How to play Cragwake

A visual guide · Choose your first hold

Your goal

Climb high. Keep enough to breathe.

Choose holds that you can afford, rest on round jugs, and reach the next ledge. The wall only reacts when you take a turn.

01Choose a ringed hold

The pips tell you the price

Tap or click a nearby ringed hold. Each small pip on its target ring is one stamina point the move will cost. This calm-wall example has no ice, gust, or overhang.

Looking is free. There is no clock. A hold without an offered move may be out of reach or cost more stamina than you have.

02Read the hold’s shape

Round jug · Rest here

Normally costs 1 to enter. Dots inside the jug show how many useful breaths remain.

Rounded square · Ordinary hold

Normally costs 1 to enter. It does not restore stamina.

Thin bar · Crimp

Normally costs 2 to enter. Check the target ring for the final cost.

Blue cap · Ice

Ice adds 2 to the entry cost. You cannot lunge from an icy hold.

Cracks · Brittle rock

Leaving spends a crack. A hold with a single crack breaks when you leave; lunging away breaks a brittle hold immediately.

Do not mix up the dots: dots inside a jug are breaths left. Pips around a target ring are the move’s stamina cost.

03Breathe before you run low

Resting is a move too

Tap your climber, use Breathe, or press Space. On a normal, usable jug, a breath restores 4 stamina, up to your maximum. It spends one breath dot and advances the wall by one turn.

An overhanging jug restores only 2 stamina.
An empty jug or another kind of hold cannot give you a useful rest. Waiting there costs stamina instead.
Rest early enough to still have a route to the next jug or ledge.

04Read the next turn’s warning

Gusts, rockfall, and frost are announced in the ribbon below the wall before they arrive.
A gust can add to the cost of entering its column. Ice adds cost too.
A lunge reaches farther but costs 2 extra. It is not always the best move.
A sideways step toward a jug can be better than climbing straight up.

A breath gives you stamina, but also gives the wall a turn. Check the warning ribbon before you rest.

05Reach the next belay

Every ten rows, a place to stop

Reaching the broad belay ledge completes the pitch and refills your stamina. You must stop at each ledge; you cannot lunge past it.

Choose Climb On to continue into the next pitch, or End Run to finish with your current score.
New height, completed pitches, and stamina left on arrival earn points.
Keep stamina above 3 throughout a pitch to build a clean streak.
Running out of stamina away from a ledge, or having no legal move, ends the run. A move arriving at a ledge with exactly zero still completes the pitch and refills you.

The climb has no fixed final pitch. Make each ledge your next goal.

Play Cragwake