How to play Rillguard

A visual guide · Make your first seed return

Your goal

Meet the seed. Wake the waterwheel.

Steer your little cedar skiff, sweep round seeds back along the river, and dodge the driftwood. Each river reach ends at a great waterwheel. Your score and hearts carry into the next reach and the next loop.

These are simplified teaching diagrams, separate from your live river. Rillguard runs in real time while you play. Reading help pauses it; close help and choose Resume when you are ready.

01Make your first return

Steer first, then sweep

A seed approaches from the right. Line up vertically, then sweep as it reaches the paddle at the front of your skiff. The seed turns back to the right and earns points immediately. You can steer and sweep together.

Keyboard: Up and Down, or W and S, steer. Space or Enter sweeps. Press P or Escape to pause. Click Start to begin.
Mouse or touch: drag up and down on the water to steer, then press Sweep. Your skiff moves with your drag rather than jumping to your finger. Keep one finger steering and use another for Sweep.
On a phone, turn sideways. Tablets can use portrait or landscape. Scroll outside the river and controls to reach the information and rankings below.
Each sweep is active for 0.3 seconds. The first 0.1 seconds can make a Bright return. Ready returns 0.7 seconds after the sweep starts. Release and press again for the next sweep; holding the key does not repeat it.

02Read the shape before you chase

Round seeds, jagged wood, open gaps

Round amber seeds can be swept. Jagged coral driftwood and reed gate bars cannot. Steer through the gate opening. The decorative water banks do not hurt your skiff.

A missed seed breaks your streak but costs no heart if it passes safely. Let it go when chasing would put you in danger. A hit costs one heart and breaks your streak; the brief flashing grace period gives you room to recover.

03Build a bright streak

Your next return uses its new streak count

An ordinary return is 100 points; Bright is 150. Returns 1 to 4 use ×1, 5 to 8 use ×2, and 9 onward use ×3. For example, the fifth ordinary return earns 200 and the ninth Bright return earns 450.

Watch Ready, Sweep and Recovering. Bright! identifies a seed caught at the beginning of the sweep. A patient single press is easier to time than repeated presses during recovery.
Missing a seed, taking damage, or entering a new reach resets the streak. Your earned points stay. Returning a seed earns its points before it arrives at its target.

04Wake the wheel and keep flowing

Eight arrivals restore a wheel

During the wheel encounter, returned seeds travel to the wheel. The counter and marked sockets fill when they arrive, rather than when you first sweep. Eight arrivals earn 800 extra points and one heart, up to three hearts. The encounter lasts at most 24 seconds; a timeout gives 200 points and no heart. Either outcome opens the next reach.

A reach ends; your journey continues

Willow Reach, Copper Spillway and Moon Basin loop in order. Each has 36 seconds of travelling river before its wheel encounter, with short introductions and transitions. The pace settles from loop three onward. There is no final reach or whole-run timer.

Start with three hearts. Losing them all ends your run. Choose Bank whenever you want to finish and keep your current points, including a run at zero points.
Pause, How to Play, Visual Guide, changing tabs or turning a phone upright all let the river wait. Close help, return to the game and choose Resume. Help preserves an existing manual pause too.
Play Again starts a fresh run. Menu returns to the games. Reading a guide during the short Bank transition keeps the result waiting until you close it.

Play Rillguard