Pebble Bay guide
How to play Pebble Bay
Pebble Bay is a merge game in a seaside rock pool. You find shells and launch boats, put two of the same together to grow the next stage, and fill your beach journal with everything from a grain of sand to a tall ship. Its twist is the tide, which keeps washing up free shells, even while you are away.
The basics
- Find and launch. The two big buttons drop a shell or a boat into the first empty square. The first costs 10 sea glass, and each one you buy costs a little more.
- Merge. Two of the same thing, at the same stage, become one of the next stage. Tap one, then the other, or drag one onto the other. You can also move things to an empty square, or swap two different things by dragging.
- Grow. Everything gives off sea glass every second, and each stage gives off two and a half times as much as the stage before.
- Discover. There are 12 stages of shell and 12 of boat. Each new one goes into your beach journal, which you keep for good.
The tide
Every 30 seconds at first, the tide washes up a free shell into an empty square. It keeps coming while you are away (up to 12 hours), so there is always something to tidy when you come back. If the pool is full, one tide waits until there is room.
Three upgrades improve it:
- Spring tides make it come sooner, down to every 6 seconds.
- Big waves bring more shells with each tide, up to 4. They appear once something reaches stage 4.
- Deep water brings shells at a higher stage, up to stage 3. It appears once something reaches stage 6.
Shells or boats?
Both. Shells give off the most sea glass, and the tide brings them free. Boats give off a quarter as much, but each one brings visitors and adds a boost to everything in the pool, and the boosts add up. The tide never brings boats, so you launch them yourself.
In our tests, a pool with about a third boats grew fastest. Only shells, or too many boats, were both slower.
Your first few minutes
- Merge the two grains of sand you start with into a pebble, then keep finding shells and merging.
- Buy Spring tides early (60 sea glass). The tide then comes every 22 seconds.
- Sunny days doubles everything. Each level costs more, and each is worth it.
- After 25 merges, Beachcomber adds a Merge all button.
When to start a new summer
Once something reaches stage 9 and you have gathered at least 50,000 sea glass this summer, you can start a new one. Your sea glass, finds and upgrades reset, but you keep your postcards and your journal. Postcards are the square root of this summer’s sea glass divided by 50,000, rounded down: 50,000 brings 1, 200,000 brings 2, and 5 million brings 10. Each postcard makes everything give off 25% more, for good.
A new summer resets the tide upgrades too, so it is best when the pool has slowed down and you would earn a good handful of postcards. For more, see what is prestige?
Keep your rock pool safe
Pebble Bay saves automatically in your browser every 30 seconds and when you leave. Use the Save page to copy a backup now and then, or to move it to another device.
The numbers
These tables come straight from the game's own data, so they always match what you see in the game.
Every stage
What one of each gives off every second, before upgrades and compost. Each boat also adds the soil boost shown to everything on the plot; boosts add up.
| Stage | Shell | Sea glass / sec | Boat | Sea glass / sec | Soil boost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Grain of sand | 1 | Twig | 0.25 | +3% |
| 2 | Pebble | 2.5 | Driftwood | 0.62 | +6% |
| 3 | Cockle | 6.25 | Paper boat | 1.56 | +12% |
| 4 | Periwinkle | 15.62 | Raft | 3.9 | +24% |
| 5 | Scallop | 39.06 | Canoe | 9.76 | +48% |
| 6 | Starfish | 97.65 | Rowing boat | 24.41 | +96% |
| 7 | Conch | 244.14 | Dinghy | 61.03 | +192% |
| 8 | Coral | 610.35 | Sailing boat | 152.58 | +384% |
| 9 | Giant clam | 1.52K | Fishing boat | 381.46 | +768% |
| 10 | Oyster | 3.81K | Little ferry | 953.67 | +1.53K% |
| 11 | Pearl | 9.53K | Schooner | 2.38K | +3.07K% |
| 12 | Great pearl | 23.84K | Tall ship | 5.96K | +6.14K% |
Prices
Each new find you buy costs a little more than the last, wherever you buy it. Free ones (from a basket or the tide) don't count, and prices start again with everysummer.
| Bought so far | The next costs |
|---|---|
| 0 | 10 sea glass |
| 10 | 80 sea glass |
| 50 | 2.16K sea glass |
| 100 | 13.31K sea glass |
| 250 | 175K sea glass |
| 500 | 1.32M sea glass |
| 1,000 | 10.30M sea glass |
The tide
Every 30 seconds at first, the tide washes up 1 shell at stage 1 into an empty square, even while you're away. If there's no room, one tide waits until there is. The upgrades below make it come sooner, bring more and bring higher stages.
Upgrades
| Upgrade | What it does | Appears at | Costs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sunny days 1 | Everything gives off twice as much sea glass. | From the start | 150 sea glass |
| Sunny days 2 | Twice as much again. | After level 1 | 3,000 sea glass |
| Sunny days 3 | Twice as much again. | After level 2 | 60,000 sea glass |
| Sunny days 4 | Twice as much again. | After level 3 | 1,200,000 sea glass |
| Sunny days 5 | Twice as much again. | After level 4 | 25,000,000 sea glass |
| Sunny days 6 | Twice as much again. | After level 5 | 500,000,000 sea glass |
| Sunny days 7 | Twice as much again. | After level 6 | 10,000,000,000 sea glass |
| Sunny days 8 | Twice as much again. | After level 7 | 200,000,000,000 sea glass |
| Spring tides 1 | The tide comes every 22 seconds. | From the start | 60 sea glass |
| Spring tides 2 | The tide comes every 16 seconds. | After level 1 | 1,500 sea glass |
| Spring tides 3 | The tide comes every 12 seconds. | After level 2 | 40,000 sea glass |
| Spring tides 4 | The tide comes every 8 seconds. | After level 3 | 1,000,000 sea glass |
| Spring tides 5 | The tide comes every 6 seconds. | After level 4 | 30,000,000 sea glass |
| Big waves 1 | Each tide brings 2 finds. | Anything at stage 4 | 800 sea glass |
| Big waves 2 | Each tide brings 3 finds. | After level 1 | 60,000 sea glass |
| Big waves 3 | Each tide brings 4 finds. | After level 2 | 5,000,000 sea glass |
| Deep water 1 | The tide brings finds at stage 2. | Anything at stage 6 | 200,000 sea glass |
| Deep water 2 | The tide brings finds at stage 3. | After level 1 | 200,000,000 sea glass |
| Beachcomber | Adds a "Merge all" button. | 25 merges | 800 sea glass |
| A wider pool | Four more squares in the rock pool. | Anything at stage 7 | 5,000,000 sea glass |
Start a new summer
A new plot unlocks at: anything at stage 9, with at least 50,000sea glass made on this plot. You get the square root of this plot's sea glass divided by 50,000, rounded down, in postcards. Each one adds 25% to everything, for good.
Achievements
- Washed together: Merge for the first time.
- Shell collector: Find something at stage 5.
- Afloat: Launch a boat.
- Busy beach: Merge 100 times.
- Treasure hunter: Find something at stage 8.
- Beach notes: Fill 12 pages of the beach journal.
- Another summer: Start a new summer.
- Old salt: Merge 1,000 times.
- Far horizons: Find something at stage 10.
- The great pearl: Find a great pearl.
- Tall ship: Launch a tall ship.
- The whole shore: Find every stage of both shells and boats.
- Every summer: Start five new summers.
- Glass house: Gather a billion pieces of sea glass in total.