How to play
A hedgehog wanders a garden maze of clipped hedges. Blackberries line every path, and three owls leave their nest in the middle to hunt. Gather all 181 berries to clear the level; get caught by an owl and you lose a life. The four glowing berries in the corners frighten the owls for a while: they turn dark blue and flee, and if you catch one it scurries back to the nest as a pair of eyes.
- Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD. P or Escape pauses.
- Touch: swipe in the direction you want, or tap beside the hedgehog on the side you want to go.
- A turn you ask for early is remembered and taken at the next opening, so you can press ahead of the corner.
- Turning straight back is instant, even mid-path.
- The tunnel on the middle row wraps from one side of the garden to the other. Owls slow down inside it.
Scoring
| Pickup | Points |
|---|---|
| Blackberry (177 per level) | 10 |
| Glowing berry | 50 |
| Owl caught during a scare | 200, then 400, then 800 within one scare |
| Berry basket (appears in the middle room after 60 berries) | 500 |
| Level cleared | 500 |
You start with 3 lives and earn one more every 10,000 points. Your best score is saved between visits.
The owls
Each owl hunts differently:
- The tawny owl heads straight for the cell you are in.
- The grey owl aims three cells ahead of you, to cut off the path you are taking.
- The barn owl chases while far away, but retreats to the bottom-left corner once it gets within about six cells.
Owls do not turn back on themselves, and every so often the hunt pauses: all three scatter to their own corners for a few seconds before chasing again. When the mode flips, every owl reverses direction, which is a good moment to slip past.
Each level the owls get a little faster and the scare from a glowing berry gets a little shorter, down to a minimum of three seconds.
Strategy
- Clear the far corners first while the owls are still leaving the nest. The glowing berries are in the corners too, so save them for when an owl is close behind you.
- Use the scare to hunt. Catching all three owls in one scare is worth 1,400 points, more than a whole row of berries. The owls blink in the last two seconds of a scare; if one is still blue and blinking, let it go.
- Turn, do not run. The owls match your speed in open corridors. Taking two quick turns around a hedge block leaves a straight-line chaser behind.
- Watch the grey owl’s target, not the owl. It aims where you are heading, so reversing for a moment pulls it off your line.
- The tunnel is an escape hatch: owls slow down inside it and you do not.
If you enjoy Hedge Maze, try Joust Duel or Lumen & Umbra next.
