Fieldcraft

Survival tips

Mottle is not about how many fireflies you can see. It is about how cheaply you can take them.

Updated 15 November 2026. The numbers match the game on this site.

A drag charges you three times. You spend the seconds you are coral, the Camo you have to rebuild, and whatever Alert you carry into the next choice. “Can I reach it?” is the beginner question. “What will I have left when I get there?” is the one that lasts.

Read one sweep before you commit

Cones are drawn on the garden. Before a long move, watch a Seeker finish a pass. You want its direction, how wide the lit patch is, and whether it is walking a line or turning toward you.

A cone on a patrol can be beaten with timing. A cone that has started chasing you is a distance problem. You do not move faster because you drag harder.

The part that feels wrong: standing still inside the edge of a light is often safer than sprinting out of it. A blended player is easy to pass over. A moving player is not.

One firefly, then a decision

Three pickups in one drag are three times the exposure for three times the points. There is no discount. Two short trips let you look again after each one. One long trip locks you to a plan the garden has already left behind.

Release earlier than feels right

If you let go as the cone arrives, you are still coral for the part of the sweep that matters. Release while the light is a comfortable distance off, and let the bar finish while nothing is pointed at you.

A practical correction: stop about a body-length sooner than your instinct says. Most lost runs are lost by a fraction of a second, in the same direction.

Spend Alert on purpose

Alert does not come back for free while you are being looked at, and a full bar costs a life no matter how many fireflies you picked up on the way.

• Under a third: this is the working range. Take the trips you can finish.
• Around half: only trips you can end with one stop.
• Over two-thirds: stop. Rebuild Camo, break the line of sight, wait for the bar to fall.
• Full: the round restarts and a life is gone.

Camo is the meter you can refill whenever you like. Decide with the other one.

Colour boundaries are the terrain

Your camouflage copies the patch you stand on. A boundary is where that colour changes, which is also where a moving player is most obvious against both sides. Cross a boundary in one movement and settle well inside the new colour.

The gap between two cones looks like a shortcut. It is the shortest route and the least forgiving one, because either sweep can turn it into a chase.

Habits that end runs

• Dragging across the whole garden in one go.
• Stopping only once the cone is overhead.
• Watching Camo while Alert is the meter that matters.
• Moving again while Alert is already high.
• Resting a finger on the screen and calling it a release.
• Stopping on the line between two colours.

A short practice set

1. Take only fireflies within a short drag. Survival first.
2. Never let Alert pass half. Learn what recovery feels like.
3. Watch one full sweep before every move.
4. Then alternate a careful run with a greedy one. The greedy run shows you where your limit actually is.

If the gestures still feel slippery, go back to how to play. The rules have the numbers behind the meters.