You get 800 H-Coin,
but Dart-Alpha costs 900
(This is a comparison note: two paths, side by side. Prices and rules are straight from the game’s source. The shopping-cart examples are a hypothetical build I put together.)
The first decision you hit on your AstroMaster first flight is not about controls. It is about money. Your first run drops a welcome gift of 800 H-Coin into your wallet, and you have to choose: keep flying the free Scrap-V, or rent the lighter, faster Dart-Alpha? Do the math and the second road turns out to be closed from the start. Here is why it is closed, and what the 800 is better spent on.
The 800 arrives after launch
Press start and the run does not begin right away. The hangar opens first and you pick the ship for this run. The 800 gift only lands in your wallet once the run actually starts (in the source, the gift is granted inside the run-start function, and the wallet’s default is 0). So on your very first hangar visit, Scrap-V is effectively the only ship you can pick. The gift is announced after the launch banner: “WELCOME, PILOT!” and “Gift: +800 H-Coin + Shield + Repair”. A Shield and a Repair Kit come along, one each.
The card price is simply the base price (300) with a x3 surcharge when your pilot level is too low. Pilot level rises with lifetime flight distance, and Lv.2 means 1km in total. The top of the hangar even shows what is left: “1000m to Lv.2”.
A vs B, number by number
| A · Scrap-V | B · Dart-Alpha | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | 300 regular / 900 early |
| Rental time | Unlimited | 60 s, then it blows up and you drop back to Scrap-V |
| Thrust · turn rate | 10 · 160 deg/s | 18 · 280 deg/s |
| Mass · top speed | 1.2 · 8.0 | 0.6 · 13.0 |
| Damage taken multiplier | 1.0 | 0.8 |
| Power per shot | 0.60 | 0.68 (shot interval x0.8, damage x0.75) |
| Trait | 0.2 s control delay | Instant response |
| Strong · weak | Strong vs spore mines · weak to planet gravity (gravity x1.4) | Strong in dense asteroid fields · weak to stealth mines (mine damage x2) |
The rental time is what stands out. A typical run is 2 to 3 minutes, which is the design target in a source comment, so Dart-Alpha covers only the first minute or so of a run, and after that you are back in Scrap-V anyway. Scrap-V has no clock to worry about, but it is slower and a beat late on every input.
A hypothetical cart for 800
The following is an example I made up. The prices are the game’s item prices.
Plasma Overdrive 120 + Warp Nitro 180 + EMP Emitter 220 + Nova Bomb 260 = 780 H. That leaves 20. You cannot rent Dart, but you fly with four expensive items in your pocket.
You need 900 and you have 800, so you are 100 H short. The ship pass in the shop (one launch) also follows the current rental price, so it is 900 too and the answer is the same.
Once Lv.2 unlocks it is 300 H. Spend 300 of the 800 and 500 is left, enough for something like EMP 220 + Nova 260 = 480.
- Bought items vanish 24 hours after you get them. Each copy expires on its own, and the oldest gets used first.
- You can hold at most 9 of each kind.
- After Warp Nitro the engine cuts out for 2.5 s, and Mutated Dark Matter multiplies by 5 only the coins you have collected up to the moment you use it. Neither is easy to buy and use right away on your first run (the item buttons themselves only unlock on the second run).
One ad opens B, but
Look at “Watch ad: +600 H-Coin” at the top of the shop and there is one more road. One rewarded ad is worth 600 at max level 1. 800 + 600 = 1,400, which pays the 900 early rental and still leaves 500. So yes, it is possible. But the early-rental premium is 600. That is the money for two regular-price rentals, spent to rent once before you have flown 1km. Which side is right depends on how long you can wait for that 1km.
The shop’s ships section. You do not buy a ship here. You buy “1 pass = 1 launch”, and the price is the current rental price (Dart-Alpha 900 x3). The “+600 H-Coin” ad button is visible above. (Captured with 1,800 coins loaded in.)
Summary: my pick is B′
| Path | First run | Afterwards |
|---|---|---|
| A · stay on Scrap-V | 800 into items | Items must be used within 24 hours |
| B · early rental now | Impossible with 800 alone (900) | You must watch an ad · premium of 600 |
| B′ · rent after 1km | Fly 1km in Scrap-V | Dart-Alpha for 300 · 500 coins left |
This is my own judgment, built from the source’s numbers. Fly the first run in Scrap-V anyway, leave the 800 gift alone if you can, and after you fill 1km (pilot Lv.2) rent Dart-Alpha at the regular 300. That is the same ship for a third of the price. If you cannot wait, just remember the 24-hour expiry and buy one or two items to fly with.
After your second flight the 800 will have shrunk either way. Do the math once before the first run instead of after it. That is all this post is about.
Play AstroMaster now
Playing it is much faster than reading about it.
Find the other Master Series games all in one place at hanilab.app.
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