The two arrow buttons on the left move Koa; hold one and Koa starts to run after a moment. The small button below them is down: down + JUMP drops you through a ledge. On the right, JUMP jumps (hold it to jump higher) and THROW throws the boomerang; holding THROW also makes Koa run. Stomp enemies by landing on them, and break crates for power-ups.

The fire boomerang flies faster, hits twice as hard and smashes boulders. The leaf lets you glide: hold JUMP while falling. The shield takes one hit for you. The sun makes Koa invincible for ten seconds. Hearts refill your health, pearl bags hold ten pearls, and every 100 pearls is an extra life.

Koa has three hearts per life and starts with three lives. Each stage has a totem that lights up as you pass it; if you lose a life after that, you start again from the totem. When your lives run out you can continue the stage from its start or go back to the journey map, and every stage you have unlocked stays unlocked.

Each island ends in an arena with its boss: the Crab King, the Tiki Idol, the Bat Queen and the Magma Lord. Hit them with your boomerang or stomp them while you dodge their attacks; the bar at the top shows how much health they have left. The fire boomerang does double damage.

Your unlocked stages, high score, pearl records and settings are stored on your device. They move to a new phone through Android's backup and restore (Settings → Google → Backup). They are lost if you uninstall the game or clear its storage without a backup.

Both can be switched on and off on the title screen, and music also in the pause menu.

Android 8.0 (Oreo) and newer, on phones and tablets. The game plays in landscape.