You have no engine, only a rope to a fixed anchor. Pump your swing, re-anchor to fling yourself across the field, and shatter the drifting rocks.
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How to play
Your ship is tied to an anchor point by an elastic tether and cannot thrust freely. You build momentum by pumping the swing sideways, then drop a new anchor to slingshot your orbit somewhere new. Clear every rock to finish the wave; large rocks break into smaller, faster ones.
The tether glows when it is taut and pulling you inward, slack rope exerts no force.
Re-anchoring keeps your momentum and adds a small slingshot kick, so use it to cross open space.
Lose a life if a rock catches you mid-swing; clear all waves to win the run.
Controls
Desktop: Left/Right arrows (or A/D) pump the swing, Space shoots, Click or R re-anchors, and the mouse aims your cannon. P pauses.
Keyboard and mouse recommended: precise aiming and swing timing make this best on a computer rather than touch.
Game modes
Daily: one shared seeded field per day to chase a leaderboard rank and build a streak.
Practice: endless fresh fields, with Easy, Normal and Hard difficulty.
Tips & strategy
Pump to grow a wide, fast orbit, then re-anchor at the top of a swing to redirect across the screen.
Line up the mouse aim before you fire, momentum keeps moving you, so lead your shots.
Re-anchor near a cluster of rocks so your taut swing carries you through them while you shoot.
About Tether Drift
Tether Drift puts a physics-driven swing-and-slingshot spin on the classic asteroid-shooting arcade genre, replacing free thrust with a single roped anchor. It is an original, free browser game made in-house for PlayPendium.
A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.
