🎉 New: the HeliGuessr update (version 0.3)

Hold on tight: this is by far the biggest update to Toponauts yet. We spent weeks building it with great fun — a brand-new game, playing together with friends, two worlds to choose from and your own school's topo method. We're really curious what you think! Below we explain per part what it is and how it works.

🎯 HeliGuessr — guess where you are

Our brand-new game, inspired by GeoGuessr. You're shown a real street photo and then fly around freely with your helicopter — no arrow, no route, just you and the map.

How does it work? At the start of each round the game loads a random street photo from the area you chose. You only see that photo, with no place name. Look closely: do you recognise the landscape, a building, a typical Dutch road or a ditch? Fly to where you think the photo was taken and press “Guess here!”. The game then works out the distance between your guess and the real spot: the closer, the more points. After five rounds you see your total score.

Where do you play? That's entirely up to you: the whole world, all of the Netherlands, one of the 342 Dutch municipalities (just search for it), or you draw your own area on the map. And note: the smaller the area, the more the photos look alike — so it's precisely in your own town or village that it becomes a real challenge. Can you recognise your own neighbourhood from a random street corner?

🤝 Play together — with your friends or class

Topo is even more fun together, and now you can do that in three ways:

🎯 HeliGuessr together. One player creates a game and gets a short code. You share it via WhatsApp or as a link. Everyone who joins gets exactly the same photos in the same order, so it's fair. While playing you see on a live scoreboard who's ahead, and when everyone's done the final ranking appears. Who knows their surroundings best?

🏁 Race together. Create a race, share a short code and fly to the same places at the same time. Finding them faster and more accurately earns more points, with a live scoreboard too.

👥 You're not alone. While you simply practise you see other real players flying across the map as helicopters, with their pilot name underneath. No hassle and no chat — just pleasant company on the way. Prefer to practise quietly on your own? You can turn it off with one tap.

🎓 & 🚀 Two worlds: Academy and Arcade

After logging in you choose where you want to go. That way you find what suits you right away:

• 🎓 Topo Academy — here you learn: places, provinces, countries, capitals, flags, the learning line, tests and “recognise the place”.
• 🚀 Topo Arcade — here you play: Space, racing together, sailing and the new HeliGuessr — plus the shop with coins.

How does it work? It's not a separate account or separate progress: your XP, your level, your passport and your coins simply carry over in both worlds. You only choose where you start, and you hop from one to the other. Pupils joining via a class code stay neatly in the Academy — there learning comes first.

📚 Learn with your own school's method

Does your class use Argus Clou, Meander, Blink, Geobas, De Blauwe Planeet, Faqta or Wijzer? Or are you practising for the Cito? Under “Choose your method” you'll find exactly the right maps per method.

How does it work? Each method has its own set of maps, neatly ordered by area (the Netherlands, Europe, the world) and by school year — exactly the places that method covers. So at home you practise exactly what you get at school. And because Toponauts remembers per place how well you know it, the spots you still struggle with come back more often by themselves, while the places you've mastered are left alone. Smart practice, without you having to think about it.

🛍️ Collect coins & shop in the store

For every place you find you earn a coin — in every mode. With your savings you shop in the store.

What can you buy? A different helicopter (from classic to a real UFO), your own colour, or real upgrades: Top speed makes your heli fly faster, Acceleration gets you up to speed sooner, and Turbo gives you a sprint as long as you hold the button. You buy them step by step, so there's always something to save up for. And no worries about unfair play: in the online race no upgrade counts — there everyone is exactly equal again.

🖱️ Now playable with the mouse too

Playing on a laptop or PC? Besides the arrow keys (and touch on the tablet) you can now steer with the mouse too. How does it work? Hold the left mouse button and your helicopter flies towards where your cursor is — the further from the centre, the faster, just like a joystick. Release = brake. That way it plays just as smoothly behind any screen.

Enjoy the update! We built this with a lot of love and would really like to hear what you think — use the “💬 Idea or bug” button in the game or send us a message via the contact page. 🚁💛