Start with one small move
In a classic chain-reaction game, players take turns adding a charge to an empty cell or a cell they already own. You cannot directly place a charge onto a rival’s occupied cell. To take their territory, you need to reach it through a reaction.
The website example starts with four near-full cells. Pip has a single move ready. Tap “Start a reaction” on the homepage to add the charge and follow what happens.
Know when a cell will burst
In this classic ruleset, a cell’s capacity is the number of orthogonally adjacent cells. Corners have two neighbours, edges have three and interior cells have four. Diagonals do not count.
When a cell reaches its capacity, it releases one charge to each neighbour and loses that many charges itself. A cell with no remaining charges becomes empty.
- Corner: bursts on the second charge.
- Edge: bursts on the third charge.
- Interior: bursts on the fourth charge.
Follow the capture chain
Each released charge changes the receiving cell to the active player’s identity. If that pushes the neighbour to capacity, it bursts too. A single placement can therefore travel through several connected cells.
The important question is not simply how many charges you add. It is which cells are close enough to bursting that your move will connect them.
Read the example, one step at a time
Pip starts at row 2, column 2, with three charges. Adding one reaches the interior-cell capacity of four. The burst reaches Blitz on the right and Bramble below. Both of those cells were also one charge from capacity.
Their bursts reach Nova at row 3, column 3. The cascade turns all four occupied character positions into Pip’s colour while distributing charges to surrounding cells. The example keeps the starting position fixed so you can replay the same cause and effect.
Understand the match you are playing
Classic variants usually end when a player owns all remaining charges, with elimination rules that protect players who have not yet had their first turn. Specific apps may handle board growth, setup, obstacles and end conditions differently.
Our game adds an elemental cast and is being developed around a broader single-player and multiplayer adventure. Treat this classic example as a starting point; the final in-game rules guide will describe each shipped mode.