How to play / Flock Step
How to play Flock Step
You cannot steer one duckling at a time in Flock Step. Every swipe sends the entire brood in the same direction at once, and your task is to use rocks, banks and each other to bring them all to a single nest in as few swipes as possible.
One swipe moves the whole brood
Each puzzle is a small pond seen from above. Tiny sits on his nest somewhere on it, and the ducklings are scattered around. You choose up, down, left or right. Every duckling swims that way together. A duckling that reaches the nest, even by passing over it, hops in and is home. The puzzle is done when nobody is left on the water.
Rocks and the edge of the pond stop a duckling, and so do other ducklings. A duckling that is stopped while the others carry on is how the brood bunches up, and bunching is usually the secret to solving a pond.
Swiping, arrows and keys
- Swipe anywhere on the pond, or tap one of the four arrows on the pad below it.
- At a keyboard, use the arrow keys or the W, A, S and D keys.
- Undo, in a corner of the pad or with Backspace or the U key, takes back your last step. Hint and Restart are in the other corners.
A swipe that changes nothing does not count as a step. If nobody can move that way, the game says so. If the current just carries a duckling straight back to where it began, the game reports that this one did not count.
Four breeds, four ways to swim
Each breed has its own reach, and the chips under the pond list the breeds on the board you are playing. Tap a chip for its card.
- Call duck: paddles one square each step.
- Indian Runner: runs two squares each step.
- Mallard: swims until something stops it.
- Muscovy: paddles one square, and is too heavy for the current to carry.
A faster duckling behind a slower one bumps into it rather than jumping over, so the order they line up in matters.
Currents on the water
Some ponds have a current, drawn as arrows on the water. After each swim, every duckling sitting in a current drifts one square downstream. A duckling waits if another one ahead of it is in the way. The Muscovy is the only breed that ignores the current. A current can nudge a duckling into place without spending a step, or carry it somewhere you did not want.
Par, medals and what a hint costs
Every pond has a par, which is the fewest steps that exist. Your medal depends on how close you came:
- Gold: par or better, with no hints.
- Silver: one or two steps over par, or par with a hint.
- Bronze: any other way home.
The first time you press Hint on a pond, the game asks you to press it again, since a hint spends your chance at gold. A hint lights up the arrow to swim next. Try again restarts the pond and keeps your best finish, and See par shows the shortest way once you are done.
Three ponds a day and a path that never ends
Each day brings three ponds, graded easy, medium and hard, the same for everyone. The tabs above the pond show each par, then your medal. A calendar of past days lets you replay earlier ponds, but those never touch your streak.
The level path is a separate series. Level 1 is always open, and each level opens when the one before it is home. Stars replace medals here: three for par with no hint, two for one or two over or a hint, one for any way home. A tricky pond turns up every fifth level from the third, and a tough one every fifth from the tenth.
Streaks and freezes in Flock Step
Bringing a brood home on its own day grows the streak. Every seventh day in a row earns a freeze, you can hold two, and each covers a missed day. The stats sheet counts days played, ponds home and medals. The shared result lists each pond's medal and a picture of how the brood came home: a blue square for a step with no arrivals, a duckling for one arrival, and a heart for two or more together.
Flock Step questions answered
Why did a duckling stop short of the nest?
Something was in the way: a rock, the bank, or another duckling. Only a mallard swims until it is stopped, and the others have a fixed reach.
Does Undo count against me?
No. Undo removes the last step from your count, so a step you take back is as good as never made.
Can I earn gold after using a hint?
Not on that attempt. Try again starts a new attempt, and the game keeps your best finish.
More games like Flock Step
- How to play Pondful: another grid puzzle with ducklings and a clear answer.
- How to play Pond Sort: a puzzle where the number of moves matters.
- How to play Stepword: a daily puzzle with a par and medals of its own.