Spiral Chain
About Spiral Chain
Spiral Chain puts you in the middle of the board with a hex turret and a long line of coloured balls winding slowly inward. Fire into the line, land three of a colour together and that stretch breaks out. The gap then closes, and if the two ends happen to match, it goes again on its own. Sixty balls feed in behind, and the front of the chain is always heading for the drain in the centre. The chain moves at nine tenths of a unit a second and never once pauses.
How to play
Point anywhere and the turret turns to face it. Tap to fire into the chain. Three or more of a colour touching breaks that section out.
Rules of Spiral Chain
- Five colours are used, so an unlucky shot costs you a little space and not the run.
- Sixty balls feed into the chain over the course of a level, and clearing the lot is the win.
- The loaded ball is on the turret and the reserve sits in a ring behind it. Swapping between them is free and instant.
- A break scores ten a ball plus five for each one past the third, and a second break in the same shot doubles what the first one paid.
- The combo counter resets the moment you fire again, so a chain reaction is worth far more than two separate shots.
- Gaps close at more than six times the chain's own speed, which is how one shot turns into three breaks.
- The turret only ever loads a colour that is still somewhere in the chain.
- Balls glow red as the head nears the drain, and a red rim creeps in around the whole screen with them.
- Let the head reach the drain and the run is over, however much of the chain you had cleared.
Controls
- Point or drag to turn the turret
- Tap or click to fire
- Space, or a right click, swaps the loaded ball for the reserve
What makes it worth playing
- A reserve ball big enough to read at a glance, so the swap is a decision rather than a memory test.
- The turret is a hex plate that turns with your aim, so the barrel direction is obvious in a crowded moment.
- A dashed guide out to the rim of the spiral, which matters on the long shots across the board.
- One continuous run, with no levels to grind through before it gets interesting.
Screenshots
Captured from this build on 2026-09-14.
Tips from playing it
- Fire into the middle of a pair, never the end of it. A ball landing between two of a kind breaks immediately.
- Hold the reserve for the colour you can see coming. Two seconds of patience is worth more than a shot fired now.
- Break near the front when the head gets close, even if a better match is sitting at the back.
- Watch the join after a break. If both sides match, the catch up will close the gap and score it for you at double, so leave that stretch alone.
Why this game is here, and what we changed
Our turret is a hex plate rather than a stack of discs, and it is two plates counter rotating against each other as you aim, so the barrel direction is obvious even with the board full. Behind it we gave the reserve ball a proper glowing ring on the far side of the plate, because swapping is the most interesting decision in the game and it was far too easy to forget it existed. Colours went with it: a deep teal groove on ink, and five balls recut to coral, amber, jade, azure and orchid. The catch up speed we left high on purpose. It is what turns a single shot into a run.
More on how we pick and fix these: how we make our own editions of classic games and how we test a game.
- Category
- Casual
- Plays in
- Your browser, no download
- Orientation
- Portrait
- Players
- You and the chain, with no rival turret.
- Difficulty
- The chain creeps in at nine tenths of a unit a second and never pauses for a menu, a miss or a think, so the clock in this game is the chain itself.
- Typical session
- About five minutes, or ten if the middle goes well.
- Last tested by us
- 2026-09-14
