How to play Little Orbit

Little Orbit is an idle game about a tiny observatory. You stargaze by hand, build instruments that watch the sky for you, and slowly find your way from the Moon to the far edge of the universe. Its twist is discovery: there are sights in the sky waiting to be found, and each one makes your observatory better for good.

The basics

Stargaze. Tap the big button to make an observation. Every observatory starts with one curious person looking up.
Build instruments. Star charts, telescopes, radio dishes, observatory domes and space probes all gather observations on their own, every second.
Buy upgrades. At 10, 25, 50 and 100 of an instrument, an upgrade appears that doubles what it gathers. A few upgrades double the whole observatory.
Make discoveries. Ten sights in the night sky are hidden until you find them. Each one makes everything 10% faster, for good.
Chart the sky. Once the night has been long enough, you can write it up and start fresh tomorrow with constellations. Each makes everything 6% faster, for good.

Your first few minutes

Stargaze until you have 15 observations and buy a star chart. Observations now arrive by themselves.
Keep looking up: your first discovery is never far away.
After 25 observations made by hand, Dark-adapted eyes appears. It doubles every time you stargaze.
Save for a telescope at 100 observations. With five instruments, Dark skies doubles the whole observatory.

How discoveries work

Discoveries are Little Orbit’s achievements, but they do more than collect a badge. Each one adds a lasting 10% to everything, and because they are never lost (not even when you chart the sky), they build up over your whole time playing.

They are hidden until found. In the Discoveries panel you see only a hint for each one, such as “Gather a few more telescopes” or “Spend some time stargazing yourself”. Some come quickly, within your first few minutes; others are a long way off, hours into the game. We won’t spoil them here; the hints are part of the fun.

Tips

Follow the hints. If a hint mentions an instrument, building a few more of it is often enough.

Stargaze now and then. One discovery depends on looking up yourself, not just on your instruments.

Use Buy 10 and Max. Buying in bulk is handy after a break. Your choice is remembered.

Check in twice a day. Your observatory keeps watching for up to 12 hours while you are away. See idle games that work offline.

When to chart the sky

Charting the sky unlocks once you have made 100 million observations in the current night. Constellations are worked out as the square root of tonight’s observations divided by 25 million, rounded down, so your first chart brings at least 2. 400 million observations brings 4, and 2.5 billion brings 10.

Because discoveries are kept, your second night starts stronger than your first in two ways at once. A good rule is to chart the sky when it would add at least half again to the constellations you hold and progress has slowed. For more, see what is prestige?

Keep your observatory safe

Little Orbit saves automatically in your browser every 30 seconds and when you leave. Use the Save page to copy a backup now and then, or to move your observatory to another device.

The numbers

These tables come straight from the game's own data, so they always match what you see in the game.

Instruments

Instrument	First one costs	Observations each second
Star chart	15 observations	0.5
Telescope	100 observations	3
Radio dish	1,100 observations	20
Observatory dome	12,000 observations	130
Space probe	130,000 observations	850

Each instrument you buy costs 15% more than the one before.

Instrument upgrades

Each doubles what one kind of instrument makes.

Upgrade	Appears at	Costs
Red torch	10 star charts	243 observations
Planisphere	25 star charts	1,975 observations
Night notebook	50 star charts	65,019 observations
Star atlas	100 star charts	70,458,807 observations
Clean lenses	10 telescopes	1,618 observations
Steady tripod	25 telescopes	13,168 observations
Wider mirror	50 telescopes	433,463 observations
Motor drive	100 telescopes	469,725,380 observations
Quiet receiver	10 radio dishes	17,800 observations
Tracking mount	25 radio dishes	144,843 observations
Twin dishes	50 radio dishes	4,768,093 observations
Deep listening	100 radio dishes	5,166,979,183 observations
Oiled shutters	10 observatory domes	194,187 observations
Warm control room	25 observatory domes	1,580,110 observations
Big refractor	50 observatory domes	52,015,557 observations
Clear-sky forecasts	100 observatory domes	56,367,045,634 observations
Solar panels	10 space probes	2,103,690 observations
Long antenna	25 space probes	17,117,855 observations
Gravity assist	50 space probes	563,501,870 observations
Deep-space network	100 space probes	610,642,994,364 observations

Other upgrades

Upgrade	What it does	Appears at	Costs
Dark-adapted eyes	Each time you stargaze counts twice.	25 observations brewed by hand	100 observations
Binoculars	Each time you stargaze counts three times.	250 observations brewed by hand	2,500 observations
Dark skies	Every instrument gathers twice as much.	5 instruments	500 observations
Clear nights	Every instrument gathers twice as much.	150,000 observations this season	200,000 observations
Mountain-top site	Every instrument gathers twice as much.	20,000,000 observations this season	35,000,000 observations

Discoveries

A hidden discovery: Look up for a while.
A hidden discovery: Gather a few more telescopes.
A hidden discovery: A bigger telescope collection helps.
A hidden discovery: Keep observing the planets.
A hidden discovery: Spend some time stargazing yourself.
A hidden discovery: Listen to the sky as well as look.
A hidden discovery: Look much further out.
A hidden discovery: A proper observatory might hear it.
A hidden discovery: Gather a truly enormous number of observations.
A hidden discovery: Send something out into deep space.
First constellation: Chart the sky for the first time.