Serious Bara
The Springkeeper's HandbookSerious Bara · Game Manual
seriousbara.com
EN
ENDEESFRITPTNLPLJAZHKO

Stay calm. Fix the flow. Tell no one.

Everything a new keeper needs to know, from the first tap to the far future. Read it on the sofa, keep it open on a second screen, or ignore it completely: the game explains itself as you go. This handbook is for the curious.

Version for the iPhone and iPad release, September 2026. The PC version on Steam plays the same with mouse, keyboard and controller, and on Steam Deck with its touch screen and full Steam Input support.

Chapter 1

1Welcome to the Order

Capybaras are the secret custodians of history. From their mountain onsen, the Peaks of Yuzuyama, they slip through warm springs into the fragile moments of the past and quietly fix the flow of time. They never change history. They keep it warm enough to happen. There is a difference, and it is the whole job.

You are the newest Springkeeper. Serious Bara is a calm connect-the-flow puzzle game: on every board you draw warm-water channels that join matching spring stones. No lives, no timers, no ads, no penalties. Hints nudge and never answer. Nothing you can buy ever solves a puzzle for you.

The one rule. Every board has pairs of glowing spring stones. Draw a channel from each stone to its twin. When every pair is joined, the pool warms and the mission moves on.
Nothing bad can ever happen. Redraw as often as you like. A wrong line costs nothing. The only clock in the game is the one on the wall behind you.
Chapter 2

2Your first minutes

  1. The intro film. The game opens on a short film. Tap anywhere to skip it. (Settings, Game: "Skip intro video" starts straight at the title.)
  2. Grandfather Kapi. The Elder tells you why capybaras are serious, what the Order of the Serious Bara does and what the creed means: stay calm, fix the flow, tell no one. Tap to advance a line; some lines offer a choice, tap the one you like.
  3. Arrival at the Peaks. The camera rides down into the valley and settles on the Pool of Time. From here you go everywhere.
  4. Dive. Tap the Pool of Time to open the River of Time, pick the first spring and dive into history. The host of that moment greets you, then you solve a short chain of pools. Done. You are a Springkeeper.

Grandfather Kapi's lessons

Kapi keeps the tutorial. The first time something new appears, a small card with his emblem explains it in a sentence or two: the Peaks, the river, the board, every kind of fixture the first time a board carries it, the bag, the store, Yuzula's table, the research desk, the Almanac. Several new things on one board make one card with several pages.

  • Turn the page with BACK and NEXT, or tap the text. GOT IT closes the card.
  • Drag the card anywhere; it never blocks the game underneath.
  • HIDE shrinks it to a round Kapi badge; tap the badge to bring it back.
  • STOP switches the lessons off. Turn them on again at Kapi's pavilion ("Teach me as we go, Grandfather") or in Settings, Game, "Kapi's lessons".
  • Teach me again: at Kapi's pavilion every lesson is listed, seen ones ticked. Tap one to hear it once more.

Everything else in this handbook is detail. Lovely, useful detail.

Chapter 3

3The Peaks of Yuzuyama

Your home outside time: a bathhouse beside the river of history. The river rushes past, the bath stays warm. Every mission starts and ends here.

The Peaks of Yuzuyama with numbered markers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
  1. The bar. Where you are, with your wallet attached: Yuzu Seeds on the left, Golden Yuzu on the right. Only these two currencies exist; tap the wallet and it names them.
  2. Menu. Audio, Game, Controls, Save and Cloud; on PC and Mac also Video.
  3. The Pool of Time. Its gold outline follows the pond. Tap it to dive to the River of Time.
  4. The Sacred Yuzu Tree. Visit it once a real day: it drops one Golden Yuzu for a keeper who says hello.
  5. A resident. Every resident stands somewhere in the valley with a floating emblem above. Tap them or the emblem to talk; each one has a job for you (chapter 10).
  6. Another resident. One spot is always selected and breathes a gold outline; the pool is selected first.
  7. The house side. Grandma Momo's Outfitters and Professor Liliane Llama's archives live by the house.
  8. The tray. Two buttons: Bag (Momo's goodies) and Quick Jump (a list of every spot; tap one to go there). Your own page, the Springkeeper, opens when you tap your bara on the painting twice.

Moving around

  • Slide along the valley. The painting is wider than the screen: drag it sideways (mouse drag on PC, A and D or the left stick on a controller), or select a spot and it slides there by itself.
  • Select, then open. The first tap on a resident or an emblem selects it (gold outline), the second tap opens the conversation. Tapping the pool dives straight away.
  • Places. Quick Jump lists every spot by name and takes you there. On a controller, the shoulder buttons step from spot to spot.

Talking to the village

A conversation with the Sacred Yuzu Tree 1 2 3 4 5
  1. The speaker's portrait. Their mood changes with the line.
  2. Who is talking.
  3. The line. Tap the plate to advance. Long lines type themselves out (Settings, Game: "Disable typewriting" shows them at once).
  4. Choices. Each resident offers their own options first; the first one is gold. "Can I see the video again?" replays that resident's introduction film.
  5. Never mind. Every conversation ends with a polite way out.

The first time you tap a resident after starting the game, their short introduction film plays (tap to skip). After that you go straight to the conversation. Settings, Game: "Skip cutscene videos" turns the films off entirely.

Chapter 4

4The River of Time

The mission map. Every moment the baras tend rides one glowing ribbon through the ages, in campaign order from left to right.

The River of Time with numbered markers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
  1. The bar. Back to the Peaks (the arrow), where you are, how many moments are restored, and your wallet.
  2. The ribbon is year zero. Moments before Christ sink below it, moments after rise above it.
  3. A spring. One mission. A green check means done, a padlock means not yet reachable, dots show the difficulty. Springs beyond your reach sit in the mist (see below).
  4. Place, date, title. The real place and year of the moment.
  5. Selected. The first tap selects a spring (gold halo). The second tap opens its briefing.
  6. The dive arrow points at the selected spring.
  7. The future is up, the past is down. Drag to scroll along the river, pinch to zoom.
  8. Back. The arrow in the bar takes you home to the Peaks.
  9. Next mission jumps to your first unfinished mission. Tap it again to open it.

The briefing and the dive

Opening a spring shows its briefing card: place, date, the mission's emblem and element, its name, the true story of that moment, and how many maps it holds. "Dive to <year>" takes you through the warm-water tunnel; a tap skips the arrival card. The local host, always the real person of that moment as a bara, greets you on the other side.

Missions unlock in order along the river. A locked spring only wobbles when tapped. You cannot skip ahead, but you can always come back: solved missions can be replayed for the pure joy of the soak.

The open five

The river never opens more than five moments at once: your first unfinished mission and the four after it. Finish one and the window slides on by one. Play them in any order you like within the five; the river only asks that nothing is left behind for long.

The mist

Beyond the open five the river lies in mist. You still see the round stones, but they are clouded: no name, no place, no year, only a soft question mark where the emblem would be. History likes to keep a little of its surprise. Every mission you finish moves the mist one stone further.

Whisker Sense, a badge from Momo's (chapter 9), lifts the mist early: rank I shows one stone past the open five, rank II two, rank III three. Those stones show their name, place and year, but they stay locked until the window reaches them.

Springkeeper Badges

Every fifty moments the river asks for a licence: Springkeeper Badge I opens moments 51 to 100, Badge II 101 to 150, and so on up to Badge XII. A badge is researched at Liliane's (three finished missions) and then bought at Momo's (500 seeds for the first, 20 more for each next). Liliane offers a badge about fifteen missions before you need it, so start early; if you arrive at a stretch without its badge, the spring's briefing names the badge and the river waits until you wear it. Nothing else ever gates a mission.

Chapter 5

5The board: drawing channels

A mission is a short chain of pools, usually three to six, and the bar at the top reads "floor 3 of 5". Each pool is a small landscape of cubes: meadow, rivers, fences, and pairs of glowing spring stones.

A mission board with numbered markers 1 2 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11