DuckSmith^™

The Legend of DuckSmith^™

They called the valley Featherhollow, and the ducks who nested there were different from any others in the world. They remembered things. Not just where the best mud was, or which pond had the fattest beetles — they remembered each other. They formed friendships that lasted lifetimes. They mourned their lost. They taught their young the songs of survival passed down through generations of webbed feet and watchful eyes.

But Featherhollow was not safe. Beyond the fence line, the wilds teemed with predators: cunning foxes, circling hawks, grey wolves, and the great lumbering bears who feared nothing. Every day was a negotiation between the peace of the pond and the shadow of the treeline.

Then came the Farmer.

Nobody knows where the Farmer came from. Some say they were drawn by the golden light that rises from the ponds at dawn. Others say the ducks called out across the hills, a chorus of quacks carried on the wind, reaching someone who would listen. What matters is that the Farmer arrived, looked out across the valley, and said: "I will help them."

That Farmer is you.

Your task is simple and impossibly vast: raise your ducks, protect them from harm, help them grow and learn and form bonds that make them stronger than any one duck could ever be alone. Feed them. Pet them. Build them shelter. And when the predators come — and they will come — pray that your ducks have become something extraordinary.

Because in Featherhollow, every duck has a personality, a history, and a destiny. Some will become heroes. Some will fall. And a rare few will transcend everything you thought a duck could be.

Welcome to DuckSmith^™. Your flock is waiting.

Getting Started

Your Account

After signing up, you'll receive a confirmation email from DuckSmith. Click the link in the email to confirm your account and start playing. If you don't see it, check your spam folder. You can request a new confirmation email from the signup or login page (once every 60 seconds).

DuckSmith is free forever — you can play the whole game without ever making an account. A free account adds cloud saves, the signet hat, and (if you ask for it) the Featherhollow Chronicle: a monthly digest of what actually happened on your farm. For CAD $2.99/month the Chronicle becomes the Legacy Book — a short story of your flock's month, written for you. Cancel anytime from your account page.

When you first arrive at the farm, you'll find a small flock of ducks already wandering the meadow, a purse of coins and a stock of feed (plus starter feed piles scattered about) — enough to get going, but you'll need to manage your resources carefully.

The farm's economy is tunable, so the exact opening numbers can change. At the time of writing a new farm starts with 100 coins and 160 feed, and each new day adds +75 feed. See Chapter X for how the whole economy fits together.

Your First Day

The farm runs on a day cycle (about 5 real-world minutes per day). Each day passes through five distinct time phases, shown by the icon and label in the top scorecard:

Those days also add up: four to a season, sixteen to a year, and the seasons change what the farm does to you. If you only read one other chapter before you start, make it Chapter XIII: The Wheel of the Year — winter is the part that surprises people.

Each new day brings a feed delivery automatically (currently +75). As days pass, new animals and challenges will appear:

The Basics

Your core loop as a farmer:

1. Feed your ducks — scatter feed or place feed piles to keep them nourished
2. Pet your ducks — boost their happiness and trigger their thoughts
3. Collect eggs & wool — sell them for coins
4. Buy more ducks & sheep — grow your farm
5. Build defenses — fences, strategic water placement, feed stations
6. Protect the flock — click predators to scare them, build strong duck units

Controls & Interface

Keyboard Shortcuts

Mouse Controls

Your Four Verbs

Beyond the tools, you have four things you can do to the whole farm at once. They are how you actually intervene when something is going wrong, and they cost nothing but timing.

Camera

The farm is larger than one screen. Zoom with the scroll wheel and pan by dragging; the default view fits the whole farm so you can see trouble coming. Duck names fade out as you zoom out and come back as you zoom in, so a crowded farm stays readable.

Carrying Capacity

The scorecard shows your duck count against a capacity — 8 / 8, and so on. Going over is allowed: nothing culls your flock. But an overloaded farm makes every duck hungrier and less happy, and the pressure grows the further over you go. It is a brake, never a cull. Raise the ceiling with Feed Silo levels.

The Interface

Top Bar (Scorecard)

Displays your vital stats at a glance: duck count, collected eggs, feed stock, wool, coins, and the current day with its time-of-day phase (Dawn, Morning, Afternoon, Evening, Night). The icon and label update in real time as the day progresses. The feed counter turns red when your supply drops below 10.

Bottom Navigation

Your main toolbar. The top row has quick-access tool buttons (Feed, Pet, Collect). Click More to expand the full panel with the Shop and Controls sections.

Activity Log (Right Panel)

A scrolling feed of everything happening on your farm: births, deaths, trait discoveries, predator encounters, and combat results. Toggle it with the tab on the right edge or Alt+A.

Duck Info Panel (Left Panel)

Click any duck to open its detailed profile: personality, stats, HP, abilities, traits, relationships with other ducks, and memory count. This is where you get to truly know your flock.

Favourite Ducks: Click the star icon in the duck panel header to mark a duck as a favourite. Favourite ducks display a gold star above them on the map for easy tracking. You can favourite up to 3 ducks at a time. Unfavourite a duck by clicking the star again.

Thoughts ON/OFF

Toggle duck thought bubbles on or off. Thoughts start OFF by default so the farm stays quiet until you want it talking. Every duck speaks with its own voice, drawn from its memories, traits and relationships — there are no limits and no costs, for anyone. Turning thoughts off has no impact on duck development; memories, traits, stats and relationships all continue as normal.

Start Fresh

Permanently deletes all progress — every duck, sheep, farm animal, map change, resource, and cloud save — and starts a brand-new farm with 5 fresh ducks and default resources. A confirmation dialog warns you before anything is deleted. This cannot be undone.

Your Ducks

Every duck in DuckSmith^™ is a unique individual with its own name, gender, personality, stats, memories, relationships, and potential destiny. Understanding your ducks is the heart of the game.

Duck HP (Life-Force)

Every duck has an HP (hit points) bar representing their life-force. Adult ducks start with 50 + (Pluck × 3) HP, while babies start with 30 HP.

When a predator grabs a duck, it no longer dies instantly. Instead, the predator deals damage over time while holding the duck:

This gives you a window to click-scare the predator and save the duck! Rescued ducks survive with their remaining HP but become injured:

• Injured ducks move at 50% speed and pulse visually
• An HP bar appears above injured ducks
• Petting heals +25 HP per pet
• Passive regen: 1 HP/s naturally, +2 HP/s when near a feed pile
• When fully healed, the injured status clears

Gender

Ducks are born male (Drakes) or female (Hens) with equal probability. Drakes have distinctive green heads with a white collar ring and a curled tail feather. Hens have warm brown mottled plumage. Breeding requires one of each — unless a duck has discovered science (see Traits).

Personality

Each duck is born with one of five innate personalities that shape its behavior for life — including what they like to explore:

The Six Stats

Every duck (and every creature on the farm) has six core stats inspired by classic RPG attributes. Stats grow through experience — surviving predators, making friends, learning from frogs, and more.

Stats grow with diminishing returns at higher levels. A duck who survives many predator attacks will develop impressive Grit and Instinct; one who is frequently petted and breeds often will have high Charm.

Relationships

Ducks form relationships with each other on a scale from -10 (bitter rivals) to +30 (inseparable best friends). Relationships develop naturally as ducks spend time near each other, share experiences, and survive hardships together.

Toggle relationship lines on the map with the Lines ON/OFF button to visualize your flock's social web. Relationships grow from proximity, shared unit membership (+0.3/s), shared trauma (+3 per event), breeding (+10), and knowledge sharing (+5).

Exploration

Ducks don't just wander randomly — they have internal motivation to explore interesting things on the farm. When a duck decides to explore, a gold ? appears above its head as it sets off toward its destination.

What a duck is drawn to depends on its personality (see the table above). Friendly ducks gravitate toward the farm dog and sheep, loners seek out distant corners away from the crowd, dramatic ducks are drawn to flowers, and greedy ducks make a beeline for hay bales.

A duck's Wit stat influences both how often it explores (~17–35% of movement decisions) and how far it can see interesting targets (4–9 tiles). The remaining time is spent in the normal routine of wandering, swimming, and idling — so ducks still naturally regroup into units between explorations.

Memories

Every significant event in a duck's life is recorded as a memory. Memories are the building blocks of growth — accumulate enough of the right kind, and your duck will develop powerful traits (see next chapter). Ducks can hold up to 20 memories.

Memory types include: surviving predators, losing friends, unit victories, breeding, growing up, being petted, being fed, learning from frogs, finding remains, avenging friends, building things, and more.

Experience Tiers

Knowledge Sharing

When two adult ducks spend time near each other (within 3 tiles), there's a chance the more experienced duck will teach the other. Ducks can share memories of predator survival and unit victories. Both ducks gain +5 to their relationship from the exchange. A duck's Wit stat determines how effective it is as a teacher.

A Duck's Whole Life

Ducks are not permanent. Each is born with a lifespan of roughly 44 to 60 days, goes grey in its last eight, spends that time teaching the young, and then walks out to the reeds on a spring or summer dawn. Nothing kills it; it simply finishes. What it passes on — stats, temperament, feather colour, and two genes you cannot see — is the subject of Chapter XVI: Bloodlines, Elders & the Long Walk.

Abilities & Traits

Abilities

Every adult duck is born with (or grows into) one innate ability that defines its role on the farm. Baby ducks receive their ability when they mature.

The Laser Ability

The rarest and most powerful ability. Laser ducks charge for 1.5 seconds, then fire a devastating beam that destroys any predator instantly. They can also damage the Pond Shark (3 hits to kill).

After friendly fire incidents, the laser duck suffers massive guilt: happiness drops, cooldown extends dramatically, and witnesses lose trust. Repeated incidents can lead to the haunted trait.

Traits

Traits are earned through accumulated life experience. Unlike abilities (which are innate), traits are unlocked when a duck has gathered enough specific memories. Traits permanently modify a duck's behaviour.

Breeding & Growth

Breeding Requirements

Two ducks will breed when all of these conditions are met:

• Both are adults (not babies)
• Both have happiness above 60
• Both have hunger below 50
• They are within 1.5 tiles of each other
• Neither is standing in water
• Both have finished their breed cooldown
• They are opposite genders — or one has the Scientist trait
• Breeding is not globally paused (toggle in Controls)

When breeding occurs, a baby duck appears at the midpoint between the parents. Both parents gain a 90–150 second cooldown before they can breed again, and their relationship increases by +10.

Baby Ducks

Babies start at roughly half the size of an adult and grow over about 60 seconds. During this time they are vulnerable — they have no ability and no hat. They eat from feed piles at a reduced rate.

When a baby matures into an adult:

• They receive a random ability (with a 2% chance of the legendary Laser ability)
• They have a 60% chance of receiving a stylish hat
• A triumphant jingle plays
• A "Grew Up" memory is recorded

That is birth. What a duckling inherits from its parents — stats, temperament, feather colour, and two genes you cannot see — is a longer story, told in Chapter XVI: Bloodlines, Elders & the Long Walk.

Farm Animals

Predators & Threats

Land & Sky Predators

Predators spawn from the edges of the map at increasing rates as days progress. Each type requires a certain level of duck unit power to repel. When a predator grabs a duck, it deals damage over time rather than killing instantly — giving you a chance to click-scare the predator and save the duck (see Duck HP above).

Alpha Predators

Any predator has a 10% chance of spawning as an Alpha variant — larger, tougher, and requiring more ducks to repel. Alpha predators gain +3 grit, +2 pluck, +1 to their unit requirement, and 1.5× HP.

Predator Scaling

Predators grow stronger over time. Each predator gains +0.1 to all stats for each day that has passed since the game began, up to a +5 bonus. Spawn intervals also decrease as days progress, meaning attacks become more frequent.

The Pond Shark

The shark cycles through five phases:

1. Deep — Invisible. Waiting. You can't see or interact with it.
2. Lurking — A dark shadow and faint fin tip appear. Ripples spread. It's scanning for prey.
3. Surfacing — The fin breaks the water and charges toward a target. A wake of foam trails behind.
4. Attacking — Feeding frenzy. Deals massive damage to all ducks swimming nearby and can drag in ducks standing on the shore. Ducks with enough HP may survive. Kills frogs too. The water turns red with blood.
5. Retreating — Sinks back into the deep.

Defences against the shark:

• Click the shark when surfaced to scare it into retreat (no damage dealt)
• A laser duck can hit the shark for 1 damage per shot (3 shots to kill)
• Keep ducks away from the water when you see the shadow

The Velociraptor Pack

Raptors cannot be scared, clicked, damaged, or stopped by any means. They hunt independently, targeting adult ducks on land. Each raptor can kill multiple ducks depending on your flock size.

There are two variants:

Combat & Defence

Duck Units

When 3 or more adult ducks cluster within 3 tiles of each other on land, they automatically form a unit. Units are your primary defence against predators.

Unit Properties

• Power: Sum of all members' unit power values (capped at 10). Guardian ducks count as 2, Brave ducks add +0.5.
• HP: 100 max. Regenerates at +5 HP/s when not in combat. Near a feed pile: +5 HP/s bonus. Tight formation: +3 HP/s bonus.
• Name: Named after the strongest or leader duck, plus a suffix (Squad, Guard, Flock, Brigade, Patrol, Force).
• Battle XP: Each victory adds +0.5 power bonus to that unit name, up to +3. Experience carries across fights.
• Fatigue: After combat, the unit is fatigued for 15–20 seconds, halving effective power. Rest before the next fight!

Unit vs. Predator Combat

When a predator enters a unit's zone, HP-drain combat begins:

• If effective power ≥ predator's unit requirement: combat engages
• Unit deals: combatPower × 2 damage per second to the predator
• Predator deals: unitNeeded × 1.5 damage per second to the unit
• If the farm dog is within 4 tiles: +2 power bonus to the unit
• Predator HP reaches 0: it explodes in a shower of coins and remains
• Unit HP reaches 0: the unit scatters and all ducks flee

Vengeful Duck Packs

When 2 or more ducks with the vengeful or legendary trait gather near a predator (within 3 tiles), they form an impromptu revenge pack. If their combined power meets the requirement, they deal power × 3 damage per second. On a kill, they earn the "Avenged Friend" memory.

Sheep Combat

Sheep are surprisingly fierce fighters. When a sheep detects a fox or wolf within 5 tiles, it charges with a battle cry and unleashes kung-fu kicks.

Laser Ducks vs. Pond Shark

Laser ducks are the only way to permanently kill the Pond Shark. Each laser hit deals 1 damage (shark has 3 HP). After dying, the shark respawns after 15–25 minutes. Laser ducks target the shark at 8-tile range (further than their 6-tile range for land predators).

Economy & Resources

Coins

You start with $20 (default). Earn more by selling eggs and wool, or by having your duck units destroy predators.

Shop

Shop buttons are greyed out when you can't afford the item.

Upgrades

Upgrades are permanent improvements to the farm itself, bought in levels. Each level costs more than the last, and two of them are paid for in bones rather than coins.

Feed

Feed is your most critical resource. Without it, ducks go hungry, their happiness drops, and they stop laying eggs or breeding.

• Starting stock: 50 feed by default (currently tuned to 160) + 4 starter feed piles (50 each, one per quadrant)
• Daily income: +25 feed per day by default (currently tuned to +75)
• Buy feed: $5 for 20 feed
• Wise duck hay gathering: +5 feed per hay tile interaction

Scatter Feed (Feed Tool)

Click anywhere on the map to scatter 3 feed. Creates small piles that ducks rush toward. Great for luring ducks to safety or drawing them together to form units. Scatter piles feel 30% closer to hungry ducks, making them attractive.

Feed Piles (Build Mode)

Place permanent feed stations using Build Mode (key 7) for 5–25 feed per click, or use the Add Feed Pile button for a full 75-feed pile in one action. Maximum 10 piles on the map, each holding up to 75 feed. Right-click to pick up a pile and reclaim the remaining feed.

Eggs

Adult ducks with happiness above 30 and hunger below 80 lay eggs every 200–400 seconds (~3–7 minutes). Greedy ducks lay 30% faster. Use the Collect tool (C) to gather eggs within range, then sell them for $3 each.

Wool

Sheep produce wool every 120 seconds (timid sheep: every 96 seconds). Collect it with the Collect tool and sell for $3 each.

Bones

When predators are destroyed, they leave behind collectible bones on the ground. Gather them with the Collect tool (C). Bones are used exclusively for constructing Bone Houses (15 bones each). Tougher predators drop more bones:

Build Mode

Enter Build Mode from the Controls section of the bottom bar. A palette of tile types appears. Select a tile with keys 1–7 (standard) or 8/9/0 (bone houses) or by clicking the palette buttons (hover for descriptions). Click or click-and-drag to paint tiles. Press Escape to exit.

You cannot build on the map border (the outer two rows/columns). The border fence is permanent.

The Add Feed Pile Button

For quick feed pile placement without entering Build Mode, use the 🌾 Add Feed Pile button in the Controls section. This costs 75 feed and places a completely full pile with a single click on the map. Press Escape to cancel placement.

Bone Houses

When predators fall in battle, they leave behind bones — small collectible fragments scattered on the ground. Gather them with the Collect tool (C), and once you have 15 bones, you can construct one of three powerful Bone Houses in Build Mode.

Collecting Bones

Bones appear as small white bone shapes on the ground after any predator death — whether destroyed by duck units, sheep combat, laser ducks, or the pond shark's defeat. Tougher predators drop more bones. Use the Collect tool to pick them up, just like eggs and wool. Your bone count is displayed in the top scorecard (🦴).

Building Bone Houses

Enter Build Mode and select a bone house type with keys 8, 9, or 0. Each costs 15 bones to place. You can have a maximum of 3 bone houses on the map at any time. Bone houses cannot be placed on water or fence tiles.

The build preview turns red if you can't afford the house or have reached the maximum.

The Three Bone Houses

Strategic Tips

• Bone Shelters are best placed near vulnerable areas — map edges where predators enter, or near ponds where ducks swim.
• Bone Dojos work well near resting areas where ducks idle. Over time, even average ducks become stat powerhouses.
• Bone Nests pair perfectly with flower patches — the happiness boost from flowers keeps breeding conditions met, and the nest accelerates the cooldown.
• You can mix and match — with 3 houses max, choose based on your farm's needs. One of each is a balanced approach.
• Bones are a finite resource (they only drop from kills), so plan your placements carefully!

The Wheel of the Year

A day on the farm lasts about five real minutes. Four days make a season, four seasons make a year — so a full turn of the wheel is sixteen days, or roughly eighty minutes of play. The season is read straight off the day counter in the scorecard, and the glyph beside it tells you where you are.

Day & Night

Every day passes through five phases — dawn, morning, afternoon, evening, night — shown by the icon in the scorecard. Night is not decoration:

• Your ducks sleep, gathering where it's warm.
• Foxes and wolves hunt more often. Their eyes glow in the dark before you can see the rest of them — learn to spot that.
• Hawks rest. The sky is the one safe direction at night.
• Fireflies drift over the grass and the stars come out. It is genuinely lovely, which is the point.

Weather

Rain makes ducks happier — they are ducks — everywhere except winter, where the same weather falls as snow and cheers nobody. Fog cuts how far anyone can see, which cuts both ways: your dog spots trouble later, but so does the fox.

Winter, and the Cold That Counts

Each duck carries a chill value you can watch in its panel. Chill builds only at night, only in winter, and only when a duck is not somewhere warm. Two things make it build faster:

• A duck whose hunger is high freezes half again as fast. Starving is freezing.
• Ducklings chill faster than adults.

Warmth pushes it back down, and sleeping somewhere warm pushes it down further. Daylight helps. And when spring or summer comes, chill drains away fast — the farm forgives quickly once the sun returns.

The Long Dark

The last two days of winter are the Long Dark. The ponds freeze over — your ducks will walk across them, and whatever lives underneath sleeps through it. This is when cold stops being an inconvenience.

Staying Warm

Warmth comes from shelter, from the Cozy Nests upgrade, from a treat thrown to a shivering duck — and, on the two nights that matter most, from the lanterns you lit at the festival. See Chapter XV.

Henry's Choice

Once each winter, the farm asks you a question it will not explain. It happens on its own, it happens once, and both answers are answers. The journal has a chapter about it. That is all you get in a guide.

The Visitors

🦢 The Geese

On the first day of autumn a ragged V drops out of the grey and a flock of geese lands on your pond. They stay the whole season and leave on the first day of winter. Wilbur leads the very first flock you ever meet; after that the roster changes year to year, and geese who liked you come back.

• Feed them treats and they warm to you. Each goose tracks a bond with you and separate bonds with individual ducks.
• They help. A bonded goose will honk at a predator, and a honking goose is worth having.
• They bring things. Geese leave gifts for a farm that treated them well.
• One might stay. Rarely, and only if you earned it, a goose decides not to go south. A resident goose then faces winter with the rest of your flock — and winter does not make exceptions for guests.

🐸 Frogs, and Where Frogs Come From

The old frogs on the lily pads dispense wisdom, as they always have. What is newer is that they raise their own young, in front of you, and that it can go wrong.

A clutch of tadpoles appears in the shallows in spring — small commas of shadow, wriggling. Getting them to adulthood is a gauntlet:

• Crows dive on them. This is the main way a clutch is lost, and you can chase the crow off.
• A cold snap comes at an unpredictable point each year. Well-fed tadpoles sleep through it. Thin ones may not.
• Feeding the shallows — crumbling a treat into the water — is what makes them well-fed.

Survive all that and a tadpole climbs out wearing a frog's face, takes a name from the pond's own lineage, and joins the elders on the pads. Frogs raised on your farm carry a phrase that is theirs.

Dragonflies & Chickadees

Neither does anything. They are alive, they are seasonal, and the farm is better for having them in it.

Festivals of the Year

Four days a year, the farm throws a party. A banner appears in the scorecard and you can join or ignore it — nothing is forced on you, and a festival you skip is simply a quiet day.

🥚 The Egg Hunt

Eggs are scattered on walkable ground across the whole farm. Go and get them. It is the gentlest of the four and it is meant to be — spring is a kind season.

🏁 The Great Duck Race

A field of your own ducks lines up. You pick one to back and choose a wager. The race is not random: a duck's speed depends on its own stats, so the flock you raised is the flock that runs. Watch which of your ducks actually has legs — you will start noticing it in ordinary play afterwards.

🦢 The Send-Off Gauntlet

Played on the last day of autumn, the evening before the geese leave. You throw treats; the geese catch them. Every catch converts the season's goodwill into something that survives their departure. There is a cap on the purse — the Gauntlet is a send-off, not a coin press.

🏮 Lantern Night

Six lanterns stand at fixed places around the farm. Light them.

This is the one festival with consequences that outlive the day. A lit lantern becomes a genuine source of warmth during the Long Dark two days later — a small gold circle on the snow that ducks can sleep inside while the cold works on everyone outside it. Which lanterns you lit, and how many, is remembered.

Bloodlines, Elders & the Long Walk

A Duck's Life

Ducks do not live forever. Each is born with a lifespan of roughly 44 to 60 days — three to four in-game years — and passes through three stages:

What a Duckling Inherits

A duckling born to two recorded parents is not rolled from nothing. It takes:

• Stats — blended from both parents, plus a small roll of its own. Strong parents tend to make strong children. Tend to.
• A personality lean — weighted toward its parents' personalities, not copied from them.
• Feather colour — a tint mixed from both, so a family looks like a family on the grass.
• A line name — the family it belongs to, which persists after the founders are gone.

Hidden Genes

Two traits ride along invisibly, carried by ducks that never show them:

• legendary — carried by roughly one duck in eight. When both parents carry it, there is a real chance the duckling is born legendary rather than having to earn it across a whole hard life. A born legend keeps the crown no matter what its memories say later.
• snowfeather — a pale, striking coat carried by about one in seven. Cosmetic, rare, and quietly satisfying to breed for.

Kin

Ducks from the same line will not pair with each other. You do not have to police it; the flock declines on its own.

Elders & Mentors

Eight days before the end, a duck goes grey. The activity log will tell you. What an elder does with those days matters:

• A duckling standing near an elder learns from it, repeatedly, as long as it stays close. This is real growth, not flavour.
• Elders speak differently. What they say carries things that happened before the listener was hatched — inherited wisdom, pulled from the family record.

The Long Walk

When an elder's time comes, it does not fall over. On a spring or summer dawn — never in the dark, never in the cold — it separates from the flock and walks, slowly, out to the reeds at the edge of the farm. Nothing can touch it on the way: not a fox, not a hawk, not the thing in the pond. It simply goes.

There are no remains. It does not count among your ducks lost. The name stays in the book with the day it left beside it.

The Lineage Panel

Open any duck and you can read its family: parents, grandparents, and its line. A dagger (†) beside a name means that duck has died or departed. The farm keeps its record generously — hundreds of names — so the ancestry of a duck born in year four is still there to read.

The Farmer's Journal

The journal is the farm's own record, and it writes itself as you play. It has eighteen chapters. Each has three goals; finish all three and the chapter closes, the farmer writes his entry, and you collect the reward — coins, bones, and for eight of them, a hat your ducks can wear.

Chapters unlock in order, so the journal doubles as the closest thing this game has to a campaign. Open it from the book button.

Hats

Hats cost 15 coins each at the duck panel, in whatever colour you pick. Every duck can wear one — except a legendary duck, which wears its crown and will not be talked out of it.

Special Events & Legends

✨ The Legendary Super Duck

The rarest achievement in DuckSmith^™. A duck that accumulates enough varied memories across all aspects of farm life — survival, combat, love, loss, learning, and the farmer's touch — becomes Legendary.

• Golden crown replaces any hat
• Glowing golden aura
• 1.5× size and 1.5× speed
• Cannot flee from predators
• Minimum +3 unit power
• Halved hunger and happiness decay
• Unique wise phrases
• A triumphant fanfare plays

🧛 The Carnivore Transformation

When a hungry duck eats predator remains, it begins a dark transformation:

1. First taste (Omnivore): A slight red tint appears. Small fangs emerge. The duck has tasted meat.
2. Third taste (Carnivore): Full goth transformation — dark body, glowing red eyes, dark particle wisps, prominent fangs. The duck is faster (+0.2 speed), gets hungry slower (0.7× rate), and can never flee.

🔬 The Scientist Duck

A duck who learns from frogs 5 times and has a "Grew Up" memory develops the scientist trait. These bespectacled intellectuals break the rules of nature: they can breed with ducks of the same gender. The activity log records these events as "Science!"

🥀 Wise Duck Builders

Ducks with the wise trait and 10+ memories will occasionally build things on their own — planting flowers to brighten the farm, constructing fences for defence, or gathering hay for feed. They become autonomous farm hands.

💥 Laser Friendly Fire

The laser ability is powerful but dangerous. Ducks caught in the beam's path are vaporized. High-Wit laser ducks (Wit ≥ 5) will check for friendlies before firing and hold their shot if allies are in the way. After friendly fire, the shooter suffers guilt, and witnesses lose trust in them. Repeated incidents lead to the careful and eventually haunted traits.

🌊 Blood Water

After a shark attack, the pond water turns crimson for 15 seconds. Carnivore ducks swimming in bloody water can slowly nourish themselves, reducing their hunger. A grim detail of the circle of life in Featherhollow.

💀 Remains Discovery

When ducks encounter the remains of fallen friends, they react based on personality: friends mourn deeply, cautious ducks flee, and courageous ducks approach with determination. Finding remains grants a "Found Remains" memory. Starving ducks (hunger > 70) may eat duck remains in desperation, losing happiness and the respect of witnesses.

Farmer's Wisdom

Defence Strategy

• Build water channels near the map edges. Ground predators won't cross water, creating natural barriers. Hawks still fly over, though.
• Place fences to funnel predators into chokepoints where your duck units wait.
• Keep 3+ ducks together at all times to maintain active units. A lone duck is a dead duck.
• Use scatter feed to lure ducks together quickly when a predator approaches.
• Position feed piles near unit clusters — units near feed piles regenerate HP faster.
• Buy sheep early — they're excellent against foxes and wolves, and provide wool income.

Economy Tips

• Greedy ducks are your economy engines — they lay eggs 30% faster (but eat twice as much).
• Sell eggs and wool regularly to fund duck purchases. More ducks = stronger units = more predator bounties.
• Predator bounties become your main income as your units grow stronger. Bears are worth $20 each.
• Invest in hay bales and wise ducks for a renewable feed source.

Duck Development

• Pet your ducks! It's not just cute — it builds toward the loved and popular traits, and sets them talking.
• Let ducks swim near frogs to learn wisdom. The wise and scientist traits are incredibly valuable.
• Don't separate friends. Ducks in strong relationships fight better together in units.
• Let baby ducks near frogs immediately after they're born — they can start accumulating "Learned from Friend" memories as soon as they mature.
• Protect your veterans. A duck with 15+ memories is wise, may auto-build, and is on the path to becoming legendary.
• Plant flowers near feed piles and paths. The happiness boost helps offset hunger stress, and ducks with high Charm get even more benefit. Watch for the *sniff* text!
• Watch the ? above your ducks. It means they're exploring something interesting. Each personality seeks different things — if your loner ducks keep wandering to the corners, that's by design.

Dealing with Threats

• Click predators to scare them as a last resort — it buys time but doesn't kill them.
• Watch the unit repel streak. At 10 consecutive repels/kills (by units, dog, or sheep), raptors come. Have ducks near water before this happens.
• Keep ducks out of the water when you notice the shark's shadow lurking. One attack can devastate a large flock.
• Laser ducks are priceless — they're the only way to kill the shark permanently. Protect them at all costs.
• Don't cluster all ducks together. If raptors come and everyone is on land, you'll lose many. Keep some near ponds.

Bone House Placement

• Place a Bone Shelter near map edges or predator entry points to protect isolated ducks from grabs.
• Place a Bone Dojo near idle zones — ducks standing around benefit from passive stat growth over time.
• Place a Bone Nest near flower patches and feed piles to maximise breeding efficiency. Happy, fed ducks + fast cooldowns = rapid flock growth.
• Save your bones until you have a clear strategy. You can only have 3 houses, so every placement counts.

Advanced Tactics

• Leader ducks extend unit formation radius, allowing looser groupings. Place one in the centre of your main defensive position.
• Guardian ducks count as 2 in units — even a small group with a Guardian can repel foxes.
• Speedster ducks can dodge predator grabs. They make excellent scouts on the farm perimeter.
• Position sheep near where foxes and wolves enter. Their kung-fu kicks can handle these predators independently.
• Use crows strategically — despite their feed theft, their early warning gives your ducks time to form up. Don't shoo all the crows away.
• Vengeful ducks form revenge packs that deal 3× damage. Pair them together near predator entry points.