Squirrel Game

Squirrel Game is a side-view forest game with a memory twist. Your squirrel leaps branch to branch through an autumn wood, gathers acorns and buries them in caches on the forest floor. Then snow falls, every cache disappears under white, and you have to dig your stash back up from memory before winter runs out. You can play this squirrel game online free in your browser with no download, on a keyboard, a mouse or a phone’s touch screen.

How to play

Each of the six days has two halves: an autumn half for gathering and burying, and a winter half for digging.

• Gather: acorns sit on the branches of the trees. Run with the arrow keys or A and D, and jump with Up, W or Space to climb from the low branches to the high ones. Touch an acorn to pick it up. You can carry three at a time, and the acorns you hold show in the top-left corner.
• Bury: drop down to the forest floor and press Down or S (or the Dig button) to bury one acorn in a cache. A small mound and twig mark the spot while it is still autumn. Caches must be a little apart.
• Drop through: pressing Dig while you stand on a branch drops you through it, which is the quick way back to the ground.
• Snowfall: autumn ends when its timer runs out, or straight away once every acorn has been picked up and buried. Any acorns still in your paws when the snow arrives are lost.
• Dig up: in winter the squirrel starts back at the left edge of the forest, and the ground is covered with snow lumps that all look the same. Walk to where you think a cache is and dig. If you are close enough, you find the acorn. If not, you find nothing and lose a moment.

Hazards

• Hawk (day 2 onward): a dark shadow glides along the ground and follows you. Every few seconds it stops, a red mark appears above it, and then the hawk strikes. If you are on the ground inside the shadow when it strikes, you are hit. Being up on a branch is safe.
• Owl (day 3 onward): an owl sweeps back and forth across the forest, rising and dipping through the branches. Touching it is a hit.

You have three lives per day. A hit costs a life and every acorn you are carrying, and you flash for a moment while you recover. Lose all three lives and the day is over with no stars.

Days, stars and scores

Every day has a longer forest, more acorns and a little more time than the one before. Your stars depend on how many of the day’s acorns you dig back up in winter:

• One star for at least 40 percent of the acorns.
• Two stars for at least 70 percent.
• Three stars for every single acorn.

Earning at least one star unlocks the next day. Your score is 100 points per acorn recovered, plus a bonus for winter time left and for lives left. Your best stars and best score for each day are saved in your browser, and you can replay any unlocked day from the day menu.

Tips

• Bury next to landmarks. The trees stay in the same places in winter, so a cache right beside a trunk is far easier to find than one in an empty stretch of ground.
• Use a pattern. Burying every cache just to the right of a tree, for example, gives you one rule to remember instead of many spots.
• Bury as you go. Carrying three acorns while the hawk is around is risky, because a hit drops all of them. Short trips are safer.
• Climb away from the shadow. When the red mark appears, jump onto a branch or run out of the shadow.

Frequently asked questions

Can I play it on a phone?

Yes. Use the on-screen buttons under the game, or tap the left or right side of the play area to run and the middle to jump.

Why did I lose acorns I was carrying?

A hit from the hawk or the owl makes you drop everything you carry, and any acorns still in your paws when the snow falls are lost too. Only buried acorns can be dug up in winter.

How close do I need to be to find a cache?

You need to stand roughly on top of it. Digging a short step away finds nothing, so line yourself up with the landmark you used.

Is my progress saved?

Yes. Unlocked days, stars and best scores are stored in your browser on this device.

If you like animal games, try our Fox Game, where a fox pounces for food through the seasons, or guide a burrowing rabbit in the Bunny Game.