How to play / Duckling Crossing
How to play Duckling Crossing
Nine squares wide and thirteen rows tall, the board in Duckling Crossing holds a country road, a quick creek and a row of empty nests on the far bank. Your job is to walk a mother duck and her three ducklings from the meadow at the bottom to those nests before the sun goes down.
The brood that copies every hop
You steer only the mother. Each time she hops, the first duckling hops onto the square she just left, the second onto the square the first one left, and so on down the line.
Hop into an empty nest and the ducklings flutter in after you. Fill every nest on the far bank and the level is clear. There are three nests on early levels and four later, so one trip is never enough: after each nest is filled, she starts again from the meadow with a fresh line of three.
Roads, logs, lily pads and diving turtles
Between the meadow and the nests the board mixes rows of road, farm track, grass verge, sandbar and creek. Cars, vans, buses, tractors, wagons and bicycles each keep to their own row, and they come round again after leaving the edge.
The creek is the harder half. A duck that is not on a log, a lily pad or a turtle gets swept away. Turtles that blow bubbles are about to dive.
A bonked or swept duckling waddles back to the meadow and misses the rest of that trip, but you keep your lives. If the mother is bonked, swept away or out of time, you lose a life. If every duckling is gone, she flies back to fetch three more.
Stragglers, and the egret who collects them
Every so often a straggler, a lone duckling, turns up on a verge or a sandbar. Reach its square before anything else happens and it hops on her back. She can carry two at once. If you take too long, an egret wanders over and carries the straggler, gently, back to the meadow. It never touches the mother or the line.
Moving the mother: swipe, tap, key or controller
- Phone: swipe the way you want to hop, or touch a spot on the board. Arrow buttons under the board can be switched off in the menu.
- Mouse: click a spot ahead of her.
- Keyboard: arrow keys or W, A, S and D, and P or Escape to pause. A game controller also works.
Points, lives and the sun dial
- Each new row she reaches for the first time on a trip: 10 points.
- Each duckling that gets home: 100.
- Each straggler that gets home: 300.
- The whole line home with nobody bonked: 250 extra.
- Each whole second left on the dial when a nest is filled: 10.
- Each level cleared: 500 times the level number.
You begin with three lives. An extra life arrives every 10,000 points, and you can hold five. The dial starts at 40 seconds on the first endless level and gets shorter as levels climb, down to a floor of 24. It refills at the start of every trip.
The daily run, endless crossing and the streak
The daily run is three levels, a little harder than the first three levels of the endless game, and the same board for everybody that day. Your first run of the day is the one that counts. Later runs are practice and keep nothing. The daily is saved as you go. When all three levels are clear, each life you still hold adds 1,000 points.
Endless crossing goes level after level until your lives run out, and keeps your best score and furthest level. When the last life goes you are offered three more on the same level, once per run.
Finishing the daily run on consecutive days builds a streak. Every seventh day in a row earns a streak freeze, up to two, and each covers one missed day.
Habits that bring the brood home
- Remember the whole line follows your path. A gap in traffic that fits the mother may close before the third duckling reaches the same square.
- A hop cannot be taken back, and there is no hint button. Look before you commit.
Duckling Crossing questions answered
Does losing a duckling cost me a life?
No. A bonked or swept duckling goes back to the meadow and misses the rest of that trip. Only the mother being hit, swept away or caught by the sundown costs a life.
Why did the creek take my duck?
A duck standing in open water is swept off. Only logs, lily pads and turtles hold you up, so check you are on one before you stop.
Can I play the daily run again?
Yes, as practice. The same board comes back, but your stats and streak keep only the first run of the day.
More games like Duckling Crossing
- How to play Pond Parade: another game about gathering ducklings into a line behind a mother duck.
- How to play Flock Step: a whole brood moves together and you plan the way home.
- How to play Duckling Ferry Jam: a puzzle about getting every waiting duckling aboard the boat of its colour.