How to play
Last night the penguins slid across the ice, and their tracks are still in the snow. Your job is to replay the night.
The goal
Every penguin left its home and slid along its track, which ends at its flag. Tap the penguins in an order that lands each one exactly on its flag. Any order that does it counts: two penguins that never get in each other’s way can go in either order.
How a penguin slides
- Tap a penguin, or swipe it along its track, and it slides its next stretch.
- It slides until something stops it: a rock, the edge of the ice, or another penguin.
- Another penguin is in the way wherever it is at that moment: still at home, stopped partway, or finished on its flag. Tracks, homes and flags don’t stop anyone.
- Some penguins slide more than once. Where a track turns (and there’s no spring), that penguin stopped and then slid off again. A penguin’s own slides always go in the order of its track.
Reading the tracks
Who stopped where? That’s the clue.
- A track that stops in open ice, right in front of where another penguin stands, was stopped by that penguin: it must have been there at the time.
- A track that runs over a spot where another penguin stands (its home, or a stop on its way) means that penguin wasn’t there yet, or had already left.
- A track that stops at a rock or the edge needs nothing else.
- A flag can stand in another penguin’s home: that penguin has to leave before the one with the flag arrives.
- Careful with walls: a run of right moves can still lead nowhere if a penguin someone needs to stop against has already left.
Wrong moves, hints and Undo
If a penguin stops before its track ends, slides past the end, or can’t move at all, the attempt is over: the board shows what went wrong. Tap Restart to start again, or Undo to take the slide back. Either way, it’s a new attempt.
Stuck? A hint first shows where a slide that works right now ends and what stops it there; tap Show me to see whose slide it is. You start with five hints. Solve a night on your first attempt without a hint and it earns a gold star.
The daily puzzle
A new night every day at midnight where you are, the same for everyone. The daily is always hard, and Sunday’s is the hardest. Solve it to keep your streak going, then share your result: a grid showing how far each attempt got, never the order.
The pieces
Some nights have special pieces. Three turn up in the free packs, Third Night and the daily. The others each come with two packs of their own, and the daily brings one of them as a guest on Wednesdays and Saturdays.
In First Night, Second Night, Third Night and the daily
New piece
Springs
A spring turns a sliding penguin without stopping it. A bend in a track at a spring isn’t a stop.
New penguin
Rockhoppers
Penguins with gold crests are rockhoppers: they smash through rocks instead of stopping, and a smashed rock is gone for good.
New piece
Cracked ice
Cracked ice holds one penguin sliding over it, then breaks into water, which stops every penguin.
In Snow Fort and Snow Fort 2
New piece
Levers and gates
A gate stays shut, stopping penguins like a rock, unless a penguin stands on a lever with its symbol.
In Seal Holes and Seal Holes 2
New piece
Seal holes
A penguin that slides into a seal hole comes out of the other one with the same symbol, still sliding the same way.
In Chinstraps and Chinstraps 2
New penguin
Chinstraps
Penguins with a gold strap under the chin are chinstraps: they hop over rocks and penguins in their way, up to three in a row, and slide on. They need somewhere to land.
In Flip Springs and Flip Springs 2
New piece
Flip springs
A flip spring (teal) switches the way it faces each time a penguin bounces off it, so the next penguin bounces the other way.
In Flip Switches and Flip Switches 2
New piece
Flip switches
Each time a penguin stops on a flip switch, its gates flip: shut ones open, open ones shut. Nobody has to stay on it.