DONT SPLASH Pebbles Guide

What pebbles do

Pebbles are the core survival tool in DONT SPLASH. Thrown into water, a pebble skips across the surface making several small splashes — and the blind monster, which hunts entirely by sound, rushes to investigate. That buys you the one thing every crossing needs: a window where the thing in the water is looking somewhere else.

You never kill or fight anything with a pebble. It is pure redirection — the difference between players who escape and players who "keep getting caught" is almost always decoy discipline.

How to pick up pebbles

Stone piles sit on platforms throughout every stage — clusters of rounded gray stones, hard to miss once you know the look. Collection is automatic:

1. Spot the gray stone cluster on a tiled platform.
2. Walk onto it. A +1 pebble message appears and your hotbar count goes up.
3. The pile disappears once collected.

The pickup message shows your new total in parentheses: +1 pebble (1) means you went from empty to one; +1 pebble (4) means three became four. Each pile adds a single pebble no matter how many stones it visually contains. On the hotbar icon, the upper-left number is the slot and the lower-right number is your remaining quantity — marked below:

Habit to build: collect as you pass, always. Recorded runs show experienced players grabbing every pile on-route with "we're going to need some" — running dry right before the Maintenance Lock is a classic self-inflicted crisis. There is no observed carrying cap (players have been seen holding 8; a hard cap has not been confirmed).

Buying pebbles with coins

The lobby's EQUIPMENT stall (step into the purple circle) sells refills: 1 pebble for 5 coins or 5 pebbles for 25 coins. There is no carrying limit from the stall. Map pickups are free, so the smart loop is: run the map collecting piles, and only buy refills when you consistently enter the final room empty-handed.

How to throw pebbles on PC

1. Press the item's number key (1–5) to select the pebbles.
2. Face the water you want to hit and adjust the camera upward to aim — the throw follows your view.
3. Left-click to throw.
4. Check the lower-right hotbar number: a throw from four leaves three.

Pressing the same number key again puts the item away. Selecting without throwing costs nothing — the throw only happens on click.

How to throw pebbles on mobile

The mobile flow is two taps, and skipping the second is the most common mobile mistake in the game:

1. Tap the pebble icon in the hotbar to select it.
2. Tap THROW to actually throw.

Selecting alone does nothing — if your throws feel like they "don't work" on mobile, this is why. The tap-then-throw pattern is the same for every throwable (pebbles, bottles, flares, toys).

How to decoy properly: the three-step habit

Throwing a pebble is easy; using one well is a discipline. Recorded runs show the same three-step pattern from players who survive:

1. Throw away from your route. Aim at water on the opposite side of where you plan to cross. A decoy that lands on your own path is a self-inflicted monster visit.
2. Watch it actually move. The monster walks toward the splash — but it does not stay. Recorded footage shows it reaching the decoy area, then turning back toward the player's platform. A throw is not a clearing signal; it is the start of a window you verify.
3. Cross during the return gap. The safest moment is while it is walking back away from your line. If it lingers between you and your next landing, throw again rather than risk it.

Distance matters too. A decoy thrown far from the monster gives it a long walk and you a long window — players note that "that's too far" throws toward the monster itself barely help. Far water, opposite side, then move. The full pick-up → throw → monster-turns loop, live:

Featured Gameplay — Pebble decoy demo — pick up, throw, monster redirects (TonyCool)

Two upgrades that double your pebble value

At the lobby's UPGRADES stall, two of the six upgrades are pebble upgrades, and both are first-purchase priority:

• Throwing Range (150 coins per level, 3 levels) — throws reach farther water. Level 1 adds +10% distance. Farther decoys = bigger safe windows.
• Pebble Skipping (150 coins per level, 3 levels) — each pebble makes more splashes: 3 at level 0, 4 at level 1. More splashes per pebble means more sound holding the monster's attention.

Solo players get the most from this pair — with no teammates to share decoy duty, your pebbles are the entire monster-management toolkit. The full spending order is in the coins guide.

Pebbles FAQ

Do pebbles stack with bottles and flares?

They coexist as separate hotbar items, each with its own count and slot. Bottles splash like pebbles; flares additionally stun on a direct hit. Default loadout is 3 slots, expandable to 5 with gamepasses.

Can the monster tell a pebble splash from a player splash?

No distinction has been observed — it walks to the sound either way. That is the entire point of the decoy system.

How many pebbles should I carry into the Maintenance Lock?

At least one. The second valve is the standard decoy moment: throw to the far side of the room, then open the valve while the monster investigates. Solo players who arrive with zero pebbles end up opening valves with the monster adjacent — which works exactly as badly as it sounds.