Hold anywhere: how to play Sunwise

In Sunwise you are a small star, and your planets do the fighting. You never move the star. You only choose how wide your planets swing round it, and they smash whatever they touch.

One rule: hold anywhere

Put your thumb anywhere on the screen. How far it is from the star sets how wide your planets swing: hold close to the star and they pull in tight, hold further out and they swing wide. A dashed ring shows where they are heading, and they swing out to it with a little overshoot, like a spring. Let go, and the ring drifts back to rest.

The ring sits a little inside your thumb rather than right under it, so your finger never hides the planets or what is coming at them. That is the whole control.

Tight or wide

The radius is not just about reach. A tight ring spins fast, and a wide ring turns slowly but covers far more of the sky.

• Pull in to block things that come fast, like comets.
• Swing wide to reach things that keep their distance, like pulsars that stop out of range and shoot.
• Pull in tight when a ring of small darts closes in from every side.

No one radius is right for long, and moving between them at the right moment is the skill.

Stages and chapters

A stage sends a fixed set of hazards at your star, and it is won once all of them are smashed and the sky is clear. Each stage opens gently, comes in waves, and ends on its biggest moment.

Each chapter brings one new hazard, and its first stage sends it early and on its own, with one line on screen saying what it wants:

1. First light: rocks, alone or in clumps.
2. Comets: fast, with their path drawn as a warning first. Pull in to block them.
3. Pulsars: they stop and shoot at the star. Swing wide to reach them.
4. Swarms: a ring of small darts closing in. Pull in tight as it lands.
5. Boulders: they take several hits and burst into rocks, so meet them early.

After that, everything comes together, and later still, boulders and pulsars take one more hit.

Light and upgrades

Smashed hazards drop light, and your planets sweep it up as they pass. When the Next upgrade bar fills, the stage pauses and offers three different upgrades, and you pick one. There are twelve, from a new planet, moons and bigger planets to a second ring that turns the other way, a pulse from the star, burning trails and a heal. Every stage starts again from two planets, so you build a new set every time.

Stars, and a star that burns out

Stars come from the health your star keeps:

• Three stars: the stage ends with at least 70% of the star’s health.
• Two stars: at least 35%.
• One star: the star survives.

The stars at the top show how many are still possible as the stage goes on.

If too much gets through, the star burns out, and the card names what got through, with a tip for next time. You can take one more life once a stage, or try again. In the Android app one more life comes from a short video you choose to watch, and a stage won on one more life earns one star.

There is no hint

Nothing in Sunwise is hidden, so there is nothing to hint at. Watch the edges of the sky, read each hazard by its shape, and choose your swing.

The daily sky

After the first chapter, a short sky opens every day, the same for everyone. Everything in it arrives in the first half minute, and you are timed until it is clear, so swinging out early to meet it brings your time down. It grows from Monday to Sunday.

There is more about the game on its page.