How to play Piri Reis: wind, chart pieces and tips

What is the goal in Piri Reis?

In every level your ship sets out from a harbor. At first the map is almost empty: you only know the area within two squares of the starting harbor. To finish a level you need three things:

1. See all the marked places on the map. Marks are castles, towers, capes and springs on the coast; when the ship passes within one square of a mark (diagonals count), it is drawn in the logbook.
2. Place every chart piece of the level on the map.
3. Reach the harbor with the red flag.

If you reach the destination too early, the level does not end: the game tells you what is missing (a mark or a chart piece) and you sail on. You must do all of this before your supplies run out. Supplies are the day limit of the level: the counter at the top, such as "Day 5 / 21", shows which day you are on and how many days of supplies you have. The level's target days are shown next to it.

Each day the ship sees one square around it and inks the coast it sees. Sea you have not seen stays blank; shoals only show up from close by or on a correctly placed chart piece.

How do you play Piri Reis? Controls

The ship moves square by square in eight directions. On a touch screen or with a mouse, tap around the ship in the direction you want to go; gold arrows show the directions that are open. You can also play with the keyboard.

The letter keys are laid out like a compass: W north, E northeast, D east, C southeast, X south, Z southwest, A west, Q northwest. On the number pad 8 is north, 2 south, 4 west, 6 east, and the corner keys 7, 9, 1 and 3 are the diagonals; 5 in the middle drops anchor. The arrow keys give only the four main directions.

You cannot enter land or shoal squares. You also cannot cut diagonally past a corner of the coast: if both squares beside a diagonal step are land, that passage is closed.

How do you read the wind in Piri Reis?

In the game the winds keep the old Turkish names used by Mediterranean sailors, and every wind is named after the direction it blows from: Yıldız blows from the north, Lodos from the southwest. While a wind blows, your ship cannot sail toward the direction the wind comes from, nor 45 degrees to either side of it. Three of the eight directions are closed and five stay open.

Example: while Yıldız blows, if your destination lies due north you cannot sail straight there. You can move east or west and wait for the wind to turn, drop anchor, or row. When the wind turns to Kıble, north opens and now south is closed.

The wind strip at the top of the screen shows the wind for today and the next 4 days, 5 days in all; storm days are labeled "Storm". Each level has a fixed wind sequence that starts over when it ends. The same moves always give the same result: there is no luck involved, so you can plan your course in advance.

How do you use the anchor, oars and supplies?

• Drop anchor: the ship stays where it is and one day passes. If the direction you need opens a day or two later on the strip, anchoring is often the shortest way.
• Oars: you move one square against the wind, that is, in a closed direction; on a storm day you can also row one square in any direction. Your uses are limited per level: there are none in the first chapter, then 2 or 3, and the number left is shown on the button. If you press Oars and then tap an open direction, the ship simply sails and no oar use is spent.
• Supplies: the day limit of the level, always larger than the target days. If they run out, the ship turns back; on the result screen you can step back a few days with Undo or restart the level. If you like, you can watch a short rewarded ad for +3 days of supplies. This works once per attempt, and that attempt can earn at most 2 stars.

A day always runs in the same order: first your move (sail, oars or anchor), then the current, then the storm, and last the ship looks around and inks the new coast.

How do you place chart pieces in Piri Reis?

Chart pieces are 3×3 fragments of old maps; they show land and sea but no place names. Drag one from the logbook below onto the map, or tap a piece and then tap the spot on the map where you want it. Placing a piece costs no days, and pieces cannot be rotated.

A piece will not settle in two cases:

• If it contradicts a square your ship has already seen: the game says "This piece doesn't match the coast here."
• If it overlaps another chart piece.

Here is the real puzzle: a piece can match the coast you have seen and still be in the wrong place, because you know nothing yet about the squares you have not seen. When the ship sees one of those squares and a contradiction appears, the piece becomes an ink blot and returns to the logbook, and you have to place it again. When you reach the destination harbor, all pieces are checked one last time, and any piece in the wrong place becomes a blot there. A blot does not stop you from finishing, but it costs you the third star and cannot be undone.

A correctly placed piece shows sea you have not visited yet: you know about the shoals, harbors and currents ahead and can plan with open eyes. If you are unsure, you can take a piece off the map by tapping it in the logbook; a piece removed this way leaves no blot.

How do you deal with shoals, currents and storms?

• Shoal (squares with red dots): no entry. If a current or a storm drifts the ship onto a shoal, it runs aground: it stays on its square and you lose 2 days.
• Current (squares with arrows): if you end the day on a current square, the ship drifts one square in the arrow's direction. This happens even at anchor. With the current behind you, you cover two squares in a day; against it, you go nowhere. Land stops the drift.
• Storm day: no sails can be raised; you can only drop anchor or row. At the end of the day a ship in open water drifts two squares away from where the storm blows. A Yıldız storm, for example, pushes the ship south.
• Sheltered harbor: if a harbor has land on its neighboring square on the side the storm blows from, it is closed to that storm and your ship does not drift there. Every harbor is different: one is closed to Poyraz, another to Karayel. When a storm is today or within the next 2 days, a pulsing ring appears around the harbors that are safe from it.

Storms begin in the third chapter, in the waters of Morea and Crete. If a storm comes tomorrow and your ship is exposed, the game warns you, but start looking for a ringed harbor as soon as you first see the storm on the strip.

How do levels and stars work?

The 12 levels are split into three chapters of 4 levels each: Gallipoli and the Dardanelles (wind, the current of the strait and the first chart pieces), Aegean Islands (oars, shoals, more chart pieces) and Morea and Crete (storms and sheltered harbors). Finishing a level unlocks the next one.

• 1 star: finish the level.
• 2 stars: finish within the target days.
• 3 stars: finish within the target days, with no blot on the map and without extra supplies.

The target is about 25% above the best solution found by computer for the level (at least 2 days of margin). The table below shows each level's oars, marks, chart pieces, storm days, target days and supplies.

The result screen shows the days you used, the number of blots and the coastline you drew. You can replay any level as often as you like; your best star result is kept.

What is the Daily Voyage and how is it scored?

The Daily Voyage unlocks after you finish level 4. That day everyone sails the same sea with the same winds; the sea is built anew every day and changes at midnight Turkish time. The rules are the same as in the levels: see the marks, place the chart pieces, reach the destination. You get 2 oar uses, and there are no storms on these voyages.

Here you earn points instead of stars:

Coastline drawn means land squares you have seen that touch the sea. Exploring a little earns coast points but eats into supply points: a day is worth 100, a coast square 10. You can try as often as you like during the day; your best score of the day is kept and goes on the leaderboard.

What do Pilot and Undo do?

• Undo: unlimited and free. It takes back moves and chart piece placements one by one, and it also works after your supplies run out. Ink blots and extra supplies already taken are not undone.
• Pilot: the pilot shows the next 4 days of the best route from where you are and marks the correct spot of one chart piece not yet placed. The hint stays on screen for about 7 seconds. If the best first move is to wait, it tells you to drop anchor first. It opens with a short rewarded ad; if ads are off, it is free. Using the Pilot does not affect your stars.

Tips for Piri Reis

• Before you set out, read the whole strip: knowing which direction closes on which day saves you a pointless detour.
• Do not spend your oars in the first few days. Save them for a narrow passage the wind never opens, or for the last escape before a storm.
• Place a chart piece where it overlaps many squares you have already seen. If a piece fits in two different places, sail a little closer to that coast and place it once it fits in only one.
• You do not have to sail next to a mark; passing within one square, even diagonally, is enough. Plan a route that sees several marks at once.
• Ending a day on a current square that flows your way gives you a free square. Do not anchor in a current that flows against you; it carries you back.
• Keep away from shoals before a storm: a drifting ship that runs aground loses 2 days.
• If you see you will miss the target, use Undo to go back a few days and read the strip again; often a single day of waiting changes the whole route.

Common mistakes

• Thinking a wind is named after where it goes: Lodos blows from the southwest, so in Lodos you cannot sail southwest, south or west.
• Looking only at today's wind: moves made without reading the 5 days on the strip often have to be retraced.
• Using the oars at the first difficulty: there are none in the first chapter, and later only 2 or 3.
• Placing a chart piece in the first spot it fits: matching a few seen squares does not prove the spot is right; if it is wrong, it becomes a blot.
• Heading for the destination before seeing the marks: the level does not end, and going back for a missing mark costs days.
• Anchoring on a current square and expecting to stay put: the current moves an anchored ship one square too.
• Thinking every harbor is safe in a storm: a harbor only shelters you if there is land on the side the storm blows from. Look for the pulsing ring.
• Expecting Undo to remove a blot: moves are undone, blots stay.