How UpSink works
Touch anywhere in the tank to aim, slide to adjust and let go to drop. Odd tiers float and even tiers sink. Two of the same that touch merge into the next tier, which goes the other way. Whatever is under the water raises its level, and a run ends when something stays above the dashed rim for two seconds.
Aim and drop
Touch anywhere in the tank, outside the score bar, and the piece jumps to your finger; slide to adjust it and let go to drop. A dotted line shows where the piece will fall. To call a drop off, slide up out of the tank and let go there; the piece and its line fade while your finger is there, and nothing drops. After each drop there is a short pause, under half a second, before the next. The Held and Next items at the top are your real next two drops; the game never re-rolls them.
With TalkBack you get Move left, Move right and Drop actions. On a keyboard or D-pad, the left and right arrows move the aim, and Enter, Space or the centre button drops.
The ladder
Eleven tiers, smallest first. Odd tiers float and even tiers sink, so every merge makes something that goes the other way. In the app, an open notch on top marks a floater and a solid notch below marks a sinker.
| No. | Name | Way | Points when made |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seed pod | floats | Dropped only |
| 2 | Pebble | sinks | 30 |
| 3 | Lily pad | floats | 60 |
| 4 | Snail | sinks | 100 |
| 5 | Lotus bud | floats | 150 |
| 6 | Crab | sinks | 210 |
| 7 | Duckling | floats | 280 |
| 8 | Turtle | sinks | 360 |
| 9 | Lotus | floats | 450 |
| 10 | Stone frog | sinks | 550 |
| 11 | Paper boat | floats, then sails away | 660, plus 500 |
Each tier is about a quarter wider than the one before, so a paper boat is more than eight times as wide as a seed pod. A paper boat floats up and sails out of the tank, adding 500 points on top of its merge points.
Chains and points
A merge that comes less than 1.5 seconds after the previous one carries the chain on; a longer gap starts a new chain. The chain multiplies each merge’s points. Here is what a lotus bud is worth at each place in a chain:
| Merge in the chain | Multiplier | Points for a lotus bud |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | × 1 | 150 |
| 2nd | × 1.5 | 225 |
| 3rd | × 2 | 300 |
| 4th | × 2.5 | 375 |
| 5th and later | × 3 | 450 |
While a chain runs, the score bar shows “Chain ×N”, where N is the number of merges in the chain so far, not the multiplier.
The water and the rim
Whatever is under the water pushes the level up, and things that sink all the way under count in full, so the level rises as the bed fills. The gauge on the tank wall shows it, and TalkBack reads it out, for example “Water about half full.”
In Daily Tide and Endless, a run ends when anything stays above the dashed rim for two seconds in a row, or when the water reaches the rim. A warning glow shows after half a second, and a piece you just dropped gets one second before its time above the rim starts to count. The run ends with a look at what you made, not a “you lost”.
In Calm Water nothing ends the run: anything that stays above the rim for two seconds drifts away instead.
The Daily Tide
Each date has its own order of drops, made on your phone from the date, so everyone playing that date gets the same drops without any internet connection. Where you aim is up to you, so results differ. Tries are unlimited; the tide log keeps your top score and your highest creature for the day.
Puzzles
Puzzles are hand-made tanks with a goal. Each one gives you a fixed set of drops, from two to eight, and shows them all in order before you start; some begin with pieces already in the tank. Chapter 1, Still water, has 10 puzzles, all open from the start. Puzzles have no score and never change your Pond.
The goal is either to make a certain creature or to raise the water to a dashed line. A creature goal is solved the moment you make it, even with drops to spare. A water goal is checked once your drops are used up and the tank has settled. A puzzle isn’t solved if something stays over the rim or the drops run out first; try again as often as you like.
Each puzzle has one tip, and two of them have an extra challenge, “Also try”, shown after your first solve. The list marks the ones you have solved and points to the next one up. Start puzzles over, in the Puzzles list, marks every puzzle unsolved again; your Pond, top scores and saved runs stay.
Inputs and limits
UpSink is a physics game, so the same drops can play out differently each time you aim. Drops are only the five smallest tiers, chosen at random with fixed odds. The paper boat at the top is rare: our automated test player made none in 10,000 runs, and reached a stone frog in 47 of them.
- UpSink is a physics game: even in a puzzle, the same drops can play out differently depending on where you aim.
- In Daily Tide, Endless and Calm Water, new drops are always one of the five smallest: seed pod, pebble, lily pad, snail or lotus bud, picked at random with fixed odds of 30, 28, 22, 14 and 6 in 100, so smaller ones come more often. Every run starts with a seed pod, then a pebble. A puzzle’s drops are fixed and shown before you start.
- The paper boat is rare. In our measurements, an automated test player that aims at a matching piece most of the time made no paper boat in 10,000 runs, and reached a stone frog in 47 of them, fewer than one run in 200.
- The Daily Tide follows the date on your phone, so it changes at your local midnight, not at the same moment everywhere. A tide you start before midnight keeps its drops.
- Calm Water has no score and records nothing: no discoveries, boats or tide log entries.
- Puzzles have no score and add nothing to your Pond, tide log or top scores; the app keeps only your puzzle progress (which ones you solved, your fewest drops and whether you met the also-try) and the puzzle in progress, which is not backed up. Chapter 1, Still water, has 10 puzzles.
- A run ends when anything stays above the dashed rim for two seconds in a row, or when the water reaches the rim. A warning glow shows after half a second. A piece you just dropped gets one second before its time above the rim starts to count.
- Your Pond, tide log, top scores, solved puzzles and settings can come with you through Android backup; a run or puzzle in progress can’t.
- Clearing the pond and tide log can’t be undone.
- English only. Android phones with Android 8.0 or later.
Try today’s tide.
