The Pond: player guide

What The Pond is #

The Pond is a pixel browser game for people who hold a HashDuck. Your duck is your ticket: no duck in the wallet, no entry.

HashDucks are a proof-of-work NFT collection on Robinhood Chain. Every duck was mined by solving a hash, and its pixel art is stored on chain. In The Pond, the duck you hold walks around a little pond country, dives for Pearls, takes lessons to climb in rank, plays daily games and follows a story told by the Elder.

• Play it at hashducks.fun/play.
• Holders only. The game checks which ducks your wallet holds before it lets you in.
• Progress lives on the duck. Rank, stars, Pearls, worn gear, name and duckling belong to the duck, so they go with it if it changes hands.
• Seed lives on the wallet. Seed you buy stays with the wallet that bought it.
• The server decides. Every dive, lesson and roll is decided on the game server, never in your browser.

Signing in #

1. Open hashducks.fun/play. On a phone, open it inside your wallet app's browser (for example MetaMask, Rabby or Coinbase Wallet). On a computer, use a browser with a wallet extension.
2. Press CONNECT WALLET. Your wallet asks you to share your address.
3. Your wallet then asks you to sign a short message ("HashDucks: The Pond, Sign in as ..."). Signing is free: it is not a transaction and sends nothing on chain. It only proves the wallet is yours.
4. You stay signed in on that browser for up to 30 days. SWITCH WALLET on the title screen signs you out.

Signing in works on any network. Your wallet only needs to be on Robinhood Chain (chain id 4663) when you buy Seed; the Seed Shop asks your wallet to switch, and to add the network if it does not know it yet.

Choosing a duck #

If your wallet holds one duck, you go straight into the pond. If it holds more, you get CHOOSE YOUR DUCK: six ducks per page, with a card for the one under your pointer showing its Rank, Stars, Grit, Power, Deep and Abyss fail chances, and Pearls. A duck out on a dive is marked DIVING.

• Click a duck or press PLAY. With a keyboard: A/D or arrow keys to move, Enter to pick, Esc to go back.
• Switch ducks any time with the DUCKS button at the top right of the pond.
• Each duck has its own Pearls, meals, jobs, free Lily Hop run and dive. Your Seed is shared by every duck in the wallet.
• Your other ducks swim around the pond too, next to ducks from other holders.

Controls #

When you stand near a place, its name appears with a bouncing arrow, and a prompt at the bottom says what E will do. Sound starts on your first click or key press.

The bar across the top #

In the pond you also see the jobs panel (JOBS and STORY tabs) on the left, a gold event chip under the top buttons while an event is running (click it for the Event Board), and the mini map at the bottom right. Big numbers are shortened: 12.5K means 12,500.

Tier #

Every duck has a tier, fixed when it was mined. From rarest: Genesis (duck #1 only), Mythic, Legendary, Epic, Rare, Uncommon, Common. In the game, Genesis plays as a Mythic. Tier sets three things:

Fail chances here are before Grit, stars, gear, duckling and events take points off. See Dive Depths.

Grit #

Grit is a number from 10 to 100, read from a part of your duck's seed that nothing else uses. It has nothing to do with the duck's looks or tier, and it never changes. You can see it on the CHOOSE YOUR DUCK card.

• Fewer failed dives. Grit takes Grit / 25 percentage points off deep and abyss fail chances. Grit 50 takes 2 points off, Grit 100 takes 4.
• Keeps your rank. When an abyss dive fails, your duck keeps its rank with a chance equal to its Grit: Grit 70 holds 70% of the time.
• Breaks ties in the Standoff. A lane where both sides put the same power goes to the duck with more Grit.

Rank #

Every duck starts at rank 1. Rank sets how many Pearls a dive pays (its day rate, see Dive Depths) and what a lesson costs.

• Rank goes up or down through lessons.
• A failed abyss dive can cost one rank, unless Grit holds. Rank never goes below 1.
• A new season puts every duck back to rank 1. See the season ladder.

Stars and power #

Stars are forged at the Shell Forge, up to 5. They stay with the duck through seasons and sales. Each star gives +10% dive Pearls and takes 1 point off deep and abyss fail chances. Stars 2 and 4 also add +1 power.

Power is what your duck splits across three lanes in The Standoff:

power = 12 + tier bonus + 1 (at 2 stars) + 1 (at 4 stars) + duckling bonus

So a Common with no stars has 12 power, and a Mythic with 4 stars has 17. A BRAVE duckling adds 1 (2 for a mutant).

Gear, wake and name #

Gear

A duck wears one piece of gear at a time. Worn gear stays on the duck (and goes with it if it is sold). Spare gear waits in your bag.

Wake

The wake is the coloured trail your duck leaves when it swims. It is only a look. Wakes you own are kept in the bag and any of your ducks can wear one. Gold Wake (200 Seed) and Rose Wake (300 Seed) are in the Seed Shop, the Violet Wake only comes from the Clam Stall, and the green Reed Wake is a story reward that cannot be bought.

Name

A Name Tag (200 Seed) names the duck you are playing: 2 to 12 capital letters, digits or spaces. The name shows in the pond, on the ladder and to other players, and stays with the duck.

Duckling #

A duck can have one duckling, hatched at the Hatchery. It waddles behind your duck in the pond and gives one trait:

If a duck changes hands #

The server follows the collection on chain. Before any action it checks that the wallet still holds that duck. When a duck is sold or sent, these go with it to the new holder:

• Rank, best rank, stars, Pearls and this season's ladder Pearls
• Worn gear, chosen wake colour, name and duckling
• Meals, rest and daily jobs for the day

These stay with your wallet: Seed, the bag (spare gear and owned wakes), story progress and the title you earned in story mode.

Pearls #

Pearls are earned in the pond, and each duck keeps its own.

Where Pearls come from

• Dives and Lily Hop (these also count on the season ladder)
• Daily jobs and the daily chest, story chapters, pond goal chests, and clams (spendable only, never on the ladder)

What Pearls pay for

• Lessons, and strikes at the Shell Forge

Spending Pearls never lowers your ladder score: the ladder counts what your duck brought back this season, not what it holds now. Pearls cannot be bought, sold or cashed.

Seed #

Seed is what the pond runs on. It is bought in the Seed Shop and belongs to your wallet.

Seed pays for meals, lesson fees, Lily Hop replays, shop items, and the games that open later (Standoff stakes, Tide Runner stakes, clams, forge strikes, charms and eggs).

• Seed is not a token. It is a balance kept by the game server.
• Seed cannot be sold, sent or cashed. It only pays for things in The Pond.
• Buying Seed is the only way money enters the game.

How Seed is bought #

Seed packs are sold by the Seed Shop contract on Robinhood Chain and paid in ETH. The shop shows three packs: 100 Seed, 550 Seed (marked +10%) and 1,200 Seed (marked +20%). Each pack's ETH price is read live from the contract; the team can adjust it as ETH moves, or close a pack.

1. Press BUY on a pack. Your wallet switches to Robinhood Chain if needed.
2. Confirm the transaction. It must be the same wallet you signed in with, and it sends the exact pack price.
3. The server reads the purchase from the chain and credits your Seed, usually at once and always within about a minute. Each purchase is credited once.

Where the money goes

The contract splits every purchase in the same transaction. Part goes to the team, part to the season prize vault and part to the Pond Fund. The shares are fixed in the contract, and the two vaults are visible on chain to anyone.

• The vaults can only be filled by Seed purchases. The contract refuses plain transfers, so nobody, the team included, can top them up from outside.
• A payout can never be larger than what the vault holds, so prizes never exceed what players put in.
• The prize vault is split by the top of the season ladder (see the Pearl Shrine). The contract describes the Pond Fund as paid out to holders.

Dive Depths OPEN #

The heart of the game. Send your duck down, come back in six hours, collect the catch.

How to dive

1. Walk to the Dive Spot (the buoy in the middle of the pond) and go in.
2. Each depth shows the Pearls it pays your duck and its fail chance. Press GO.
3. Your duck is gone for 6 hours. You can leave, close the game, or play with another duck; the dive keeps going.
4. When the clock says BACK!, come back and press SURFACE. That is when the result is rolled and the Pearls land.

You cannot start a dive while the duck is already diving, is resting, or has no meals left.

The three depths

What a dive pays

In words: take your duck's day rate, divide by four, multiply by the depth and by the tier's pay, then add the bonuses.

Pearls = day rate / 4 x depth x tier pay x (1 + bonuses), rounded to a whole number.

• Day rate = 2000 x rank / (20 + rank). It grows fast at low ranks and levels off: rank 1 is about 95, rank 20 is 1000, and it never reaches 2000.
• Depth: Shallows x1, Deep x1.8, Abyss x3.5.
• Tier pay: from x1.00 (Common) to x2.20 (Mythic and Genesis). See Tier.
• Bonuses (added together): +10% per star, gear (Snorkel +5%, Lamp +10%), a GLIDER duckling (+8%, mutant +16%), Pearl Tide (+50%), Rarity Night (+30% for Legendary, Mythic and Genesis).

Fail chance

Start from the tier's deep or abyss chance (see Tier) and take off:

• Grit / 25 points (0.4 to 4 points)
• 1 point per star
• Kelp Flippers 2 points, Deepwater Lamp 1 point
• LUCKY duckling 2 points (mutant 4)
• Calm Waters event 5 points

A fail chance never goes below 2%. The dive screen shows your duck's exact chance, to one decimal place.

Example: an Epic (deep 18%) with Grit 75 (3 points), 2 stars (2 points) and Kelp Flippers (2 points) fails the deep 11% of the time.

Meals

• Every dive eats 1 meal when it starts.
• At midnight UTC each duck is topped up to 2 free meals (3 with a FORAGER duckling, 4 with a mutant one). Meals left over are kept; the top-up never takes any away.
• FEED buys one more meal for 20 Seed (10 during The Feast). You can buy while the duck has fewer than 4 meals.
• A failed deep dive costs one extra meal.

Lessons OPEN #

Lessons move your rank. They are on the bottom row of the Dive Spot screen.

• The duck must not be diving or resting.
• Cost: Pearls equal to the duck's day rate, plus a 10 Seed fee. The Trench costs 1.5 times the Pearls. The screen shows this duck's cost, for example "95P +10S".
• After any lesson the duck rests for 12 hours.
• Rank never goes below 1. Your best rank ever is remembered.

The three teachers

Lily Hop OPEN #

One puzzle a day, the same for everyone. Hop across the lily pads and collect as many Pearls as you can.

Rules

• The board is 5 rows by 8 pads. You start on the left edge, in the middle row.
• You get 10 hops. Each hop goes one pad up, down, left or right.
• You cannot land on a rock or on a pad you already used (it sinks).
• Each pad shows its pearls (1 to 5). Your score is the pearls you collect.
• The run ends after 10 hops, when you have nowhere left to hop, or when you press STOP HERE.
• A new board comes every day at midnight UTC. BEST is the highest score possible on today's board.

Cost and pay

• Each duck's first run of the day is free. Every run after that costs 10 Seed.
• You are paid only for beating your own best today: 10 Pearls for every point above it. Your first run pays score x 10; a replay that scores lower pays nothing.
• Lily Hop Pearls count on the season ladder. During a Lily Festival they are doubled.
• The server checks every hop of your route before it pays.

The Pearl Shrine and the season ladder OPEN #

The Shrine shows the season ladder, the prize vault and the Pond Fund.

The ladder

• The ladder ranks ducks by the Pearls they brought back from dives and Lily Hop this season. Nothing else counts: not jobs, chests, story rewards, clams, pond goals or anything bought with Seed.
• It shows the top 50, ten per page. Your ducks are shown in gold. A tie goes to the lower duck number.
• The title from story mode (POND KEEPER) shows next to your ducks on the ladder.

Prize shares

At the end of a season the top 50 split the prize vault, as the Shrine shows:

These add up to 100%. The vault only holds what Seed purchases put in, and the contract cannot pay out more than it holds. The prize vault and Pond Fund balances are shown on the Shrine in ETH.

Seasons

• A season runs for a set number of days (30 unless the team announces otherwise). The Shrine shows how many days are left.
• When a new season starts, every duck goes back to rank 1 and 0 ladder Pearls. The final ladder of the old season is saved.
• A new season does not touch spendable Pearls, stars, gear, wakes, names, ducklings, Seed or story progress.
• Each new season opens the next region of the map. See The map.

The Seed Shop OPEN #

Buy Seed packs with ETH, and spend Seed on looks and gear.

The top row sells Seed packs (see How Seed is bought). The bottom row, FOR YOUR DUCK, is paid in Seed:

During a Dock Sale every item in this row is 25% off (rounded up). Seed packs are never on sale.

If the shop says OPENS SOON, packs are not on sale yet. If it says SWITCH TO ROBINHOOD CHAIN, let your wallet change network. Seed cannot be sold or cashed.

Your bag (the Dock Market) OPEN #

The Dock Market holds your bag. It is also reached with the YOUR BAG button in the Seed Shop.

• Gear: WEAR puts a piece on the duck you are playing. If it already wore something, that goes back to the bag. OFF takes it off. The count shows how many spares you have.
• Wakes: click a colour to wear it, or the dash for none.
• Trading ducks and gear between players is not open. Ducks trade on OpenSea.

The Event Board OPEN #

The wooden board by the path lists the events that are running now, the ones starting in the next 7 days, and pond goals that were reached in the last 7 days. It blinks while an event is live, and the gold chip in the pond takes you here too.

Each card shows the event's name, when it ends or starts, and what it does. A pond goal also shows a progress bar, how many dives you added and a CLAIM button once the goal is reached. See Events.

The Elder and story mode OPEN #

The Elder, the old grey duck with the reed hat, tells the story of the pond, one chapter at a time.

• Talk to the Elder to begin a chapter. A gold mark over the Elder means there is something to say.
• Each chapter has steps that are things you do anyway. Do them in any order.
• A deeper dive counts for a shallower step: an abyss dive counts as "come back from the deep" and as "come back from a dive".
• See your steps on the STORY tab of the jobs panel (Q).
• Story progress belongs to your wallet. Pearls from a chapter go to the duck you were playing when you finished it. They are spendable and never count on the ladder.
• A chapter set in a region that has not opened waits, marked "opens with its region".

"Come back from a dive" means surfacing, whether the dive paid or failed. More chapters come with new regions.

Daily jobs and the chest OPEN #

Each duck gets 3 jobs a day, dealt fresh at midnight UTC. Open the list with Q.

• Each finished job pays 120 Pearls.
• Finish all three and the daily chest adds 250 Pearls.
• During a Busy Day both are doubled (240 and 500).
• These Pearls are spendable. They do not count on the ladder.
• Jobs are only dealt for games that are open.

The inbox OPEN #

The bell at the top right opens POND NOTICES: news from the team (a game opening, an event, a new season or region) and notes just for you (for example the result of a Standoff someone took while you were away).

• A new notice slides in at the top of the screen while you play. Click it to open the inbox.
• Unread notices are gold. Opening the inbox marks them read.
• Click a notice to read all of it, with its date and time in UTC.

The Standoff COMING SOON #

Two holders, three lanes, one pot of Seed. At the Duel Dock.

How it works

1. Pick a stake: 20, 50 or 100 Seed. Each stake shows how many challenges are waiting at it.
2. Split your duck's power across three lanes: REEDS, OPEN WATER and THE DEEP. You must use exactly all of it.
3. Press LOCK IN.
   • If another holder is waiting at that stake, you fight the oldest waiting challenge at once.
   • If nobody is, your split becomes a challenge in the queue. Your stake is held until someone takes it.

Who wins

• In each lane, more power wins the lane.
• A lane with equal power goes to the duck with more Grit. If Grit is equal too, the lane is a draw.
• Win more lanes than you lose and you win. Two lanes out of three always wins. Equal wins and losses is a draw.

Stakes and payouts

Both players stake the same, so the pot is two stakes. The winner gets 1.8 times the stake and the pond keeps 10% of the pot. A draw gives both stakes back.

The queue

• Each duck can have one challenge waiting at a time. You never meet your own challenges.
• Your locked split and your duck's Grit are what the other player fights. You get a notice with the result, even if you are away.
• CANCEL a waiting challenge any time before it is taken to get the stake back.
• A challenge nobody takes within 24 hours is refunded automatically, with a notice.

Tide Runner COMING SOON #

Higher or lower on a shell card, in Seed. At the Tide Table.

1. Pick a stake: 10, 20 or 50 Seed, and press DEAL. A shell card from 1 to 13 is turned over.
2. Call HIGHER or LOWER. The next card is drawn from 1 to 13.
   • Right: the payout multiplier grows (see the table).
   • Same card: nothing changes and you call again.
   • Wrong: the round ends and the stake is lost.
3. Press CASH OUT any time to take the stake times the multiplier, rounded down, in Seed.

Each right call multiplies your multiplier by 0.95 / chance, where the chance is the share of the 13 cards strictly higher (or lower) than the card showing. The buttons show that chance. You cannot call higher on a 13 or lower on a 1. One round per wallet at a time, and a round stays open until you cash out or lose, even if you leave.

Seed only. Tide Runner never pays out anything but Seed.

The Clam Stall COMING SOON #

Shelly the crab sells clams. Crack one for Pearls, gear or a look. Every chance is painted on the wall.

A clam costs 30 Seed. Every clam holds exactly one prize:

Pearls from clams are spendable and never count on the ladder.

The Shell Forge COMING SOON #

Forge stars onto your duck, up to five. A star is forever and stays with the duck when it is sold.

• Each STRIKE costs Seed and Pearls. The cost is spent whether it works or not.
• The duck must not be diving or resting.
• From the fourth star on, a failed strike can also crack the duck and take a star away.

"Star drop on a fail" is the chance, when a strike fails, that the duck also loses a star. So a strike from 3 stars ends with 4 stars 35% of the time, 2 stars 19.5% of the time, and stays at 3 the rest.

The Pearl Charm

For strikes that can crack (from 3 and 4 stars), you can add a Pearl Charm for 150 Seed more. With the charm, a failed strike never takes a star. It does not change the chance the strike works.

What stars do

+10% dive Pearls and 1 point off deep and abyss fail chances per star; stars 2 and 4 add +1 Standoff power. Stars are not reset by seasons.

The Hatchery COMING SOON #

Two of your ducks lay an egg, and your own machine mines it open, the way every HashDuck was mined.

Laying an egg

• You need two different ducks in your wallet. The first one you pick is parent 1: the duckling will follow it.
• An egg costs 300 Seed.
• Both parents then rest from the nest for 3 days before they can lay again. (Nest rest does not stop diving.) Resting ducks are faded in the picker.
• You can have up to 3 unopened eggs at a time.

Mining the egg

Your browser hashes the egg over and over, looking for a hash that starts with enough zero bits. Rarer parents lay harder eggs. The screen shows the speed, the best hash so far, and the egg cracking as you get closer. Keep the Hatchery open while it mines; an egg you leave is waiting for you the next time you come in.

"Tier points": Common 0, Uncommon 1, Rare 2, Epic 3, Legendary 4, Mythic and Genesis 5. Add both parents.

What hatches

The winning hash decides the duckling: its trait (LUCKY, GLIDER, BRAVE or FORAGER, one in four each), its colours (a mix of both parents) and whether it is a mutant. A mutant has a double-strength trait and a special colour. Rarer parents hatch mutants more often:

Trait effects are in Duckling. The duckling joins parent 1 and stays with that duck. A duck has one duckling: a new one hatched onto the same duck takes the old one's place. The server checks the hash before it hatches anything, and shows its proof.

Events #

Events are timed changes the team starts for everyone. You hear about each one in the inbox, it is pinned to the Event Board, and a gold chip in the pond counts down while it runs. Events change Pearls, odds or Seed prices. They never touch ETH.

The team can make an event shorter or longer than usual, or schedule it to start later. Several events can run at once: Pearl bonuses and Calm Waters add up; for the others the best one applies.

Pond goals and the chest

• While a pond goal runs, every dive anyone surfaces adds 1 to the goal, paid or failed. The usual target is 2,000 dives.
• Your wallet has helped if it surfaced at least one dive during the goal. The board shows "YOU HELPED" and your count.
• When the target is reached, each wallet that helped can press CLAIM once. The chest (usually 500 Pearls) goes to the duck you are playing.
• The board keeps a reached goal for 7 days after it ends. Claim it there.
• Chest Pearls are spendable and do not count on the ladder.

The map #

The pond country has four regions. The Home Pond is open. The other three lie under fog behind gates, and open one per season (the team can also open one early). When a region opens, the fog lifts for everyone at once and the Elder has a new chapter.

Places in the Home Pond

A few more signs around the pond point at places for later updates. Walk up and read them; this guide will cover them when they open. The pond also has its own day and night, a full day every four minutes. It only changes the light.

Fair play #

• Every roll happens on the server. Dives, lessons, clams, forge strikes, Tide Runner cards and Standoff results are decided by the game server, never in your browser. Your browser only shows the result.
• Every action is written down. The server keeps a ledger line for each action, with the dice it rolled, so any result can be checked later.
• Lily Hop routes and egg hashes are checked. The server replays your route hop by hop and re-checks the egg's hash before paying or hatching.
• Nothing sold for money is a ladder place. The ladder counts only Pearls your duck brings back from dives and Lily Hop. Seed cannot buy ladder Pearls, and Pearls from chests, story, clams and pond goals never count.
• Prizes come only from player purchases. The prize vault and the Pond Fund are filled only by the Seed Shop contract when someone buys Seed. The contract refuses any other payment, so nobody, the team included, can add to them, and it cannot pay out more than they hold.
• No ETH comes into the game from the treasury. Events move Pearls, odds and Seed prices, never ETH.
• Holders only, checked live. Before any action the server confirms your wallet still holds the duck.
• Seed and Pearls have no cash value. Neither can be sold, sent or cashed.

FAQ #

Glossary #

Abyss

The deepest dive: pays 3.5 times the shallows, can fail, and a failure rests the duck and may cost a rank.

Best

On Lily Hop, the highest score possible on today's board.

Chest

The daily chest (250 Pearls for finishing all three jobs) or a pond goal chest.

Day rate

2000 x rank / (20 + rank). A dive pays a quarter of it before depth, tier and bonuses. Also the Pearl cost of a Reed or Current lesson.

Duckling

A companion hatched at the Hatchery. One per duck, with one trait.

Gear

Snorkel, Kelp Flippers or Deepwater Lamp. One worn per duck.

Grit

A fixed number from 10 to 100 from the duck's seed. Lowers fail chances, can save a rank, breaks Standoff ties.

Ladder

The season ranking of ducks by Pearls from dives and Lily Hop.

Meal

What a dive eats. Two free a day, up to four with bought meals.

Mutant

A duckling with a double-strength trait.

Pearls

Earned in the pond, kept by each duck. Pay for lessons and forge strikes.

Pond Fund

The second vault in the Seed Shop contract, filled only by Seed purchases.

Power

What a duck splits across the three Standoff lanes. 12 plus tier, stars and duckling.

Prize vault

The vault the top 50 of the season ladder split. Filled only by Seed purchases.

Rank

Sets dive pay and lesson cost. Starts at 1 and resets each season.

Rest

Time a duck cannot dive or take lessons: 12 hours after a lesson or a failed abyss dive. Nest rest (3 days) only stops laying eggs.

Season

A ladder period, 30 days unless announced otherwise.

Seed

Bought with ETH in the Seed Shop, kept by the wallet, pays for things. Cannot be sold or cashed.

Stars

Forged at the Shell Forge, up to 5. Permanent.

Tier

A duck's rarity, from Common to Genesis.

UTC

The world clock the pond's day follows. Midnight UTC is when daily things reset.

Wake

The coloured trail a duck leaves when it swims. Only a look.