Runaway Foxes walkthrough
Sweep the fence, then the planting beds, then the bridge, then the house. The hidden mandrake sits in the plots left of the house at the top right of the map, and the side quest is the usual reason the stage stalls.
Runaway Foxes is the request Bit Egg's own player data names as the easiest to clear to 100%. That is not a throwaway compliment: the studio put it at number one on the "easiest request" card in its 100-day infographic, ahead of Mysterious Bouquet and Bargain Bonanza. On Steam, 68% of players hold the completion achievement.
It is also one of the two stages the demo used to introduce Request levels, alongside Tea Time Troubles. That history explains its shape: one compact garden location, a single counting objective, and a side quest that hides a plant you have probably walked past.
What the request asks for
The scene is a garden in autumn: trees in orange, a wooden bridge, planting beds and a house at the top of the map. The client has lost a group of foxes, and the To-do line counts them as you find them. Community walkthroughs for this request consistently list eight foxes; your own To-do counter is the check that matters, because it updates as each one is returned.
Foxes in this stage are not always sitting in the open. Some sit in the middle of a path, some are tucked behind garden furniture, and the stage is small enough that a single careful lap finds most of them.
Why it is the easiest 100%
Three reasons, and all of them are structural rather than tonal:
- One screen, one layer. Unlike the Fall Update stages, Runaway Foxes does not split into rooms or acts. Everything you need is on the same illustrated map.
- The objective is countable. Counting objectives are self-checking. You always know how many are left, which removes the "did I miss something or is it finished?" doubt that makes other stages drag.
- The side quest is nearby. The optional objective is tied to the garden itself, not to a character in another room, so finishing it does not require leaving and coming back.
That combination is why the stage is a good one to practise on. If you can close Runaway Foxes cleanly, you have the sweep pattern for the rest of the game.
A route through the garden
- Walk the wall first. Start at the bottom-left corner and follow the fence line around. Garden stages in this game put small objects against the boundary, where the illustration gets quiet.
- Check the planting beds. The beds on the left of the house are the densest part of the map. Click the plants themselves, not just the gaps between them.
- Cross the bridge. The bridge is a natural funnel: objects sit on the rails, under the arch and in the water below. Look down before you look forward.
- Do the house last. The building at the top of the map is where the stage's remaining objectives cluster, and where the side quest resolves.
- Sweep for Juju on the way back. Grey wobbly objects are easy to spot against orange leaves. Take the return trip slowly and click every grey shape.
The hidden mandrake
The mandrake is the reason this stage gets searched for years after release. It is a plant-shaped object in the planting plots on the left of the house, toward the top right of the map. It looks like an ordinary plant until you click it, at which point it jumps off — which is also why players who passed it twice still missed it: nothing about the silhouette reads as a collectible.
The location comes from the Steam forum thread that asked exactly this question in March 2026, and the answer has held through every patch since. If you are standing at the house and looking up the map, the plots you want are the ones immediately to its left.
Before you leave: the checklist
| Check | How to confirm | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| All foxes returned | The counting line in the To-do panel is complete | Community walkthroughs list eight |
| Side quest triggered | A new optional line appears after the garden interaction | It does not exist until you touch the trigger |
| Side quest finished | The optional line clears | Leaving with it open means a replay |
| Mandrake clicked | The plant jumps and the objective registers | Top right of the map, left of the house |
| Juju collected | The Juju counter moves | Grey, wobbly, no colour |
| Instapix taken | The feed shows the new post | Photo moments are easy to skip |
The mandrake and the side quest are usually the same thing. That is the trap of this stage: it is easy to find all the foxes, declare the request finished and walk away at 90%.
Blockers and patch history
Runaway Foxes has been unusually stable. None of the post-launch patch notes fix this stage by name — the launch-window repairs went to The Suspicious Fox, Going Viral, Toy Time Panic and the rest of the opening set. The demo-era changes that do mention it are about object feedback and sorting, both of which were resolved before release.
What that means in practice: any guide written in 2026 about this stage is still accurate about the layout. The only thing that has changed around it is the achievement percentage, which keeps climbing as new players reach the garden.
What it unlocks
Clearing Runaway Foxes gives you the usual rewards — the completion achievement, Plum Coins for the Kit Shop, and a thank-you mail from the client — plus one thing that matters more: confidence in the sweep. The next three stages in the story set are longer, and the Fall Update pair is longer still.
If you want the hardest end of the scale instead, read Apartment Apocalypse's ranking context in the walkthrough index, or jump to the newest content in Love After Life. For the collectible that lives in this garden, see Hidden mandrake.
