Star Weaver guide: moons, stars and reading the sky

Star WeaverTap two stars to draw 24 hidden constellations, one line at a time, and let AI name the shapes you invent.Play free in your browser →

Star Weaver is a shape-hunting puzzle in the browser. Each level hides a constellation somewhere in a field of stars, and a small card shows you the shape to look for. Your job is to draw the right lines between the right stars. There is no countdown — the only pressure is that a wrong line costs you one of five moons.

The basic loop

1. Open Charts and pick a level. Each season has six levels, for 24 constellations in total.
2. Read the target card. It shows the shape as a small line drawing, and it updates as you find lines: found lines turn gold, missing ones stay dashed.
3. Tap one star, then tap another. A correct line is drawn and the two stars turn gold. You can also drag from a star to a star.
4. Repeat until the counter in the corner matches the number of lines in the target.

Your progress line matters more than your score. It reads like 3 / 7, where 7 is how many lines this constellation needs. When it matches, the level is finished.

Moons, misses and combos

You start every level with 5 moons.

• A wrong line costs 1 moon and resets your combo to zero.
• Lose all five and the level ends — the clouds roll in and you retry.

Because one wrong tap out of five is a whole moon, the sensible approach is to read before you connect. Find the shape in stages: locate the brightest cluster first, then work outwards. Chasing one doubtful star is what drains a level, not the number of stars on screen.

A correct line is worth 100 points, and each link after the first in an unbroken run adds 20 more — the second correct line in a row is 120, the third 140, and so on. Finishing adds 50 points per moon you still have, plus a bonus for finishing faster than the level's par time.

Stars and stardust

Every level gives you up to three stars, and they are graded on discipline rather than speed:

• 1 star — finish the level.
• 2 stars — finish with two misses or fewer.
• 3 stars — finish with zero misses and no hints.

You keep the best result you have ever scored on that level, so a second attempt can only help.

Stardust is the currency. You start with 40, and clearing a level pays 5 plus 3 per line, plus 10 for each star that is new to your collection, plus 15 the first time you clear it. Naming a constellation in tonight's sky pays 30 for the first of the night and 10 after that.

A hint costs 25 stardust and rings the next correct pair, preferring a line that touches something you have already connected so it continues your figure. Two things to know: a hinted level can only reach two stars, and if you have too little dust the game says how much more you need rather than spending anything.

What changes between seasons

The four seasons get harder in a specific, learnable way. The number of decoy stars — stars that belong to nothing — is the headline:

Winter is also where the constellations get big: the Dragon has eleven points and the Castle twelve, while Spring's first level, the Kite, has four points and five lines. Spring and Summer are about learning to separate the shape from the noise. Autumn adds a tilt, so stop expecting a shape to sit upright. Winter removes the assumption entirely.

In short: the shape shrinks, the decoys multiply, and the stars you need get dimmer. Winter's shape stars can sit at 0.35 brightness, close to the decoys' range, so use brightness as a hint rather than a certainty — the connected group is a better tell than any single star.

Season gates

You cannot skip ahead. A season opens when you have cleared the last level of the one before it and you have collected enough stars in total:

• Summer opens at 8 stars.
• Autumn opens at 22 stars.
• Winter opens at 38 stars.

Since three stars per level is the ceiling, 38 stars means roughly thirteen well-played levels before Winter opens. Budget for that: expect to replay early levels to recover stars you lost to a hint or a few misses.

Tonight's sky

The other mode is open-ended. Tonight's sky is the same field of 90 stars for everyone on that date. There is no target shape and no moons — you connect any stars you like and then ask the stars what you drew.

• Draw with at least 3 stars and at least 2 lines, using 3 to 12 stars and up to 16 lines.
• All your lines must join into one connected shape. Two separate chains will not work.
• Tap Name it, optionally type what you think you see, and the game writes the constellation's name, a two-sentence myth, and a name for its brightest star.
• You can name 3 constellations a night. The counter shows how many are left.

The naming is a good reason to look at the shape rather than just connecting random stars. The game describes your drawing to the writer using measurable facts — how many closed loops, how many points where three or more lines meet, how many loose ends, whether it is tall or long — and the story is built from those.

Star names are shared and they expire at dawn. The first player to name a star keeps that name for everyone; after that, anyone whose constellation uses that star sees it as already named, with the name and the player who gave it. If you want your own name on a star, be early.

Common sticking points

• Forgetting that the shape can be rotated. Check the card, then check the sky again. If nothing matches, rotate your expectation rather than hunting for a missing star.
• Counting lines on the card instead of using the progress counter. The counter tells you exactly how many connections are left.
• Spending dust too early. With 40 starting dust you can afford one hint and have 15 left. Hints are for a genuinely stuck attempt, not for a level where you have simply misread the shape.
• Treating a faint star as a decoy. In autumn and winter, brightness is a clue with a wide margin, not a verdict.

FAQ

How many moons do I get in Star Weaver? Five per level. Every wrong line costs one moon and resets your combo. At zero, the level fails and you retry it from the beginning — your stars and stardust from earlier levels are untouched.

Does using a hint cost me a star? It costs 25 stardust, and it caps that level at two stars. The third star is reserved for clearing with no misses and no hints, so hints are for genuinely stuck attempts.

How do I unlock the next season? Clear the last level of the current season and reach the star total: 8 stars for Summer, 22 for Autumn, 38 for Winter. Levels unlock in order within a season.

Can I fail tonight's sky mode? No. There are no moons and no target shape there. The only limits are the 12-star and 16-line caps, the requirement that your shape be connected, and the three namings allowed per night.