Tide Pool: Ocean Merge Puzzle

Drop a sea creature into the pool. When two of the same kind touch, they merge into the next one up. That is the whole rule — and about ten minutes later you are planning three merges ahead without noticing you started.

Tide Pool is a relaxing ocean merge puzzle built on real physics. Creatures roll, settle and nudge each other the way round things actually do, so no two boards play the same, and a drop that looks lost can still find its way home. No timers, no energy bar, no internet. It is a calm game on purpose.

THE MERGE LADDER
Plankton, krill, minnow, clownfish, pufferfish, jellyfish, sea turtle, octopus, dolphin, shark — and, if you set it up right, a whale. Every merge climbs a note of the scale, so a long chain does not just score well, it sounds good. Bring two sharks together and the whirlpool takes the whole board with it.

250 LEVELS, 25 OCEAN BIOMES
Dive from a sunlit coral cove to the Challenger Deep, eleven thousand metres down. Every biome brings its own water: bubble columns that lift a falling creature, currents that push it sideways, kelp that slows it, ice that takes more than one hit to break. The objectives change with them — reach a score, build a chain, collect a set, clear the driftwood.

THREE WAYS TO PLAY
- Campaign: 250 hand-tuned merge levels, a drop budget instead of a clock, three stars to earn on each
- Daily Tide: one seeded 50-drop run a day, the same board for every player in the world, with a streak to keep
- Zen Tide: no budget, no objective, no end. Just how big can you get

AN AQUARIUM THAT FILLS UP
Finish a biome or hold a streak and you earn a creature card for your aquarium. Twelve sea creatures to collect, and they stay yours.

BUILT TO BE PLAYED ANYWHERE
- Fully offline. No wifi, no account, no login, no server of any kind
- Portrait, one thumb, and any length of session you have
- Reduced motion, colourblind glyphs and haptics are all toggles in Settings
- Your progress lives on your device and nowhere else

QUESTIONS PLAYERS ASK
Does it work without internet? Yes, all of it, including the daily run. It is a genuinely offline puzzle game.
Is there a time limit? No. Nothing in this game is timed. The only pressure is the line at the top of the pool.
Is it free? Yes. Ads play between some levels, and one optional purchase removes them permanently. Rewarded videos are always a choice you make, never a wall you hit.
Can I play it one-handed? That is the only way it is designed to be played.
Do I need an account? No. There is nothing to sign in to.

If you like merge games, drop puzzles and physics puzzles — the kind where you drop a thing, it falls, and two of a kind become one bigger thing — this is that, with a calm ocean around it and no clock anywhere in sight.