PicoWhy there's a reward at all
Blocking apps is a negative. It takes something away, and tools built entirely on taking things away tend to get deleted in the second week.
So Pico has something to walk towards as well as something to walk for. Hit your daily step goal and you earn a puzzle piece. Place enough pieces and a puzzle completes, and a new world opens for Pico to live in.
It's a small thing. It's also, for a lot of people, the reason they're still using it in month three.
How pieces work
One piece per day, for meeting your step goal. Not for Energy, not for push-ups or sit-ups — walking only. Reps earn Energy for your apps, but the worlds stay tied to steps on purpose.
Pieces wait until you place them. Nothing drops in automatically. A piece sits in your collection until you open Puzzles and put it somewhere, which means you choose which world you're working towards.
You decide how to spread them. Five waiting pieces can go three into Savanna and two into Wetlands, or all five into one.
Pieces are only handed out while there's room left in some puzzle, so they never pile up with nowhere to go.
Eight worlds, sixteen puzzles
Every world has two puzzles with their own artwork and name. Finishing either one unlocks the world for Pico's home screen; the second is extra, there to collect if you want it.
- Forest — where Pico starts
- Arctic
- Desert
- Jungle
- Mountain
- Ocean
- Savanna
- Wetlands
Once a world is unlocked you can set it as Pico's home, and he'll be living there whenever you open the app — awake during the day, asleep at night.
The daily check-in
The first time you open Pico on a new day, it shows you the week: a puzzle piece on each day you hit the goal, a part-filled ring on days you fell short, and today's progress so far.
Days you missed show a partly filled ring, never a cross. That's deliberate. The week strip is there to show you a pattern, not to tell you off, and the evidence on habit-building is fairly clear that shame is a poor motivator for exactly this kind of thing.
You can open it any time from Settings › Help & Support › Show This Week.
Picking a step goal that earns pieces
A goal you hit four days a week earns four pieces. A goal you hit once a fortnight earns almost nothing and quietly teaches you to ignore the whole system.
Set it from your actual baseline — look at your last two weeks in Apple Health and add a thousand or so. You can always raise it. How many steps a day? goes through what the research says about where the real benefit sits, which is probably lower than you think.
Common questions
How do you unlock new worlds in Pico?
Meet your daily step goal to earn a puzzle piece, place pieces into a world's puzzle, and completing either of that world's two puzzles unlocks it.
Do push-ups and sit-ups earn puzzle pieces?
No. Reps earn Energy for unlocking apps, but puzzle pieces come only from hitting your daily step goal. The worlds are deliberately kept as a reward for walking.
How many puzzles are there in total?
Sixteen — two for each of the eight worlds. Completing either puzzle in a world unlocks it, so the second is optional.
What happens to my worlds if I reinstall Pico?
If iCloud backup is on, your pieces, worlds and Energy history come back. Progress is stored in your own iCloud account, never on a server of ours.
Can I lose a puzzle piece?
No. Pieces you've earned stay earned, and waiting pieces are included in the backup.
Where to go next
- Walk to unlock your apps — the main loop
- How many steps a day? — setting a goal you'll hit
- Pico FAQ — everything else
