Wiki · Paper Drift
Every obstacle, and when it first appears
What is in the shaft, one by one: what it does, how big it is, how much warning it gives and from what score it can turn up. None of them ever closes the shaft: there is always a way through.
Data taken from the game’s code · version 2.0 · Updated 29 September 2026
On every map
The “From” column is the score from which it can turn up (300 points earlier in the Foundry). All of them kill on contact unless marked.
| Obstacle | From | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Girder | From the start | A beam from a wall, 34 px deep. Go round its open end. |
| Double girder | From the start | Two girders at one height with a gap between them to thread. |
| Streamer Harmless | From the start | A paper streamer. A decoy: it never hurts you — fly straight through and save the dodge. |
| Pillar | 30 points | A post 60 px wide standing in the shaft: pass on either side. |
| Shelf | 80 points | Ledges 34 px deep, set in pairs that make you weave from one gap to the next. |
| Piston | 150 points | Slides out of a wall and back on a clock. It reaches 500 px at most, so a channel always stays open. |
| Gust vent Harmless | 250 points | A 300 px band of wind that pushes you sideways at 200 px/s — 43% of your steering. Lean against it: crossing upwind takes 2.4 s instead of 1.3. |
| Shutter | 250 points | Slats 64 px deep that open and close on a 2–3 s cycle. The gap never closes below 150 px. |
| Funnel | 400 points | Two walls closing in toward an opening in the middle of the shaft, at least 120 px wide: line up early. |
| Chute | — | A vertical corridor between two walls. There is no room to bank inside: fall flat (which is fast), then shed speed for the turn out. |
| Fan | 600 points | Three spinning blades, 180 px long. There is a gap by each wall about 90 px wide for your centre — or thread between the blades, the fast line. |
| Drum | 850 points | A turning ring 320 px across with a 22 px wall and a notch cut out of it: the notch is the one moving gap, so time it as it comes round. |
| Guillotine | 1150 points | A 420 px blade by one wall. It winds up for 0.5 s (the tell), then slams 400 px down in 0.15 s. It leaves 220 px of shaft free. |
The chute comes in particular deeper chunks rather than at a set tier.
Things to take
| What | From | What it gives |
|---|---|---|
| Stamp | 30 points | +5 points and a jigsaw piece. It sways 110 px either side every 2.3 s. |
| Thermal | 150 points | A 256 px ring of warm air: ×2 points and a 30% smaller hitbox for 1.2 s, and 8 s of invincibility. |
| Coins | 9 m | A trail of up to 5 paper coins in the free air between two beams. One trail in 8 hides a big coin worth 5. Only in Endless and the Daily. |
Each map’s own obstacles
They only turn up on their own map, in Endless, the Daily Drift and Race: a third of the map’s ordinary chunks are its own. The bosses have a page of their own.
| Obstacle | Map | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Crane | Classic | A crate 92 × 76 px swinging from a jib like a pendulum. Only the crate kills: the cable is the one thing you may fly through. Time the swing. |
| Ghost | Halloween | A sheet stretched from a wall, 84 px deep. It gathers for 0.5 s (not solid yet), is solid, shimmers for 0.25 s while still solid, then is gone for about 0.75 s. Slip through as it fades. |
| Flytrap | Jungle | A flytrap on a vine, rooted in a wall and aimed up the shaft. It rears back for 0.45 s, lunges up to 420 px in 0.12 s, holds the bite 0.25 s and lets go over 0.6 s. Crashing into one counts as being eaten. |
| Vine Harmless | Jungle | Looks like a platform and is not: fly straight through it. It never kills, but it SNAGS you: your whole speed (down and sideways) drops to 55% for 0.5 s. You are caught if your centre comes within 12 px of the leaves. |
| Ice floe | Glacier | Two ice slabs across the shaft, 44 px deep, with a gap between them that drifts from side to side. The gap is never under 170 px: follow it. |
| Laser | Aliens | A turret on a wall (its 40 × 56 px housing is always solid). It charges for 0.55 s — the muzzle glows and a hairline shows the shot — fires an 18 px beam for 0.35 s, then cools. A shot reaches 480 px at most, so 160 px is always clear. |
| Vine Harmless | Desert | The same vines as the Jungle’s, across part of the shaft or hung free across the middle. |
| Stone slab | Desert | From 200 points into a Desert leg: a sandstone slab 40 px deep and up to 380 px wide gliding from wall to wall. Pass on the side it leaves open. |
| Pyramid | Desert | From the afternoon too: a three-step pyramid (steps 34 px deep, base up to 296 px) gliding across the middle. Every step is solid. Crossing the middle it leaves 172 px each side. |
The rules the shaft is built by
- There is always a way out. Nothing closes the shaft: shutters with a 150 px minimum gap, pistons of 500 px at most, guillotines of 420 px in a 640 px shaft.
- No chunk can be cleared without steering. There is never a straight corridor from top to bottom.
- Everything warns you at least 0.9 s ahead at top speed.
- Every chunk was flown before it went into the game with the real simulation: from every entry position, at three speeds, mirrored, at six points in each obstacle’s cycle, and by a pilot reacting 60 ms late with a 6% bigger hitbox.
- Red is danger: lethal beams carry red tape. With the colour vision modes they also get a diagonal hatch, and decoys get dots.
See it for yourself
Paper Drift is free on iPhone and Android.
