Par: why every tap counts
A koi leaves the pond only when its whole path is clear. That rule never changes. What changed in the r205 update is what a tap costs: every pond now has a par, and a tap on a koi that cannot move counts against it exactly like a tap that sends one home.
What par is
Par is the number of taps a pond needs — one for every koi, plus one more for every pause koi, which stops at its corner and needs a second tap to go on — plus a small allowance. The allowance is three spare taps in Stillwater, two in Currents, one from Watchers to Crosscurrents, and none from Riptide onward. A pill at the corner of the board shows your taps against par while you play: it turns gold when you reach par and red when you pass it.
Clear at par or under and you earn three stars and the pond’s coins. A few taps over earns two stars; any clear earns one. The best stars are kept for every pond you have played.
Why blocked taps count
Before par, tapping a blocked koi cost nothing, so the fastest way to clear a pond was to tap everything until something moved. That is not a puzzle; it is a search, and the pond did all the thinking. Counting blocked taps changes the question from “which of these will move if I try?” to “which of these can move?”, which has to be answered by looking at paths before touching anything. In the early tiers the allowance lets you be wrong a couple of times while you learn to see the paths. From Riptide the allowance is gone, and a clear at par means you read every path right.
What par does not do
Par never stops you clearing a pond. Over par, the koi still swim home and the journey moves on; you simply earn no coins and fewer stars for that pond, and you can replay it for a better score at any time from the Replay tile. Hints do not count as taps. Undo does not count as a tap either — the tap you are undoing already did. Pulling a stuck pause koi back is a tap, because it is a decision.
How par and coins fit together
Coins in Koi Drift are earned by reading, not by tapping. A plain clear pays nothing; a clear at par pays two coins, or four in the tiers where the predator strikes, and a Clean Drift — at par, no hint, no undo, no heart lost — pays one more. Crossing into a new tier pays ten. That is deliberately lean: helpers are meant to be something you decide to use, and the way to afford them is to play the way the game is asking you to.
Par on the Daily
The Daily has always been scored on moves and time, and its par works the same way with a two-tap allowance. Two players comparing a Daily now compare the same thing: how cleanly they read one pond.