How to play / Pond Thaw
How to play Pond Thaw
If you have ever bounced a ball off a paddle to chip away a wall of bricks, Pond Thaw will feel familiar: the paddle is a floating log, the ball is a smooth pebble and the bricks are ice. The ducks on the bank cannot paddle out until every piece is broken.
A log, a pebble and a sheet of ice
The frozen pond sits at the top, the log floats along the bottom, and a pebble waits on the log. Skim it and it flies up into the ice. Catch it on the log as it comes back down to send it up again; miss it and it sinks. Break every piece of breakable ice and the pond is thawed, and the ducks paddle out into each patch of open water.
Where the pebble leaves the log decides where it goes. Off the middle it flies straight up; off the ends it flies at an angle, up to sixty degrees from vertical. It also speeds up a little with each touch of the log, and slows again if you lose one.
Dragging, clicking and the keyboard
- Phone: drag anywhere to steer the log, and tap to skim.
- Mouse: move to steer, click to skim.
- Keyboard: left and right arrows or A and D steer, Space or the up arrow skims, P or Escape pauses.
Thin, thick and old blue ice, leaves and rocks
- Thin ice breaks in one hit and is worth 10 points.
- Thick ice takes two. The first hit cracks it for 5 points and the second breaks it for 20.
- Old blue ice takes three hits and gives 30 points.
- A frozen leaf breaks in one hit for 15 points and drops a feather.
- A rock never breaks. The pond thaws without it, and the pebble simply bounces off it.
Ice broken in a row without the pebble touching the log earns a growing bonus: each piece in the chain is worth 5 points more than the one before it, up to 50 extra on a single piece. Touching the log restarts the chain. If twenty seconds pass with no ice breaking, the sun comes out and every piece thins by one layer; ice that melts that way is worth half.
Catching a feather
When a frozen leaf breaks, a feather drifts down. Catch it on the log for 25 points and a short-lived power.
- Long log: a second log lashed on, so it is wider for a while.
- Two pebbles: another pebble skips off the first, up to three in play.
- Slow water: every pebble slows down for a while.
- Sticky log: sap holds the pebble so you can aim before you tap; it lets go by itself after a couple of seconds.
Fifteen ponds across five seasons
The long game, called Play, runs through fifteen hand-shaped ponds in five seasons of three: Deep Winter, Midwinter, Late Winter, The Thaw and Early Spring. The ice thickens and the pebble quickens as the year turns. After the fifteenth the year comes round again, with some thin ice grown thick and a faster pebble.
Clearing a pond pays a bonus of 100 points times the season's place in the year (Deep Winter is first), plus 100 for each year you have been through. You start with three pebbles. A new season gives you one more, up to five. The game saves at the start of each pond, so Play carries on where you stopped, and a separate button starts over from Pond 1. When the last pebble sinks, you can play on with one more, once per game.
Today's pond against the clock
Today's pond is the same for everyone and is scored on time. The clock runs from your first skim to the last piece of ice, with 10 seconds added for every pebble you lose, and a lower time is better. Pebbles are unlimited here. Only your first go of the day counts, and later goes are practice.
Thawing the day's pond on consecutive days builds a streak. Every seventh day earns a streak freeze, up to two.
Slips that lose pebbles
- Chasing the pebble across the screen. Meet it where it will land, not where it is.
- Always hitting with the middle of the log. The pebble goes straight up and down.
- Leaving one piece in a corner. Use the ends of the log to angle the pebble toward it.
Pond Thaw questions answered
Do the ducks get hurt if the pebble passes them?
No. The ducks are for looking at. A duck the pebble passes simply tips up and dabbles.
Why is the sun thinning my ice?
It happens when twenty seconds pass with nothing breaking. Every breakable piece loses one layer.
What do the rocks do?
Nothing. The pebble bounces off them and you never need to break them.
More games like Pond Thaw
- How to play Hatch Day: another game where you aim a thing at a nest and watch ducklings hatch.
- How to play Nest Blocks: a clearing game where full rows burst into feathers.
- How to play Shellduck: another game of angles and rebounds, with wind.