Ricochet: aim, ricochet, break the wall down
A wall of numbered blocks creeps down the board one row at a time. You get one aim per turn. Fire a stream of balls up into it, let them bounce off the walls, the ceiling and the blocks themselves, and take the wall apart before it reaches the red line at the bottom.
How to play
Every turn is a single decision: where to point. Everything after that plays itself out.
- Drag to aim: drag anywhere on the board and a dotted line shows the shot. Release to fire.
- The number is hits left: each contact takes one off a block. At zero it shatters.
- Mirrors bend the ball: a ball that hits a silver slab turns a right angle and carries on. Mirrors can be broken, but they cost several times what a block costs.
- Rocks are solid: pale stone cannot be broken at all. It shapes where your shots can go for as long as it is on the board, then slides away at the line without ending your run.
- Pickups add a ball: touch a gold token and your stream is one ball larger for the rest of the run.
- The line is the end: when a block or a mirror is pushed past the red line, the run is over.
Your next shot fires from wherever the first ball came to rest, so where a turn ends decides where the next one starts.
Why it is clever
The gap between a careless shot and a considered one is roughly a factor of five. Firing straight up collects four or five hits. A shallow angle that rakes along the ceiling, or one threaded through a mirror into a dense pocket, collects thirty from the same stream of balls.
The mirrors are what stop that from settling into habit. They turn each turn into a short routing question: where does this angle actually end up after it has been bent twice. As the run goes on there are more of them, so the reading gets harder at exactly the rate the wall gets heavier.
Every board comes from a seed, so the same run can be played again exactly as it fell.
Tips
- Shallow beats steep. A ball that travels sideways under a row touches far more of it than one that goes straight up and comes straight back.
- Watch where the first ball lands, not where it starts. That spot is your launcher next turn.
- Take the pickups early. One extra ball on level five is worth more than one on level thirty.
- A mirror is worth breaking when it sits over a crowded pocket, and worth leaving when it is routing your shots somewhere useful.
- Rocks never leave until they reach the line, so plan around them rather than at them.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ricochet free? Yes, completely free to play, with no account or download, in any modern browser on phone, tablet or desktop.
Does it work on mobile? Yes. Ricochet is built for touch as well as mouse, and the phone layout is designed for the phone rather than shrunk down from the desktop one.
How do I win? There is no winning, only a longer run. The score is every point of block health you destroy, and your best is kept on this device.
Can a run be unwinnable? Every run ends eventually, by design. What differs is how long you last, and that is down to the aim rather than the board.
Stuck? Read the Ricochet strategy guide
Enjoy a good thinking puzzle instead? Try Bloom or Kaleido, or browse all Zamborin games.