Skipping Stones to Lonely Homes is the south road from the Crossroads. A sailor skims stones across water, builds bridges and rides lily pads on the currents. It is the third world in the usual difficulty order. Timing matters here more than anywhere else.
A stone skimmed across the water stops when it hits something. Push it into a lily pad and the pad drifts off the other way, onto whichever current it reaches.
Rules that matter
- A pushed stone slides across water until it hits something. A stone that stops in the water sinks and becomes a walkable square.
- Lily pads ride currents. To send a pad one way, push a stone into it from the opposite side.
- A stone placed across a current can redirect the water.
- Hold Ctrl / R2 to slow time for precise timing and Alt / L2 to speed it up while you wait for pads to line up.
- Level 2 gives you a second character. The two take turns, and one often has to stop a stone the other skims.
Overworld route
Screen 1. Push the right stone left into the left stone to open a path down. Pick up the map in the bottom-left corner. Level 1 is entered from this screen.
Screen 2. Push the bottom-left stone down into Screen 2 and walk down under Level 1. Push the stone from Screen 1 left, then all the way right, to drop a lily pad into the current. Ride it to the bottom landmass and Screen 3.
Screen 3. Board the left lily pad, hold Alt / L2 to speed time up while you wait, and hop to the second and third pads as they line up, then onto the centre platform. Push the right stone up when the three pads stack vertically in the left current, which splits them across the currents. Push the last stone right, then again as a centre pad passes, to send it into the inner current. Ride the pads to the teleporter. Level 2 starts here.
Screen 4 to 5. Push each stone down into the gaps in the wooden path, then follow it right and down to Screen 5 and its six-puzzle left series.
Level 1 (13 screens)
Level 1 has 13 screens, a map on Screen 1 and two hidden treasures. It ends when a current on Screen 10 carries you back to Screen 1. These are the key moves on each screen:
| Screen | Key moves |
|---|---|
| 1 | Left stone west, then north three to send its pad right. Right stone up, left three, right and up twice to launch the second pad. Ride to the map. |
| 2 | Left stone left, down two, right into the top pad to drop the bottom pad. Upper stone south two, east four. Other stone north three, east three. |
| 3 | Left stone east two to send its pad. Other stone left, then down into the right pad. Right stone south over the water, then east four to Screen 4. |
| 4 | Raise the right stone to send the upper pad east, then drop the bottom pad and the upper pad with stones pushed in from above. Route a stone north, east, south twice, east and down to build the path. |
| 5 | Bridge with two stones in the same column, then carry the pad to the left landmass with a westward push. |
| 6 | Send the pad down, then right, ride it while pushing the riding stone south, and close the one-square gap with two stones meeting. |
| Treasure 1 | Push the last Screen 6 stone onto the top brown rock in the bottom-right water, add the Screen 7 stone beside it and walk to the treasure. |
| 7 | Send the pad left, then time a second push so it lands right of the first pad. Touch the brown orb at the checkpoint, then push the stone down to send the pad into the current. |
| 8 | Ride the bottom pad to the top-left, launch the other two pads, and route stones to the upper-right and bottom-right landmasses. |
| 9 | Drop the upper pad into the current, line both pads up side by side, then push a stone onto the front pad and ride the back one. |
| 10 and 11 | On 10, send the pad right and ride to 11. On 11, divert the current with a stone pushed across the water, then send the pad up. |
| Treasure 2 | Push a stone onto the brown stone in the water, send both pads right, ride one across for the treasure and the other back. |
| 12 | Redirect the current with the middle stone, drop the upper pad and lift the lower one, then rebuild a path to the checkpoint. |
| 13 | Bridge to the small landmass, divert the current with a stone, then send the bottom pad left and ride it. |
| Back on 10 | Place the stone right of the pad's column, push it up, run left and up to catch the pad, and ride the current back to Screen 1. |
Level 2 (12 screens, two characters)
Level 2 runs across 12 screens. We call the two characters C1 and C2. You can choose which is which on Screens 1-11, but on Screen 12 C1 must be the character from Level 1. The pattern repeats on almost every screen: one character skims a stone across the water and the other stands in its path to stop it on the far side. Use that to build bridges and to pass stones back and forth.
- Screen 1: pass the stone back and forth until C1 can slide it east eight, north two and west one, carrying the pads into the currents.
- Screens 2-4: each crossing is a stone handed between C1 and C2. On Screen 4, two stones are each sent across and stopped by the other character to make two bridges to the checkpoints.
- Screen 5: C1 pushes the blue stone down until it stops at C2, then the pink stone is used to carry the lily pad to the left side.
- Screens 6-10: one character pushes a pad and the other pushes it back just before it arrives. Touch the interdict on Screens 7 and 9 first.
- Screen 11: both push a stone toward each other. Push C2's stone when C1's is four squares right of the checkpoint column, and the two stop each other to form the bridge.
- Screen 12: C1 rides the pad while C2 lifts the blue rock, pushes the pink rock right as the pad passes, then pushes the blue rock right twice to turn the water upward and carry C1 back to her ship.
Count the squares a stone will travel before you push it. Many Level 2 screens only work if the other character is already standing where the stone needs to stop.
Screen 5 left series (6 puzzles)
- C2 pushes a stone left and up to C1's side. C1 pushes it left, up, then all the way right to launch the pads. C1 rides the top current and C2 the bottom one.
- C1 sinks two rocks, then pushes a stone onto a sunken rock. C2 sinks two more and stands on one. C1 skims a stone right, C2 pushes one down and left to send a pad down, and C1 pushes the top-left stone left to send the second pad.
- C1 sends a stone to C2. C2 sinks rocks to build two paths, walks the stone along them onto a sunken rock, pushes it up to send a pad right and boards. C2 then pushes the bottom stone left so both pads descend.
- C2 waits beside the bottom stone. C1 pushes the stones right one at a time, and C2 stops each one so it sinks. C2 routes the last stone over the pads to send them down. C2 boards the left pad, C1 the other.
- C2 sinks a row of three rocks and a second row above it. C1 pushes a stone onto the bottom-left sunken rock and C2 pushes it down to split the pads left and right.
- The longest. The two send stones back and forth to build a row of three sunken stones, route the rest along it, and use stone collisions for timing. The last push down sends the pads left and right. Both ride to the teleporters to finish the world.
Video
Alan Malloy's release-week playthrough covers the whole world in one sitting: