Hello! Thank you so much for playing Ducky's Delivery Service, and thanks for asking!

Getting three stars on a stage can be pretty tricky, and you can clear the entire game just by getting two stars on each stage. Although by the time you're getting towards the end of the game, it might be easier to go back and get three stars in the earlier stages instead of trying to get two stars in the later stages. But if you want to go for three star scores, here's an explanation of how it works:

Summary

If you just want to play for high scores and don't want to learn exactly how the scoring system works, here's all you need:

Delivering packages in perfect condition is the most important thing. The second most important thing is delivering them quickly, and throwing them gives you some bonus points too (but the throw bonus caps out at 5 meters, so you don't need to throw packages very far). It is basically never worth intentionally damaging a package to save time.

It's best to just pick up the closest package every time, instead of wasting time looking around for a "better" one. Ideally you want to immediately pick up another package as soon as you deliver one, like in the gif at the top of this post.

How the scoring system works

When you deliver a package in Ducky's Delivery Service, you're awarded with time and points. The base amount of points that a package is worth depends on how far you have to deliver it, and I tried to balance it so large (long-distance) packages or small (short-distance) packages aren't "better" than the other. So when you deliver a package, you're usually best off just grabbing another package as soon as possible instead of looking around for a "good" one.

Score multipliers

A multiplier gets applied to your package's score, based on how much damage it took and how far it was thrown. You get a 2x multiplier for a package that took no damage, a 1.5x multiplier if it took 1 damage, a 1.25x multiplier if it took 2 damage, and a 1x multiplier for anything past that. You get an additional 0.1x multiplier for every meter you throw the package, up to a maximum of 0.5x multiplier for throwing it 5 meters.

So the best multiplier you can get is 2.5x, for delivering a package in perfect condition and throwing it 5 meters or further.

Time bonuses

You get given some time when you pick up a package, and you get given some more time when you deliver it. The time bonus for picking up a package is based on how far you have to deliver it, and the time bonus for delivering a package is just a couple of seconds to give you time to pick up another one.

You get a bonus +1 second for delivering a package if it was delivered in perfect condition. These make a big difference over the course of a full run! This is one of the reasons that it's important to try and deliver packages in perfect condition.

As you get further and further into a run, the time bonuses for delivering packages get lower and lower. This mechanic just exists so runs don't go on forever, while still letting newer players play for a couple of minutes. For scoring purposes, this is basically just another reason to play quickly.

So those are the reasons that the tactics at the top of the post work. Deliver packages in perfect condition for a higher score multiplier and a +1 second time bonus, try to play quickly so you can deliver more packages before running out of time (but it's not worth it if you damage packages in the process), and try to throw the packages a few meters for some additional points. You can technically clear the whole game without getting three stars on any stage, but it's still fun to give it a try!

Ducky's Delivery Service is available on Nintendo Switch, Steam and itch.io