Ketchapp, the developer behind unique and challenging games like Stack, Twist, Rush, and Pineapple Pen to name a few, recently released a new addition to its roster of free-to-play casual games, Pen Run.
In Pen Run, you control a pen and follow a curving path to the goal while replenishing your paint (equivalent of stamina or gas) along the way while avoiding obstacles. Coins for purchasing new pens are randomly placed in the level as well. As you trace the path, you fill up a meter that gradually earns you stars till you reach the end of the level. You need to earn at least 1 Star to pass the level and reveal its corresponding picture.
The game’s mechanics seem simple enough yet it can be very challenging for a lot of players, especially in situations where obstacles make the path hardly passable, or paint bottles are too far from the path, or even when there’s a paint bottle on one side of the screen and a line of coins on the other.
Whether you’re struggling to clear levels or aiming to get three stars on every level, following our Pen Run guide will help you improve every run in this game. So let’s not waste any of your time and let’s jump to our Pen Run cheats, tips and tricks!
1. Know What To Prioritize
There are basically four elements in the game that will influence how you move through each level: the path, the paint bottles, the coins, and the obstacles. Following the path 25% of the time is enough to earn you a star, at about 75%, you gain the maximum 3-star rating. Bumping into an obstacle results in an instant fail and while occasionally you may watch a 15-second video to continue your game, you cannot always rely on that for the extra chance. Grabbing paint bottles at least 50% of the time is enough to get you through the level and running out of it leads to a fail as well. Coins, as well as the pens you save them for, don’t affect gameplay at all.
With these given, your goal is to avoid obstacles while getting paint bottles 50% of the time and following the path 25% of the time to finish the level or 75% of the time to earn a 3-star rating on that level.
2. Don’t Let The In-Level Coins Distract You; There Are Other Ways To Earn Them
Currencies and collectibles in level-based games are there to attract you, sometimes to the point that it keeps you from focusing on your goal. Similarly, the shiny gold coins found scattered along the game’s levels are designed just like that. You can use these coins to purchase new pens at the shop for 200 each and while different pens don’t offer any in-game advantage whatsoever, collecting them literally brings new colors to the game and you’d probably want that.
The easiest way to earn coins is claiming the gift on the main menu once every 15 minutes. There’s also an option to watch a 20-second video to earn an extra gift. Additionally, you can watch short videos at any time to earn 50 coins.
3. Plan A Little Ahead On Which Paint To Get
You can see about three to four paint bottles at a time while playing a level. Some are more easily acquired than others. Given that you only need to grab about half of all paint bottles in a level to make it through to the end, the safest way is to alternate between grabbing and ignoring them along the way. Keep in mind though that ignoring one paint bottle makes it a must to get the next one.
4. Always Be Ready To Do A Quick Snatch
You will sometimes encounter situations where consecutive paint bottles are either too far from the path, or too challenging to get to because of an obstacle. Most of the time, you’d be keeping your finger on the middle of your device’s screen as you, more or less, follow the dotted path towards the end of each level. When you’re in one of these situations, though, what you’d rather do is tap and hold one side of the screen and quickly swipe your finger to the other side and back.
5. You Can Completely Stray Off The Path If You Need To
As you move on from one level to the next, there will be more instances where the path may run in-between two obstacles, making it difficult to go through with it. Remember that you only need to follow the path 25-75% of the time, depending on your target completion rate at the end of the level. This is one case where you’d have to consider straying from the path and again, the quick snatch tactic above may help in these situations.
This wraps up our quick guide for Pen Run. If you know additional tips or tricks for this challenging Ketchapp game, let us know in the comment section below!