Flappy Bird: 5 tips, hints, cheats and tricks to tap your way up the leaderboards

Flappy Bird is the hottest game on the Play Store - at least for the moment - and topmost on every gamer's mind is how to get a higher score than their friends without smashing their phone to pieces in the process. Flapp Bird is a fantastically terrible game, its design is derivative, its mechanics maddening, and its popularity no doubt the result of incredible rage-of-mouth marketing. Yet despite all of that (or maybe because of it), we can't. Stop. Playing. So how can you get better at Flappy Bird faster? For some games it's simply a matter of finding the right tips, hints, and cheats. Flappy Bird, however, is so simple, that there are few to no ways to hack the system. But that doesn't mean you can't hack yourself.

1. Use a big screen

Though Flappy Bird is entirely playable on an Android phone, it's much easier if you play on a tablet. Not only are your hands less cramped, but you'll have an easier time discerning details, and less of a chance your own finger will obscure your view and get in your way. Not to mention, you can soak in all of the glorious 16-bit-style art on a tablet.

2. Find a spot for your finger

If you are playing Flappy Bird on an Android phone, pick a smart place to tap and stick with it. The corners where the ground scrolls by is a good spot and won't get in the way of oncoming pipes. This is particularly important if you're tapping with your right hand, since that's the edge where the pipes fly in from. You may find you have even more control with a stylus.

3. Mute outside notifications

Don't let an errant phone call ruin a good run. Any notification can send your stupid little bird face-first into the ground. Go ahead and mute notification sounds before you start to play. If you have a Samsung device, you can turn on Blocking mode.

You might also want to take a moment to close all other apps and reboot before you play in order to maximize game and system stability.

4. Find your rhythm

Make sure to get the timing for your taps down pat. The whole point of the game is to get the bird through the pipes without touching them, which means you have to learn to keep it as level as possible. Since the bird is always coming up or going down, you need to time your taps so that those peaks and dips are as consistent as possible and short enough to fit through the gaps.

Recover your rhythm quickly after you rise or fall to the right height for the pipe by double-tapping or pausing to drop, then getting stable again really fast. This will take plenty of practice, so keep at it.

5. Keep your cool

Flappy Bird is an easy game to get angry at. You'll be failing often, and as silly as it may be, you're going to get stressed out about it, and that can affect your performance. Luckily, the same stress-reducing techniques that are commonplace outside of these games works just as well when trying to stay focused. Slow, steady, breathing actually works wonders. It sounds silly, but it creates calm and focus. When you start getting close to your high score - or your friend's high score - you'll be less likely to freak out and fly right into a pipe.

See also: Playing Flappy Bird

Read more

How to win at Flappy Bird for Android

Flappy Bird is a ridiculously simple, mind-numbing, intelligence-sapping game that feeds off your boredom and pumps thousands of dollars into the hands of the sole developer through advertising.

Flappy Bird has become ridiculously popular in the past weeks, amassing between 10 million and 50 million total installations on Android. Flappy Bird is available on iOS. It's eventually headed to Windows Phone.

And now, we're going to show you how to win at Flappy Bird.

Some of these Flappy Bird tips and tricks will be stupidly self-explanatory. Some of them may make you laugh. Others may make you cry. (Lord knows they've made us curse a time or two.) So here goes. Here's how to beat Flappy Bird, insofar as you're able to win at a game that has no end, no purpose, and even less importance in the overall state of society.

1. How to beat Flappy Bird: Don't touch the pipes

This should be pretty self-explanatory. But if you're new to Flappy Bird, don't overthink it. You touch the screen to make the bird flap. Don't let it touch the pipes.

If you touch the pipes, you'll die. You'll lose. And then you'll have to start playing all over again. And that's no way to beat Flappy Bird.

2. How to win at Flappy Bird (and at life, perhaps): Stay off the sauce

There's a reason our nation's corps of skilled surgeons is so damn good at Flappy Bird. They've got steady hands. And probably nerves of steel. We can't do anything about the latter, but it's easy enough to keep your hand from shaking like you're about to talk to your first girl at your high school prom. (What, was that late or something?)

We recommend laying off the booze for at least 15 minutes before playing Flappy Bird. That will ensure the optimal nerve response time from your fingers to your brain, and vice-versa. You need those synapses firing on all cliched cylinders. So take one for the team and lay off the sauce.

You might also consider abstaining from any other, intensive movements that might strain your flapping hand.

Like hammering nails. Or using a jackhammer. Anything with hammering, really. (What were you thinking?)

3. Want to beat Flappy Bird? Get comfortable!

When it comes to flapping birds, bigger may well be better. We're talking about screen size, of course. Sure, you can play on a 5-inch device, and for most people, 5 inches is enough. But some need to take in more. Pixels. For that, we recommend switching over to a tablet.

Flapping with 5 inches is fine. Flapping with 7 or 8 tends to be ideal for most folks, according to a recent information survey conducted by a major Android blog. Some folks prefer 10 or 12 inches for flapping, but for many it's just too much.

4. Eliminate distractions. All of them, if possible.

Flappy Bird requires the utmost concentration. A single distraction can cause disaster when it comes to beating Flappy Bird. So we recommend eliminating any and all distractions. If possible, lock yourself in a secluded room. (Double-locks are best.) At the very least, pop in some headphones, cover your top half with a blanket or towel, and start flapping.

Read more