Coin Tide Guide: Gates, Multipliers, Obstacles and Your Town
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Coin Tide is a free coin runner game in your browser. Your runner sprints down a runway over the sea by itself, and every coin you scoop up joins a jingling crowd that runs with you. Steer through the better side of every gate pair, keep your crowd away from saws and hammers, and climb the finish steps to multiply what you bring home. Between runs you spend it on your own seaside town. This guide covers how runs work, how to pick gates, every obstacle, the finish and what to build first.
How a run works
You only steer: left and right. The bubble above your crowd shows your stack, the coins you carry. Small stacks show one running coin per coin; once you carry hundreds, each running coin stands for a share of the stack. The crowd fans out behind you, so a big stack scoops up coins from a wider stripe of runway, but it also has more coins sticking out for obstacles to hit.
A run ends when you reach the finish steps and bank. It can also end early: your stack hits zero (a red gate that takes your last coins, a gold gate or toll you could not afford, or an obstacle that knocks off the last of them), your runner falls into the sea, or a crusher squashes it. A failed run costs nothing but time: try the level again.
Controls
| Action | Keyboard / mouse | Phone / tablet | Gamepad |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steer | Arrows or A / D, or drag with the mouse | Drag on the game (or the pad’s arrows) | Left stick or D-pad |
| Walk the town | Arrows or W A S D, or click | Analog stick, or tap | Left stick or D-pad |
| Start a run | Space, Enter, R or the RUN arch | RUN button | A or X |
| Pause | P or Esc | Pause button | Start |
On a phone the drag is relative: put your thumb anywhere and slide it. Sliding across a bit more than half the screen takes the runner from one edge of the runway to the other.
Picking gates
Gates come in pairs and you run through exactly one side.
- Blue (+) adds a fixed number of coins.
- Green (x2, x3) multiplies your whole stack.
- Red (- and ÷) takes coins away.
Most pairs are one good side and one red side: just be on the right half of the runway when you reach it. The decisions come with two good sides. A plus gate is worth the same whatever you carry, while a multiplier grows with your stack, so +40 beats x2 only while your stack is under 40. Early in a level take the big plus; once your crowd is fat, take the multiplier. Now and then both sides are red: compare them against your stack (÷2 of 30 costs 15, so a -20 would be worse).
Two more details matter. A stack has a cap per level, so a multiplier near the cap gives less than it says. And the halves meet in the middle of the runway: decide early instead of hugging the seam.
Obstacles
Whatever an obstacle touches flies off your crowd, clinking across the deck or splashing into the sea. One obstacle never takes more than about half of your crowd. Some obstacles can end the run on the spot, though: see below.
- Walls block part of the runway. Later they come in pairs as a slalom.
- Spinning bars sweep one side of the runway from a post near the edge. The far side is always clear, but coins are often laid right through the sweep.
- Saws roll back and forth across the runway in a slot. Watch the blade, not your coins, and pass while it is on the other side.
- Rams slide in from one edge and shove coins into the water. Caught between a ram and the edge, your runner goes in too.
- Hammers swing across the middle of the runway from a gantry overhead.
- Holes in the runway: steer around them, or your runner falls in. Coins over a hole drop into the sea, so pass it with room to spare.
- Gaps cut the whole runway. Cross on a bridge: two wide ones at first, later a single narrow one, and from level 14 bridges that sway. Your crowd squeezes in behind you; the stragglers fall.
- Narrow walkways leave a strip of deck over the water. Get on early and stay on.
- Crushers slam down on one lane. Watch the shadow: go round, or run through just after it lifts.
- Speed pads fling you forward. Later there is often a hole, a gap or a wall right after one.
New obstacles appear one at a time over the first levels. Your crowd trails behind you, so change lanes a beat early: the coins at the back need time to follow you around the obstacle.
The finish steps
The runway ends in nine steps: x1, x1.5, x2, x2.5, x3, x3.5, x4, x4.5 and x5. Your stack pours coins into each step it lights, and your runner stops on the last step it can pay for. You bank your stack times that step. The steps are priced from what a good run brings to the end of that level, so a tidy run reaches x4 or x4.5, and a great one reaches the x5 step and opens the treasure chest.
That makes the end of a level count twice: every coin you keep raises both your stack and the step it reaches.
Your town
Between runs you walk around your own seaside town. Walk onto a glowing build pad and your coins stream into it; when it is paid, builders get to work and the attraction pops up. You can pay a pad in parts: whatever you paid stays on it.
Every attraction pays tips after every finished run, so the cheap ones are worth building first. There are eighteen in three districts:
- Seaside Square: Hot Dog Cart, Benches, Fountain, Vending Machine, Flower Garden, Ice Cream Kiosk.
- Boardwalk Park: Palm Grove, Carousel, Arcade Booth, Bandstand, Lighthouse, Ferris Wheel.
- Sunset Heights: Hot-Air Balloon, Clock Tower, Fireworks Tower, Roller Coaster, Coin Vault, Golden Statue.
Finishing a district opens the next one. The three booths by the pier sell upgrades, five or three levels each:
- Piggy Bank: every run starts with coins already in your crowd.
- Coin Magnet: you scoop up coins from further away.
- Bubble Shield: blocks the first obstacle hits of every run.
A good order: the Hot Dog Cart after your first run, the first Piggy Bank level early (a run that starts with coins reaches the multipliers sooner), then the rest of Seaside Square, then the first Bubble Shield level before the obstacles get dense.
Special gates
A gold gate marked 50+ ONLY (or whatever number it shows) multiplies a stack that is big enough and takes everything from one that is not. From level 10 a red toll gate across the whole runway waits just before the finish and takes a fixed bite: bring enough coins to pay it, or the run ends with an empty purse.
Worlds
Every three levels the runway moves on to a new world: Candy Coast, Tropical Isle, Sunny Bay, Desert Canyon, Neon City, Mint Lagoon, Snowy Fjord, Lavender Isles, Lava Bay and Sunset Pier. Each has its own sky, scenery and runway, and some obstacles turn up more often in their own world: rope bridges on the tropical isle, crushers in the canyon and the lava bay, rams and speed pads in the city.
Hardcore and the leaderboard
Hardcore (Options, Difficulty) runs faster, has every obstacle and a toll gate from the first level, and lays them out more densely. It has its own leaderboard. Your town and level are shared between the two.
The Coin Tide leaderboards keep your best single run: the coins it banked at the finish. Later levels are worth more, so climbing the board means both playing well and getting further. Signed-in players also get daily quests for Coin Tide, like collecting a number of coins in one run, passing good gates, or reaching a high step at the finish.
FAQ
Is Coin Tide free and does it work offline? Yes to both. Open the page once and the game is saved in your browser; your level, coins and town are kept on your device (and with your account when you sign in). The title menu then offers CONTINUE, plus NEW GAME if you ever want to start over from level 1: it asks first, and your records and skins stay.
Why did my crowd get smaller without hitting anything? A red gate took coins, or part of your crowd was over a hole. Watch the bubble: it shows your stack at all times.
What is the best multiplier strategy? Take pluses while your stack is small and multipliers once it is big; compare the numbers when both sides are good. Then protect the stack you built: every coin you keep pays again at the finish.
Want more runners? See our roundup of endless runner games in your browser.