Beginners Guide
New to Flappy Dash? This page is a plan for your first ten runs: one small goal at a time, from your first point to your first world change. It takes most players about fifteen minutes.
Before You Start
You need nothing but this page. There is no download, no account and no tutorial to sit through. Open the play page, and on a computer press Full screen or the F key so the game has room. On a phone, hold it upright: the game fills the screen at your first tap.
One thing helps more than anything else on this page: turn the sound on. Every flap, coin and point has its own sound, and many players find their rhythm by ear before they find it by eye.
Runs 1 to 3 Find the Rhythm
Goal: score your first point.
When a run begins, the bird holds its height for a moment and gravity eases in over the first second. Use that moment. Do not tap straight away: watch the bird start to sink, then give it one calm tap, and watch how far it rises and how quickly it falls back.
That rise and fall is the whole game. A tap always lifts the bird by the same amount, and gravity always pulls it down at the same speed, so once you have felt it a few times you can predict exactly where a tap will take you.
Most first crashes are not into a column at all, but into the top of the screen or the ground, from tapping too much or too little. If you keep hitting the top, slow your taps down. If you keep hitting the ground, tap a little earlier, not harder.
Runs 4 to 6 Bronze
Goal: 10 points, for your first medal.
Now aim for the gaps. Two habits make the biggest difference:
- Fly the lower half of each gap. A tap lifts you instantly, but a fall takes time. A bird that is slightly low can always be rescued with one tap; a bird that is too high has to wait for gravity.
- Look ahead. Keep your eyes on the next gap, not on the bird. By the time you pass through one gap you should already know how high the next one is.
At 10 points the Game Over card awards your first medal, Bronze. Silver comes at 25, Gold at 50 and Platinum at 100; the medals guide has all of them.
Runs 7 to 10 the First World Change
Goal: 12 points, to reach THE DEEP.
Every 12 points the world changes, and each new world flies a little differently. At 12 you leave SKYLINE for THE DEEP, an underwater world where gravity is much weaker. Players who reach it for the first time usually crash within a few columns, because they keep tapping at their SKYLINE rhythm and shoot straight up.
The fix is simple: as the water arrives, tap about half as often. The streaks in the water show which way the current is about to push you; watch them as well as the gap. The worlds guide covers all five worlds and every creature.
What to Do With Your First Coins
Coins you collect during a run are kept when it ends, even if it ends badly, so every run earns something. Open Birds on the title screen to spend them. A small red dot on that button means you can afford something.
| Coins | A good first buy | Why |
|---|---|---|
| 25 | The Ember bird | The cheapest new look. Birds change how the bird looks, never how it flies. |
| 140 and up | A trait | A small permanent change to how your bird handles. Light Bones (less gravity) suits most beginners. |
| 300 and up | Your second power | Every power you own joins every surge. FORESIGHT, the cheapest, shows you the line through the next gaps. |
The fastest early coins come from the daily challenge, which pays 3 coins per point, and from sharing your score with friends: see birds and coins.
Five Beginner Mistakes
- Panic tapping. Two or three quick taps send the bird into the top of the gap. One calm tap is almost always right.
- Watching the bird. The bird is where you are; the next gap is where you need to be. Watch the gap.
- Flying too high. High in a gap leaves no room to fall safely. Stay low and tap up into it.
- Keeping one rhythm everywhere. Each world has different gravity. Change your tapping when the world changes.
- Quitting after a bad start. A run that ends almost at once is not wasted: the next run starts with your power meter already a third full.
Where to Go Next
Once you can reach THE DEEP every few runs, you have the basics. From here: