DucklarkGames

How to play / Quackvine

How to play Quackvine

A weedy vine is creeping down a garden toward the duck pond, and the only thing between it and the water is you in a duck. Quackvine is a game of swimming sideways and splashing upward, and it rewards patience more than speed.

Play Quackvine now

A tall garden with a pond at the bottom

The screen shows a tall garden: the upper part is flower beds and the bottom part is the pond, where your duck lives. You cannot leave the pond. The vine arrives over the fence at the top and moves one square at a time, sideways along a row until something blocks it, then down one row and back the other way. Your job is to cut it into pieces before it reaches the water.

Swim, then splash straight up

Drag a finger anywhere on the screen and the duck follows; it splashes the whole time your finger is down. A splash flies straight up from the duck, and only two can be in the air at once, so line up under the part of the vine you want and then move on.

  • Touch: drag anywhere. Your finger is both the steering and the splash.
  • Mouse: drag, and hold the button to splash.
  • Keyboard: the arrow keys swim, Space splashes, and P or Escape pauses.

Buds, tips and what the vine leaves behind

The vine is a string of squares. Hitting a bud with a splash turns it into a heap of leaves and splits the vine in two, which is worth 20 points. The growing tip is worth 120. Trim every bud and the whole garden blooms.

Leaves in the garden are not harmless: the vine turns at pots, leaves and the garden's edge, dropping a row each time. The more things in its way, the faster it comes down. Three splashes wash a pile of leaves away.

Flower pots are worth keeping

The pots standing in the garden make the vine turn, and they also pay you. When you clear a wave, you earn 100 times the wave number, plus 25 for each pot still standing, and every surviving pot blooms a little more. Three splashes knock a pot over, so swim to a column without one.

The visitors: beetle, snail and rabbit

  • Whirligig beetle zigzags across the pond. Bonk it for 150 points, or swim out of its way; touching it ruffles your duck.
  • Snail leaves a slime trail, and the vine slides along slime twice as fast. Splashing the snail gives 400 points.
  • Rabbit hops down the garden digging mounds. Splash it for 300.

Ducks, ruffles and the vine taking root

You begin with three ducks and can hold at most six. A new duck arrives every 15,000 points. If the vine touches your duck, or a beetle does, the duck is ruffled: it shakes its feathers, swims off, and the next duck takes over while the vine pulls back over the fence and creeps in again. Nobody gets hurt.

If a vine reaches the bottom of the pond it takes root, and runners start creeping in from the sides. That is the point at which a wave is getting away from you.

Today's garden and the endless garden

Today's garden is six waves in the same garden for everyone. Your first run each day is the one that counts for the board and your streak; each duck you still have at the end is worth 1,000 points. A new player's first garden has a slower first vine.

The endless garden has wave after wave, each one faster, and keeps a best score and best wave. After a game ends, the game may offer "Keep going: one more duck" for one more try on the same wave.

Playing the daily on consecutive days builds a streak, and a streak freeze covers a missed day. Every seventh day in a row earns a freeze, up to two at a time.

Quackvine questions answered

Why did the vine speed up?

It moves faster each wave, and it slides twice as fast along snail slime.

Why did my splash never reach the vine?

A splash stops at the first pot, pile of leaves or mound in its column. Slide to a clear column, or spend the hits to clear the obstacle.

Can I hurt the pots by accident?

Yes. Three splashes knock one over, and each one you lose is 25 fewer points at the end of the wave.

More games like Quackvine

Play Quackvine now