Meteor Guard guide: lead, intercept and protect

Your first watch

The orange meteor is the threat; Solace is your launch world near the bottom of the chart. Drag the glowing aim handle or use the angle slider. Move the vertical power control to change initial speed. Probes have a base launch impulse, so 0% still launches; 100% adds the most speed. Press Launch probe when ready. Before the first launch the meteor clock is stopped, so you can read the scene without losing your planet.

The first watch starts with a useful training aim. The next two also offer a Training aim button. Their dotted projections show the probe’s physical trajectory, not a guaranteed hit at any launch time. Projections shorten and then disappear as the campaign advances. All hits are determined by moving-object collision checks; the game does not pull a probe onto its target.

Aim for the meeting point

A meteor moves while your probe travels. Aiming directly at its current position can send the probe behind it. Lead the meteor: choose an angle that meets its future path, then adjust power to change when the probe arrives. Try changing one control at a time so the result explains what to do next.

Both probes and meteors feel the same scaled gravitational field. A purple or teal world can turn either path. A pale drifting rock blocks a probe, so an apparently direct shot may need a different angle or timing. These rocks are obstacles, not orange threats you need to clear.

How the score works

Every intercepted meteor earns up to 1,000 points. Range contributes up to 700: divide the interception’s distance above the planet’s surface by that meteor’s initial distance above the surface, clamp that ratio between zero and one, take its square root, and multiply by 700. Flight speed contributes up to 300: multiply 300 by max(0, 1 − probe flight seconds / 8).

A hit at 80% of the meteor’s initial range after a one-second probe flight earns approximately 889 points: 626.1 range points plus 262.5 speed points, rounded. The level result is the average across its threats. Intercepting all of them is required; a high score for one does not excuse another reaching Solace. A failed watch adds nothing to the campaign best.

A completed watch earns one star, 700 earns two and 850 earns three. The best result for each watch contributes to the campaign total, up to 40,000 points. Replaying can improve an individual contribution but can never lower it. The interface shows the score, star count and average distance for a completed watch.

Forty watches, eight chapters

First Response introduces aiming and launch speed. Closing Speed changes the approach. Crossing Paths introduces drifting obstacles. Gravity Wells adds Lilt. Twin Threats asks you to protect the same world from two directions; Three Fronts increases that to three. Meteor Storm adds another gravity well and tighter timing. Last Line ends with four simultaneous meteors.

Later watches let several probes remain in flight together. Aim and launch the next one without waiting for an earlier result. There is a short cooldown and a limited reserve, so look at which threat is closest and where your active probes are going. If every probe is spent and none remain in flight, an unresolved watch ends. You can restart without losing a prior best.

Controls, pauses and saves

Touch and mouse users can drag the on-screen aim handle, use the angle slider and move the vertical power slider. Keyboard users can use Left and Right to change angle, Up and Down to change power, and Space to launch when a form control is not focused. Buttons and sliders remain available for people who do not use gestures.

Pause freezes physical time. Opening instructions, levels, feedback or the account panel pauses an active watch; resume when ready. Hiding the browser also pauses. Sound starts off and can be enabled with Sound. The reduced-motion setting removes decorative bursts without changing scoring or physics.

Campaign bests save in this browser and are backed up to the server when connected. Keep the essential save cookie and site data to return to a guest save. Another browser has a separate guest save. Account sync depends on a configured sign-in provider; use the save-status message to distinguish a confirmed backup from local-only saving.