Orbit Merge

What it is

Orbit Merge is a drop-and-merge puzzle set in a round arena. A glowing core sits in the middle and gravity pulls everything toward it, so the bodies you drop settle in a ring around the core. Two bodies of the same kind that touch merge into the next, bigger one. The chain runs from dust through pebble, asteroid, comet, moon, planet, ringed planet, gas giant, star and neutron star to a galaxy, and a strip next to the arena shows the whole order.

Each body has its own size and its own look: grains of dust, a lumpy asteroid, a comet with a tail, a ringed planet, a star with rays. You do not have to tell them apart by colour alone. When bodies merge, the new one swells into place, a ring of light spreads out and the sound rises in pitch with the size of what you made.

There are two ways to play. Classic goes on for as long as you can keep the arena under control and keeps your best score. Daily is a short round of 48 bodies that everyone plays in the same order on the same day, with a target score.

Your game is saved as you play, so you can close the page and come back to the same arena.

How to play

Move your finger or mouse around the rim to aim. A marker on the rim and a dotted line show where the body will go and where it will land, and the outline turns green when it would land against a body of its own kind. Let go to drop it, or click with the mouse. The body falls straight toward the core. The next body is shown beside the score, and there is a short pause before you can drop again. On a keyboard, the arrow keys turn the launcher (hold Shift to go faster) and Space or Enter drops.

Each merge scores points that grow with the size of the body you make. Merges set off by a single drop form a chain. Each merge after the first in a chain scores more than the one before, up to four times the normal points. If two galaxies meet, they fade out in a burst of light for a large bonus and make room.

The round ends when a body stays beyond the dashed ring near the rim for about two seconds. An arc around the ring fills as a countdown while that happens, and the bodies outside it are marked with a dashed outline. A body you have just dropped is not counted while it is still on its way in.

Once per game you can clear the three bodies closest to the rim, for free.

Tips

• Aim for the dotted outline that turns green: setting a body down next to its twin is how chains start.
• Keep similar sizes together and the rim clear. A body that lands on a crowded rim is the usual way a round ends.
• Not every drop has to merge. A small body used to fill a gap is often better than a risky shot.
• Watch the next body before you drop. If it will match the one you are holding, you can keep a spot open for it.
• You can keep the free help in reserve. If the arena fills up, it is offered once more on the game-over screen and the game goes on.

Questions people ask

Is it free? Yes. You can play in your browser without signing up.

Which bodies can I get? Only the five smallest: dust, pebble, asteroid, comet and moon. Everything bigger you make by merging.

Is the Daily the same for everyone? Yes. Everyone who plays on the same date (UTC) gets the same 48 bodies in the same order. How they land depends on how you play, so scores differ. The target score is set from that day's bodies.

Where are my scores kept? On your device. The statistics screen shows games played, best and average score, your longest chain and the biggest body you have made, and for the Daily your streak of days and the targets you reached.

Does it work on a phone? Yes. It adapts to portrait and landscape, tablets and desktop screens, and you can play with touch, mouse or keyboard.

Is there sound and vibration? Both, and you can switch sound off. Vibration is light and grows with the size of the merge. If your device asks for reduced motion, the effects become simple fades.