Cassowary Crossing: Day 13 of Sunburnt Santa

How to play Cassowary Crossing

• Swipe left or right to change lanes, or tap the left or right side of the screen.
• Cassowaries wait on the roadside, then walk across. See which way one is heading and get into the lane it has just left. Every one that crosses safely is +150. Hit one and it costs 2 hearts.
• Dodge potholes, cane toads, wallabies, the slow tractor and the cow on the cattle grid. You have 3 hearts.
• Grab presents and coins in a row for a multiplier. A fuel can gives a few seconds of shield.

Scoring

Coins, presents, near misses and give-ways all count towards one streak: x2 from 5 in a row, up to x5 from 20, so a give-way at x5 is worth 750. Any hit, or a coin or present that slides past you, resets the streak. You have 3 hearts; a cassowary costs 2, everything else 1.

Stars: the three targets

Stars don't lock anything; they show how you're going, and doors with at least one star count towards the bonus games.

Tips for three stars

1. The streak is the score, and a missed coin or present breaks it just like a crash. Treat every trail on the road as compulsory: drive through the whole line, then move. At x5 a single present is 250 and a cassowary give-way is 750.
2. A cassowary waits on the verge, then walks across and is well over half-way when it reaches your bumper. Slide into the lane it started from, not the one it is walking towards. The game helps you: while a cassowary is crossing, the coin trail sits in that safe lane.
3. From about 1,200 m a pothole or toad can sit in the lane the cassowary is walking towards, and from about 900 m some birds pause mid-road. Never commit early: wait until you can see it step out, then make one clean lane change. Hearts matter more than speed, because a cassowary hit costs two of your three.

The real story: why Far North Queensland drivers give way to cassowaries

The southern cassowary is a huge flightless bird of the northern Queensland rainforest, 150 to 200 centimetres tall, with a grey helmet called a casque on its head and red wattles on its neck [1]. It lives alone, eats mostly fruit that has fallen to the ground, and has an unusual family arrangement: once the female lays her eggs, the male does all the incubating and raising of the chicks, which are striped yellow and black [1].

Roads cut straight through that habitat, which is why the Queensland Government's advice to drivers starts with "slow down": cassowaries can cross the road unexpectedly [2]. Watch for chicks following an adult across, never stop on the road to look at one, and take notice of the bright yellow "Recent Cassowary Crossing" signs, which mean a bird has been reported crossing there lately [2]. Feeding makes it worse, because a cassowary fed at the roadside learns to link cars with food and is more likely to be hit [2].

Sunburnt Santa is made in Yungaburra on the Atherton Tablelands, cassowary country, so this level is a little lesson in local manners. Clip one in the game and you get a big "GIVE WAY!" and lose two of your three hearts, because the rule on the Tablelands is simple: the bird goes first. Read more about the yellow cassowary crossing signs.

Read more: Cassowary crossing signs: Christmas driving in Far North Queensland.

When it opens

Door 13 opens on day 13 of your own calendar (your Day 1 is the day you first play), and for everyone by 13 December. Play the door before it to open it. Once it's open you can replay it as often as you like, and after Christmas Eve all 24 doors stay open. How the calendar works.

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Sources for the real story

1. Southern Cassowary, Australian Museum
2. Be Cass-o-wary safety tips, Queensland Government