About Flock Run
Flock Run is a free 3D crowd runner set on Hollybrook Farm. A fox gang has scattered the farm's flock, and Mother Hen sets off down the farm roads to bring the chicks home. Steer her left and right, and the whole flock follows: run through the right gates and it grows, run into trouble and it shrinks.
Every road ends at a henhouse, and every chick that gets there pays the farm in corn. Eggs lie on the riskier lines of the road; only Mother Hen can pick them up, and they hatch in the coop into new breeds of chicken that join your starting flock.
Advanced Guide to Flock Run
- Steer: drag left and right anywhere on a touch screen, or use A and D or the arrow keys on a keyboard. You can also click and drag with a mouse.
- Gates: green gates add chicks (+) or multiply your Peeps (×). Red gates subtract (−) or divide (÷). The gate Mother Hen runs through is the one the whole flock takes.
- Huddle: hold Space or Shift, the Huddle button, or put a second finger down to pack the flock tight. A huddled flock is narrower and a little slower.
- Hazards: mud slows the flock and swallows chicks; a fox den at the edge of the road grabs chicks from the edge of the flock until you are past it.
- Eggs: steer Mother Hen onto an egg to pick it up. It goes to the Hatchery when the road is finished and hatches after two more finished roads, or straight away for corn.
- Difficulty: Easy, Medium or Hard, picked on the title or the farm map. Each step up runs faster and puts more foxes on the road, and each difficulty has its own leaderboard.
- Stars: each road gives a star for getting home, one for bringing home at least the road's par count, and one for collecting its egg.
The Breeds: Your Characters Are the Upgrades
Most crowd runners treat the crowd as a number. In Flock Run the chickens themselves are the upgrade. Plain Peeps arrive through gates, but the eggs you find on the dangerous lines of a road hatch in the coop into Armored Hens, Roosters and Bantams, and you choose which of them start each run with you. An Armored Hen takes one hit for the flock. A Rooster smashes fences and crates, and hits Old Rusty hardest. A Bantam makes the whole flock steer faster. Because the gates only multiply Peeps, a small flock with the right breeds can be stronger than a much bigger flock of plain chicks, and you can see the mix in the crowd itself: each breed shows its own comb, plate or tail.
Roads, Hazards and the Fox Bosses
Chapter 1 takes place in Clover Hollow and has eight roads. Each one introduces a single new idea: the first gates, multiplying gates, red gates that take chicks away, mud, fox dens, the first egg, a push mower crossing the road, a Rooster smashing a fence, a fork in the road with a greedy side and a safe side, a pack of foxes chasing the flock, and a creek bridge with missing planks. A tip appears the first time you meet each one, so you are never left guessing. At the end of the last road the flock reaches Rusty's Barn, and Old Rusty, a giant fox, steps out. You huddle into one lane, dodge his paw when its shadow appears and ram his head when he pants. The flock you bring to the barn is the flock you fight with, so the choices you made on the road decide the boss fight. After Clover Hollow come four more chapters of 24 roads each, and each one ends with a new fox boss with its own attack: Silt's tail sweeps two lanes at once, Pippin Snatch drops apples in round shadows, Gale strikes a lane with lightning while her wind drags the flock toward it, and the Fox King uses all of them.
Your Coop and the Farm Score
Every chick that reaches the henhouse pays the farm in corn, and the corn rebuilds the coop. The coop is a small diorama that visibly grows as you buy nest boxes, a wider door, heat lamps, a feed trough, fence sections and a weathervane. Each road scores points for chicks brought home, eggs picked up and a clean run, and your Farm Score is the best score from every road added together. It only goes up when you replay a road and beat it, which makes it a fair number to compare on the leaderboard below. Replaying is also how you pick up the stars you missed: one for getting home, one for bringing home the road's par count of chicks and one for collecting the road's egg or running it without a loss.
Tips for a Bigger Flock
- Read both gates. Each pair has a greedy line and a safe line. The greedy one is worth more but usually sits next to a hazard.
- Protect the breeds. Take a minus gate on the side where it removes Peeps rather than your Roosters and Armored Hens.
- Huddle early. Packing the flock before a mower or a den costs a little speed and saves a lot of chicks.
- Steer the hen to the egg. Only Mother Hen picks up eggs, so a bold line to the egg can be worth more than a gate.
- Hatch with a plan. Spend corn on Hatchery Lamps and Nest Boxes early so more breeds are ready for the barn.
Frequently Asked Questions
What do the different breeds of chicken do?
Peeps are plain chicks that join through gates. An Armored Hen wears a tin plate that absorbs one hit, so the plate pops off and she stays in the flock. A Rooster smashes fences and crates when at least one Rooster per ten chicks is at the front of the flock, so nothing is lost on the obstacle, and he hits Old Rusty hardest. A Bantam is small and quick: every Bantam makes the whole flock steer a little faster, up to a limit.
Why do the x gates not multiply my breeds?
A x gate multiplies Peeps only. Armored Hens, Roosters and Bantams are never multiplied, which keeps them precious. A minus gate takes Peeps first and only then breed members, and a divide gate halves your Peeps. This is why a small flock with the right breeds can beat a bigger flock of plain Peeps.
How do eggs and the Hatchery work?
Eggs sit on the riskier lines of a road and only Mother Hen can pick them up. They go into the Hatchery when you finish the road, and an egg is lost if you fail it. A Speckled Egg hatches into an Armored Hen, a Red Egg into a Rooster and a Little Egg into a Bantam. An egg hatches after two more finished roads, or straight away for corn, and the Hatchery Lamps upgrade shortens the wait.
How is the Farm Score worked out and what does the leaderboard show?
Each road scores 10 points per Peep brought home, 15 per breed member, 50 per egg picked up, plus bonuses for reaching the road's par count and for losing no chick to a hazard. Your Farm Score is the best score from every road and the boss added together, so it only goes up when you replay a road and beat it. That number is what the leaderboard ranks.
What is Huddle and when should I use it?
Huddle packs the flock into a narrow, slightly slower bunch. Use it to slip through the gap behind a push mower, to squeeze past a fox den with fewer chicks on the edge, and in Old Rusty's yard, where a huddled flock fits in a single lane out of reach of his paw. Hold Space or Shift, press the Huddle button, put a second finger down or hold the right mouse button.
What do I spend corn on?
Corn comes from chicks brought home: one for a Peep, two for a breed member. You spend it in the coop on six upgrades: Nest Boxes for more roster places, the Coop Door for more starting places, Hatchery Lamps for faster hatching, the Feed Trough for free Peeps at the start line, the Fenced Run for more corn per chick and the Weathervane, which shows each road's Golden Egg line. Every upgrade also appears on the coop in the farmyard.
How many levels are there, and does the game save?
There are 109 levels in five chapters. Chapter 1, Clover Hollow, has eight roads that each teach a new hazard or gate type, then the fight with Old Rusty at his barn. Mill Creek, Orchard Ridge, Storm Fields and Save the Farm each add 24 roads that get busier as you go and a boss of their own: Silt the River Fox, Pippin Snatch, Gale the Storm Fox and finally the Fox King. Every road and boss has three stars, and each chapter has its own rank from Fledgling to Hen, Rooster and Golden Egg. The game saves at the end of every road and every purchase, so Continue brings back your farm. A road you leave halfway is not saved.
Are there difficulty levels, and is Old Rusty easier on Easy?
Yes. Pick Easy, Medium or Hard on the title screen or above Play this road on the farm map. Easy runs slower, keeps fewer fox dens, slows the push mowers and gives Old Rusty less health and a longer paw wind-up. Medium keeps the roads as they were made. Hard runs faster, adds fox dens to every road and a mud patch to most, sends a bigger fox pack on the chase and gives Rusty more health, and every chick brought home pays 25% more corn. On every difficulty one swipe of Rusty's paw takes only some of the chicks under it, so he can never end the fight in a single blow while Mother Hen still has a flock. Each difficulty keeps its own road bests and its own leaderboard board; stars and corn are shared by the whole farm.
How do I play Flock Run on a phone or tablet?
Drag anywhere on the screen to steer, and use the Huddle button or a second finger to pack the flock. The game picks a lighter graphics setting on phones and tablets so it stays smooth, and on a keyboard A and D or the arrow keys steer instead.
How is Flock Run different from other crowd runners?
In most crowd runners the crowd is just a number. Here the chickens are the upgrade: eggs hatch into breeds that change the maths of every gate and hazard, the coop grows as you play, and each region ends with a boss fight against a fox. Compare it with the lane running of
Tiki Dash, where one character changes lanes rather than steering a whole flock.
