Ty the Tasmanian Tiger is a platform game in which the player controls Ty, a Tasmanian tiger, who must gather 17 Fire Thunder Eggs, 17 Ice Thunder Eggs, and 17 Electric Thunder Eggs, in order to power the Talisman Machine, a teleportation device that will locate all five talismans,[2] which will in turn have the power to free his family from the Dreamtime,[3] The game takes place in "Rainbow Cliffs", which is in turn divided into a series of "zones", each of which act as the hub areas of the game. Each zone contains three portals, each of which lead to a level.[4] The goal of each level is to obtain a select amount of thunder eggs, which can be retrieved by either performing a certain task, completing a "Time Attack" challenge that can be unlocked upon said level's completion, freeing five bilbies,[2] a group of animals who raised Ty after his parents were imprisoned, or by being found alongside the level's set path.[2] A level is cleared either by collecting a select amount of thunder eggs and reaching the end of the path, or beating certain min-games, each will return Ty to Rainbow Cliffs hub world.[2] Retrieving a thunder egg in a level will cause it to appear on the game's pause menu.[5] When at least seventeen thunder eggs in a zone are obtained, the player must navigate their way to the talisman machine, after the machine manages to locate a talisman, it opens another portal leading to their original locations, inside these portals, the player must fight and defeat a boss character before gaining access to a new zone.