Powers
Fifteen powers, one meter. When your surge fills, every power you own fires together for ten seconds. Here is what each one does, and how to spend your coins.
How Powers Work
Powers live in the surge meter in the bottom-left corner of the screen. It fills as you fly, over about 26 seconds on its own and faster with every near miss. When it is full, the surge fires by itself the next time the bird is in clear air. For ten seconds every power you own runs at the same time, and the meter starts filling again.
Owning more powers never means choosing between them. Buy THUNDERBOLT and ANCHOR and every surge both freezes the creatures and strikes them with lightning. The roster is built so that each power answers a different problem: some protect you, some clear the way, some pay out in points or coins.
Every player starts with AEGIS. The others are bought with coins in the Birds screen. Owning all fifteen costs 6,700 coins in total.
All 15 Powers
| Power | Cost | What it does during a surge |
|---|---|---|
| AEGIS | Free | A shield at once, then another every 2.5 seconds. Each shield still breaks on a hit, so it hands back about four mistakes per surge. |
| FORESIGHT | 300 | Draws the line through the next gaps, so you can see where to fly before you get there. Strongest in THE DEEP, where the gaps move. |
| PROSPECTOR | 340 | Every coin is worth two. It adds nothing to your score; it fills your purse. |
| STEADY HAND | 360 | Your near-miss chain cannot break, so taking one safe gap does not reset your bonus coins. |
| ANCHOR | 380 | Freezes everything that moves on a cycle. Creatures stop where they are, and the water's currents hold still. |
| PHOENIX | 420 | Never fired. Once per run, when you crash into a column or creature, it spends itself to throw you back into the air. |
| SLIPSTREAM | 440 | The next gaps open up, wider by about a bird and a quarter. |
| DUST DEVIL | 460 | Wraps the bird in a vortex that shreds creatures and ignores the wind. |
| EMBER SHOT | 480 | Your next three taps also throw fire forward. Fire clears creatures, never columns. |
| HALCYON | 520 | Halves gravity and stills the water, so even THE DEEP flies like open sky. |
| THUNDERBOLT | 540 | Lightning strikes a creature every second. |
| THUNDERBIRD | 560 | Columns and creatures cannot touch you, and every column pays double. |
| STORMCALLER | 580 | The world stops sending creatures while it burns. |
| ASCENDANT | 620 | Each column pays more than the last, up to six points a column, as long as you keep flying. |
| BREAKTHROUGH | 700 | Smash straight through up to ten columns. The most expensive power, and the only one that removes the obstacle instead of helping you survive it. |
What to Buy First
There is no single best power, but there is a sensible order for most players:
- FORESIGHT (300). The cheapest power, and the one that answers "I did not see that coming". It helps most while you are still learning THE DEEP.
- PHOENIX (420). A second chance in every single run, with no meter needed. Few things lift your average score as much.
- SLIPSTREAM (440) or HALCYON (520). Pure breathing room: wider gaps, or lighter gravity and calm water. Both make a surge a safe stretch to fly through.
- ANCHOR (380) and THUNDERBOLT (540). Buy these once you are regularly reaching the UNDERWORLD and CACTUS CANYON, where creatures end most runs.
- ASCENDANT (620) and THUNDERBIRD (560) when you are chasing a high score, and BREAKTHROUGH (700) last.
Saving up for something big? PROSPECTOR doubles the coins you collect during every surge, and the Miser trait below adds a quarter to everything you bank.
Traits
A trait is a small, permanent tweak to how your bird handles. It never fires and never runs out, and you can equip one at a time. None of them buys survival outright; each one tilts runs toward a different style of play.
| Trait | Cost | Effect | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| KEEN EYE | 140 | Bolt warnings arrive 0.3 seconds earlier. | CACTUS CANYON and THE EYE, where bolts fly. |
| MISER | 160 | 25% more coins banked per run. | Saving up for powers. |
| LONG TAIL | 180 | Near misses count from a little further out. | Players who already fly close for bonus coins. |
| LIGHT BONES | 200 | 6% less gravity, everywhere. | Players who keep overshooting gaps. |
| QUICK CHARGE | 220 | The surge meter fills 15% faster. | Anyone with several powers to fire. |
Birds
Six birds, all pixel-drawn in the game's 32-colour palette. They change how your bird looks, never how it flies, so pick the one you like.
| Bird | Cost |
|---|---|
| CLASSIC | Free |
| EMBER | 25 |
| FROST | 50 |
| MOSS | 90 |
| MIDNIGHT | 150 |
| PHANTOM | 250 |
