The shuttle, its stations and The Dial
The shuttle is your ship. It arrives at level 10, the same moment coal starts dropping in the ground, and it runs alongside mining and hatching for the rest of the game.
The map it flies on is called the Dial: the chart of the jump network that links the worlds.
From ore to shuttle
- Smelter
- Fabricator
- Assembler
- Shuttle
- Generator Bay
- Mod Bay
The chain, station by station
The chain is linear and each station eats what the one before it made. Ore goes into the Smelter and comes out as ingots. Ingots go into the Fabricator and come out as parts. Parts go into the Assembler and come out as modules. Modules go onto the ship.
The stations open across a wide band of levels, so the shuttle keeps handing you a new room to fill well into the mid game.
| Level | Station | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | Shuttle | The ship itself, and coal starts dropping |
| 11 | Smelter | Ore becomes ingots, and copper joins coal in the ground |
| 15 | Fabricator | Ingots become parts |
| 19 | Assembler | Parts become modules you can fit to the ship |
| 20 | Space Map | The Dial opens and the ship can travel |
| 22 | Generator Bay | Production that keeps running while you are elsewhere |
| 25 | ModBay | Ship modules, and space combat opens with it |
| 33 | Brew | Consumable crafting |
Why ore sits unused and then runs short
Nothing on the hatching side of the game consumes ore. Not eggs, not pet crafting, not world unlocks. For the first ten levels ore is a number that goes up and does nothing, and then the shuttle arrives and you never have enough of it.
Ship tiers past the first few are gated on that chain, so you cannot buy your way around a station you have not built. If your ship is stuck, the cause is almost always a station further back that is not keeping up.
Ship upgrades
A higher ship level gives you more engine, storage, generator and booster slots, raises the tier of module the ship can hold, and raises how many pets travel with you. The upgrade screen lists every stat a tier touches, including the ones that do not move, so you can see what you are paying for.
Ship upgrades and world unlocks are separate ladders that never touch. Owning a better shuttle does not open a world. A world still asks for its level, its coins, its boss, and from the sixth world a number of Paradox resets.
The Dial
The Space Map opens at level 20 and turns the shuttle into something you fly. Destinations sit at different distances and travel time scales with how far you are going, so a long trip is something you plan around.
Space combat opens at level 25, at the same time as the ModBay. Modules are what keep a ship alive out there, and the station that builds them arrives on the day the fights start.
When does the shuttle unlock in Time Heroes?
The shuttle opens at player level 10, at the same time coal starts dropping. Its production stations then open gradually from level 11 up to level 33.
What are ores used for in Time Heroes?
Ore feeds the shuttle chain, running from the Smelter through the Fabricator and Assembler to the ModBay. It is never used for hatching, crafting pets or world unlocks.
Does a better shuttle unlock new worlds in Time Heroes?
No. A new world asks for a player level, a coin cost, the previous world's boss, and from the sixth world a number of Paradox resets. The ship is a separate ladder.