How to Play
Flappy Dash takes one second to learn. This guide covers everything else: how scoring works, what every pickup does, and how the power surge turns a good run into a great one.
The Goal
Fly as far as you can. Columns slide in from the right, each with a gap to fly through. Every column you clear scores a point. Touch a column, a creature or the ground and your run ends, unless a shield or a heart saves you.
The world speeds up gently as your score climbs, and every 12 points the scenery, the music and the rules change as you move into a new world. The worlds guide covers each of them in detail.
Controls
Tap, click, or press Space, ↑ or Enter to flap. Each flap gives the bird a quick lift; between flaps, gravity pulls it down. That is the whole control scheme. Pause with the button in the top-right corner, or with Esc or P on a keyboard.
Full screen: on a phone or tablet the game fills the screen at your first tap; on a computer, press F. On an iPhone, add Flappy Dash to your home screen instead, because Safari does not allow full screen for web pages.
A run starts gently. The bird holds its height for a moment, then gravity eases in over the first second, so a slow first tap never costs you a run.
Scoring and Medals
Each column is worth one point. Your score can be multiplied, though:
- Fever. Clear ten columns in a row without taking a hit and fever ignites, doubling every point until something hits you. A shield breaking ends fever, so flying clean pays twice.
- Powers. Some powers multiply your score while they burn. ASCENDANT climbs all the way to six times.
At the end of each run you earn a medal for your score:
| Medal | Score needed |
|---|---|
| Bronze | 10 |
| Silver | 25 |
| Gold | 50 |
| Platinum | 100 |
Your best score, your medals and your recent runs are kept in the Record screen on the title page.
Coins
Coins are what you spend on new birds, powers and traits. You earn them in four ways:
- Collecting them. Coins sit in the gaps and float in arcs between columns.
- Near misses. Pass a column with only a whisker of space to spare and you earn a bonus coin. Chain near misses together and each one pays more, up to five times as much.
- Streaks. Take three gap coins in a row for a Gold Chain, which makes every coin worth double for a while. Pull off five near misses in a row for a Hot Streak, which drags nearby coins straight to you.
- The daily challenge. Each day's challenge pays a bonus of 3 coins per point, up to 150 coins.
Coins collected during a run are banked when the run ends, even if it ends badly.
Pickups
Glowing orbs float through the sky. Fly into one to collect it. Some last for the whole run, and some give a short effect with a timer.
| Pickup | What it does | Lasts |
|---|---|---|
| Shield | Absorbs one crash into a column, creature or projectile, then shatters. Shields stack, so three shields save you three times. They cannot save you from the ground. | Until used |
| Heart | An extra life. If you crash with no shield left, a heart puts the bird back in clear air with a moment to get ready. Hearts stack too. | Until used |
| Magnet | Pulls coins in from well beyond the bird. | 8 seconds |
| Feather Fall | Halves gravity, so every flap gives you a longer look at the next gap. | 5.5 seconds |
| Mini | Shrinks the bird, which makes every gap feel wider. | 7 seconds |
| Coin Rush | Every coin you collect is worth two. | 10 seconds |
| Grow | Swells the bird so it can smash through a column, but it is also easier to hit. The only pickup with a downside. | 4.5 seconds |
| Mystery | Opens into one of the timed effects above. Rarer than any of them. | Varies |
Shields and hearts appear steadily through a run, a little less often as your score climbs and when you are already holding several.
The Power Surge
The meter in the bottom-left corner fills as you fly. It fills on its own over about 26 seconds of flying, and faster when you take risks: every near miss adds a fifth of the meter, and squashing a Trotter adds a little more.
When the meter is full, the surge fires by itself, waiting for a moment when the bird is in clear air rather than halfway through a gap. For ten seconds, every power you own fires at the same time. If you own shields, lightning and slow gravity, you get all three at once. The more powers you collect, the stronger every surge becomes.
You start with one power, AEGIS, which hands you shields. The rest are bought with coins. The powers guide lists all fifteen.
A rough start is not wasted. If a run ends almost immediately, the next one starts with a third of the meter already charged.
Birds and Traits
In the Birds screen you can spend coins on three kinds of thing:
- Birds. Six looks for your bird: Classic, Ember, Frost, Moss, Midnight and Phantom. They change how the bird looks, not how it flies.
- Powers. Each one you own joins every surge. See the powers guide.
- Traits. One small, permanent adjustment to how your bird handles. You can equip one at a time: Light Bones (6% less gravity), Quick Charge (the meter fills 15% faster), Long Tail (near misses count from a little further out), Keen Eye (earlier warning before a bolt fires) or Miser (25% more coins banked per run).
The Daily Challenge
Tap Daily Challenge on the title screen to fly today's course. Every player in the world gets exactly the same columns, gaps and creatures, so your score is a fair comparison with everyone else's. A new course arrives every day.
The daily also pays a coin bonus: 3 coins for every point you score, up to 150 coins a day. Your best daily score is shown on the title screen until the day turns over.
Settings
Open Settings from the title screen to turn music and sound effects on or off, switch to reduced motion (calmer screen shake and effects), or turn on high contrast, which gives the bird, creatures, columns and ground heavier outlines.
Ready? Play Flappy Dash now, or read the tips first.