Pluto Trail
You have died of space fever.
▶ Play Pluto TrailFree · plays in your browser on phone, PC or Xbox · no ads in the game
What is Pluto Trail?
Pluto Trail is a survival voyage game. You command a small ship carrying five crew members 1,600 sectors from Luna Port on the Moon to a colony on Pluto, passing Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune along the way. Every day in flight burns fuel and food and wears down your oxygen scrubbers, and the only places to restock are a handful of stations that get more expensive the farther out you fly.
On top of the usual dangers of breakdowns, asteroid fields and bad luck, your crew can catch the Bloom, an infection that hides for a while before it shows. If you don't quarantine the sick, it spreads. If someone fully turns, you have to sweep the decks and stop them yourself.
How to play
Start by picking a profession. The Freight Hauler begins with the most credits (1,400) but no special skills. The Ship Engineer (1,125 credits) fixes breakdowns without spare parts more often and makes scrubbers last longer. The Flight Medic (1,100 credits) cures illness better and can spot crew who are incubating the Bloom. Hauler runs are the easiest, while Engineer and Medic runs earn a bigger score multiplier.
Next, name your crew and shop at Luna Port. Each + button loads that item straight onto the ship: fuel cells, rations, O₂ scrubbers, spare parts, med kits and stun charges. When you press Launch, a check screen shows roughly how many days each supply will last and warns you if you're short.
In flight, press ▶ Travel to move day by day. Set your pace (faster burns more fuel and wears on the crew) and your rations. You can rest to heal, and you'll make choices at asteroid fields, the Saturn slingshot, a derelict graveyard and random events. At each station the gold 🛒 Shop button reopens the store.
Controls
Desktop: click or tap the on-screen buttons for travel, shopping and choices. During a deck sweep, move with WASD or the arrow keys and fire stun charges with Space or a mouse click.
Touch: everything is a tap. In deck sweeps, use the on-screen stick to move and the ⚡ button to fire. The game fits phone screens without needing full screen.
Strategy tips
- Buy food and fuel first. Fuel runs about 9 units a day, and each crew member eats 1 to 3 kg of rations a day depending on the ration setting. Parts and med kits matter, but they won't save a ship that runs dry.
- Use Meager rations as a short-term fix, not a plan. After about two weeks, hungry crew lose health faster, get sick more easily, recover slowly and work slower. Bare Bones rations will eventually kill everyone.
- Quarantine early. The Bloom spreads only to crew who aren't quarantined, so isolating anyone who looks sick is cheaper than a deck sweep later.
- Sweep the decks when you can afford the stun charges. Sweeps turn up supply crates, and they're the most reliable way to stretch a thin budget.
- Sell only in an emergency. Pressing − on cargo you brought with you sells it for a quarter of the station's price. Pressing − on something you just bought at that stop gives a full refund.
- Watch the prices. Stations get pricier farther out, so stock up at Luna Port and Ares Station on Mars while supplies are cheapest.
The genre it's inspired by
Pluto Trail borrows the shape of the trail-survival game, a genre that began in 1971 when three student teachers in Minnesota wrote a classroom game about pioneer families crossing the American West by wagon. Its later home-computer versions became a school staple in the 1980s, and players still quote its blunt messages about dying of illness. The format of buying supplies, managing pace and rations, and pushing on through random hardship has inspired many games since. Pluto Trail is our own original take on that formula, moved to the outer solar system with an infection twist. It isn't affiliated with any earlier trail game.
Developer's notes
The idea came from a visitor suggestion: a trail game in space where, instead of hunting animals, you hunt infected crew members. We wanted credits to stay scarce, so the pressure to reach Pluto in time stays real. In our test runs on normal rations, most ships reach Pluto with almost no credits or food left, which is exactly the squeeze we were after.
Recent changes
- October 2026: Pluto Trail launched, built from a visitor's suggestion.
- Fixed the supply shop: each + now loads supplies straight onto the ship, and a 🛒 Shop button reopens the store while docked.
- Added a launch check screen that shows how many days each supply will last.
- Added selling at stations for a quarter of the price, and halved pirate loot to keep credits scarce.
- Rebalanced the Engineer and Medic: their suggested load buys food and fuel first, and their starting credits went up slightly.
- Heavy rationing now has a real cost: hunger, illness and slower work.
If you like this, try these free classics
These link to our Free Classics page, where each game points to its official free source.