SillyBird's flock vs. the Grackle Gang: two lanes, five molts, one very loud squawk.
Pecking Order is a lane-pushing strategy war in BIRDWORLDO. SillyBird's flock holds the Nest Tree on the left; the Grackle Gang holds the Scrap Spire on the right. Spend seeds to hatch birds that march (or fly) across the field on their own, beat Grackles to earn more seeds and molt points, and molt the whole flock through five eras of bird tech, from eggshell helmets to rainbow wands. The battle runs in two lanes at once, ground and sky, with a counter triangle between Peckers, Pitchers and Flyers. A live weather forecast changes the rules every 40 seconds or so, SillyBird himself can be sent in to level up and SQUAWK the Grackles silly, the Great Migration sweeps the field, raids arrive every two and a half minutes and the Grackle King turns up for the endgame. Three difficulties with their own leaderboards, fourteen achievements and six flock colours in the quick shop. It plays with a mouse, a keyboard or touch, in landscape or portrait.
STORY & LORE
BIRDWORLDO
BIRDWORLDO is the home of tall, rounded pixel birds on long stick legs. SillyBird, the white one with the flame-shaped tuft, lives at the top of the Nest Tree with his flock and three eggs he is very protective of.
The Grackle Gang
Grackles are iridescent black birds with yellow eyes and a taste for anything shiny. They built the Scrap Spire out of tyres, crates, a boot and a lot of things they pinched, and they want the Nest Tree next. They are shameless copycats: whatever tech the flock molts into, the Grackles copy, and they catch up fast when they fall behind.
The Grackle King
The Gang's boss, twice the height of anyone else, with a gold crown, a purple cape and a gold chain. He stays home until the Spire is in real trouble (or the fight drags past fifteen minutes), then walks out personally.
CHARACTERS & ENEMIES
SillyBirdHero unitHEROFree to deploy. Walks the ground lane with a cape and the era's weapon, levels up every 4 Grackles he helps finish (Lv 1-8, +10% HP and damage per level, kept for the whole match). While he is out, his button becomes SQUAWK. If he falls he naps for 30 seconds and can be sent in again.
The FlockYour birdsALLYPeckers (white), Pitchers (blue), Flyers (pink) and Heavies (golden), re-geared in every era.
GracklesThe GangENEMYSame four roles as your flock, same era tech, darker and meaner, with an AI that counter-picks what you field.
The Grackle KingEndgame bossBOSSSpawns once per match when the Spire drops below 42% or at 15:00. 3,400 HP and 95 damage scaled by the Grackles' era, a 34 px splash that also reaches flyers, and he shrugs off most of a Squawk (0.6 s stun). Toppling him pays a big seed and molt bonus, 40% Migration charge, +2,500 score and 5 TIX.
HOW IT PLAYS
Controls
Touch or mouse: tap the buttons along the bottom (a single row in landscape, two rows in portrait). Drag the field or tap the mini-map to look around; the camera follows the front line on its own when you leave it alone for 4 seconds (switch that off in Settings). Keyboard: 1-4 hatch birds, 5 or H for SillyBird / Squawk, T perch, U perch slot, E molt, Space or Q Great Migration, arrows or A/D to look, P or Esc to pause, M to mute. Hovering a button with the mouse explains it. The game pauses itself when the tab is hidden.
Two lanes and the counter triangle
Ground birds walk the grass and block each other; flyers cruise the sky lane above and only block other flyers, so they float straight over a ground fight. Peckers and Heavies can only hit the ground. Pitchers, Flyers and perches hit both lanes. That gives the triangle: Peckers beat fragile Pitchers, Pitchers shoot down Flyers, Flyers bomb Peckers and Heavies that cannot hit back. A flock of only one kind gets punished.
Seeds, molt points and molting
You earn 6 seeds a second (+4 per era) and seeds for every Grackle beaten. Every Grackle also fills the MOLT meter (plus a trickle of 1.5 a second). Molting moves the whole flock to the next era: new birds, a new perch, a bigger nest (it keeps its health percentage and heals 8% on top). Birds already on the field keep the era they hatched in.
Perches
Turrets on the right side of the Nest Tree, one slot to start, +1 slot for 650 seeds and +1 more for 1,700. A perch always fires at the closest Grackle in range, in either lane. Once every slot is full the button turns into UPGRADE and replaces your oldest-era perch with the current one.
SQUAWK
With SillyBird on the field, his button squawks (20 s cooldown): every Grackle within 120 px of him is stunned for 1.7 s (0.6 s for the King), and every bird of yours in that circle is rallied for 6 s: +35% damage, +25% attack rate and +30% speed.
The Great Migration
The special charges 1% a second plus 1.4% per Grackle beaten (40% for the King). Unleash it and a flock sweeps across the whole field, left to right, hitting every Grackle it passes for 110 x your era multiplier (x1.5 against flyers, x0.4 against the King).
Weather
The forecast in the top right shows the current weather, the next one and the countdown. The first change comes at 0:55, then every 36-46 s, and thunderstorms never arrive before 2:30. See the weather table below.
Raids, the King and termites
From 2:30, every 150 seconds a Grackle raid of free birds pours out of the Spire (2 birds, +1 for every 5 minutes played, +1 on Raptor, -1 on Fledgling), with a 4-second warning siren. The Grackle King arrives once (see above). After 20:00 termites get into both forts and each loses 0.6% of its max health a second, so every match ends.
Copycat Grackles
When you out-molt the Grackles they steal your tech fast: for every era they are behind they gain an extra 5 molt points a second, 80% more molt points per kill and 6 extra seeds a second. Racing ahead buys you a window, not a free win.
Score
Seed value of every Grackle you beat, plus half the damage you dealt to the Spire, plus on a win 6,000 + 4,000 x the share of nest health left + 4 points per second under 20:00, plus 2,500 if you toppled the King. The total is multiplied by the difficulty (Fledgling x0.6, Flock x1, Raptor x1.6). A loss still posts a score.
Saving
Best scores per difficulty, wins, Grackles beaten and Kings toppled save to your account (cloud save) and show on the title screen. A match itself is not saved mid-fight.
HATCHLING ERA: THE FLOCK
A meadow of soft green hills and wildflowers. Molting out of this era costs 1,400 molt points.
pecker
pitcher
flyer
heavy
perchBACKYARD ERA: THE FLOCK
Suburban back gardens, a picket fence and houses at golden hour. The Nest Tree gets a birdhouse. Molting out of this era costs 3,600 molt points.
peckerpitcher
flyer
heavy
perchJUNKYARD ERA: THE FLOCK
A dusty scrapyard of tyres, barrels and a crane. Bottlecaps get nailed to the tree. Molting out of this era costs 7,400 molt points.
pecker
pitcher
flyer
heavy
perchROOFTOP ERA: THE FLOCK
City rooftops at dusk, water towers and satellite dishes. The Spire lights up a neon CAW sign. Molting out of this era costs 14,000 molt points.
pecker
pitcher
flyer
heavy
perchSKY KINGDOM: THE FLOCK
Floating islands over a cloud floor under a rainbow. The Spire grows a storm cloud. The final era.
pecker
pitcher
flyer
heavy
perchTHE GRACKLE GANG
Grackles use the same four roles and the same era tech as your flock (they are copycats), drawn as iridescent black birds with yellow eyes. On Flock their birds get +18% HP and damage, on Raptor +25%, on Fledgling -8%.
pecker
pitcher
flyer
heavy
pecker
pitcher
flyer
heavypecker
pitcher
flyer
heavy
pecker
pitcher
flyer
heavy
pecker
pitcher
flyer
heavybossSILLYBIRD THROUGH THE ERAS
SillyBird wears the gear of the era he was sent out in. If you molt while he is on the field he keeps his old kit until his next deployment.
hero
hero
hero
hero
heroFLOCK COLOURS (QUICK SHOP)
Cosmetic flock colourways the game can wear, sold and equipped in the quick shop on the game's page (equip key po_flock). The game checks you own one before painting it and applies it on the next frame. Every colourway plays exactly the same. Classic is free.
free
cosmetic
cosmetic
cosmetic
cosmetic
cosmeticGALLERY
BASE BIRD STATS (HATCHLING ERA)
Every later era multiplies cost by the cost multiplier and HP and damage by the stat multiplier in the next table (costs round to 5). Speed is px per second; the lane is 900 px from tree to Spire.
| Role | Seeds | Hatch time | HP | Hit | Attack every | Speed | Range | Hits |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pecker | 40 | 1.0 s | 115 | 16 | 0.8 s | 30 | melee | ground |
| Pitcher | 75 | 1.4 s | 62 | 13 | 1.1 s | 28 | 92 | ground + sky |
| Flyer | 105 | 1.7 s | 82 | 15 | 1.0 s | 40 | 62 | ground + sky |
| Heavy | 215 | 2.8 s | 430 | 36 | 1.3 s | 19 | melee + splash | ground |
ERAS
Molt points needed to leave each era. The Grackles' molt cost is x0.95 on Flock, x0.85 on Raptor and x1.15 on Fledgling.
| Era | Cost mult. | Stat mult. | Nest / Spire HP | Molt to next | Seed income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hatchling Era | x1 | x1 | 6,000 | 1,400 | 6 /s |
| Backyard Era | x1.75 | x1.85 | 9,000 | 3,600 | 10 /s |
| Junkyard Era | x3.0 | x3.4 | 13,000 | 7,400 | 14 /s |
| Rooftop Era | x5.2 | x6.0 | 19,000 | 14,000 | 18 /s |
| Sky Kingdom | x9.0 | x10.4 | 27,000 | - | 22 /s |
WEATHER
Effects apply to both sides unless noted.
| Weather | Effect |
|---|---|
| Clear Skies | Nothing funny going on. |
| Tailwind | Your birds +25% speed (flyers +45%); Grackles -20% (flyers -36%). |
| Headwind | The reverse: Grackles get the boost, your birds get slowed. |
| Downpour | Ground birds move at 70% speed; perches fire at 75% rate. |
| Thunderstorm | Rain, plus lightning every 2.2-3.8 s strikes a random flyer (either side) for 32% of its max HP. Not before 2:30. |
| Pea-Soup Fog | Every ranged attack, perches included, reaches only 60% as far. |
DIFFICULTIES
Each difficulty has its own leaderboard; Flock is the main board. Measured with the built-in auto-player (it uses SillyBird and the Migration but plays simply): Fledgling won 10 of 10 (9-15 min), Flock 5 of 10 (10-17 min), Raptor 1 of 10 (16-20 min).
| Fledgling | Flock | Raptor | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grackle seed income | x0.9 | x1.3 | x1.45 |
| Grackle molt points | x0.8 | x1.1 | x1.25 |
| Grackle bird HP and damage | x0.92 | x1.18 | x1.25 |
| Grackle seeds per kill | x0.85 | x1 | x1.15 |
| Grackle decision time | 2.4-4.0 s | 1.6-3.0 s | 1.0-2.0 s |
| Grackles start with a perch | no | no | yes |
| Score multiplier | x0.6 | x1 | x1.6 |
TIX
What the game asks the portal for. The server pays the amounts in the manifest, capped at 45 a match. TIX never appear inside the game.
| Reason | TIX | When |
|---|---|---|
| play | 2 | A match that lasted at least 2 minutes ends |
| win | 10 | You wreck the Scrap Spire |
| raptor_win | 15 | You win on Raptor (on top of win) |
| king | 5 | You topple the Grackle King |
| high_score | 10 | New personal best on that difficulty, at least 2,000, with an earlier best on record |
VERSION HISTORY
- Reworked from a straight clone of an old Flash evolve-through-the-ages war game into original WowCool IP: new title (Pecking Order), new slug (pecking-order, replacing the old one), new world (BIRDWORLDO), new cast (SillyBird's flock vs. the Grackle Gang and the Grackle King).
- New mechanics: two simultaneous lanes (ground and sky) with a Pecker/Pitcher/Flyer counter triangle; a live weather forecast (tailwind, headwind, downpour, thunderstorm, fog); SillyBird as a free, levelling hero with a SQUAWK stun-and-rally; the Great Migration special; Grackle raids; the Grackle King boss; copycat catch-up; termites after 20:00 so no match can stall.
- Five eras of bird tech (Hatchling, Backyard, Junkyard, Rooftop, Sky Kingdom) with 20 flock birds, 20 Grackles, 5 perches and per-era scenery, all pixel art drawn in code; chiptune music that changes key and tempo with each molt.
- Three difficulties with their own leaderboards, 14 achievements, TIX for playing, winning, Raptor wins, the King and new bests, cloud-saved records, six flock colourways read from the quick shop.
- Responsive layouts for desktop, landscape phones and portrait phones; mouse, touch and keyboard; pause button, P/Esc and auto-pause on tab hide.