Anchor

Gamer Manual

Anchor is a 3D hex-tile puzzle about setting off chain reactions. Clear every tile before you run out of steps.

Objective

Turn every active tile completely blackened. A tile becomes blackened one three-sector half at a time when its dot participates in a reaction. You win the level when all of its active tiles are fully blackened.

The game contains 50 levels. Completing a level unlocks the next one automatically.

How to Play

1. Click an active hex tile once.
2. The part of the tile you click selects one of its three flip axes. The click direction determines which way it flips 180 degrees.
3. Watch the dots on neighboring tiles. When two neighboring dots point directly across their shared edge, they react automatically.
4. Both reacting dots slide to the opposite side, and the three-sector half they left behind becomes blackened.
5. When a dot slides into a blackened half it dissappears.
6. Any new alignments trigger further reactions automatically before the turn ends.

You cannot start another move while a tile is animating or while a chain reaction is resolving.

Anchor Movement

The black dot marks its starting location. The three green pieces marked X1, X2, and X3 are the useful click locations. The click direction chooses which way the tile flips.

After a 180-degree flip, the dot can reach only three locations: the opposite location or either of the two locations next to it. These three destinations form the characteristic anchor-shaped movement pattern shown in blue.

Steps and Combos

• Each click costs 1 step.
• Every reaction increases the current click's combo count.
• A combo of 0 or 1 pays no bonus multiplier. A combo of 2 or 3 uses x2; a combo of 4 or more uses x3.
• At the end of the turn, the game refunds combo x multiplier steps.
• You begin each level with 5 steps.

A move that creates a chain can earn back more steps than it costs. A move that creates no reaction still spends its step.

HUD

• Level: the current level number.
• Combo: reactions caused by the latest click, plus its current multiplier.
• Steps: steps remaining. Make the most of them by planning moves that create several reactions.

Winning and Losing

• Level Completed: every active tile is fully blackened. Choose Continue to load the next level.
• Game Completed: all 50 levels are finished.
• Level Failed: no neighboring dots remain that can react, but unblackened tile sections are still left.
• Level Failed: your steps reach 0 after a turn and the board is not complete.

Choose Reset after a failure to replay the current level. The level number is saved in your browser, so you can return to your current progress later in the same browser.

Multiplayer

Choose Multiplayer from the mode selection screen to play a two-player match on a custom board. Each player takes one color, Red or Blue, and the match is won by owning more tiles when the board is fully claimed.

Match Setup

• Radius: controls the board size. Larger radii create more tiles and longer matches.
• Holes: removes that many random tiles from the board so the playfield is irregular.
• Enable Combos: allows reaction chains to award extra steps. When disabled, reactions do not award extra steps.
• Turns without Combos: number of each player's turns before that player's combo rewards activate. Set to 0 to enable combo rewards from the start. These settings are available when combos are enabled.
• Combo Type: Cascading awards steps for reactions in each wave of a chain; Single awards one step for a chain that produces at least one reaction wave.
• Enable Span Robbing: allows a player to steal a straight-line span of already-owned tiles by creating an aligned capture across them.
• Enable Tile Locking: locks tiles involved in a turn so they cannot be used by the other player until the turn resolves.

Turn Flow

• Red moves first, then Blue.
• On a turn, each player gets a step counter that starts at 1.
• Each move costs 1 step. If combos are enabled, reaction chains can award extra steps according to the match settings.
• If the active player makes a move that creates no reaction, the turn ends and passes to the other player.
• If a reaction chain continues, the same player keeps the turn going and keeps collecting step rewards.

Scoring and Ownership

• Every fully blackened tile is claimed by the player whose turn resolves it.
• Claimed tiles change color to match the player and add to that player's score.
• The score panel shows Red vs Blue live (highlight) as tiles change hands.
• A round ends when every tile has been claimed or the players choose to reset the game. The higher score wins; equal scores are a draw.

Strategy Notes

• Keep track of the board not just for reactions, but for which tiles are already claimed and which are still vulnerable.
• Span robbing can flip a whole line of tiles, so a small alignment can suddenly swing the lead.
• Tile locking helps prevent immediate counterplay, but it also opens opportunities to trap the opponent into a forced sequence.

Camera Controls

Mouse

• Left click: interact with a tile. Drag with the left button to pan the camera.
• Right-drag: orbit around the board.
• Middle-drag: zoom.
• Mouse wheel: zoom.

Touch

• One-finger drag: pan the board.
• Two-finger pinch: zoom.
• Two-finger drag: orbit the camera.
• Tap a tile: interact with it.

Restart Game

You return to the home page by clicking on the game logo or name in the top left corner.

Third-Party Notices

Babylon.js

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The following components are included in this package:

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TWGSL (https://github.com/BabylonJS/twgsl) Copyright 20221-2024 The Babylon.js team Licensed under the Apache 2.0 License

Copyright

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