Learn to Fly 3 Modes and Medals: Story, Classic, Payload and Sandbox

The first time you press New Game in Learn to Fly 3, the Select Game Mode screen shows one lit panel, Story, and three grey panels with question marks. This guide explains what is behind them, what each mode asks of you, and which medals are worth going after.

Story Mode: the penguin goes to space

Story is the only mode open at the start. It begins with the cutscene (a hut somewhere in Antarctica, a rocket on a wooden stand) and continues with a day-by-day climb from the snow toward space. Once you are high enough, a space stage takes over, and it can fail: the game has messages for falling back to Earth and for flying out of bounds. The ending medals include finishing Story in 30 days or less at the 200k target and in 65 days or less at 1,000k. There are also medals for finishing Story at 400,000, 600,000 and 1,000,000 altitude.

Classic Mode

Classic brings back the idea of the first two Learn to Fly games. The mode's challenge note says the launcher uses a slope, so it is a ramp instead of a launch pad. It has its own ending and its own speed medal for finishing Classic in 20 days or less. If you played the originals, this will feel familiar.

Payload Mode

Payload asks you to lift cargo as well as the penguin. The medals show the scale: 25,000 feet with a payload of 1, 50,000 with 15, 100,000 with 75 and 200,000 with 150. Weight is the whole problem here, so the Max Lift numbers on every part matter much more than in Story.

Sandbox

Sandbox lets you adjust every game constant, and the game's own description tells you to crash your browser to your heart's content. The sliders cover the multipliers the rest of the game hides: launcher power, stage and boost thrust, fuel, cash earned per day, item weight, and how many obstacles appear and how heavy they are. Normal medals cannot be earned in Sandbox, so treat it as a playground.

What finishing a mode gives you

The game says it directly: you get Bonus Points and new items every time you complete a game in Story, Classic or Payload. That is why the modes are worth playing in order. Each finish makes the next run faster, because the Bonus Points buy permanent upgrades that carry over.

Medals worth chasing early

• Altitude steps: 5,000, 20,000, 80,000 and 400,000 feet. You will get these by playing normally.
• No launchers or boosts: 10,000, 25,000, 100,000 and 200,000 feet. These teach you how much the stages alone can do.
• Default body: 10,000, 25,000, 50,000 and 100,000 feet with the plain penguin body.
• Bonus Shop: buy every Bonus Shop item to level 1 or more.
• Coming back: medals for playing on 2, 3, 4 and 5 real-life days, on top of the daily Bonus Points.

There is even a medal of great shame for anyone the game catches cheating. Leave that one alone.

New here? Start with the beginner guide to the first days, then play Learn to Fly 3. The first two games are here too: Learn to Fly and Learn to Fly 2.