A bird. A gun. Somebody else's egg.
Steal theSky
Dive on the nest, take the egg, race it home through the tracers, and hold what you land while everyone comes to take it back. First nest to three eggs wins the round.
The whole game in four verbs
How a round works
Eggs sit out on ledges all over the island. You take one, you carry it home, and the shell stays in the bowl where everyone can see it.
Steal
Fly to a loose egg and grab it. Nobody owns it until somebody is carrying it.
Carry
A bird holding an egg is heavier and slower. This is the price, and it is the whole game.
Bank
Reach your own nest and drop it in. You are paid in Feathers on the spot.
Hold
The shell stays in your bowl, and it can be stolen out of it. Banking is not safety.
Three birds, three loadouts
Pick the wings that suit your crime
Arm your nest
Nine guardians for hire
The hub
The only place where nothing is trying to kill you
Land on the plaza facing the Flight Deck. Every building is a short walk on flat ground: the Hangar, Flora's Style Shop, Corvo's Feather Exchange, the Workshop and the Grand Archive. Three pieces of music were written for this game, and they all play here.
Choosing a bird
Pick the wings
that suit your crime
Every bird flies the same sky with a different kit. The Cardinal outguns at range, the Jay outflies everyone up close, and the Myna outlasts and controls space. Changing bird costs nothing and can be done every round.
CardinalFeatherfire · The Skysharp Shooter
Feather darts from twin chest pods and a full back rack of reloads. A fearless aerial attacker that rains darts from extreme range, and the bird to pick if you want the shooting to do the talking.
Blue JayDisruptor · The Sonic Troublemaker
The fastest wings on the island, with ring blasts that shove birds off their line. A high-speed tactician that disrupts, confuses and controls the battlefield instead of out-shooting it.
Common MynaVoiceblast · The Sound Striker
Wide concussive waves, chaos, and one very loud beak. The lowest fire rate and range on any card, paid back in endurance, wide waves and the confuse aura. The bird that lasts.
Flora's Style Shop
Look the part
Everything on the racks is bought with Feathers and none of it affects a fight. Hats, goggles, cloaks and the Aviator Ace set. A purchase is yours for good.
In the Hangar · Studio captures
The long flight
Two worlds,
one sky
Two worlds to fly, each with its own theme, its own weather and eight nests to fill. The music follows the place rather than the fight.
Aviara · Open sky
Bird Island
Karst towers, flooded channels and eleven tunnels. The bird island, rebuilt. Green water, ruined stone and somebody else's eggs: the island's own theme, and the one most rounds are flown to.
Lumen · Open sky
Celestial Gardens
Amethyst terraces under an aurora. Gates of crystal, gardens in the sky. The newest score, and the strangest: adrift around a dead star, with an owl gate, a colonnade of eagle statues, and a sun and a moon in one frame.
Postcards
Bird Island, up close
Frames from the live island: dawn on the peak, the dead forest, the falls, and the birds that fly it.
Postcards
Celestial Gardens, after dark
The newest map and the strangest: an owl gate, eagle statues, crystal and a moon that never sets.
Ways to play
Five ways
to fly
Where to go when the heist is not what you are in the mood for. Every mode is filed from the Flight Deck, and nobody joins a game once it has started.
Egg Heist
Eggs fall from the ledges, nests are worth raiding, and the guardians are awake. Fill your bowl before anybody empties it. Eggs are a supply, not a scoreboard, and the supply is deliberately unstable: Dawn Watch, First Light, The Rush, Feeding Frenzy, Egg Storm, Last Clutch.
NestFall
One nest, one wall, and the Ratkin coming in waves that never stop. Build between them, hold the line, and see how far you get. Every enemy in the game has a tell, and reading it is the single rule that makes them fair.
The Keep · upgrade tiers
Sky Rhythm
Two and a half minutes of Bird Island at dawn, charted to the beat. The song flies you; you fly it. Play in time and the island sings back. Three songs, four judgments, and a grade that pays out in Feathers.
Free Flight
The same maps with nothing to win. No eggs, no nests, no guardians. Bring your wings and your weapon and mess about until you feel like leaving.
Flight School
The whole game, taught one thing at a time, on an island built for it. Captain Hoot runs it. Nothing here counts toward anything, and that is the point. You start on the ground, and chapter two is the stall.
Three pieces, written for one place each
The Score
This game has a score of its own. One piece for the Roost and one for each landform that has a theme, each painted a cover to go with it. The music follows the place rather than the fight: everything in the hub is scored by the hub's theme, from the loading screen onward, and the moment you dive off the deck it crossfades into whatever the landform under you is scored with.
01 · The Hub · Ambient · 3:00
Welcome to The Roost
Lantern light, a workshop still open, and nowhere you have to be. The theme of home.
- Under the loading screen, before the game has drawn a frame.
- Everywhere in the hub: the deck, the shops, the Archive.
- It fades out the moment you dive, and is waiting when you land.
02 · Aviara · Island battle · 4:00
Bird Island
Green water, ruined stone and somebody else's eggs. The island's own theme, and the one most rounds are flown to.
- From the dive until the round is called, on the island.
- And on any boot that skipped the vote: the island is the world that comes up.
- It is also the bed under the Instagram cut of the hero reel.
03 · Lumen · Celestial battle · 3:30
Celestial Gardens
Amethyst terraces adrift around a dead star. The newest score, and the strangest.
- From the dive until the round is called, in the Gardens.
- It is the only music on Lumen. There is nothing else out there to score.
Why this order
The running order is the player's own. The Roost's theme is the first music anybody hears, playing under the loading screen before the game has drawn a frame. Then the island, where the first flight lands. Then the Gardens, the newest map and the one a listener is least likely to have reached.
Not on this shelf
Sky Rhythm flies to three licensed songs, Shabe Mahtab, Persian Nights and The Glonk-Glomp, and they are charted rather than composed for the game. They have their own page: the songbook. A landform with no theme of its own plays the house battle track, which is not part of this score.
Fly iton thebeat.
The bird flies itself. You play the notes. Two and a half minutes of Bird Island at dawn charted to the tempo. Play in time and the island sings back. Miss a gate and the song does not stop.
How it plays
Five beats from the Archive's own demonstration.
The bird flies itself. You play the notes.
On the beat. The gate lights.
Behind the beat. The gate is already past.
A long note is a beam. Stay in it.
The chart is the song. Miss a gate and the song does not stop.
The songbook
Three songs, each charted by section. Intro teaches, the drop builds, the peak is the full chart.
Shabe Mahtab
Persian Nights
The Glonk-Glomp
Four judgments
Perfect lights the gate. Great and Good keep the chain. Miss breaks it, and the song plays on.
The grade pays
Feathers on the results screen. First clear of any song pays 250 on top.
On the rail
The chart from the deck: gates ahead, the beat under you, the island singing back.
Hiring a guardian
Arm the nest.
Then go rob one.
The answer to the round's oldest problem: a nest you have to leave. Nine animal turrets, built at the Workshop, sit on your plot and shoot at raiders while you are away. Every one has a card, a role and a special ability.
rapid
heavy
heavy
heavy
volley
rain
shield
dash
rockets
Common Squirrel
Acorn Cannoneer
Rapid acorn bursts — precise, relentless, never jams.
Special Nutty BarrageEnlist · on duty
Built here, posted on your plot
Guardians rebuild after a suppression window, so a raider has to keep the pressure on. In NestFall they hold the wall between waves; in Egg Heist they hold the bowl while you are out stealing somebody else's.
The rig on the plinth is the game's own: every part the builder places, drawn again here. Pick a medallion, or press 1 to 9.
The hub
The Grand Roost
One flat clearing, everything on it, nothing above you. You land on the plaza facing the Flight Deck, and every building in the settlement is a short walk on flat ground. Each destination has a road leaving the plaza in that building's own colour.
Stations
Six doors off the plaza
You cannot fly in the Roost. Nothing here can hurt you and nothing here can be stolen from you.
The Flight Deck
Plan the raid, then flyThe war table, the mode list and the pad you dive off. Every session starts here.
The Bird Hangar
Choose your birdOne bay per playable bird, abreast. Changing bird costs nothing and can be done every round.
Flora's Style Shop
Look the partEverything on the racks is bought with Feathers and none of it affects a fight.
Corvo's Feather Exchange
Trade feathers for shineCorvo trades. What he has is worth Feathers and what it does for you is entirely how you look.
The Guardian Workshop
Arm your nestGuardians built here sit on your plot and shoot at raiders while you are away.
The Grand Archive
Learn the gameSixty pages on nine shelves. Every page opens on a key from anywhere.
The Keepers
Who runs the place
Captain Hoot
Keeper of the Flight DeckRuns Flight School. Thirteen lessons, nobody keeping score.
Corvo
The Feather ExchangeA crow in a top hat who will sell you Feathers at five prices.
Flora
Flora's Style ShopA flamingo with opinions about your hat.
The Score
Three pieces, written for one place each
The music follows the place rather than the fight. The moment you dive off the deck it crossfades into whatever the landform under you is scored with.
Welcome to The Roost
The Hub · 3:00Lantern light, a workshop still open, and nowhere you have to be. The theme of home.
Bird Island
Aviara · 4:00Green water, ruined stone and somebody else's eggs. The island's own theme.
Celestial Gardens
Lumen · 3:30Amethyst terraces adrift around a dead star. The newest score, and the strangest.
Inside
The Archive, the Exchange, the Wheel
After dark
The Roost by lantern light
A floating island with one tree, six doors and a launch deck, photographed from the live game.
Emotes · dances, taunts, and the wheel they live on