Walkthroughs

[Updated] Where's My Water? Cranky's Story guide - Tips, hints, and walkthrough inside

Beat every level, find every duck, solve every challenge, finish every bonus level

[Updated] Where's My Water? Cranky's Story guide - Tips, hints, and walkthrough inside
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| Where's My Water?

Meet Cranky, the tough-guy bully of Where's My Water?, and the dastardly fiend who has been sabotaging Swampy’s water supply this whole time.

In Cranky's Story, the first premium update to Disney and Walaber's hydro-centric puzzler, the mean croc has worked up an appetite and wants to chow down on junk found in the sewer.

Sadly, his disgusting meals are covered in even more disgusting algae. So, it's your job - over a handful of stages - to get poisonous purple water to Cranky's plate, thereby cleaning off his food and making it good enough to eat.

This downloadable pack of levels contains some of the hardest puzzles yet, sports some super-tough challenges, and has a number of hidden bonus stages. More than ever, you're going to need a guide to excel - so, sit back and let Pocket Gamer do all the tricky bits.

The Basics

To beat each stage, you'll need to deliver poisonous purple water - usually stored in a reservoir or shot out of a pipe - to the drainage pipe above Cranky, by tunnelling through dirt and solving puzzles. Get about 20 droplets in his hose and Cranky will have enough goop to rinse off his food, thus ending the level.

wmw-cranky-guide-basics 1. Here's your poison - the purple stuff. Cranky's levels are just like Swampy's from the first game. This time around, though, you're pushing poison into the hose rather than water. Regardless, it's supposed to resemble real-world liquid, sploshing and splashing about with realistic physics. 2. Dirt. Good old-fashioned dirt. You can dig through this brown stuff with your finger, creating tunnels and dips for water to travel through. Remember that water will always obey gravity, so don't expect it to travel uphill without a little force. 3. Ducks! These are optional items (three to a stage) that give you more points. Swampy's ducks are grabbed by filling them up with water. To fit Cranky's more rebellious style, you fill up these green ducks with purple liquid to nab them. You can either get them as you go or beat the level and come back later to pick them up. 4. Here's your main water pipe, and the exit point for the level's water. You need to get 20 drops in the pipe to end the stage, but get more than that in and you'll earn bonus "overflow" points in that level. 5. Cranky. The villain of the piece and bully of the game's goofy hero. Give him a little tap to see his animations.

These levels are intended for masters of Where's My Water?, and often require techniques that you'll only learn by playing Swampy's stages.

You're going to need to know how to make bridges out of algae, create explosions by combining purple and green liquids, and use hot coals to make steam and ice to make water.

As such, we recommend you complete all of the base levels before you try your hand at Cranky's Story, or - at the very least - read our in-depth descriptions of the game's mechanics in our guide to Swampy's adventure.

Video Guides

If you're struggling to finish a level, this series of video guides will help you along. Remember, you can always hit 'Skip Level' from the menu to bypass hard levels and come back later to pick up ducks you missed the first time.

Cranky's First Course
Hunger Pains
Bulking Up Cranky's Challenges

Cranky's Story also features a series of challenges, which task you with re-trying levels from Swampy's and Cranky's campaigns and beating them in very specific ways.

It might drop Cranky's poisonous ducks into a Swampy level, or ask you to beat a stage in an unorthodox or more difficult way. Read on for our detailed guides to beating the lot of them.

Note: 'Tri-duck' means to collect all three ducks and complete the level.

Drain it First - Tri-duck the level, but with Cranky Ducks

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1. Dig out the bottom of this 8-shaped chunk of dirt to dunk the lower duck in poison. Then, dig the middle of the 8 to expose the upper duck, but leave a protective dome of dirt above.

2. Let some water drip in to the poison, to increase the poison height, thus securing the second duck. 3. Dig a tunnel to transport your poison to the third duck, then drain it away off the right-hand side of the level. 4. With the poison gone, dig a tunnel so the water goes into Swampy's shower. Balloon Bridge - Tri-duck the level without using the balloon

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Dig a tunnel like the image above so that the water grabs the first duck but jumps past the bridge of moss and lands right in the path of the second and third ducks. Dig into the pipe to complete the level.

Double Jump - Run out of water without getting any of it to Swampy

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Drop your water into the pipe mouth just before the green goop reaches the bottom of the column so that it's completely engulfed by goop. Any remaining droplets will hopefully get trapped in the ducks.

Interruption - Tri-duck the level, but with Cranky Ducks

wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-04 1. Send the poison in the left- and right-most chambers to the mines, causing them to explode. The force of the explosion will send the poison flying upwards, capturing both ducks. 2. Let some poison into the trigger point on the right. This causes the gates to rise, and the left pipe will spew poison back on itself. Dig out the duck to engulf it in toxic purple liquid. 3. Now, carefully let the water down into Swampy's pipe. Drawbridge - Tri-duck the level without lowering the bottom bridge

wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-05 1. Let this body of water free (a) so that it bounces off the green bridge and nabs the first duck (b). 2. Drop some of this water into the green trigger to lower the bridge. Now, drain it into the second duck, and let it loose over the bridge. 3. There's a small gap in the dirt here, which sprays water directly into Swampy's shower. As soon as enough water is in, drop a tunnel down to the last duck to finish the challenge. The Grid - Zero-duck it (Complete the level without collecting any ducks)

wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-06 1. Make adjustments to the dirt around the pipes at points A and B to complete disable their toxic production. 2. Dig at areas C, D, and E to slowly direct the trickle of water to Swampy's pipe. Double Launch - Tri-duck the level, but with Cranky Ducks wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-07 1. Send the water into the pipe. It will turn into poison and grab the first two ducks. 2. Make a cut at the pipe mouth and near the third duck to direct this flow of poison to the final quacky toy. 3. Excise this area of dirt so the back-splashed poison drains into the small puddle of toxic liquid. Now, drop the lot into the pipe, turning it into water and filling Swampy's bath. Create and Destroy - Complete the level with no explosions

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Use one of the water cannons to push green goop at the moss. It will turn it into purple ground, allowing you to ricochet water into the pipe.

Ventilation Shaft - Complete the level without closing the orange gates

wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-09 1. Dig the top bit of dirt like so, making a reservoir for collected water and a ramp that will fling water into the shower pipe's mouth. 2. Drain the water and direct it into the green pipe to open the green gates. Then, drop it into the fire to create steam. 3. Very slowly, the steam will rise, hit the ice, pool up in the reservoir, then spill over and shoot into the shower. It will take a while, but it will work. Booby Trap Staircase - Tri-duck the level, but with Cranky Ducks

wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-10 1. Open this blue gate with your finger, then send a jet of water into the tunnel. This triggers the button. 2. When the blue hose moves up, pop the purple balloon and spray the puddle of poison with water to turn it into a big body of toxic liquid. This will nab the duck in the top-right-hand corner. 3. When the red gates open again, the purple liquid will chew away at the left-most moss and hit the middle duck. Move the lower blue gate to the left position and drain away the last of your purple goop on the bottom duck. Top it up with water if you're running low. 4. When all the poison is off-screen, complete the level as normal: hit the button with water to make a bridge of red gates, then use the hose to send water into Swampy's shower nozzle. The Long Drop - Blow up all the bombs and complete the level wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-11 1. Quickly move the poison into the first body of water. Take this concoction towards the three bombs to blow them up. 2. In the next section, move some of the purple liquid that rains down into the path of one of the bombs. Any will do - the chain reaction will blow everything up. 3. Hopefully, there's still some poison raining down from the explosions. Send it to the small puddle of water to turn it toxic. Then, in turn, send this to the massive ocean of water to turn it all into poison. 4. Finally, drop the motherload of toxic water into Cranky's hose. You might need to try the level a number of times if the explosions don't send your poison in the right direction. Geyser - Pop the balloon without touching it

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You need to pinch the balloon between the pair of red gates to pop it. Use judicious spurts of water from the hose to keep it levitated in between the gates: hopefully, it will get trapped and popped. Keep it at. You don't need to finish the level or get the ducks to win.

Smash Them Together - Zero-duck it. (Complete the level without collecting any ducks) wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-13 1. Cut an archway in the ceiling of this level, but make sure neither of the top ducks is exposed. 2. Then, use two fingers at once to make the water drop drown, triggering the button and sending the right-hand column of water into Swampy's pipe. Mine Field - Blow up all the bombs and tri-duck the level wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-14 1. Carefully trace a tunnel that snakes between the three ducks. Once you've collected the quacking toys, redirect the water towards the shower. 2. Just before you've got enough water (you can tell how close you are to the end of the level by listening to the crescendo of the dripping sound effect), hit a mine with water to cause a chain reaction. If you're lucky, enough water will fire into the pipe to top off Swampy's shower. Scaffolding - Tri-duck the level without triggering the switch wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-15 1. Before starting the level, find the duck in the bottom-left corner, and carve out a basin (as pictured) so that when the water pours in, it will slosh up and hit the duck. 2. Now, play the level as normal: move the blue gates with your finger, unleash the water on the right to fire the green goop into the water converter, move the top gate to let some water drip on the right-most duck, and then let the rest hit the left ducks, before finishing the level. Through the Bridge - Tri-duck the level without building the bridge wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-16 1. First up, dig away at the top layer of dirt so the steam will go left when it rises, hit the ice, turn into water, and hit the duck. 2. Once the duck is captured, remodel the dirt so the steam seeps up a hole on the right, then runs down a ramp on the left. Make sure you avoid the hose: if you let the green goo touch the algae, it's Game Over. Vacuum Bridge - Zero-duck it. (Complete the level without collecting any ducks) wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-17 1. Use the green goo to kill all three ducks. You'll destroy one when you suck the goop up - then, send it left and right to destroy the others. 2. Send as much of the green goo as possible up through the vertical crack in the middle of the screen. 3. Finally, unleash the water to turn the rest of the goop into suds, and shoot the lot into Swampy's pipe. Recontamination - Tri-duck the level, but with Swampy Ducks wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-18 1. Completing this level is far too tricky to describe in words. Watch this video guide to complete this challenge. Drip, Drop, BAM! - Tri-duck the level without touching the bottom spout wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-19 1. Spray some purple goop to collect the bottom-most duck. 2. Remove the top layer of dirt and hold your finger on the purple hose. It will collide with the green, exploding a pathway to the next duck. 3. Turn the bottom-left dirt into a ramp that aims at Cranky's shower pipe. 4. Just after a drop of green goop has left the pipe, shoot a load of purple. The two chemicals will meet at the shower pipe, explode, and provide an entry for your purple water. Boxed in - Tri-duck the level with no green ooze remaining wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-20 1. Combine the bottom-left water and purple, and drain half of the resulting purple on the green, and the other half on the duck. 2. Drop the top-left purple on the duck, and the rest on the green ooze. 3. Take the top-right purple through the two pools of water farthest to the right. Drop the lot on the last bit of green, and then the final duck. 4. Drop the top purple through any remaining water, and into Cranky's shower. Octospout - Tri-duck the level with eight or fewer Y-switch touches

wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-21 1. Press the switch marked 1, and let some suds bounce off the stone and hit the duck on the far right. 2. Press the switch marked 2 to collect the middle duck. 3. Hit the switch marked 3 and release a nice steady stream of purple liquid. 4. Hit the button marked 4. 5. Hit the button marked 5. 6. Hit the button marked 6 to release some green ooze on the purple, smashing a big hole in the stone. 7. Hit the button marked stone to release some water out of the pipe farthest to the right. 8. Finally, dig a tunnel to the final duck, and to Swampy's pipe. Around the world - Tri-duck the level, but with Swampy Ducks wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-22 1. Drop the top water on the top-most duck. Then, drop the remaining suds towards the tiny area of dirt where there is no algae. Enough water will pass through to soak the second duck. 2. Deliver the purple to the water basin to the right of Cranky. Then to the pool of water below that. 3. Return to the top, and cut a big ditch in the place where the poison was. 4. Send the poison to the bottom-left pipe (it will collect in the ditch we just made), making sure to kill off some algae around the duck, and avoiding the water. 5. Drop the water on the duck, scroll up, and dump the purple on Cranky's pipe. Clear a Path - Complete the level without touching the Y-switch

wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-23 1. Make a thin tunnel down the left of this dirt to send purple poison onto the coals. 2. Get rid of this dirt so the steam flies up to the ice. 3. The steam will turn to water, removing some of the green ooze. Keep this up until only a tiny amount remains. 4. Now, turn on the hose. The purple and green will explode on impact, opening a hole to the pipe. Keep sending purple in to complete the level. Switch which switch? - Zero-duck it

wmw-cranky-guide-challenge-24 1. Drop the right water into the purple switch. 2. Make a path in the dirt as pictured so the water goes along the blue gate, turns back on itself, and collects at the green switch. 3. Quick! Send the last drop of water into the red switch. 4. Drop the top-left water into the blue switch. 5. Dunk the bottom-right liquid into the pipe. It will shoot up into Swampy's shower. Bonus Levels

Cranky's Challenges are split into groups, with three challenges to a group. Beat all three in one group to unlock a special bonus stage.

Unlike the rest of the stages in Where's My Water?, these bonus levels require you to use the accelerometer in your iPhone or iPad to manipulate gravity and send water in any direction you please. Use this technique to send poison to Cranky's ducks.

1. Balancing Out

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You need to tilt your iOS device in such a way that the green goop avoids the ducks, and the purple poison touches them. There's enough time to drain most of the green goop before digging out the poison and aiming it at the three ducks.

2. Turkey Leg

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Once the gates open, twist your iOS device so that the poison flies up to the chicken's bone, then curls around and completely engulfs the water, turning it into a big body of poison. Direct this at one part of the Turkey's mossy exterior to make an entrance, then dig a tunnel in to grab the three ducks.

3. Polka Dots

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This level looks intimidating, but it's not that hard. Create a short path to the left-most duck and hold your thumb on the purple pipe to nab it. Then create a longer tunnel to the right-most duck and engulf it in poison. Finally, make one big tunnel to the bottom duck, carefully avoiding mines, and drench it in purple liquid. Remember to tilt your iOS device to subtly move the flow of poison.

4. Contamination Maze

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Guide the tiny droplet of poison past the mines and ducks until it's right next to the water. Scrape a hole in the dirt to let the poison in, turning the liquid into poison. Then, simply guide the whole lot to the different ducks, minding not to hit the mines. Do it quickly to beat the timer.

Four Square wmw-cranky-guide-bonus-06

Cut the dirt at point 1, and trigger the blue switch at point 2. Deliver the purple water in the bottom-left square to the water, and then drop the lot on the duck at point 3.

Now, move the balloon at point 4 to the fan, and pop it to drop the toxic purple water on the duck at point 5.

Finally, hold your iOS device so the steam rises to the ice at point 6. This will turn it into water, which you can mix with the purple stuff at point 7, before dropping it on the final duck at point 8.

The Long Bomb

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This level looks scary, but it's actually quite easy. Once the bomb goes off, tilt your iOS device left and right to deliver the plummeting purple water towards the ducks. You'll need to dig away at some dirt, but memorise the position of the ducks and you'll have no trouble.

Hide and seek

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The third duck is hidden under one of the switches in the top-right corner. Using this knowledge, plan out a route and send the purple poison to all three ducks within the time limit.

Holes in the walls

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Beating this bonus level is all about collecting the ducks in the right order.

Go for the right one first. Send the purple poison to the duck by destroying walls A, B, and C. Be careful not to let the green ooze on the left break through wall X.

Now, the middle duck. Break walls D, E, and F, and send the poison upwards by tilting your device.

Finally, get the bottom duck by digging walls G, H, I, and J, and tilting.

Mark Brown
Mark Brown
Mark Brown is editor at large of Pocket Gamer