Puffin Lift

What is Puffin Lift?

Crowd puzzles are about order. Everyone wants to leave, but only the ones with a clear way out can go, and every exit changes who can go next. You read the crowd from the top, find who is free, and choose who leaves first.

Ours is set on a cream cliff above a deep blue sea. The crowd is made of round little puffins in colored scarves, and the rides are striped hot-air balloons with wicker baskets. Every scarf color also has its own badge (a heart, a star, a circle, a diamond, a leaf or a moon), so you never have to rely on color alone. Puffin Lift is free and plays in your browser on phone, tablet or computer, with no download.

How to play

• The crowd stands on a grid of grass. Rocks block the way. The launch ledge runs along the top edge.
• Tap a puffin. If there is a path through empty grass to the top (up, down, left or right, never diagonal), it waddles out along that path. Puffins with a way out stand on a soft glow.
• Press and hold a puffin to see its path before you let go.
• The docked balloon has three seats in one color. A matching puffin hops straight in. The next two balloons wait in the sky so you can plan ahead.
• A puffin that doesn't match waits on the perch, a driftwood rail with 5 spots.
• A full balloon lifts off and the next one docks. Any puffins on the perch in its color hop in on their own.
• Clear the whole crowd to finish the level.

If a puffin is boxed in, it shakes its head and the puffins in its way blink. If the perch is full and nobody free matches the balloon, you're stuck. We show a calm card with your options: the free Put back, a helper, or a restart. There are no lives, no timers and nothing to wait for.

Stars

Stars are about how tidy the perch stays. The star meter at the top shows what you're on right now.

Every level can be cleared with three stars. We check each one with a solver before it ships. Your total stars are your score on the all-time Stars leaderboard.

The islands and their rule pieces

There are 300 levels across 8 islands. A new rule piece turns up every 10 or so levels, always with a gentle level first so you can meet it. About one level in five is labelled Tricky, and the level after it is a breather.

• Home Cliff (levels 1 to 40): plain crowds and rocks. Sleepy puffins arrive at level 15. They keep their eyes shut and can't be tapped until a neighbour next to them leaves. At level 28 come burrows: a puffin in a burrow shows a gray "?" scarf until a neighbour leaves or it gets a clear way out. A fifth scarf color joins at level 34.
• Lighthouse Isle (41 to 80): families. A parent walks with one or two chicks, linked by little footprints. Tap any of them and the whole family goes, so they need a path, and seats or perch spots, for everyone.
• Fish Market Isle (81 to 120): two ledges, the top and the right side, each with its own balloon queue. A puffin heads for a ledge whose balloon matches, or the nearest one if neither does.
• School Isle (121 to 160): a moving walkway row that slides one cell after every move. From level 151 there can be two, sliding opposite ways.
• Festival Isle (161 to 200): big balloons with six seats.
• Moon Isle, Sea Stack Isle and Aurora Isle (201 to 300): everything mixed, all six colors, and the biggest crowds.

Helpers

Helpers are earned in play and only used when you tap them. Nothing is ever sold.

Every 25 total stars pays a helper, and so does every 10 puffins you add to the album. Using any helper except Put back and Hint means a Daily Crowd run misses the 300 point no-helpers bonus.

Daily Crowd and leaderboards

The Daily Crowd is one crowd, the same for everyone, that changes at midnight UTC. Its style turns through the week: classic, sleepy puffins, families, burrows, big balloons, two ledges, and a bit of everything. Your first finished run of the day is the one that counts and posts to the Daily leaderboard. Any replays after that are practice. A run you start before midnight still counts for its own day.

A full clear usually lands somewhere around 2,000 to 2,600. Finishing the daily also builds your streak, and one missed day a week is forgiven as a rest day instead of breaking it.

Every day also brings three Today's Goals, like launching 12 balloons or waking 5 sleepy puffins. Each one pays a helper once.

Islands, the album and Festival Flight

Every balloon you launch lands on the island you're settling and helps build it up, from the first nests on Home Cliff to the lit lighthouse, the market stalls, the schoolhouse, the festival pier and the aurora huts. You can watch them grow on the Islands map.

Now and then a puffin in a hat stands somewhere in the crowd. Send it up and it joins your puffin album, which holds 60 named puffins, from Pip and Captain Bramble to Marigold and Biscuit.

Festival Flight is our weekly special, new every Monday (UTC): one giant crowd shaped like a heart, a fish, a whale or a lighthouse, with a rare puffin hiding in it. Clear it once for that week's stamp and one of every helper.

Controls

• Phone and tablet: tap a puffin. Press and hold to preview its path.
• Mouse: click a puffin.
• Keyboard: arrow keys or Tab to move the focus ring, Enter or Space to send, U for Put back, H for a hint, Esc to pause.

Settings has a high-contrast mode and larger pieces. Your progress saves after every move, so you can close the tab mid-level and carry on later.

Tips and strategy

• Look at the next two balloons before you perch anyone. A puffin whose color is coming soon is the safest one to park.
• Prefer boarding moves. A puffin that boards costs nothing and usually opens a path for someone behind it.
• Count the color, not the puffin. If three of the docked color are free, the balloon fills and the next one docks, often taking perched puffins with it.
• Free the back rows early. The puffins with only one way out are the ones that trap you later.
• Wake sleepy puffins on purpose: send a neighbour up when you'll soon want the sleeper.
• Treat families as one big piece. A family of three needs three seats in a balloon or three perch spots, so keep room for them.
• On walkway levels, a puffin that's blocked now may be free after one more move. Watch where the row slides.
• Put back is free once per level. Use it to test an idea rather than saving it for an emergency.

Questions