How to play Lily Leap
A complete guide: the controls on a phone and on a computer, the baby frogs you have to find, every hazard in the five worlds, how stars and scoring work, and the habits that get you home.
In one paragraph. You are a frog at the bottom of a long, scrolling map. Home is at the very top. In between are roads full of traffic, railway lines, rivers you can only cross by riding logs, turtles and floes, and paths lined with traps. Somewhere along the way are lost baby frogs - find every one of them, then hop into home to clear the level. Get hit, fall in the water or run out of time and you lose a life.
The rules
- One hop, one tile. The frog moves one step at a time - forward, back, left or right. It cannot walk through bushes, rocks, statues and the other obstacles on the ground.
- Roads and rails kill on contact. Anything with wheels (or a rolling boulder) squashes the frog. On the rails, the signal flashes red and the rails glow before a train comes through - get off the tracks.
- Water needs a ride. In a river, canal, icy lake or lava flow the frog must stand on something: a log, a turtle, a barge, a floe, a raft or a fixed pad. The ride carries it along; if it carries the frog off the edge of the screen, the frog is swept away.
- Rescue the babies. The coloured baby frogs sit on the ground, and on later levels one or two ride on a log. Hop onto a baby to pick it up. The dots at the top of the screen show how many you have, and an arrow always points to the nearest baby still out there - a marker over it when you can see it, a bubble at the edge of the field with the number of rows to go when you cannot.
- Go home. The top row is home. It stays shut until every baby is with you, and opens with a glow when they are.
- Watch the clock. Each life has its own clock, shown in the top right. If it runs out, you lose a life and the clock starts again.
Controls
On a phone or tablet
- Tap anywhere on the field to hop forward.
- Swipe left, right or down anywhere on the field to hop that way. A swipe up also hops forward. You never have to touch the frog, so your thumb never hides the traffic.
- Prefer buttons? Tap Swipe under the field to switch to an on-screen pad with four arrows, and tap it again to switch back.
- Pause is under the field. The game also pauses by itself when you switch apps.
On a computer
- ↑ ← ↓ → or W A S D hop, Space hops forward, P or Esc pauses. A click on the field also hops forward.
- You can press the next direction while the frog is still in the air - the game remembers one hop ahead.
The five worlds
| World | Levels | What is new |
|---|---|---|
| Lily Garden | 1-4 | Cars, vans and tractors; a pond with logs, lily pads and turtles. From level 3 some turtles dive. |
| Neon City | 5-8 | Busy streets with taxis, trucks and buses, tram lines, canals with barges, and manholes that blow steam. |
| Jungle Ruins | 9-12 | Rolling boulders and wooden carts, rivers with crocodiles, and stone floors with spike traps. |
| Frost Lake | 13-16 | Sleds and snowplows, ice floes that crack under a frog that stays too long, and falling icicles. |
| Magma Peak | 17-20 | Lava rivers with basalt rafts and rocks that sink into the lava, fire vents, rolling magma boulders and mine trains. |
Rides and traps
- Logs, barges and rafts are safe for as long as you like. You can hop along them left and right.
- Turtles and lava rocks sometimes go under. Ripples around them are the warning - hop off before they disappear.
- Crocodiles are safe to stand on, except for the head. Stay on the back and the tail.
- Ice floes hold a frog for just over a second, then crack and sink. Keep moving; a sunk floe floats back up a few seconds later.
- Pads - lily pads, stepping stones, ice discs and basalt columns - stay where they are.
- Traps - steam vents, spikes, icicles and fire vents - fire in turn along the row, a wave you can read. Each one glows or casts a growing shadow just before it goes off.
Lives, checkpoints and stars
You start every level with five lives. Rows with a flag at each end are checkpoints: once you have stepped on one, the flags turn green and a lost life brings you back there instead of to the start. Babies you have already rescued stay rescued. Lose all five lives and the level starts over.
A cleared level earns stars: three if you did not lose a life, two if you lost one or two, one otherwise. Clearing a level opens the next one, and you can replay any open level from Pick a level to improve its stars.
Scoring
| What | Points |
|---|---|
| Each new row reached | 10 |
| Golden fly | 50 |
| Baby frog rescued | 200 |
| Getting home | 500 |
| Time left on the clock | 10 per second |
| Lives left | 100 each |
The best score for every level is kept, and the header shows your total number of stars.
The twenty levels
- First Hops
- Garden Path
- Lily Lane
- Turtle Bay
- Crosswalk
- Rush Hour
- Night Line
- Downtown
- Temple Steps
- Croc River
- Spike Hall
- Lost Idol
- Thin Ice
- Sled Run
- Icicle Cave
- Blizzard
- Hot Steps
- Mine Carts
- Fire Falls
- The Crater
Tips
1. Wait on the grass, not on the road
Safe rows between the hazards are there to rest on. Stop, watch two or three cars go by, and cross when a gap lines up across all the lanes - not one lane at a time.
2. Ride towards the middle
A log that carries you towards the edge is a clock of its own. Hop sideways along it against the current, or hop forward early, so you are never close to the side of the screen.
3. Collect the babies on the way up
Look at where the babies are as the level scrolls. Picking one up on the way costs a hop or two; coming back down for it later means crossing everything twice.
4. Reach the flags
A checkpoint saves a lot of hopping after a mistake. On long levels, it is often worth going straight for the next flag before a detour for a baby or a fly.
5. Read the traps as a wave
The traps along a row fire one after the other. Watch one cycle, then hop in right behind the wave.
6. Listen for the horn
With sound on, a horn warns you when a train is about to cross near the frog, and a tick counts down the last ten seconds on the clock.
A short history
Crossing games - get a small animal across busy roads and a river of floating logs - have been an arcade favourite since the early 1980s. Later games in the genre grew into adventures with scrolling maps, several worlds and things to collect before you can finish. Lily Leap is an original game in that later style, on a phone-sized field and with controls made for a thumb.
Frequently asked questions
Is Lily Leap free?
Yes. All twenty levels are free, with no account and no purchase. The site is paid for by the advertising described in our Privacy Policy.
How do I play on a phone?
Tap anywhere on the field to hop forward and swipe left, right or down to hop that way. If you prefer, switch to an on-screen pad with the button under the field.
Why can't I go home?
Home opens only when every baby frog on the level is with you. The coloured dots at the top of the field show which ones are still missing.
Is my progress saved?
Yes, in your browser's local storage: the levels you have opened, your stars and your best score for every level. Clearing your browser data or playing in private mode erases it.
Can I play offline?
Once the page has loaded, the game needs no connection - everything runs in your browser. Only the advertising and the measurement need the network.