How to play MeteorBall
In MeteorBall a meteor flies across an 8-by-8 board. Your job is to place pieces before it launches so that it ends its flight in the wormhole. Every level is a puzzle: the board, the pieces you're given and the time to prepare are fixed.
The goal
Get the meteor into the wormhole. The attempt is lost if the meteor falls through a hole, flies off the edge of the board, or reaches the wormhole while an alien ship is still on the board.
Preparing
- Your toolbox holds the pieces the level gives you: deflectors (
/and\), curves and straight pieces, and on some levels red switches and red pieces. - Drag a piece onto an empty tile, or tap the piece and then the tile. Select a placed piece to rotate it or remove it back to the toolbox.
- Holes, the wormhole and the pieces the level starts with are fixed; you can only use the empty tiles.
- A countdown clock shows the time left to prepare. Press Go to launch early, or let the clock run out.
On the first two levels the meteor launches straight away, to show you how it flies.
The flight
- Deflectors turn the meteor by 90 degrees. Curves bend it around a corner. A piece hit from a side it can't handle is destroyed.
- Permanent pieces are part of the level: you can't move or rotate them.
- Red switches turn red pieces on and off when the meteor passes over them.
- Alien ships must be destroyed before the meteor reaches the wormhole.
- Shuttles, satellites and astronauts are worth protecting: each one left unharmed adds to your score.
The flight always follows the same rules, so the same pieces in the same places give the same result every time.
Scoring
A win scores three things:
- Distance
- 10 points for each step of the meteor's flight, so a longer route scores more.
- Protection
- 1,000 points for each shuttle, satellite or astronaut still unharmed at the end.
- Unused pieces
- 1,000 points for each toolbox piece you didn't need.
A loss scores 0.
Stars and the Perfect Score
Every level has a Perfect Score. Score more than a third of it for one star, more than two thirds for two stars, and at least the Perfect Score for three stars. Your best score on each official level is saved in your browser, and completing a level unlocks the next one.
On a community level, the Perfect Score is the score its creator achieved when they beat the level to verify it.
Controls
- Mouse: drag pieces, or click a piece and then a tile.
- Touch: tap a piece, then tap a tile.
- Keyboard: Tab to a toolbox piece or tile and press Enter or Space to choose it.