Duck Life Training Guide: Running, Flying, Swimming and the Energy Bar

Duck Life has four numbers that matter: Running, Flying, Swimming and Energy. Every race is decided by those four, so the whole game is a loop of train, collect coins, feed, race, repeat. This guide is about doing that loop faster than the ducks you are racing against.

What each training game actually rewards

Each of the three training games is a short arcade round, and the score you finish with is what fills the level bar for that skill. Bigger score, more bar.

• Running Training is a one-button hurdle game. Click (or tap) to jump the boulders rolling towards your duck and grab the coins in between. The counter at the top right is your score, and the run ends on the first boulder you clip. Jump late rather than early: a jump that starts when the boulder is about a duck-length away clears it every time, a jump that starts too soon lands on it.
• Flying Training launches the duck off a ramp and lets it glide. Click or tap the left half of the screen to lift, the right half to dip, and thread the coins hanging in the air. Small, frequent taps keep the duck level; holding one side sends it off the top or into the ground.
• Swimming Training is the only one on the keyboard. Up arrow jumps out of the water, Down dives under, Left and Right shift the duck sideways. Buoys and floating junk come at you in lanes: dive under the tall ones, jump the low ones, and do not drift off the edge of the screen, which ends the round.

Energy is the stat people forget

Training and racing both burn energy, and a duck with an empty bar in the middle of a race slows to a waddle whatever its other levels say. Energy comes from seed: a plain Seed costs 1 coin and gives a small top-up, a Super Seed costs 10 and fills a lot more. You start with four of each. The cheap trick is to feed before a race, not after, so the bar is full when the countdown starts.

An order that works

1. Spend the first ten minutes on Running Training only. It is the easiest score to grow, it pays coins on every run, and the Beginner races are mostly flat ground.
2. Once running is a few levels up, split time between Flying and Swimming. Every Beginner course has a stretch of each, and one weak skill costs more than one strong skill gains.
3. Enter the four Beginner races (Green Valley, Rocky Cliff, Shallow Lake and Natural World) as soon as you can win one. Race prize money is faster than coin-collecting, and winning all four unlocks the Amateur tier.
4. Keep the coins for seed until the Amateur races are done. Hats (100 coins) and paint (50) are cosmetic; a hat does not make the duck faster.

Losing a race

You keep your levels and coins; only the entry is gone. Look at where the pack pulled ahead. If it was on the water, that is a swimming problem; in the air, flying. Train that one skill for a few rounds and try again rather than grinding everything evenly.

Saving

The game saves in your browser on this site, so the same laptop and the same browser bring your duck back. Clearing site data, or the "Clear save data" button in Settings, starts a new egg. If you switch between a school Chromebook and a home computer, expect two separate ducks.