Every Fresh Ice hazard and how to handle it
What skaters, the dog, flurries, popcorn, roses, slush, power cuts and thin-ice cracks do in Fresh Ice, when each one shows up, and how to deal with it.
Published
Early rinks in Fresh Ice are just you, the machine and a sheet of grey ice. Later, the ice fights back. None of the troublemakers can end a level or take away your stars directly, but each one costs time if you ignore it. This guide covers what each hazard does, when it shows up and how to deal with it. If you are still learning to turn, read the driving technique guide first.
When hazards appear
Each venue has 20 levels, played as four visits of five. Memorial Arena, for example, is levels 1 to 5, then 51 to 55, 101 to 105 and 151 to 155. Every visit adds more trouble. From Season 2 (level 201 onwards) every venue starts at its toughest setting, and slush turns up nearly everywhere.
Each hazard also adds a few seconds to the puck-drop target, as the three-star guide explains.
Skaters
Kids sneak onto the ice at most venues, and at Gala Night it is figure skaters warming up early. A skater wanders around, leaving scuffed ice behind them for about nine seconds, then leaves on their own. Drive close to one and they head off straight away and stop scuffing.
- Chasing a skater across the rink rarely pays. Swerve over if one is near your row; otherwise clean their tracks on a later pass.
- At Canal Skateway up to three can turn up in one level, so the Whistle is worth bringing there. It clears skaters off the ice and keeps them off for the rest of the level.
The dog at the Backyard Rink
From early in your first visit to the Backyard Rink, the dog gets out. It runs faster and turns more sharply than a skater, leaving paw prints for about seven seconds, and it gets out again 14 to 20 seconds later. Driving close sends it off, and the Whistle keeps it in the house for the whole level. It stays in once the rink is nearly clean.
Flurries and popcorn
A flurry dusts small white spots all over the rink, including ice you have just finished. They arrive roughly every 8 to 19 seconds, depending on the venue and how far into it you are, and are common at Miller's Pond, Glacier Lake and Stadium Classic. Popcorn from the stands works the same way but lands in a cluster near one end of the rink, at Memorial Arena and Stadium Classic.
Here is the most useful fact about both: they stop once less than about 8 percent of the rink is left dirty. So don't go back for every speck. Keep driving your pattern and sweep the spots up at the end, when the game outlines what is left and nothing new is falling.
Roses at Gala Night
Fans throw roses at every Gala Night level, a few at a time. Where a rose lands the ice gets scuffed, but the rose itself is a pickup worth 15 Tips, and it counts toward the 50 pickups that earn the Hot Dog Cart machine. Driving over a rose to collect it cleans the scuff under it too, so roses close to your route are free money. Like flurries, the roses stop once the rink is nearly clean.
Slush
Slush patches slow the machine to under half speed while you are in them. They don't spread, and they wear away as you drive over them, so after a couple of seconds a patch is gone for good. Drive through each patch once, early, as part of a normal pass, rather than leaving it to slow down your final clean-up. Slush shows up at Memorial Arena, Plaza Rink, the curling club and the canal, and almost everywhere from Season 2.
Power cuts
At Memorial Arena on your fourth visit, at Gala Night from the middle of your third, and at the Speed Oval from your third visit, the lights go out 16 to 18 seconds after the clock starts. For nine seconds you can only see a pool of light round the machine and a little way ahead of it.
- The clock keeps running, so keep driving: a straight pass cleans just as well in the dark.
- Plan your next two or three rows before the lights go, so you are not choosing directions blind.
- A Time Out used just as the lights go out stops the clock for ten seconds, so the blackout costs you nothing.
Thin-ice cracks at Glacier Lake
Glacier Lake has pressure cracks: one on your first visit, and up to three later. The game warns you as you cross one: the ice creaks the first time, then tells you one more crossing will break it. On the third crossing the crack opens into a hole you have to steer round for the rest of the level.
A hole is a nuisance, not a disaster: the ice it swallows no longer needs cleaning, but it breaks up your rows. The trick is to clean the area around a crack in passes that run along it, not across it, so you cross it as few times as possible. A crack can't open right under the machine, and once it is a hole the machine hugs its edge like any other obstacle.
Racers at the Speed Oval
Speed skaters come out for warm-up laps at the oval: one in the early levels, two later. They loop round the middle of the lane at nearly your top speed, scuffing the ice for about five seconds before they leave. You will rarely catch one, so treat their tracks like a flurry and fold them into your later laps. The Whistle clears them and stops any more coming out.
When a run gets hectic, it helps to remember that nothing here can stop you finishing. Clean steadily, save the clean-up for the end, and head back onto the ice to try it out.