The Five Worlds
Every 12 points the world changes around you: new scenery, new music, and new rules for how the bird flies. Here is what each one asks of you.
How the Worlds Work
Every run begins in SKYLINE. At 12 points you cross into THE DEEP, at 24 the UNDERWORLD, at 36 CACTUS CANYON and at 48 THE EYE. Score 60 and you are back in SKYLINE, but the cycle never resets to easy: the world keeps its pace, and creatures that only appear later are waiting for you.
The change is never a surprise. The first few columns of each new world are a little more forgiving while you adjust, and the colours and music blend from one world to the next instead of cutting.
1. Skyline
- FROM 0 POINTS
- NORMAL GRAVITY
- NO WIND
Green pipes, blue sky, soft clouds. SKYLINE is where you learn the rhythm of the game: how high one tap carries you, how far you fall before the next. There are no creatures on your first visit, so all your attention can go on the gaps.
How to fly it: find a steady tapping rhythm and keep it. Most falls here come from tapping twice in a panic and overshooting the top of a gap.
On your second lap (from 60 points), SKYLINE brings two creatures with it: the Trotter, which trundles along the lower lips of the columns, and the Clinger, which hangs down into the gap from above.
2. the Deep
- FROM 12 POINTS
- FLOATY: 62% GRAVITY
- CURRENTS
The bird dives underwater, where everything floats. Gravity drops to under two thirds, so each tap carries you higher and you hang in the water for longer. The catch is the current: invisible streams push the bird up and down, and the kelp columns sway with them. A lane that was safe a moment ago can turn into a downdraft.
How to fly it: tap less often than you did in the sky, and watch the streaks in the water. They show which way the current is about to push you.
Creatures: the Puffer, which floats in the gap and swells up on a cycle, and the Glimmerfish, which swims at you from ahead and grows as it comes.
3. Underworld
- FROM 24 POINTS
- HEAVY: 118% GRAVITY
- SPIKES
Straight out of the floaty water and into the heaviest air in the game. The bird drops fast, and the columns become jagged spikes with less forgiving edges. This is the world that rewards commitment: half-hearted taps leave you sinking into the next spike.
How to fly it: tap a little sooner than feels natural, and stay in the middle of the gap rather than skimming its edges.
Creatures: the Spinner, an arm turning steadily on a hub in the lower lip, and the Slinger, which perches below the gap and lobs rocks.
4. Cactus Canyon
- FROM 36 POINTS
- WIND
- PROJECTILES
A desert of cactus columns under a hot sky. A steady wind pushes the bird backwards, and the canyon throws things at you: tumbleweeds roll along low, and bolts of lightning strike across marked lanes. Something comes your way roughly every two and a half seconds.
How to fly it: treat each projectile as an event to deal with, not background noise. Look ahead, pick your lane early, and remember that a lane marked for a bolt is a lane to leave.
Creatures: the Snapper, hiding in the lower lip of a column, and the Trotter, which you can land on.
5. the Eye
- FROM 48 POINTS
- HEAVY GRAVITY
- CURRENTS AND WIND
The summit. THE EYE has no new trick of its own; instead it combines everything you have learned. Gravity is heavy, currents push you up and down, a crosswind pushes you back, and the gaps are the tightest in the game. Bolts fly, and the two creatures that reach furthest into the gap appear together.
Most runs never get this far, so reaching it at all is worth telling someone about.
How to fly it: fly the way the earlier worlds taught you, all at once. If you have powers, this is where a surge earns its keep.
Creatures: the Spinner and the Snapper, with bolts.
Creature Guide
Every creature gives a warning, called a tell, before it moves, and every gap can be flown through on position alone at every moment of a creature's cycle. Learn the tells and no creature is unfair. The first time you meet each one, the game shows its tell at the bottom of the screen.
| Creature | Where | The tell, and what to do |
|---|---|---|
| Snapper | Cactus Canyon, The Eye | Lurks in the lower lip and lunges up into the gap. The rim glows before it lunges. Stay high while it is lit. |
| Spinner | Underworld, The Eye | An arm turning on a hub in the lower lip, always at the same speed. Steady arm: fly over the top. |
| Puffer | The Deep | Floats in the gap and inflates on a cycle. It sits off-centre, so one side is always clear. It swells: take the clear side. |
| Slinger | Underworld | Perches on the lip below the gap and lobs a rock on a fixed arc. Its body is never in your way; the rock is. It winds up before it throws. |
| Trotter | Cactus Canyon, Skyline (second lap) | Trundles back and forth along the lip below the gap. Fly over it, or drop on it to squash and bounce: squashing one pays a coin and charges your power meter. |
| Clinger | Skyline (second lap) | Grips the lip above the gap and hangs down into it. It hangs down: the low lane is clear. |
| Glimmerfish | The Deep | Swims toward you and grows as it comes. Pass it while it is small. |
| Tumbleweed | Cactus Canyon | Rolls in low along the ground. Climb over it. |
| Bolt | Cactus Canyon, The Eye | Lightning that strikes across a lane marked a moment beforehand. Leave the marked lane. |
Some powers deal with creatures directly: THUNDERBOLT strikes one every second, DUST DEVIL shreds anything that moves, and STORMCALLER stops new ones arriving. See the powers guide.