Shift II

Also available on catalog if you prefer, as well as iOS!

A sequel to 2022's popular and award nominated puzzle game, Shift II takes the familiar and adds all new mechanics, strategy and ways to play.

Featuring three gameplay modes, The Calm tasks you with managing your energy supply, The Tactical only cares about your ability to maintain a streak, while The Frantic pits you against a thirty second countdown timer and was specifically designed for those of you who were disappointed that the original game wasn't stressful enough.

Keeping up your streak count, upgrading and downgrading tiles and making the most efficient moves as possible are all critical to your high score chances.

Features

• Three play modes: The Calm, The Tactical and The Frantic
• All new gameplay and mechanics.
• Four local player profiles with custom names.
• Local leaderboards for all modes.
• Pick up where you left off in all modes, across all player profiles.
• A "Reduce Motion" accessibility option.
• SAM-Y?

Controls

This game uses the A, B and D-Pad buttons.

	Press the A Button to upgrade a tile, or flip the orientation of a wild card tile. Hold the A Button and use the D-Pad to shift rows and columns.
	Press the B Button to downgrade a tile. If you are holding the A Button to shift, you can press the B Button to cancel.
	Use the D-Pad to navigate the Hyperspatial Directive Node (the pointer) around the grid. While holding the A Button, pressing a direction on the D-Pad will shift a row or column in that direction.

How to Play

These instructions are also available in the game.

There are three modes in Shift II. In The Calm, you're managing your energy. In The Frantic, it's you against a countdown timer. In The Tactical, all that matters is your streak. In all modes, your task is to shift tiles around the grid to get an entire row or column of tiles to be the same color and type.

Use the D-Pad to navigate the Hyperspatial Directive Node around the grid of tiles. Hold the A Button at the same time to shift a row or column.

For example, hitting UP on the D-Pad while holding the A Button will shift the column the H.D.N. is over in that direction. The tile that was at the top of the column will now be at the bottom, and all other tiles will move up. Pressing left, right, or down while holding A has the same effect for those directions. Press the B Button while holding the A Button to cancel shift mode.

Shifting costs half a segment of energy in The Calm and The Tactical, unless the move resulted in a match. Matching will grant you half a segment of energy, or two additional seconds in Frantic.

If you match more than one row or column, or an intersecting row and column, your energy bar will be refilled. In The Frantic you'll gain five seconds.

Each time you make a match in a single move, your streak count will increase by one. The streak is a multiplier, so the higher your streak, the more points you'll gain.

In The Calm, if you blow your streak, you'll be awarded points equal to the streak count multiplied by ten. So, if your streak is at x15 when it ends, you'll get 150 points.

When you make a match, the tile that was responsible for the match will upgrade to the next type of tile. Upgraded tiles are worth more points when you clear them! You can check the Pause Menu for a handy cheat sheet that displays the point values for each type, and what they upgrade or downgrade to.

You can also upgrade or downgrade a tile yourself. To upgrade a tile, press the A Button while the H.D.N. is over the tile. Press the B Button to downgrade the tile. Upgrading and downgrading tiles costs an entire segment of energy. If you've less than one segment of energy left, you may not upgrade or downgrade a tile.

In Frantic mode, you can upgrade or downgrade one tile per match. An indicator in the top right will show you if you're able to do so.

Occasionally a matched tile will upgrade to a wildcard tile. Wildcard tiles can match any tiles of the same type who's base color matches the sides of the wildcard tile. So, if the wildcard is white on the top and bottom, and black on the sides, it can match a white column or a black row. Vice versa for a wildcard with the opposite orientation.

If a wildcard tile isn't in the orientation you need you can press the A Button while the H.D.N. is over the tile to flip it. Flipping a wildcard costs one segment of energy.

When you've run out of energy in The Calm, time in The Frantic or your streak ends in The Tactical, the game will end. That's all there is to it - have fun!

Options

System Menu

While on the game's main menu, you can use the System Menu to switch to a different player profile. While in the game, you can restart your current game, or return to the main menu. Your game's progress will be saved.

The Settings Screen

• Sound Effects Toggle's sound effects on or off.
• Music Toggle's music on or off.
• Reduce Motion Enabling this option will prevent the game from shaking the screen and performing other visual effects that some players may find bothersome.
• Profile Name Add a custom name for the current player profile. Names can be up to 12 characters long and are used on local scoreboards.

Our Other Playdate Titles

All of our games are also available on Catalog, including this one!

Shift	Greed
Generations	Four Corners
Lillybug	Post Hero
You're Gonna Miss the Bus!