Question 1

What is Helios: The Solar Labyrinth?

Accepted Answer

It is a free browser light-beam puzzle built on Greek myth. Nyx unstrung the seven mirrors of the sun chariot, the island of Delos went dark, and the mirror-priestess Kleio sealed herself inside the Tholos to keep the dark from eating the island's memory. You are the last lampwright, carrying one ember in a clay cup, and you relight thirty sealed chambers by turning bronze mirrors until the light reaches every sun seal.

Question 2

How do you play it?

Accepted Answer

Tap or click any bronze mirror or splitting crystal to turn it a quarter turn. The beam redraws instantly, reflecting off every mirror it touches. Light every sun seal in the chamber and the door opens. Press R to reset the chamber, U to undo, and H for a hint from Kleio. There is no timer and no way to lose: the only score is how few turns you needed against the chamber's par.

Question 3

What are prisms, crystals and veils?

Accepted Answer

A splitting crystal divides one beam into two: one ray passes straight through, the other leaves at a right angle, so a single emitter can light several seals at once. A colour crystal repaints any beam that passes through it, and a sun seal only accepts the colour it was cut for. A veil is a hanging cloth dyed to one colour: light of that colour passes, and light of any other colour is swallowed. Stone walls swallow everything.

Question 4

Why does my beam stop before the seal?

Accepted Answer

Three things stop light: a stone wall, a veil of the wrong colour, and the edge of the chamber. If the beam reaches a seal and nothing happens, the seal is the wrong colour for that beam, so route it through a crystal of the seal's colour first. Fixed temple mirrors with a stone frame cannot be turned, so they have to be worked around rather than moved.

Question 5

How are the stars awarded?

Accepted Answer

One star for opening the chamber. Two stars if you finish within four turns of par. Three stars if you match par exactly, which is the true minimum: the game solved every chamber exhaustively, so par is not an estimate but the shortest possible solution. Extra turns cost nothing except stars, and you can reset and try again at any time.

Question 6

Is there an endless mode?

Accepted Answer

Yes. The Long Noon builds a fresh chamber every round, larger and denser as you go, from a fixed seed. Every generated chamber is checked by the same solver before you see it, so an endless round can never hand you an impossible room. Your best run and the deepest chamber you reached are kept in your browser.

Question 7

Does it work on phones and does it save progress?

Accepted Answer

It runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet or phone, in portrait or landscape, with touch, mouse or keyboard. Chambers, stars and your endless best are stored locally under helios.solar.v1. Nothing is uploaded, because the game has no server and loads no third-party script.

Helios

Thirty chambers

Turn the light, not the clock

Chamber I · The Dark Stoa

Chamber opened

Paused

The Long Noon