Welcome to Oceanclade
Oceanclade is a daily marine tree-of-life puzzle. A mystery sea creature is hidden somewhere in a cladogram, and your job is to identify it by naming animals from Oceanclade’s list. With each guess, you learn which branch of the tree your guessed animal shares with the real answer. You can play the daily puzzle or unlimited practice rounds, and choose a difficulty that suits you.
The Core Loop in One Paragraph
Every round follows the same loop: guess an animal, read the shared branch on the cladogram, check which ranks have filled in, and decide whether to guess again or spend a hint. To get better, you just need to learn how to read those three pieces of feedback.
Step 1: Make Your First Guess
Open the game, choose a mode, and pick any animal from the species list. You don’t need a clever starting guess on your first day—just pick a familiar sea creature.
- Select an animal from the list.
- Submit your guess.
- Wait for the cladogram to update.
After you guess, Oceanclade shows the most specific group your guess shares with the mystery animal. For example, if the answer is a manta ray and you guess a great white shark, you learn that the mystery animal is in Elasmobranchii, the group containing sharks and rays.
Step 2: Read the Shared Branch
The cladogram is the tree of life, simplified into branch splits. Oceanclade only shows groups where branches split, so you’ll see the branching structure grow with each guess. Branch colors tell you each animal’s phylum, giving you a quick visual cue about major lineages.
Hover over any branch or animal to see details, or click or tap a group to learn what defines it. After each guess, “What defines…” also shows the traits of the group you share with the mystery animal. That’s your vocabulary for narrowing down.
Tip: Don’t just memorize animal names—read the group definitions. The shared branch tells you what your guess and the answer have in common, which is exactly what you need to close in on the correct animal.
Step 3: Use the Rank Checklist
The rank checklist fills in as you approach the answer. It tracks phylum, class, order, family, genus, and finally species. Each rank that appears is a milestone.
If your guess shares only a phylum with the answer, you’re still far apart. If the checklist fills in order and family, you’re getting much closer. When you’ve filled in genus, you’re near the end, and the species rank is the final step. The checklist doesn’t tell you the answer, but it tells you how much of the tree you’ve successfully narrowed.
Step 4: Spend Hints Wisely
Hints are a useful safety net, but they aren’t free. Each hint costs one guess. That means every hint reduces your remaining opportunities to name animals.
Oceanclade offers hints about where the animal lives, how deep it lives, what it eats, and its size. You can pick any hint in any order. If you’re playing in a specific region, the “Waters” hint becomes “Range”—information about where else in the world the animal lives.
On your first day, a good approach is to spend a guess or two to reveal a shared branch first, then use a hint only when you feel stuck. Because every hint costs a guess, save them for when they’ll genuinely eliminate candidates.
Step 5: Keep Closing In
After each guess, re-read the shared branch and the “What defines…” text. Then choose your next guess from a different branch if you want to test another hypothesis, or from the same branch if you want to narrow down within that group. The guess log keeps your previous guesses visible, so you can avoid repeating animals and see which branches you’ve already explored.
Repeat the loop until the mystery animal is identified or you decide to give up. Oceanclade includes a “Give up” option, so if you’re truly stuck, you can reveal the answer and learn from the full cladogram.
FAQ
What is a cladogram in Oceanclade?
The cladogram is a branching diagram of the tree of life. Oceanclade shows only the branches where groups split, and each split becomes visible as you make guesses.
What does the rank checklist show?
It fills in the ranks you’ve narrowed down: phylum, class, order, family, genus, and species. The more ranks filled, the closer you are to identifying the mystery animal.
Do hints cost guesses?
Yes. Every hint costs one guess, so use them strategically when you need information about habitat, depth, diet, or size.
