mark each level done and a lock each one not yet open; tap an open level to play it. Retry starts the one you are on again.
Controls
Rate sets how often the hatch lets the walkers out, from the level’s own number up to 99. Faster runs everything three times as fast, the clock too. With a keyboard, 1 to 9 and 0 pick the bar’s first ten jobs, [ and ] step through them all, Q changes Pick, B goes back 10 seconds, ← and → scroll a wide level (on the timeline they step it a second at a time, ten with Shift), F is Faster, P plays or pauses and R retries. A wide level also scrolls with a drag, or a tap on the strip under it. Putting the tab away pauses. The speaker beside Retry turns the sound on or off.
The levels done and their best stars are kept in this browser, so the next ones stay open and the page opens on the first level not yet done; Reset forgets them. The level in play isn’t kept: a refresh starts it over. Sound’s choice is kept too.
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