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Beakdown, the complete reference
Beakdown is a free single-player browser arcade game in which you fly a bird by flapping and destroy enemies by colliding with them from above, because the higher bird wins. This page is the complete reference: every rule, every number that matters, what it costs, what it collects, and who it is for. If you would rather just play, it is right here.
Touch: hold the left or right half of the screen to fly that way. Keyboard: left and right arrows or A and D to steer, space to climb. Any key starts. Every clash goes to the higher bird.
The complete rules
When two birds collide, the game compares the height of each bird's crest. The higher bird wins and the lower bird is destroyed. If the two are within a small band of level, nobody dies; both birds bounce apart. That comparison is drawn on screen at every clash: the game freezes for a beat and marks each bird's height with a line, which is the entire tutorial.
The arena wraps horizontally, so flying off one side brings you in on the other, and enemies, eggs and pickups wrap the same way. Platforms are solid from above and below: you land on their tops and bonk off their undersides. The floor and ceiling are solid. Losing a clash costs a life and a short respawn; losing your last life ends the run at a score screen.
Every downed enemy drops an egg worth 250 points. In the first three waves eggs rot if ignored. From wave four onward they hatch into fresh enemies, and hatch times shrink as waves climb, down to a floor of four seconds. Each egg keeps the hatch timer of the wave it dropped in, and a wave only ends when no enemies and no hatchable eggs remain.
Controls
On touch, hold the left or right half of the screen to fly that way. Holding auto-flaps about five times a second and drifts you sideways, which is enough to climb steadily with one thumb. Deliberate taps flap faster, up to nearly nine a second, and each tap adds a sideways kick, so tapping is the faster, more skilled option.
On a keyboard, the left and right arrows or A and D steer, and space climbs straight up. Holding a key behaves like holding the screen; tapping keys behaves like tapping. Any key or tap starts a run from the title screen. A mouse works like touch: click and hold either half of the play area.
Power-ups
Star
About seven seconds of invincibility. While it lasts, any contact destroys the enemy regardless of height, each worth 1000 points, and the bird trails a rainbow so everyone can see the tables have turned. Stars drop from downed enemies at a rate that works out to roughly one every couple of waves.
Heart
One extra life, added on the spot. There is no cap on lives.
Mushroom
Makes the bird about a third larger, with a proportionally higher crest, so clashes genuinely tilt in your favour. While held, a losing clash strips the mushroom instead of costing a life, with a brief moment of grace afterwards. The mushroom is not dropped by enemies; it appears somewhere in the arena, expires if left too long, and reappears elsewhere, so holding the advantage means going and getting it.
Arenas, waves and escalation
There are twelve arena layouts: Terraces, Towers, The Spine, The Steps, The Cavern, The Isles, The Ladder, The Pit, The Crown, The Comb, The Hourglass and The Roost. Each is also played mirrored, and a mirrored ground announces itself as reversed, giving 24 distinct grounds. The arena changes every three waves, and no ground repeats until wave 72.
Waves start at three enemies and grow to a cap of ten. The fast red hunters enter from wave three at roughly a third of spawns and rise to seven in ten. Egg hatch times shrink from seven seconds toward the four-second floor. Every one of those dials reaches its maximum by wave 32, and from there the game holds at peak pressure; past that point the test is endurance rather than new escalation.
Scoring and lives
A standard bird is worth 500 points, a fast red bird 750, any bird destroyed while invincible 1000, and a collected egg 250. You start with three lives and earn a guaranteed extra life every five waves, at waves six, eleven, sixteen and so on, with hearts stacking on top without limit. The best score of any run is kept and shown on the title and score screens.
Cost, requirements and data
Beakdown is free. There are no ads, no purchases, no account and no sign-up. It runs in any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer, and the arena adapts its shape to the screen it is on. The connection is only needed to load the page; once loaded, the game keeps running if the network drops, and there is no install, so a bookmark is the way to keep it.
It collects nothing about you. The game stores exactly one thing, your best score, in your own browser's local storage, and clearing your browser data removes it. The site uses Cloudflare's cookieless analytics to count visits.
Who made it
Beakdown is made in Australia by Nathan Haslewood, an independent developer, and lives at beakdown.fun. The whole game is a single hand-built web page.
Who it suits, and who it does not
Beakdown suits players who want short arcade runs with somewhere to go: fights decided by positioning, a difficulty curve that keeps climbing, and one-thumb play on a phone. It is silent by design, which makes it a good neighbour in a classroom or an office.
It will not satisfy someone looking for the exact one-button endless loop of Flappy Bird; that is a different game with different pleasures, and the honest routing to it is on the history page and its links. It also is not for players who need sound, global leaderboards or a two-player mode, because today it has none of those.
Questions people actually ask
What is Beakdown?
A free single-player browser arcade game in which you fly a bird by flapping and destroy enemies by colliding with them from above, because the higher bird wins. It escalates in waves across 24 rotating arenas with three power-ups.
Is it really free?
Yes. No price, no ads, no purchases, no catch.
Does it need an account or sign-up?
No. Open the page and play. There is no login anywhere on the site.
What does it collect or track?
The game stores only your best score, in your own browser. The site uses Cloudflare's cookieless analytics to count visits, and nothing identifies you.
What devices and browsers does it run on?
Any modern browser on a phone, tablet or computer. The arena reshapes itself to the screen, taller on phones and wider on desktops.
How do I start a game?
Open beakdown.fun and tap the screen or press any key. The same input that starts the run is the input that flies the bird.
What is the winning rule?
Be higher than the other bird when you collide. The higher crest wins every clash, and near-level clashes bounce both birds apart harmlessly.
What do the power-ups do?
The star gives about seven seconds of invincibility with 1000 points per kill. The heart adds one life, uncapped. The mushroom makes you larger with a higher crest and absorbs one losing clash, and it expires and moves, so it must be chased.
How many arenas are there?
Twelve layouts, each also played mirrored, for 24 distinct grounds. The arena changes every three waves and nothing repeats until wave 72.
Does the difficulty ever stop rising?
It climbs until wave 32, where enemy count, the share of fast hunters and egg hatch speed all reach their maximums. From there the game holds at peak pressure.
Can I play offline?
Once loaded, the game keeps running without a connection, because the whole game is in the page. Reloading needs the network back, and there is no installable offline version.
Is there sound?
No, the game is deliberately silent for now.
Is there a two-player mode?
Not yet; Beakdown is single-player today. If that changes, the site will say so.
Is Beakdown related to Flappy Bird?
No. It is an original game with its own rules and code, not a clone or remake of anything. This site also tells that game's history because people ask, but the two are different games.