The goal
Two waves move towards a pearl. Tap Swap, or anywhere in the play area, to exchange their speeds. You can swap again while they are still moving. Try to make the waves meet over the pearl. A closer meeting adds stronger coral growth.
Read the changing tides
Living Ocean 2.0 introduces six kinds of tide as you progress. The name and cue help you read the movement. The pearl remains your target, and Swap still exchanges the waves’ speeds.
- Steady: the speeds stay steady until you swap them.
- Undertow: the stronger flow builds gradually.
- Moon pull: crescent marks signal the speeds drawing closer near the pearl.
- Echo: the trailing light is a wake, not another wave to meet.
- Storm surge: foam builds before a brief stronger difference in speed.
- Breathing tide: watch the changing width of the waves as they approach.
Complete a three-tide phrase
A phrase is a group of three tides. The three marks above the play area track your results. Finish all three with Good or Perfect meetings to earn a reef centrepiece. Three Perfect meetings earn its richer form. An unfinished phrase does not earn the completion reward.
Choose a mode
- Endless continues until three tides drift past.
- Daily tide gives you the same eight-round challenge for that day. You can retry it. There is no online leaderboard.
- Calm has no lives or forced ending. Choose Finish reef when you are ready.
- Use Step mode opens an untimed Calm round. You decide when the tide moves and can change your swaps before resolving the meeting.
Daily tide stays at eight rounds: two complete three-tide phrases, then two final tides. The final pair does not count as a completed phrase.
Play without time pressure
- Choose Use Step mode to start an untimed Calm round.
- Choose Advance 10% to move forwards, or Fine 2% for a smaller movement.
- Choose Back 10% if you want to move back.
- Use Swap to exchange the speeds. You can revise your swaps while working out the meeting.
- Choose Describe tide for the wave positions and projected meeting.
- Choose Resolve meeting when you are ready for the result.
Unlock and choose an environment
Each new, replayed or confirmed-restart run starts at Voyage level 1. Resume continues the saved run at its saved level. Environments you have earned stay available when you start again.
- From Home, open Living Environments.
- Choose an environment to inspect it and read its unlock requirement.
- For an environment you own, choose Use environment.
- Use Home to return to the main menu.
A locked preview lets you explore the scene, but does not unlock or select it. Choosing an environment changes its appearance, ocean ambience and musical companion, not the scoring or wave movement rules. Tide events do not change the music.
- Tidal Observatory: always available.
- Level 10: Sunlit Coral Atrium.
- Level 20: Moonlit Kelp Cathedral.
- Level 30: Pearl Palace Ruins.
- Level 40: Bioluminescent Trench.
- Level 50: The Drowned Library.
- Level 60: Glacial Tide Cavern.
- Level 70: Volcanic Vent Foundry.
- Level 80: Lantern Shipwreck.
- Level 90: Celestial Whale Sanctuary.
- Level 100: Astral Ocean.
You can dismiss an unlock announcement without losing the environment. Skipping a visual reveal does not change your reward.
Pause or continue later
Choose Pause to stop a flowing tide. You can resume, restart after confirming your choice, or return Home safely. If the game closes during an unfinished tide, choose Resume on Home to continue from the saved point.
Keep and share reefs
Your result keeps the reef you grew. Choose Share reef to prepare an image and open the iPhone sharing choices. Nothing is sent until you choose where to save or send it.
Reefs keeps the latest 30 unpinned reefs and up to 10 pinned reefs on your iPhone. Pin a favourite to protect it from ordinary recent-item removal. Open a reef and choose a coral or tide row to replay its sound.
Meet your reef residents
Qualifying play can bring silver fish, a seahorse, a reef ray, a sea turtle, a manta and a whale to your reefs. Check the resident list on the result or reef detail to see which residents belong to that reef. Background wildlife is scenery, not a resident you have earned. Residents remain listed when decorative movement is reduced.
Settings and accessibility
Settings control Sound effects, Music, Ocean ambience, Haptics, Gentle visuals and the default Calm controls. Music controls Aquaria and the selected environment’s musical companion together. Ocean ambience can be muted separately.
Tide Metronome responds to Reduce Motion, Differentiate Without Colour and Increase Contrast in iPhone Settings. Reduce Motion removes decorative travel and uses still reveals. Gentle visuals reduces decorative detail and brightness. Neither removes your environments or residents. Controls have VoiceOver labels, and Step mode offers an untimed way to play.
Keep or delete progress
Scores, reefs, settings, earned environments, discovered residents and one unfinished tide are saved on your iPhone. There is no account or online leaderboard. When you update from an earlier version, only play history still saved on the device can count towards restored environment rewards; missing history cannot be reconstructed.
Delete progress in Settings removes scores, reefs, the saved tide, progression, earned environments and resident discoveries after confirmation. Your settings remain. Tidal Observatory stays available. Removing the app removes its saved information from the iPhone, subject to ordinary Apple device backups.
Get support
Visit Tide Metronome Support or email support@rgtsoftware.com. Include your iPhone model, iOS version and a short description of what happened.