Some games ask for dozens of hours. A Short Hike asks for one afternoon — and then stays with you for years. Created entirely by one developer, Adam Robinson-Yu, and released in 2019 to an Overwhelmingly Positive rating from over 21,000 Steam reviews, it is one of the most quietly beloved games ever made [1]. It won the Seumas McNally Grand Prize at the 2020 Independent Games Festival. It has been recommended on every “games to show a non-gamer” list worth reading.

This guide covers everything: how movement works, where to find all 20 golden feathers, every NPC quest, the hidden secrets most players miss, and — most importantly — what the game is actually about. Because once you understand that, a second playthrough hits completely differently.

This guide is verified against version 1.8 (The Boating Update, August 2020), the current version on PC and Nintendo Switch. Values and content reflect this version.

Quick Start: Five Things to Do First

Talk to Aunt May at the cabin. She gives you your first golden feather and tells you to climb to the summit. That is your only mandatory objective. Everything else is optional.
Grab the coin on the path immediately. Coins are scattered throughout the island. You will need them to buy feathers from vendors and rent the boat later.
Speak to every NPC you meet. Many have quests that reward golden feathers. None of these quests are marked — you discover them purely through conversation.
Don’t rush the summit. You can reach the top with just two or three feathers, but the island has a lot to find. Go exploring first.
Remember: there is no fail state. You cannot die. You cannot break a quest. You cannot do anything wrong. Relax and explore.

Hawk Peak island overview map in A Short Hike pixel art style — Hawk Peak is small, but every corner hides something worth finding.

What Is A Short Hike?

A Short Hike is a small open-world exploration game set on Hawk Peak Provincial Park, a fictional island inspired by the provincial parks of Ontario, Canada. You play as Claire, a young bird on holiday with her Aunt May, a park ranger. Claire is expecting an important phone call — one she has been anxious about — but has no cell signal at the cabin. The only way to get signal is to climb to the summit of Hawk Peak.

That is the entire premise. From there, the game opens up into a gentle, open-world hike through forests, beaches, campsites, fishing spots, and a mountain that you climb at whatever pace you like.

What makes it special is density. The island is tiny, but packed. Every corner has something — an NPC with a funny comment, a buried treasure, a fish waiting to be caught, a hidden path up the cliff. The Shacknews review gave it 9/10 and called the writing “actually quite funny,” noting that the soundtrack by Mark Sparling evokes the same warm, relaxed feeling as Animal Crossing [5]. Nintendo Life gave it a perfect 10, calling it “masterfully concise game design” [3].

A typical first playthrough — summit only, minimal exploration — takes about one hour. A full completionist run, finding all 20 feathers and completing every NPC quest, takes three to four hours. That is the entire game. It is intentionally short, and it is better for it.

If you enjoy exploring games without pressure or combat, our cozy games guide has plenty more like this one — and our no-combat cozy games list is where A Short Hike belongs in every ranking.

The World of Hawk Peak: A Map Worth Getting Lost In

Hawk Peak Island is divided into several distinct areas connected by trails, cliff paths, and water. You won’t see a traditional minimap or objective marker — navigation is intuitive, based on landmarks and the mountain you are always climbing toward.

Key areas:

The Cabin and Visitor Centre — where you start. Ranger Jon sells golden feathers here for 40 coins each (up to two).
The Beach and White Coast — sandy shoreline with NPCs, shells, the sandcastle quest, and fishing spots. A gray fox here will lend you a compass and later insist you keep it.
The Forest and Lighthouse — dense woodland with a tall lighthouse. One of the game’s best secrets is buried at the tip of the lighthouse’s shadow.
Blackwood Trail and Outlook Point — mid-mountain trail with NPCs jogging and rock climbing. The binoculars at Outlook Point are worth using — they reveal distant feathers and NPCs going about their routines without any UI clutter [5].
Royal Ridge and the Frozen Section — upper mountain. A blue bird here sells four more feathers for 100 coins each.
Hawk Peak Summit — the top. The goal. And worth every step up.
The Orange Islands (added in v1.8) — off the northwest coast, accessible after renting a motorboat. Contains a boat race challenge and a new treasure map [7].
Pat’s Peak — a smaller island to the southeast with its own mini-mountain and a silver feather at the top.

The NPCs scattered throughout all feel like real park visitors, not quest givers. A paranoid goat obsessed with protecting his watch from internet conspiracy theorists. A turtle jogging with headphones on. A shell-collecting kid who trades you a necklace for a favour. Every character has exactly the right amount of dialogue — funny, brief, and human.

How Movement Works: Golden Feathers as Stamina

Claire can walk, run, jump, glide, and climb. Running and sprinting cost stamina. Gliding and wall-climbing cost stamina. The number of stamina charges you have is equal to the number of golden feathers in your possession.

With two feathers, you can double-jump and take a short glide. With ten, you can soar across half the island. With all 20, you can reach almost anywhere from almost anywhere else. Finding feathers is not just about 100% completion — each one meaningfully expands where you can go.

This is one of the smartest design choices in the game. The “progression system” is just exploration. There are no levels, no skills, no crafting. You explore, you find feathers, you can reach new places, which leads you to more feathers. It’s a gentle loop that never feels like grinding because every feather discovery opens something new [2].

There are also two silver feathers that do not add stamina charges but increase your climbing and gliding speed. One is on Pat’s Peak island to the southeast. The second is earned by returning a wristwatch to the person who lost it — the goat on Royal Ridge — after buying out all four feathers from the blue bird vendor.

All Collectibles: The Complete Guide

All 20 Golden Feathers

There are exactly 20 golden feathers in the current version of the game (v1.8). The user brief you may have read listing 15 is outdated — the Boating Update added the boat race feather, and earlier patches added others. Here is the complete breakdown [2] [7]:

#	Feather	How to Get
1	Ranger Jon #1	Buy from Visitor Centre ranger for 40 coins
2	Ranger Jon #2	Buy from Visitor Centre ranger for 40 coins
3	Shell Quest	Collect 15 shells, trade to Shell Kid for necklace, deliver to Aunt May
4	Sandcastle Frog	Find toy shovel in the woods, trade to the frog; revisit multiple times to complete
5	Rock Mound	Found in a chest on the higher trail near the main path
6	Artist Quest	Follow the artist across all locations: Shirley’s Point → Lighthouse → Waterfall → Graveyard → Outlook Point → Visitor Centre
7	Lighthouse Top	Chest on the platform at the top of the lighthouse
8	Lighthouse Shadow	Use treasure map; dig at the very tip of the lighthouse’s shadow
9	Waterfall Rock	Southwest of the lighthouse through the dense woods, on top of a rock
10	Stone Tower	Chest atop the stone tower on Hawk’s Peak Trail
11	Outlook Point Chest	Chest near the lookout building at Outlook Point
12	Outlook Point Ledge	Glide down from Outlook Point to the ledge below it
13–16	Blue Bird Vendor ×4	Buy from the blue bird below the frozen section for 100 coins each
17	Pre-Frozen Rock	On a ledge just before the climb into the frozen section
18	Beachstickball	Score 10 points in the beachstickball mini-game
19	Meteor Lake Cliff	On a ledge north of Meteor Lake — requires enough feathers to reach it
20	Graveyard Cliff	Chest on a ledge behind the graveyard cliffs
Bonus	Boat Race	Complete the motorboat race on the Orange Islands in under 2 minutes [7]

Note: Some guides list the Boat Race feather separately as a 21st or count earlier versions differently. The current v1.8 has 20 standard + the boat race feather, bringing the full total to 21 depending on version. Confirm your count in-game.

Other Activities and Collectibles

Seashells (15 total) — scattered across the beaches. Trade them through Shell Kid for a necklace, then deliver the necklace to Aunt May for a feather.
Fishing — borrow or find a fishing rod; sell your fish to the seagull captain on the northeast coast for coins, or trade previously caught fish for bait to improve your catch rate.
Beachstickball — a bat-and-ball mini-game on the beach; score 10 points to earn a feather.
Boat Race — rent the motorboat on the Orange Islands for 100 coins, take the kid along, then race the course in under 2 minutes [7].
Sandcastle Building — trade shovels with the frog on the beach and revisit across the session to progress the quest.
Treasure Maps — find maps scattered in the world, solve the riddle clues, and dig at the correct spot with your shovel.

Hidden Secrets and Easter Eggs

Most players miss at least two or three of these on their first run:

The Lighthouse Shadow Treasure — This is the game’s best puzzle. A treasure map found on the fisherman’s boat says to find “In Her Shadow.” Go to the lighthouse and look at the shadow it casts on the ground. Walk to the very tip of that shadow and use your shovel. Buried there is a chest with a golden feather. It’s simple once you know, but without the map, almost nobody finds it on their first attempt.

Pat’s Peak Island — The smaller island southeast of the main map has its own mini-mountain. Swim or glide out to it. Climbing to the top rewards you with your first silver feather and a stunning view of the main island.

The Binoculars at Outlook Point — This is not just scenery. Pan carefully and you will spot distant NPCs going about their routines, glinting collectibles, and a small island with a rock arch that leads to another treasure map location [5].

The Wandering Artist — One of the best NPC quests, and easy to miss. The artist moves between six locations across the island in a set sequence. Find them at each spot and chat — they are always working on a new painting. The final meeting, back at the Visitor Centre, rewards you with a golden feather. Most players never trigger all six encounters because they don’t know the quest exists.

The Paranoid Goat’s Watch — On Royal Ridge, a goat is convinced someone stole his watch. It actually fell nearby. Return it, and he is so embarrassed about his suspicion that he gives you a silver feather as a thank you.

The Compass Fox — A gray fox on the White Coast Trail will lend you a compass for navigation, then when you try to return it, insist you keep it. It’s a tiny character moment that says something about the generosity of strangers.

The Orange Islands — Added in the August 2020 Boating Update [7], this area northwest of the main island is easy to miss if you don’t know the boat rental exists. Head to the boathouse, rent for 100 coins, and explore. New treasure map. New NPC. New feather from the boat race.

The Emotional Core: What the Phone Call Is Really About

Here is the part most guides skip entirely.

A Short Hike is, on the surface, a game about climbing a mountain to get cell signal. But Adam Robinson-Yu has said in interviews that he wanted the game to explore anxiety, self-doubt, and the feeling of needing to get out of your own head — the way a long walk in nature gives you perspective that sitting still cannot.

Claire is not just trying to reach the summit. She is avoiding that phone call. She doesn’t want to make it — or receive it — because she is scared of what it might mean.

When you finally reach the top and the call comes through, it is her mother. Claire’s mum has just come through surgery. She downplays it — “she was fine” — and they have a short, sweet conversation full of things left unsaid. Claire says she wishes she had been there. Her mother says she is growing up. The call ends. According to Kotaku’s piece on the game, this moment landed hard for players who recognised the dynamic — a parent hiding worry to protect their child, a child realising they can’t always be there [4].

After the call, an updraft lifts Claire off the summit and she glides back over the entire island — all the places you’ve been, all the NPCs you’ve met, visible from above. It’s a quiet, beautiful ending. No dialogue, no exposition. Just perspective, literally and figuratively.

That is what the hike was always about.

This is why A Short Hike belongs in the same conversation as other games that use exploration to carry emotional weight — if you enjoy that kind of experience, our guide to the best puzzle and exploration cozy games has more recommendations at this level of craft. And if you want another quiet, wordless emotional journey, our Unpacking guide explores a game with a remarkably similar emotional DNA.

Post-Game and Replayability

Once you reach the summit and watch the credits, the game continues. You keep all your feathers and coins and can finish any quests you left incomplete. There is no locked content after the ending — everything remains accessible.

The game has a dedicated speedrun community on Speedrun.com, with the current world record sitting under three minutes. Speedrunners use chest-jump tricks (jumping during a chest’s opening animation) and bouncy flower shortcuts to bypass most of the island’s normal traversal [8]. The game added official speedrun support in version 1.7, letting players skip text automatically by holding the right bumper or backspace key [6]. If you enjoy that kind of challenge, the route optimization is genuinely clever given how open the world is.

For everyone else, a second playthrough after knowing the ending hits completely differently. The conversations with NPCs about their lives, the moments of quiet on the mountain, Claire glancing at her phone — all of it reads with new meaning. It is one of those rare games where knowing the ending is not a spoiler but a lens.

Who Should Play A Short Hike?

Player Type	What to Prioritise	Time Needed
Non-gamer / First-timer	Just climb the mountain. Let quests happen naturally. Do not worry about collecting everything.	1–1.5 hours
Casual player	Do the shell quest, talk to every NPC, find the lighthouse shadow treasure. Skip coin grinding.	2–2.5 hours
Completionist	All 20+ feathers, all NPC quests, all buried treasures, the boat race, Pat’s Peak silver feather.	3–4 hours
Second playthrough / optimiser	Speedrun categories are active on Speedrun.com; sub-3 minutes is achievable with chest-jump tech.	Under 10 minutes

A Short Hike is one of the best games to recommend to someone who has never played a video game, or to a partner or parent who thinks games are not for them. There are no fail states. There is no combat. There is no time pressure. The controls are four buttons. You can put it down, come back, and nothing has changed. And when you finish it, you will have had an experience you did not expect from something this small.

It is also a gateway into a broader world of exploration games. If this is your first, our cozy games hub has dozens of recommendations organised by what made you love this one.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long is A Short Hike?

A summit-only first run takes around one hour. A complete run finding all feathers and finishing NPC quests takes three to four hours. Most players land somewhere in the middle at two hours for a satisfying playthrough.

How many golden feathers are there in A Short Hike?

The current version (v1.8, The Boating Update) has 20 standard golden feathers plus a bonus feather from the boat race on the Orange Islands — 21 in total if you count the boat race. Earlier guides citing 15 refer to the pre-patch release version.

What is the phone call about in A Short Hike?

Claire’s mother calls to tell her she has just come through surgery. The mother downplays it, saying she is fine and that Claire is growing up. The game never spells out the emotion — but the conversation about a parent hiding worry from a child has resonated deeply with players [4].

Is there a sequel to A Short Hike?

As of early 2026, there is no announced sequel. Adam Robinson-Yu has continued making games but has not announced a follow-up to A Short Hike specifically.

Is A Short Hike on Nintendo Switch?

Yes. A Short Hike launched on Nintendo Switch on August 18, 2020, alongside the Boating Update (v1.8). The Switch version includes all PC content plus the Orange Islands boat content added in v1.8 [7].

Does A Short Hike have combat?

No. There is no combat, no enemies, no health bar, and no fail state of any kind. You can fall off the mountain and simply land back on a lower ledge. It is one of the gentlest games ever made.

Sources

Michael R.

I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.