T-Minus Zero: Thrust

TouchDown Rocket Guide your rocket to a perfect landing. One tap controls everything: hold to thrust, release to fall. The challenge is knowing exactly when to do each. HOW TO PLAY Your rocket descends from the top of the screen under gravity. Tap and hold anywhere to fire your thrusters and slow your descent. Release to free fall. Land on the pad below 5 m/s to survive, and land below 3 m/s for a perfect score. Run out of fuel or come in too fast, and it's a crash. That's it. No tutorial needed. THE CHALLENGE Every landing is a precision problem. Gravity pulls you down constantly. Fuel is limited, so you only have enough for a handful of burns and every thrust counts. Burn too early and you'll coast in too fast. Burn too late and you won't have enough to stop in time. The sweet spot is razor thin, and finding it is deeply satisfying. Your landing speed is shown live as you descend, so you always know where you stand. The HUD shows your current altitude, fuel remaining, and a colour-coded speed indicator: green when you're safe, yellow when it's getting close, red when the impact is going to hurt. COMPETE FOR THE LOWEST SPEED Every successful landing is recorded. Your personal best is tracked locally, and new records are automatically submitted to the Game Center global leaderboard. The goal isn't just to land, it's to land as gently as possible. A 4.9 m/s landing survives, but a 1.2 m/s feather touch is what you're really after. See how your softest landing stacks up against players worldwide. TIPS Don't burn immediately. Let gravity do the work for a few seconds, then use short controlled bursts to bleed off speed as you approach the pad. The last few metres are what matter most: a long slow descent followed by one firm burst at the bottom is often cleaner than constant small burns from the top. Watch the speed readout, not the altitude. If you're green at low altitude, you're in good shape. If you're red with half the altitude left, start thrusting now. Good luck. Land soft.