How do Puffles Communicate?

Puffles have been around on Club Penguin since 2006, and since then we’ve learnt a lot about the little creatures. However, there’s one major thing that we still don’t really understand about them – how they communicate. So in this post, I’m going to pull together all the information that we have and see if we can figure anything out with it.

One noisd that puffles often make is a small high-pitched squeak. The question remains, though, is that the noise that they use to simply talk to other puffles? You can observe puffles making these noises when chased in Puffle Roundup, hit in Puffle Paddle or when scrolled over in Aunt Arctic’s igloo during PSA Mission #1 or the sleeping black puffle in the Pet Shop in any PSA Missions.

But every time a puffle makes this noise, it’s being chased or prodded or hit by something, so rather than actual chatter I would assume that their special ‘squeak’ is simply a squeak of surprise. Puffles seem to usually communicate without even making a sound. An example of this can be seen (although in comical form) in the following comic:

So maybe it’s possible that puffles talk without words or sounds at all, maybe puffles can just understand what other puffles are thinking – even possibly telepathically! Maybe puffles can read each others minds! But one very important story helps negate these points: the real-life pick-your-path book “The Great Puffle Switch”.

In this book; you and your pet green puffle, PJ, magically switch bodies while dancing in the Night Club. On page 8, the first of many interesting facts is revealed – to quote the book: “why am I talking? Puffles can’t talk!” “Actually, we can,” PJ says. “We talk to each other. Penguins just can’t understand us. I guess I can understand you because I’m still a puffle, even though I’m in your body.”

This reveals two interesting things: a) puffles can understand penguins, even though penguins can’t understand them, and b) puffles speak in a certain way that can be deciphered by both penguin and puffle if you know how to understand it – meaning that puffles don’t simply speak at a frequency too high for penguins to hear or communicate telepathically. The last point was proven further on page 32 where Gary the Gadget Guy uses a puffle translator to understand what Bouncer is saying – even though Gary failed to create a gadget that could actually read a puffle’s mind (the failed Puffle Transmogrifier). This means that puffles definitely aren’t solely using their minds to communicate. What’s more, choosing the right paths leads your penguin to essentially learn the language and be able to understand it as a penguin.

So while we still don’t know exactly how puffles communicate, at least we know that they talk in a complicated language using voice (or possibly expressions as well) – and that it is a language that can be learnt. The last idea I had as to understanding the puffle language was to look at a character who has a habit for understanding different animals. Herbert P. Bear, despite being a Polar Bear and having never met a penguin until he reached Club Penguin, can speak fluently to penguins and also is one of two non-crab characters to actually be able to understand crabs.

So I started reading through Herbert’s mascot scripts – and you won’t believe what I found. To quote the grumpy bear: “I despise puffles. If they were more like crabs I wouldn’t mind them. Crabs are quiet.” Here, Herbert essentially proclaims that puffles create too much of a racket for him – even though we barely ever hear them make noises. Perhaps, the key to understanding the puffle language once and for all lies in Herbert’s safely guarded mind. And perhaps that’s how he figured out how to control the puffles during Operation: Puffle.

But what do you think? Can Herbert and Gary actually understand puffle lingo? What sort of noises do you expect puffles use to communicate? Leave your thoughts in the comments. And as always,

#WaddleOn

– Splosh Jnr