Guide
Paper Drift Showcase: How to Collect All 67 Window Figures
Tap the figures in the shaft's windows to fill your Paper Drift Showcase: 67 figures, five rarities, wrapped surprises and unlimited energy for full shelves.
Paper Drift’s window figures are 67 little paper characters who appear in the windows of the shaft during Endless and Daily Drift runs. Tap one to take it: you earn 10 coins and the figure goes to your Showcase, where every map has a shelf of its own. The rarer figures only turn up deeper into a run, which makes a full Showcase a long-term goal.
This guide covers how taking a figure works, how rarity and depth interact, what full shelves pay, and a few favourite figures to look out for on every map.
How to take a window figure
The shaft is lined with windows. Now and then a figure stands in one and waves, with a small tag hanging under the window. Tap the window, the figure or the tag and it is yours:
- +10 coins, added to the run’s coins.
- The figure is lifted out of its window and goes onto its map’s shelf when the run ends.
- The tap never steers. Whether you fly with Halves, the Steer Pad or Tilt, a tap on a figure is never read as a turn, so you can grab one mid-dodge.
Like coins and stamp pieces, figures are banked at the results card. Quit from the pause screen and you keep none of them.
Where and when figures appear
- Endless and Daily Drift only. Time Attack has no figures, and in Race the factory crew stands in the windows as scenery.
- The windows show the map you are flying. To find the Glacier’s figures you have to be in the Glacier. A run moves on to a new map every 400 points, so long runs visit more shelves.
- Figures come at score milestones: every 30 points early on, then further apart. Most of those windows stay empty, which is part of what makes a find feel like one.
- In Daily Drift everyone meets the same figures at the same depths, because the day’s course is the same for everyone.
67 figures in five rarities
Every map has a cast of eight: three commons, two rares, one mythic, one legendary and one ultra. The Halloween event adds three more of its own.
| Rarity | Colour | Figures per map |
|---|---|---|
| Common | Green | 3 |
| Rare | Blue | 2 |
| Mythic | Red | 1 |
| Legendary | Yellow | 1 |
| Ultra | Every colour at once | 1 |
The tag under a window wears a gem in the figure’s colour, with more facets the rarer it is, so you know what you are tapping before you tap it.
Depth is the big lever. Commons can appear from the first milestone, but each tier above them only starts turning up past a certain depth, and even then it is a small chance per window. An ultra is fewer than one filled window in a hundred. The deeper your runs, the better your odds.
New figures arrive wrapped
A figure you take for the first time does not just appear on its shelf. It waits in its case wrapped in gift paper in its tier’s colour, with a gold ribbon and a bow, jiggling now and then as if impatient. The card reads NEW! instead of a name.
Tap the case to unwrap it: the paper tears down the ribbon, the figure pops up onto its plinth and hops, and its name, count and one-line description come in. Leave without tapping and it stays wrapped, and the dot on the title screen stays up until you do. With Reduce Motion on, the wrap is simply gone and the figure is standing there.
Inside the Showcase
Open the Showcase from the round keys on the title screen. It opens on CASES, a list of every map with its picture and how full its shelf is, plus a tally for the whole collection and how many times you have taken figures in all. Its other view, STAMPS, is the stamp album.
- Maps you have not reached yet are grey, with a padlock: “Reach it on a run to open it”. A new save starts with Classic, the Depot and the Aliens, and the rest unlock the first time a run flies into them. See them all on the worlds page.
- Inside a map, each figure stands in a lit glass case on a plinth of its tier’s colour. One you have not taken yet is a dark silhouette named “???”: you can see its shape, not who it is.
- Each taken figure shows its rarity, a short description and a ×count of how many times you have taken it.
There is no rarity legend anywhere in the Showcase. Which tier turns up how deep is for you to find out.
What full shelves pay
- 20 minutes of unlimited energy. Take every figure on a shelf at least once and 20 minutes of unlimited energy land in your Storage, once per shelf. It waits there until you tap USE, so you can save it for a long session.
- The Jack-o’-Lantern plane. Take four different figures off the Halloween shelf and the Showcase paints in this plane for your Hangar.
Like everything you unlock, these are rewards for playing, never power: every plane flies exactly the same.
Favourite figures on every map
Every figure has a name and a line of its own. Here are two to look out for on each map, without spoiling the rarest.
| Map | Figures to look for |
|---|---|
| Classic | Nib, an ink blot with a gold nib for a nose, always first to wave. The Stapler Twins, who high-five every plane that passes. |
| Depot | Sticky, packing tape with one loose end it will not stop waving. Forklift Fran, who lifts every parcel like a trophy. |
| Aliens | Octavio, who brought his own water and waves with two of his arms. Dr. Quib, who takes notes on every plane. |
| Foundry | Coalie, a lump of coal with a fire inside that cannot sit still. Sprocket, built from spare parts with a gear for a heart. |
| Jungle | Hop, an origami frog that jumps with nobody flicking it. Tuco, whose beak is bigger than the rest of him. |
| Glacier | Waddles, a penguin that has not taken off its knitted scarf since. Fuzz, a yeti cub, all fluff and no fear. |
| Desert | Radar, a fennec fox who heard your plane three dunes away. The Sphinx, who asks every plane a riddle, then waves it through before it can answer. |
| Halloween | Pip, a pumpkin with a candle for a grin. Count Fangsworth, all cape and courtesy. |
Halloween’s figures
The Halloween map and its eight figures only fly during the event, from 19 October to 8 November every year. While it is on, the factory crew also turns up in costume in any map’s windows: Boo Nib, Trick or Twins and Lantern Foreman. None of them is common, so each is a real find.
The Showcase files the Halloween shelf and the costumed crew together under EVENTS. Everything you collect stays yours after the event ends. More in our Paper Drift Halloween event guide.
Tips for a full Showcase
- Fly long runs. Rarer tiers need depth, and every 400 points brings a new map and a new cast.
- Reach every map. A shelf only opens once a run has flown into its map.
- Let runs end. Quitting from pause throws away the figures you took.
- Spend the coins. Figures pay 10 coins each: put them into colourways in the Hangar or envelopes at the stamp album’s Post Office.
For more ways to go deeper, read our Paper Drift tips and tricks.
Questions
How many window figures are there in Paper Drift?
67: eight on each of the eight maps, plus three that only appear during the Halloween event.
How do I take a window figure?
Tap its window, the figure or the tag hanging under it during an Endless or Daily Drift run. You get 10 coins, and the figure goes to your Showcase when the run ends. The tap never steers your plane.
Why can't I find the rare figures?
Most windows are empty, and the rarer tiers only start appearing deeper into a run. Longer runs are the only way to meet legendary and ultra figures.
What do I get for a full Showcase shelf?
Taking every figure on a shelf at least once puts 20 minutes of unlimited energy in your Storage, once per shelf.
Are there window figures in Time Attack?
No. Time Attack shows none, and in Race the factory crew stands in the windows as scenery. Only Endless and Daily Drift let you take figures.
