The convoy screen
Between runs you are at The Convoy. It shows the line of ships with the Meridian marked, the days left to Harrow's Gate, a crew member's comment on your last run, the Campaign card for the chapter you have selected (its three sectors, with a star on each one you have cleared), Moss's workshop, and the button for the Star Map. Press Enter or the Start button to launch the selected chapter.
The star map
The star map is the chapter select, drawn as the convoy's actual route. It starts at Halcyon, marked Where we left from, and runs planet by planet to Harrow's Gate, with one more stop past it for the epilogue. The leg you have flown is drawn solid, the next leg is a marching dashed line, and the rest is faint.
- Pick a chapter by clicking or tapping its planet. The Lifeline flies there along the route. Tap the selected planet again, or press Launch, to start it.
- Keyboard: the arrow keys or WASD step between chapters, Enter launches, and Backspace or H returns to the convoy.
- Locked planets show a padlock and the card says what opens them: clear the chapter before. The epilogue's name stays hidden until you reach it.
- The side card shows the chapter's boss portrait, your best sector stars, the three medals with the ones you have earned lit, and what the next medal asks for.
Every cleared chapter stays open, so you can go back at any time to chase a better medal or more salvage. After a chapter clear the star map opens on its own and the Lifeline flies on to the next planet.
Jump gates and routes
When you clear the first or second sector of a chapter, a jump gate opens with two routes to choose from. Press 1 or 2, or click a card. The effect applies to the next sector. Chapter 7 has no gates.
| Route | What you get | When to take it |
|---|---|---|
| Repair Dock | Restores 40% of your max hull at once | Before a boss sector, or any time you are low. If your hull is under half, it is always one of the two offers. |
| Module Cache | A free level-up pick when you arrive | When your build is one card from an evolution. |
| Elite Hunt | A bounty ship appears 14 s into the next sector with 30% more health. Kill it for +30 salvage, a crystal burst and a power-up | When you are healthy and want salvage and experience. |
| Salvage Field | +10 salvage now, and three crates (8 salvage each) drift through the next sector | The safest salvage. Crates are shot open like rocks. |
In salvage alone the two are close: the Salvage Field pays up to 34 if you break every crate, the Elite Hunt 30. The bounty also brings experience and a power-up, but it adds a tough ship to an already busy sector. On a medal run, where every point of hull counts, the Salvage Field or Repair Dock is the calmer choice.
The two story forks
Twice the gate offers no ordinary routes. These choices are part of the story, and the star map draws them as a forked lane out of that chapter's planet. The lane you did not take fades out. If you replay the chapter you can choose differently, and the map updates.
| Chapter | The situation | Option A | Option B |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 The Drift | Two ships ran dry. There is fuel for one. | Fuel the Orison, a hospital ship with 900 aboard: its medics repair half your hull | Fuel the Calder, a fabricator ship: its crew builds you a free module |
| 6 The Gulf | Ilse orders you to cut the Meridian loose. | Keep the Tow: disobey and tow her through the next sector yourself, +20 salvage | Cut Her Loose: obey and rejoin the line, while someone else takes the tow |
In gameplay terms, the chapter 3 choice is hull now (Orison) against an extra card (Calder). The chapter 6 choice changes your next objective: keeping the tow means flying the Meridian through rising mouths on your own line, while cutting her loose turns the job into covering another pilot's line from lampreys. Keeping the tow is the harder route and pays for it.
Medals
Every chapter except the epilogue awards a medal when you clear it. The medal measures how well the convoy came through, not how fast you were.
| Medal | Requirement | First-time bonus |
|---|---|---|
| Bronze | Clear the chapter | None |
| Silver | Convoy hull at 60% or more at every reading | +100 salvage |
| Gold | Convoy hull at 85% or more at every reading | +250 salvage |
A first gold that skips silver pays both bonuses, 350 salvage in all. The bonus is paid once per medal tier per chapter; after that, replays can still raise your medal and your recorded best.
What counts as convoy hull
The game takes a reading at the end of every sector and again when the boss falls. If the Meridian is on the field with her hull bar showing at any of those moments, the medal uses her lowest reading for the run. Otherwise it uses the lowest percentage of your own Lifeline's hull. Only the lowest reading matters, so one bad sector caps the medal no matter how clean the rest of the run was.
That gives two practical rules:
- Heal before a sector ends. Objective rewards often include hull repair, so finishing an objective can lift you over a threshold. The Repair Dock route restores 40% before the next sector.
- When the Meridian is out, she is the medal. In the chapters where she is escorted, towed or swarmed, staying between her and the danger matters more than your own hull bar.
The debrief after a clear shows the medal you earned, marks it New if it beats your record, and tells you exactly what the next tier needs, for example "Meridian 54%, silver needs 60%". The star map card keeps your best convoy hull for each chapter.
Stars
Separate from medals, each chapter shows three stars, one per sector cleared on your best run. They are a record of how far you got, and a chapter clear always fills all three.