Gameplay manual

The goal

Polite visitors from elsewhere have filed an application to collect your geese. They mean well, they are in no hurry, and they have brought forms. You cannot fight them, and you would not want to. Every tower asks something small of a visitor: to wait, to reread a sign, to queue, to answer a question. Each one has a patience meter instead of hit points. When it reaches zero the visitor apologizes and returns to the ship, and you earn stamps.

Stamps are the currency. You spend them on towers and upgrades, and earn them when visitors give up and waves are cleared. Keep as many animals as you can: after you clear a campaign level, stars depend on the share of the flock you kept. The thresholds vary by level; Zen Office keeps no stars.

A round

1. Setup. Look at the map and the manifest of incoming visitors, spend your starting stamps, and press READY.
2. Wave. Visitors land and follow the live route toward the pen. Each announces which goose it has filed for.
3. Gap. Between waves you can build, upgrade and sell, and you can read the next manifest. Calling the next wave early adds a bonus to that wave’s departing visitors.
4. Resolution. After the last wave, a successful solo or co-op campaign shift earns stars, except in Zen Office. Competitive play gives a verdict, and the report shows the numbers behind the shift. A solo shift ends early if the whole flock is taken.

Maze the field freely. A longer route means more forms per visitor. You can never seal the route completely: any placement that would wall the visitors out is refused, because they never skip a rule.

Building and the ring

Tap open grass and a ring of towers opens around that cell. Tap a tower in the ring to build it, or tap away to dismiss the ring. A tower you cannot afford tells you how many stamps you are short. Tap one of your own towers and the same ring offers Upgrade and Sell. Red Tape is laid as a line: drag from its disc along the grass.

A tower sold within five seconds of being built, before it has affected anyone, refunds in full. After that, a sale returns 70 per cent of the stamps spent on it, including upgrades.

The towers page has each tower in 3D with every tier.

Visitors recover a little patience when nothing is affecting them, after a short grace period. A route with long empty stretches lets them catch their breath, so overlapping towers matter more than raw numbers.

Moving around the board

On a touchscreen, drag the field to pan and pinch to zoom. Drag two fingers up or down together to tilt the board. On a computer, click and drag to pan, use the mouse wheel to zoom, and drag with the right or middle mouse button to tilt. A trackpad can also use a pinch to zoom and a two-finger scroll to pan. The recentre button brings the camera back to the board.

Tap or click a cell to open its build ring, a tower to inspect its options, or a visitor to read its card. Press Escape to close the topmost open panel, then pause; press it again to resume. The keyboard shortcuts also cover camera movement, speed and desktop window controls.

Upgrades and branches

Every tower except Red Tape can be upgraded twice, reaching tier III. Each tier changes the tower’s appearance and abilities; the towers page lists the costs and effects.

For tier III, tap the tier II tower and choose Upgrade. The card compares promotions III-A and III-B, including their effects and prices. Tap an affordable option to buy it and return to the board; tap outside to cancel. You can inspect both promotions in the 3D viewer.

The Stamp of Disapproval

Each player has a Stamp of Disapproval. Its button says Drying while it is unavailable, Ready when it can be used and Armed after you tap it. While it is armed, tap a visitor: nearby visitors lose patience too. The stamp then needs time to dry; on Standard, that is 25 seconds. Use it to finish off a visitor about to slip through, or to thump a boss.

The geese

Geese graze in the pen and flock loosely. Visitors nearby make them nervous, and a nervous flock moves faster. A visitor that reaches the gate starts a short beam-up. If it gives up during that time, the goose drops back to the ground. Stress falls on its own once the visitors are gone, and a Calming Bell speeds that up for every goose in its range.

No goose is harmed in the course of an application. A visitor that finishes beaming one up takes it away, though the rest of the flock can still be saved.

Bolting and the Calming Bell

A terrified goose may bolt over the fence. Its visitor follows it off the route, and for a while neither is where you planned for them to be. Drop a Calming Bell near the goose. It calms, stops running and walks home to the gate. The Bell's Recall upgrade also calls loose geese home from within its range.

Bolting only happens on levels whose kit includes a Calming Bell. The number of animals that can be loose at once depends on the flock: sheep can bolt as a group. The Bell acts on the flock, not on the visitors.

Sheep

Some levels keep sheep instead of geese, the wool file to the geese's down file. They worry together, huddle together and bolt together, following the lead ewe. A Calming Bell over her settles the whole pen. Sheep are shorn by the county's own shearers at the usual time, and nobody is ever plucked or shorn by a visitor.

Waves and events

Waves get larger across a level, and the manifest along the top edge shows what is coming. Tap the row of visitor icons or the wave timeline to see every visitor on the map, its patience and how far it has to go. Tap a visitor to open its ID card. There are five classes: the Inspector, who pauses at the first tower it passes; the Courier, who is fast and cuts corners; the Compliance Officer, who makes the flock anxious; the Union Rep, whose whistle briefly shields its allies; and, occasionally, the Regional Auditor. The visitors page has them all in 3D.

Some waves also bring an event. It is announced at the start of that wave and lasts until the next one, and it hits both boards the same way.

Events never happen in the first two waves, and Budget Crunch never opens a level.

Difficulty and Audit mode

Every level is its own base difficulty, and its star rating is worked out from its waves and the stamps available. On top of that you pick one of three settings for your own board: Assisted for a gentler game, Standard for the level as designed, or Seasoned for a harder one. The setting changes how tough and how fast the visitors are and what you earn, but never how many come or when, so two players on different settings still face the same waves. Stars are kept separately for each setting. Zen Office is a no-lose option for a relaxed shift; it does not record stars or rankings.

Clearing a level with at least one star unlocks its Audit, a Post-Decision Review run by the Regional Auditor's office. An Audit uses fixed rules whatever your setting: a tougher set of waves, a visit from the Auditor, and one “finding” printed on the briefing card, such as a missing Signpost or a freeze on upgrades. Because the rules are fixed, Audit scores can be compared fairly.

Playing with an AI Colleague

From the Solo ledger, choose With AI Colleague for co-op or Against AI Colleague for a competitive shift. Your colleague runs a second board while yours fills the screen. Open the inset to see how the other office is getting on. You can also play on your own.

Two players on one device

On a large touch screen, choose a shared-table co-op or competitive shift. Lay the device flat in landscape and sit on opposite long edges: one half turns to face each player. Each of you taps READY on your own half.

Each player has their own board, stamps and pen, and both boards play the same waves at the same moments. Pressing NEXT is a vote: the wave is called once both players have pressed it, and a small pip on the button shows when your partner is waiting. Either player may pause. The speed button, which cycles 1×, 2× and 4×, sits on the centre divider and either of you can use it.

• Co-op. You share a goal and the two flocks count together. Hold the Transfer button to send 25 stamps across the table. If one pen empties, the other player can offer half their remaining flock as a rescue, or choose to finish the map together with one empty pen.
• Competitive. Same waves, separate flocks. From beta build 33, whoever keeps more animals wins; if the flocks are equal, the higher Efficiency Score breaks the tie. If one pen empties, the other player wins. Earlier betas use different result rules, so update both devices before playing competitively online. You may send an Expedite Request (40 stamps) to hurry your rival's visitors, or a Misfiled Transfer (60 stamps), a clerk-bot that walks their maze and, if it arrives, moves one of their animals into your pen.
• Solo and Overtime. Solo uses the whole screen for one board. Overtime is endless, with generated waves, alone or with a partner.

Network play

Tap Interoffice on the title page to play with someone on another device: nearby (on the same Wi-Fi, or between Apple devices without a shared network), anywhere with an office code such as Form 7QK-2M, or, on Apple devices, through Game Center. Game Center can invite a friend or find a competitive or co-op match. Each device runs its own board, so connection delays do not slow its simulation. The other player's office appears beside yours as a live mirror that catches up after any lag, with a “Line busy” stamp on it while the connection is down.

For account-free automatic matching, choose Office code → Find a colleague, select Competitive or Co-op, then tap Find match. You can cancel the search before the offices connect. This uses the game's relay rather than Game Center.

In co-op and competitive play, NEXT is still a vote, but pause and speed belong to each device. In a networked competitive shift, the first player whose pen empties loses; the other continues their board. Transfers, Expedite Requests and Misfiled Transfers show Filed until the other office confirms them, then Received; anything the other office never answers is returned to sender. The In-tray keeps a running log of what your colleague does. Automatic matches allow preset memos; games arranged with friends can also allow typed messages. Tap a colleague's memo to mute, block or report them. If your colleague leaves for good, your game is filed as a solo finish and your figures stand.

To watch an office-code game, choose Office code → Watch an office and enter the players' code. You can switch between their boards or view them together on a large screen. Watching has no player names, memos, chat or game actions, and does not replace your saved shift. Both players need a version that supports watching.

The Map Office

Finish the campaign to open the Map Office. Start a new map or open an existing one, paint terrain on the plan, check routes and design rules, and preview the board in 3D. On the plan, paint with one finger; pinch with two fingers to zoom and move, or use the zoom, Fit and Move controls. On a desktop, use the wheel to zoom and Move to drag the plan. Saved maps appear under My Maps in the ledger, where you can play or reopen them.

An edit that would seal a landing pad is refused. The Map Office can also save a map as a draft when it does not meet the design rules; the Map settings show the issues. Some drafts can still be played. Play requires a map the game can start, including a route from each landing pad. You can also choose generated waves or Overtime and try the map before saving it.

The Daily Memo

Once a day, the office issues a Daily Memo: one generated map, the same for everyone that day, with a title and a line of its own. Download it with a connection, then open its button on the title page to play solo or co-op. The game keeps your best stars and a streak of days. A memo already downloaded remains available offline for its UTC day; without a connection, a new day's memo cannot be fetched. The campaign and local replays work offline. See the privacy page for what the game sends.

Settings and accessibility

Office Preferences groups settings for sound, play, accessibility, display and performance, interoffice play, and privacy. You can adjust volume, subtitles, reduced motion, haptics, mono audio, text size and colour-vision options. Graphics presets and Battery Saver can help on a slower device. Towers differ in silhouette, visitors by accessory, and placement and upgrade cues use symbols and numbers as well as colour. Press and hold a strip button for a short description. Coffee Break pauses a shared match; in a network game, pause applies to your own device.

Keyboard shortcuts

With a hardware keyboard, keys repeat what a tap does. At a shared table the keyboard works the first seat only.

Stuck or found a bug? See support.