Volley Paws: Your Pet Is on Beach-Ball Duty

There is a new stretch of sand at the edge of the Game Center, and it comes with a beach ball, a very determined crab, and three rivals who would like a word. Volley Paws is open today in the Game Center, and your active pet is on ball duty.

Keepy Uppy

The solo mode is exactly what it sounds like. The ball drops, your pet gets under it, and you keep it off the sand for as long as you can. Every touch adds one to your rally, and the rally is what pays: 15 MPC for a warm-up, then 40, 80, 130 and a full 180 MPC once you reach a hundred touches. Your pet earns XP every run, whatever the score.

It does not stay gentle. Gravity creeps up every ten touches, wind gusts start after thirty, and from rally twenty a sand crab scuttles across the court looking for ankles to pinch. You have three saves before the run ends, so jump the crab rather than argue with it. Rings and stars drift through the air along the way: fly the ball through a ring for bonus points, and touch a star to score double on your next five hits.

Where the ball lands on your pet decides where it flies. Catch it on the top of the head and it goes straight up; catch it on a shoulder and it angles away. Jumping into it hits harder, and Bump pops a stray ball straight up when a rally is getting away from you.

Beach Volley

The second mode is a proper 1v1 over the net, first to seven. You get three touches a side: a normal hit, a harder second, and a third that is a flat spike your rival has to dig out. Sandy the Capybara would rather be napping and is a fine first opponent. Tide the Axolotl has quick hands. Gale the Shark has three touches, one spike, and no mercy. Wins pay 90, 130 and 180 MPC by rival, and even a loss pays a little for every point you took.

The small print

Five Keepy Uppy plays and five Beach Volley matches a day, reset at midnight MPT, with two extra of each for VIP members. On a phone, slide your thumb along the strip under the court and your pet runs to that spot; on a desktop it is the arrow keys, Space to jump and Shift to bump. Volley Paws joins the Featured Game rotation from today, so on its spotlight day the coins double and the top ten rallies win Spotlight Prize Board MPC at midnight.

The full rules are in the Wiki. The crab is not in the Wiki. The crab is in your nightmares.