Cosmic Express: All Hints Guide 2021

Andromeda 12:

Hint 1: The orange alien will be the first one to go to their box.

Hint 2: The two purple aliens are each beside a purple box. Don’t assume that’s the box they’ll be going to.

Andromeda 14

One of the hardest in the game!

Hint 1: don’t assume that aliens will be delivered to the box nearest them

Hint 2: the map is symmetric across the horizontal line, but your route won’t be

Hint 3: okay so let’s divide the map by that horizonal line. In each half you’ll have two purple aliens staring at a purple box in front of them. You’ll do different things to deliver the purple aliens in each half.

Hint 4: in one of the halves, you won’t be delivering the purple aliens to the box in front of them

Hint 5: in that half, you’ll be delivering the purple alien to the box in front of the other purple alien and vice versa

Hint 6: the first alien you pick up will be orange

Hint 7: every orange alien can be reached on multiple sides

Hint 8: you can pick up an orange alien and roll past other orange aliens only to pick them up later

Delphinus 7:

Hint 1: you need to deliver the two orange aliens to their boxes first

Hint 2: the bottom orange alien is the first one you’ll want to deliver

Delphinus 10:

Hint 1: you’ll be picking two up aliens, delivering them, then picking up another two and delivering them

Hint 2: you have two alleys you can go through to pick up aliens. Which one should you go through first?

Hint 3: you’ve probably developed an aversion to picking up green aliens first. It’s okay, you can get away with it here! (the second train carriage won’t get green because you’ll have to pick up on orange one next)

Delphinus 11:

Hint 1: since you only have one carriage you know you have to pick up and deliver the orange and purple aliens first. Try to figure out which

Hint 2: you pick up the purple alien first

Hint 3: with a purple alien in the train carriage, you won’t pick up any green aliens when you move past them

Hint 4: go /around/ the green alien in the upper left to get to the purple box

Delphinus 12:

Hint 1: although there are six aliens and two carriages, here you /won’t/ be doing only three pick-up-and-delivery segments

Hint 2: The three boxes on the left are harder to fill than the the other three, figure out how you can do those first

Hint 3: The lower-left orange box will be filled with an orange alien from the bottom half of the area

Hint 4: The open space to the left of the three leftmost boxes will go unused

Delphinus 13:

Hint 1: it’s intentional that there is a single open space between the two green aliens

Hint 2: remember that if two aliens try to get on the train at the same time, they collide and neither alien gets on first (“collision”)

Hint 3: pick up and deliver one orange alien, then use the collision trick to keep the train empty as you go get the other orange alien

Delphinus 14:

Hint 1: This one I found useful to work backwards on. Which are the two boxes you’ll be filling last?

Hint 2: The last two boxes you’ll be filling will be the two in the bottom right.

Hint 3: To fill the last two boxes in the bottom right in one pass, you’ll want a green alien in the first carriage and an orange in the second carriage.

Hint 4: How can you set things up so the first green alien you pick up goes in the first carriage?

Hint 5: You’ll start by picking up by two orange aliens then delivering the first one

Cassiopeia 7:

Hint 1: you’ll want to start by going leftward

Hint 2: the orange alien near the exit must wind up in the orange box near the exit, and will be the last alien you deliver

Hint 3: the purple alien near the exit is not going to be the one that goes to the purple box near the exit

Cassiopeia 8:

Hint 1: You won’t be picking up the two purple aliens at the same time

Hint 2: Like previous levels, the tricky thing is the two boxes near the exit, since you can’t fill both of them at the end of your route. The last box you’ll be fulfilling is the the lower of the two.

Hint 3: How can you make sure a purple alien is in the front seat when you get to the exit?

Ursa Major 11:

Hint 1: you have six aliens and two spots in your train. You’ll be making three-pick-up and delivery segments.

Hint 2: yes, you’ll be doing a ton of looping back and around

Hint 3: start with delivering two orange aliens

Hint 4: the third alien you deliver will also be orange

Hint 5: you’ll want to access the orange aliens from above before coming back to them from below

Orion 6:

Hint 1: the first alien you pickup will be the purple one on the lower left

Hint 2: think of different ways you can go through the space between the four purple boxes

Hint 3: you’ll want to pick up and deliver an orange alien before you go return to the junction

Hint 4: the first time you go through the junction it’ll be horizontal, the second time it’ll be vertical

Hint 5: the two purple boxes on the left will be filled first

Orion 7:

Hint 1: You will need to use all directions of all four junctions

Hint 2: It’s not an accident you can access the leftmost orange alien from above

Hint 3: The two boxes on the right side of the area will get filled before the two boxes on the left side of the area will be

Hint 4: The orange alien from the left will wind up in the orange box on the right

Hint 5: The first junction you go through will be the one on the upper right

Orion 8:

Hint 1: All four of the boxes on the upper half will get filled before the four boxes on the bottom

Hint 2: Pick up two orange aliens first

Hint 3: Be choosy about which purple alien you pick up first

Hint 4: You won’t need all four directions of the upper of the two junctions

Orion 9:

Hint 1: the first junction you’ll go through is the one on the lower right, followed by the one on the upper right

Orion 10:

Hint 1: you won’t be using the junction at the start

Hint 2: the two boxes near the exit will be the first two to be filled

Hint 3: you will need every direction of the junction

Hint 4: you’ll want to hang around the edges of the area a lot in order to have space to manoevre in and out of the junction

Hint 5: you’ll want to fill the train with two aliens of one colour before doing your first delivery

Orion 11:

Hint 1: don’t overthink it: you’re doing four sets of pick-up-two-and-deliver-two

Hint 2: every orange alien will be delivered to their nearest box

Hint 3: every purple alien will be delivered on the way to picking up the next orange alien. The puzzle is about how you use the junctions.

Hint 4: you’ve got more room to manoevere near the entrance than you may remember

Orion 12:

Hint 1: the first box you pass by you won’t be filling for a while later

Perseus 8 to the opposite side:

Hint 1: your first pick-up-and-deliver won’t need a wormhole

Hint 2: start by delivering the orange alien near the entrance to the lower of the two orange boxes

Perseus 8 to the same side:

Hint 1: your first pick-up-and-deliver is the same as the solution for going to the opposite side

Hint 2: your second pick-up-and-deliver also won’t need a wormhole

Hint 3: nor will your third

Perseus 9:

Hint 1: you’ll only use the wormhole once

Hint 2: the first alien you’ll pick up is purple

Hint 3: the second alien you’ll pick up is orange

Perseus 10:

Hint 1: first delivery is purple

Hint 2: the last delivery will be to the orange box at the top

Hint 3: you use the wormholes twice

Hint 4: it’s easier to manage space around the wormholes if you only enter/exit along one axis

Perseus 11

Hint 1: you use the wormholes twice

Hint 2: it’s easier to manage space around the wormholes if you only enter/exit along one axis

Hint 3: first delivery is purple

Hint 4: second delivery is orange

Perseus 12

Hint 1: the last two levels have been building you an intuition to prefer only entering/exiting wormholes along one axis. It’s a good heuristic to start from here also.

Perseus 13

Hint 1: start by picking up the leftmost orange alien and putting them in the box immediately below them

Hint 2: all three of the orange aliens will each wind up in the box directly adjacent to them

Perseus 14

Hint 1: it only looks scary! Remember the train can load and deliver at the same time

Nova A1

Hint 1: the train has three carriages

Nova A2

Hint 1: the area is symmetric around the vertical axis, with each side having two purple boxes and one red. Pick one side of the vertical axis and work on filling the three boxes on that side first.

Nova A3

Hint 1: you need to deliver at least three purples before you can get into the area with the two orange boxes

Hint 2: the last alien you’ll deliver is purple

Hint 3: the last alien you’ll deliver is the purple one in the lower right corner

Hint 4: don’t be afraid to traverse the map horizontally

Hint 5: the purple alien in the upper left will be picked up from above

Hint 6: when it’s finally time to deliver the two orange aliens, you’ll be entering the cluster of boxes from the top

Nova B1

Hint 1: the two green aliens will wind up in the upper two boxes

Nova B2

Hint 1: try working backwards (ie from the exit)

Nova B3

Hint 1: the area is around the vertical axis, with each side having four red boxes, two green aliens, one orange, and one purple. Pick one side of the vertical axis and work on filling the four boxes on that side first.

Nova C1

Hint 1: note you have three columns of space to the right of the boxes

Hint 2: you will use the wormhole three times

Hint 3: one of the times you use the wormhole is to get to the exit after making the orange delivery

Hint 4: when you go from the orange box to the wormhole to the exit, you pass in between where the initial locations of the orange and purple aliens

Nova C2:

Hint 1: you do two sets of pick-up-and-deliver

Hint 2: for each pair of orange/purple aliens, you deliver them to the boxes on the *opposite* side of the map

Hint 3: you only need the wormhole twice

Nova C3:

Hint 1: you start by picking up a purple alien and delivering them /before/ picking up the orange alien that was beside them

Hint 2: after your last delivery, you will go through the wormhole to get to the exit

Nova D1

Hint 1: you only need to go through the wormhole twice

Nova D2

Hint 1: you only need to go through the wormhole once

Nova D3

Hint 1: you will want to go in between the two purple aliens

Hint 2: the last thing you do is deliver the top right alien to the green box that is closest to the exit

Hint 3: after you deliver the second purple alien, you won’t need to go through the wormhole again

Nova E1:

Hint 1: you only need the wormhole twice, so you can block some of the sides

Hint 2: you only need two deliveries (ie. fill the train with all of one colour, deposit them, go after the next colour)

Hint 3: you don’t need the wormhole/junction to get to the first alien you pick up

Nova E2:

Hint 1: you will alternate which colours you deliver

Hint 2: you only need the wormhole once

Hint 3: your first pick up is the purple alien nearest the entrance

Hint 4: when you pick up that first purple alien, you do so from below (ie blocking the wormhole from above)

Nova E3:

Hint 1: start with picking up the purple alien closest to the exit (bottom-right) and delivering them to the purple box closest the entrance (top-left)

Nova F1

Hint 1: every direction in/out of the junctions will be used

Nova F2

Hint 1: first figure out how to pick up and deliver the two orange aliens before figuring out how/when to do the greens

Hint 2: the last delivery will be orange

Nova F3

Hint 1: the order of pick-ups is purple, green, purple, green, purple, green, purple, green

Nova 4:

Hint 1: you will use the wormhole before you need the junction

Hint 2: once you pick up the green alien, you will need to go through the junction to deliver them

Hint 3: after you pick up the first purple alien, you want to go to the wormhole entrance on the *opposite* of the map

Nova 5:

Hint 1: remember the train can load and deliver multiple aliens at once

Hint 2: the last box you deliver will be the green one on the top

Hint 3: the second alien you pick up will be green

Nova 6

Hint 1: note there’s a lot of vertical space between the two clusters of box/plant/wormhole

Hint 2: first alien you pick up is green

Hint 3: you’ll go through a wormhole before picking up that first green alien

Nova 7

There are multiple solutions to this one! I know of four of them thanks to this list of solutions.

Hint 1: all solutions I’ve seen end with by getting to the exit from the top of the left wormhole entrance

Hint 2: all solutions I’ve seen also end with delivering to the red and green boxes in the lower right before heading up to the wormhole

Hint 3: if you want to do in four deliveries you’ll need the wormhole three times, but if you do it in in three deliveries you’ll only need the wormhole 1-2 times

Hint 4: don’t assume the red boxes will be filled by the alien colour that is predominant on that side of map

If you go the four-delivery route: (this is what I did)

Hint 5: when you pick up two aliens, don’t assume you’ll deliver both at once

Hint 6: start with using the wormhole to pick up the orange and green aliens in the upper right most corner, then return through the wormhole to deliver them to the green and red boxes in the lower left most corner

Hint 7: the third use of the wormhole is to get to the exit, meaning your last deliveries are the red and green boxes in the lower rightmost corner

Hint 8: when you pick up the purple alien in the upper right most corner with the green alien beside it, deliver only the purple. Green will stick around for a while.

Hint 9: last alien you pick up is purple

If you go the three-delivery route:

Hint 5: you’ll need start by picking up the two innermost aliens (ie the leftmost purple and the rightmost orange) and delivering them

Hint 6: unless you want to pick up the rightmost orange first, you don’t need the wormhole to start by picking up the leftmost purple

Hint 7: work backwards as much as you can