Swamp Spiral
Hop your frogs into the pot. Mind the hidden sinkholes. Best of 3 boards.
Swamp Spiral is a two-player race game in which you roll a die and hop your frogs along a spiral toward the pot in the middle. Hidden sinkholes send a frog home, and the first to get every frog into the pot wins.
Roll your die, pick a frog and watch it hop round a clay swamp toward the pot in the middle. Some holes are secret sinkholes that swallow a frog and send it home, so every hop onto an untested hole is a small dare.
Also known as Frog race game.
- How you hold it
- Face-off
- Match
- Best of 3 boards
- Length
- About 1.5 to 2.5 minutes a board
- Play
- Friend or bot
How to play Swamp Spiral: quick rules
About 1.5 to 2.5 minutes a board, 4 to 7 minutes for best of 3. Full rules, options and bot levels are further down.
- 1Tap your die to roll, then hop one of your frogs that many holes.
- 2Some holes are hidden sinkholes. Stop on one and your frog sinks back to its pad.
- 3The pot needs the exact roll.
- 4Get every frog into the pot first to win the board.
Swamp Spiral rules
Setup
- The swamp is a spiral of 28 holes leading into a pot in the middle. Each player starts with 2 frogs on their own pad at their own end (1 or 3 with the Frogs each option).
- At the start of every board, 4 holes are secretly made sinkholes (2 or 6 with the Sinkholes option). They are the same for both players and look exactly like any other hole.
- The first 3 holes are never sinkholes, so nobody's first hop is a trap.
- A new match picks the first player with a coin toss. The loser of a board starts the next board, and a rematch starts with the player who lost.
A turn
- Tap your die to roll 1 to 6, then move one of your frogs forward exactly that many holes. A frog leaving the pad lands on the hole matching the roll.
- The pot needs the exact roll. A roll that would carry a frog past the pot can't be used by that frog.
- If only one frog can use the roll, it hops by itself. If you have a choice, the frogs you can move and the holes they would land on glow, and you tap either one.
- If no frog can use the roll, "No move" shows and the turn passes.
- Only the hole where a frog stops matters. Hopping over a sinkhole or another frog does nothing.
Landing
- Sinkhole: the frog reveals it and sinks back to its pad. A revealed sinkhole stays dark and swallows any frog that stops there later.
- Safe hole: a frog that stops on a hole and doesn't sink proves it safe for everyone to see.
- Pot: a frog that lands exactly in the pot stays there for the rest of the board.
- Bump (on by default): stop on a hole holding the other player's frogs and every one of them goes back to its pad. Your own frogs can always share a hole.
Winning
- The first player with every frog in the pot wins the board straight away.
- A race can't end in a draw, so there is never a replay.
- Win 2 boards to win the default best of 3 (1 board for Single, 3 for best of 5). Each new board has a new set of hidden sinkholes.
- The dice are fair and never adjusted for luck, streaks or score.
Hints against the bot
- Playing the bot outside a tournament, when two or more frogs can use your roll, you can spend 20 coins on a hint. It rings the best frog and its landing hole for two seconds and never moves for you.
- One hint per turn, and none with a friend, online or in a tournament.
Extras
- Bump
- On by default. Stopping on the other player's frog sends it home, which turns the race into a duel.
- Lily pads
- Off by default. Holes 7, 14 and 21 carry a lily pad that is never a sinkhole; stop on one and you roll again.
- Soft mud
- Off by default. A sinkhole only slides your frog back 5 holes instead of all the way to its pad.
Tips to win at Swamp Spiral
- 1Prefer holes already proven safe. Every untested hole could be a sinkhole.
- 2Take your risks with frogs near the pad and play safe with frogs near the pot, where a sinkhole costs the most.
- 3The pot needs an exact roll, so spread your frogs out and more of your rolls stay useful.
- 4With Bump on, stop on rival frogs when you can, and keep yours out of easy reach of theirs.
- 5With Lily pads on, aim for holes 7, 14 and 21: they're never sinkholes and give you another roll.
Controls
Phone flat between you. Each player owns a half, and the far half faces the far player.
- Tap your own die, in your dock at your end of the table, to roll. Only the mover's die is lit.
- When you have a choice, tap a glowing frog or the glowing hole where it would land, or the pot.
- Taps on the other player's frogs, on frogs that can't move or on plain holes do nothing.
- After the turn changes, the next die takes a moment to arm, so a stray tap while reaching across never rolls.
Options
Every option is free. Defaults are marked.
| Option | Choices | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Frogs each | 12 (default)3 | More frogs means a longer, more tactical race. |
| Sinkholes | 24 (default)6 | How many hidden sinkholes each board has. |
| Boards | SingleBest of 3 (default)Best of 5 | |
| Bump | OffOn (default) | Extra: landing on a rival frog sends it back to its pad. |
| Lily pads | Off (default)On | Extra: holes 7, 14 and 21 give another roll. |
| Soft mud | Off (default)On | Extra: a sinkhole sends a frog back 5 holes instead of to its pad. |
Play Swamp Spiral against the bot
The bot plays Blue and rolls the same fair die. It knows only what you can see: where the frogs are, which sinkholes have been revealed and which holes are proven safe. It never knows where a hidden sinkhole is and never sees the next roll. With one frog each there is no real choice, so it plays as a single Bot with no level to pick.
Easy
Often picks a frog at random, and otherwise just moves the frog that is furthest along.
Normal
Weighs the risk of an untested hole against the progress a hop makes, and always takes a frog into the pot when it can.
Hard
Never picks at random. On top of the risk, it hunts bumps, uses lily pads, keeps its frogs out of easy bumping range and sets them up close to the pot.
Online, tournaments and hints
- Online
- PlannedSwamp Spiral is turn-based and online play for it is planned, but not available yet. Today you play a friend on one phone or the bot.
- Tournament
- Can be drawn in a tournamentIn a tournament it uses the default options: 2 frogs each, 4 sinkholes, best of 3 boards, with Bump on and no hints.
- Hints
- Stuck against the bot? A hint lights up the strongest move for a few coins. Never with a friend, online or in a tournament.
Coming soon
- Online play. Play Swamp Spiral against a friend on another phone, with a turn clock. Sinkholes would stay hidden on the server until a frog finds them.
How it feels
- A dice rattle on felt, a little pop on every hole a frog hops, rising in pitch.
- A low gloop and a strong buzz when a frog finds a sinkhole, with ink ripples as it shrinks and pops back on its pad.
- A jingle and sparks when a frog drops into the pot, a boing when one gets bumped home.
- A fresh sinkhole layout every board, so no two boards play the same.
Accessibility
- Colour is never the only cue: Red's frogs carry a heart and Blue's a cross, and revealed sinkholes change fill and rim and show a swirl.
- Frogs you can move and their landing holes are marked with a pulsing ring.
- Single taps only, so one-handed play works, and there is no clock on a turn.
- With reduced motion on, frogs fade between holes instead of hopping.
Swamp Spiral questions
Roll your die and hop one of your frogs that many holes along the spiral. Stop on a hidden sinkhole and the frog goes back to its pad. The first player with every frog in the pot, by exact roll, wins the board.
Both. The roll is luck, but choosing which frog to move, over proven holes or onto untested ones, is where the skill is.
The sinkhole is revealed and the frog sinks back to its pad, or slides back 5 holes with Soft mud on. The revealed sinkhole stays dark for the rest of the board.
Yes. A frog must land exactly in the pot; a roll that would carry it past can't be used by that frog.
Yes. Swamp Spiral in Duo Clash is built for two players on the same phone. Phone flat between you. Each player owns a half, and the far half faces the far player.
Yes. The bot plays Blue and rolls the same fair die. Choose Easy, Normal or Hard.
Play Swamp Spiral on one phone
Free on Android. Sit face to face, or take on the bot on Easy, Normal or Hard.
