In short
- Watch the shadows on the water, not the parachutes: they show where each person will come down.
- Three people for the same bank make a full boat, worth more than twice as much as three single trips.
- The raft is your waiting room. Drop it early, close to the middle, and park passengers on it.
- A heart is lost only when someone is left in the water too long. Rocks and sharks cost time, not hearts.
The basics
Parachutists drift down over the bay. Each one wants to go ashore on one side: the beach island on the left (orange parachute, an arrow pointing left on their shirt) or the harbour on the right (blue parachute, an arrow pointing right). You steer the red rescue boat by dragging anywhere on the sea, or with the arrow keys. Sail under someone to catch them. Sail into a bank and everyone who wants that bank hops off.
The boat has three seats. Each level asks you to rescue a set number of people: six to eight on the first levels, rising to fifteen to eighteen on the hardest. You have three hearts, and you lose one only when somebody is in the water for too long and a lifeguard has to step in. Lose three people and the rescue is over.
Read the shadows, not the parachutes
Parachutes sway from side to side as they fall, so steering towards the person is a trap: you chase the swing and arrive late. Instead, look at the water. Every falling object casts a shadow on the water below it, and the shadow grows darker as it gets closer. The shadow stays put while the parachute swings to and fro around it, so the person always comes down within a short swing of it. Park the boat over the shadow, with the middle of the hull under it, and let the parachutist come to you.
The shadow is also tinted: orange for beach passengers, blue for harbour passengers, dark for rocks, brown for crates and gold for bonuses. With a glance at the water you can see what is coming and where, long before it arrives.
How scoring works
Each person you bring ashore is worth 10 points. On top of that, two bonuses reward planning:
| Full boat | A trip where all three seats hold people for the same bank earns an extra 25 points. |
|---|---|
| Big drop-off | Every person beyond the second, dropped at a bank in one go, earns 10 more. |
| Example | Three single trips: 30 points. One full boat of three: 30 + 25 + 10 = 65 points. |
So a full boat is worth more than twice as much as the same three people carried one at a time, and it costs you fewer journeys. The whole game is about building those full boats without letting anyone drown while you wait.
Building full boats
The trick is to sort while you sail. If you have two beach passengers aboard and a harbour parachutist is about to land, you have a choice: catch them and make a mixed boat, or leave them for the raft (see below) and wait for a third orange canopy.
A mixed boat is never a disaster. When you reach a bank, only the people for that bank get off; the others stay seated. A boat of two beach and one harbour passenger can drop the pair on the beach and carry the last one across. You just miss the full-boat bonus.
When the boat is full and someone lands right beside it, they fall in the water and start swimming. Before catching a third passenger, glance up: if two more are about to land close together, it can be smarter to deliver first and come back.
The raft: your most important decision
Each level gives you one raft, and two from level 9 onwards. Press the raft button (or R, or the down arrow) and a big floating raft is dropped where the boat is. It cannot be dropped right beside a bank, so do it out on the open water.
- People who land on the raft are safe for as long as you like. They never start the swimming timer.
- You can unload onto it. Sail over the raft with passengers aboard and press the button again: your passengers climb onto the raft (it holds four), freeing your seats.
- Picking them up is automatic. Once you have sailed clear of the raft and come back with free seats, the people on it climb aboard, first on, first off.
Where should it go? Two good plans:
- In the middle, early. The middle of the bay catches the most parachutists, so a raft there quietly rescues people while you are off making deliveries.
- Beside one bank, as a sorting station. Drop off the "wrong side" passengers next to the beach, keep collecting harbour passengers, then sweep everyone up for two full boats.
Dropping the raft late is the most common mistake. If you are saving it "for an emergency", you will usually find the emergency has already cost you a heart.
Swimmers and hearts
Anyone who misses the boat and the raft lands in the water and shouts "Help!". A ring above their head counts down: they can swim for a little over three seconds, and the ring turns red near the end. Sail over them with a free seat to scoop them up. If the ring runs out, a lifeguard steps in and you lose a heart.
This is the only way to lose a heart, which tells you how to prioritise: a swimmer always comes first. A delivery can wait. A swimmer cannot.
Crates, rocks and sharks
| Crates | Fall under grey parachutes from the first level. If you catch one it takes a seat until you reach a bank (any bank). Best let them splash. |
|---|---|
| Rocks | Appear from level 4. They fall more than twice as fast as people and have no parachute. A hit stuns the boat for a moment and knocks one passenger into the water, who then has about four seconds to be scooped back up. You are protected from a second hit for just over a second. |
| Sharks | Appear from level 9 (two of them from level 15). A shark cruises along the bay, up for three seconds and under for four. Only a fin above the water can bump you, with the same effect as a rock. A ripple and a red "!" warn you one second before it surfaces. |
Notice that neither rocks nor sharks take a heart directly. They cost a passenger and a little time. Keep calm, scoop the passenger back and carry on.
Bonuses
Now and then a gold parachute drifts down. Catch it for one of three bonuses:
- ⛵ Big boat: five seats and a wider hull for 18 seconds. Ideal for a double full boat, but deliver before it runs out: when the big boat shrinks back, anyone in seats four and five jumps into the water and has to be rescued again.
- ⚡ Speed: the boat moves much faster for 12 seconds.
- 🛟 Extra heart: one more heart for this level.
Stars, levels and the daily bay
Stars are simply hearts kept: finish with all three hearts for three stars. After each cleared level you turn over a bonus card that gives your next level a head start, either the big boat from the first second or an extra heart. The daily bay is the same for every player that day, so it is the fairest way to compare scores with friends.
Keyboard players: arrow keys or A and D steer, R or the down arrow drops and unloads the raft, and P pauses.
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