Puffer Up! Guide: When to Puff, When to Let Go, and How to Get 3 Stars
Puffer Up! is a one-button game about a little pufferfish swimming home across the reef. The fish always swims to the right by itself. All you decide is when it is big and when it is small. This guide explains what each state is good for, how to deal with every creature on the reef, and how to earn all 36 stars.
Big or small: the whole game
Hold (click, tap, Space or the up arrow) and the fish puffs up. A puffed fish is:
- big, so it will not fit through narrow coral gaps,
- slow, so you have more time to think,
- floaty, so it rises toward the surface,
- spiky, so urchins, eels and Big Gus cannot hurt it.
Let go and the fish slims down. A slim fish is small, fast and sinks. When you let go after a big puff, the air shoots out the back and the fish darts forward. Short taps give tiny puffs that lift you a little without making you big, which is how you steer through tunnels.
Watch the ring next to the fish. It is your breath. Holding uses it up in about five seconds. If it runs out, the fish coughs, slims down by itself and cannot puff again until the ring refills a bit. Let go now and then, even when you do not need to.
Coral gaps and tunnels
A gap is a wall with a hole in it. Only a slim fish fits. The trick is to get to the right height early. Puff to rise, let go to sink, and line up before you reach the wall. If you puff inside a gap, you will hear a squish and the fish cannot grow there.
Tunnels are several gaps in a row with the opening drifting up and down. Do not hold here. Tap. Each tap is a small lift, and you sink a little between taps.
Urchins
Slim, an urchin hurts. Puffed, you are spikier than it is, and you bounce right off with a boing. In an urchin field, the easiest plan is to stay puffed and bounce through, letting go only when your breath gets low. Some urchins bob up and down. Those are easier to slip past slim if you time it.
Moray eels
Eels hide in holes in the rocks and snap at small fish that swim close. They are scared of a puffed-up fish. If you pass an eel hole while puffed, the eel stays inside. If one has already lunged, puffing up as it comes at you makes it shriek and hide.
Jellyfish
Jellies sting big fish and small fish alike, so puffing does not help. Stay slim, read how they drift and slip through the space between them. A big puffed fish is just a bigger target.
Bubble vents, kelp and currents
- Bubble vents push you up. Stay slim to sink through the column.
- Kelp slows you down. A quick puff and let go gives you a dart that carries you through.
- Down currents in the Glow Deep pull you toward the urchins on the sand. Puff to fight them.
Big Gus the grouper
On a few reefs a huge grouper chases you. He keeps up with you, and when his mouth opens he lunges. When it opens, puff up and stay puffed. He cannot swallow a spiky ball, so he spits you out ahead of him, and that is the fastest way to get away. If you are slim when he bites, you lose a heart. Gus gives up at the end of his stretch of reef.
Hearts and checkpoints
You have three hearts. Lose them all and you swim back to the last checkpoint, the glowing shell on a stalk, with full hearts. There is no game over on a reef, so keep going.
How to get 3 stars
Every reef has three stars:
- Reach home, the anemone where the baby puffers’ parents wait.
- Rescue all babies. Each reef hides three baby puffers in bubbles. Touch one to free it and it follows you home. They are often near danger, next to urchins or just past a gap.
- No ouches. Finish without losing a heart.
You do not need all three in one swim. Stars add up across tries, so you can do a careful no-ouch run one time and a baby hunt the next.
Pearls and fish colours
Pearls float along the best line through each reef. You keep every pearl you collect, plus 10 for every baby you rescue and a bonus for every new star. Spend them on new fish colours. Some colours also need a number of stars, and the Golden puffer needs all 36.
Daily Reef and Open Ocean
The Daily Reef is a new reef every day, the same for everyone, with three babies to find. Play it on consecutive days to build a streak. Open Ocean never ends. The reef gets harder the further you go, Big Gus shows up from time to time, and the run is over when you lose your last heart.