Reef by Numbers is a colour-by-number game where every picture you finish comes alive. Paint a sea creature cell by cell, and when the last cell is filled it wakes up, leaves the page and swims into your own reef.
How to play Reef by Numbers
Every cell carries a number, and every number has its own dye pot. Pick a colour, then paint the cells with that number.
Finish the whole creature and it joins your reef, where it earns pearls. Spend pearls on 25 pieces of decor for the reef, from coral to a giant clam, an old anchor and glowing vents.
Paint 60 sea creatures across five seas: the Shallows, the Coral Garden, the Kelp Forest, The Deep and The Trench. Each sea ends with a giant set piece: the Great Manta, the Whale Shark, the Giant Octopus, the Sperm Whale and, at the bottom of the sea, the Leviathan.
Visitors come on the tide. Finish them before the thread runs out, or they swim away.
Controls
Keyboard and mouse
- Click a numbered cell to paint it, or hold and drag to paint a run of cells.
- Click a dye pot, or press 1 to 9, to change colour.
- The mouse wheel or + and - zoom the picture; drag to move it when zoomed.
- F shows the last cells left (Find). Esc opens Settings.
Phone and tablet
- Tap a cell to paint it, or drag to paint a run.
- Pinch to zoom and drag to look around.
- Phones play upright or sideways.
Tips
- Zoom in on the small cells: their numbers only show up close.
- Coins buy better tools. The Brush paints two cells a tap, Fill paints a whole colour at once, and the Wand paints twelve cells.
- Most creatures can come out Shiny, a gold version: 6 % of pictures do. A Golden Lure makes the next picture gold.
- The creatures of The Deep and The Trench glow once they are painted.
- Rare creatures earn more pearls, so a reef full of them grows faster.
What you earn
- 20 achievements pay coins as you go.
- The Reef Book keeps every creature, Shiny and Mystery picture you have found.
- Paint the Leviathan to finish the reef, and the whole reef comes to see. After that, hunt the last Shinies, feed the Leviathan and recolour any creature in your own colours.