How to play duk.

Sink every lily pad, then land on goose. That is the whole goal. Everything below is detail about how movement works and why a pond can trap you.

The pond

A puzzle is a grid of lily pads floating in open water. Some cells hold a lily, some are empty water, and one holds goose, the friend you are trying to reach. You play the duck, standing on one lily at a time.

Every lily carries a number. That number is not a score: it is exactly how far a move starting from that lily will travel.

How a move works

A move travels exactly the number shown on the lily you are standing on, one step at a time, in the four compass directions: up, down, left, or right. Never diagonally.

• Your starting pad counts as 1. Standing on a 3, you take two further steps, ending on the third pad of the path.
• You may turn mid-move. A path is not required to be a straight line. Turn as often as you like.
• A path may not touch the same pad twice within one move. It cannot cross or double back over itself.
• The full count must be used. You cannot stop a move early, so a route that runs out of legal pads partway is not a legal move at all.

Pads sink behind you

This is the rule the whole game turns on. When you leave a lily, it sinks for good. Pads you merely pass over during a move do not sink; only the pad you departed from at the start of the move goes under.

Sunken lilies and the empty water gaps in the pond behave identically: they are solid obstacles. You cannot step onto them, and you cannot hop across them mid-path. So the pond grows more constrained with every move you make, and a route that was available three moves ago may not exist now.

The edge wraps

The edge of the pond is open water, not a wall. Step off one side and you swim around to the far side of that same row or column, arriving on whatever is there. That step counts like any other step in the move.

This is the rule most people forget, and it is often where a stuck puzzle opens up. When a pond looks impossible, check whether a wrap gets you to the pad you cannot otherwise reach.

Goose, and winning

Goose is the finish line and behaves unlike anything else on the board. You may paddle across goose in the middle of a move, treating it as an ordinary pad to pass over. But you may only come to rest on goose with the very last step of the puzzle.

To win: sink every other lily on the board, then take one final step onto goose. Because the win condition includes every pad, a solution has to account for the entire pond in an order that never strands you.

Drawing your route

You do not commit to a move blind. Build the path one pad at a time: tap a legal next pad to extend the route, or tap the tip of the path to step back. Only when the path reaches the lily's number does the duck actually walk it. Plan freely; nothing is spent until the count is met.

Getting better at it

Work backwards from goose

Since goose must be the final step, ask which pad you would have to be standing on to reach it, and whether that pad can plausibly be the last lily left. That constraint often rules out most of the tree immediately.

Watch for pads that isolate

A lily in a corner, or one reachable only through a single neighbour, has to be visited before the pads around it sink. Handle those early rather than discovering them stranded at the end.

Count the parity of big numbers

High-numbered lilies are the least flexible pieces on the board, because a long path needs a lot of surviving pads to run through. Place them while the pond is still full.

Use the wrap deliberately

Treat the edges as shortcuts rather than boundaries. A move that leaves the board on the right and returns on the left can reach a region that looks cut off.

When you get stuck

Stranding yourself is not a failure state. There is no timer, no lives system, and nothing to lose by restarting a pond. Every puzzle in duk. is verified solvable before it ships, so a pond that feels impossible has a route you have not found yet, and the usual culprit is a wrap around the edge or an isolated pad left too late.

Common questions

Does the starting pad count as a step?

Yes. The pad you start on counts as 1, so a lily showing 3 moves you two pads further along the path.

Can a move cross its own path?

No. A move may turn as often as you like, but it can never touch the same pad twice within that move.

What happens at the edge of the pond?

It wraps. Stepping off one side brings you back on the opposite side of the same row or column, and that step counts like any other.

Can I land on goose early?

No. You may paddle across goose mid-move, but you can only come to rest on it with the final step of the puzzle, after every other lily has sunk.

What happens if I get stranded?

Nothing is lost. Restart the pond and try a different order. Every puzzle is checked to be solvable before it ships.

Still stuck?

The support page covers saved progress, offline play, and data collection. For anything else, email support@betulanoir.com and a person will answer.