How to play

• The sponge circles the plate — CLICK / SPACE the instant it crosses a caked-on MUCK spot
• Grime is crusted on in LAYERS — it takes several clean scrubs to wear a spot down
• Every good scrub flips the sponge's direction — stay sharp
• Nail scrubs back-to-back to build your FLOW: faster sweeps, tighter timing, MORE suds
• A good scrub SHOVES the lump a little way along the rim — herd it where you want it
• A mistimed scrub SLIPS: your flow breaks, grime smears back where you slipped, and THIS plate CHIPS
• 3 chips on one plate and it SHATTERS — no pay, and a strike. 3 strikes and you're out for the night
• A plate that makes it to the rack leaves its chips behind — only a SHATTERED plate costs you
• The HOT WATER drains as you work — let it run cold and the shift ends there
• Scrub a KETTLE off a plate's rim and it tops the water back up — worth going out of your way for
• Pay CLIMBS the longer you stay: 1g for your first plates, 6g once you're rolling
• Finish the whole rack for +10g. Wash 6 or more in ONE sitting without smashing a single plate for +15g on top of that
• Faster? hold RIGHT-CLICK / SHIFT. One load a day — and leaving early restarts the pay ladder

• ← → move the falling pair · ↑ rotate ccw · ↓ rotate the other way · ↓ or SPACE drop faster (hold)
• Pack a 2×2 or bigger SQUARE of one wood — that square is a SLAB, and slabs are the only thing that pays wood
• A long line of matching wood pays NOTHING — build squares, not rows
• Land a matching AXE against a group and the whole group SHATTERS, paying out every slab in it
• Chain shatters back-to-back for combo score
• A KNOT won't clear while it's a knot — but it ROTS: three drops after it lands it turns into a plain log, and the colour showing through as it fades is the wood you'll get. Sometimes it's an axe
• Let the pile reach the top and the shift's over

• Move the 2x2 cursor with the arrow keys or the mouse
• Rotate it: C / right-click = clockwise, X / left-click = counter-clockwise
• Line up 3+ of the same color to crumble that rock
• Clear the rock UNDER an ore chunk to dig it down to the floor — chunks are the only thing that scores
• Dig several chunks in one move for a combo bonus
• Big clears drop a TOOL — frame it (the cursor shrinks to 1x1) and click to use it
• Fill the 'TO GET' meter beside the board (one pip per chunk you dig) to finish the shift

• Click action buttons (Fold / Check / Call / Bet / Raise / All-In)
• Slide the bet amount on raises
• Best 5-card hand from your 2 hole cards + 5 community cards wins
• Your chips ARE gold (1:1) — buy in, then Cash Out when you Leave
• You cash out the chips still in front of you, so chips lost are gold lost
• A WIN is only ever as big as the money the others still have on them — beat a table of paupers and there is little there to take
• Bust and you walk away with nothing

• Click an entry slot at the top to drop a gem (your turn only)
• A gem RESTS on an empty pad, BOUNCES off an occupied pad, and FLIPS a switch when it crosses the lever side
• Odd flips drop the resting gem off the pad — bumped gems can merge with falling ones into multi-coins (xN score)
• First to the round target wins the round
• Best of 4 rounds wins the game — and if it stands level, round 5 is sudden death, played with warp HOLES

• ← → : move the piece
• ↑ / Z : rotate
• ↓ : soft drop (hold)
• SPACE : HARD drop — it commits the piece
• TAB : HOLD / swap the piece
• F : your SIGNATURE MOVE, once the meter reads READY

Clear lines to send GARBAGE to your opponent. Fill their board to the top to win.

Incoming attacks land as inert grey blocks that clog your stack — they can't be cleared until they RIPEN into coloured tiles (after a couple of your drops).

You BOTH have an HP bar above your profile. A multi-row volley that lands is a BLOW: it chips HP *and* raises that many courses of unbreakable STEEL from the bottom of their board.

DIG BACK OUT: every line you clear above the floor CHIPS the top steel course, and enough chips break it off. FASTER — each course carries one gold KEYHOLE tile: cover it with a piece and clear the line it sits in, and that whole course cracks off in one go.

But the more WORN you are, the more clears each course takes — and at 0 HP you cannot dig at all, so the floor only ever rises. Your bar says WORN when that starts costing you.

You never lose from HP alone. You lose ONLY by topping out — so damage does not kill you, it takes away your way back up.

THE MYSTIC IS THE HEALER: they knit HP back when they crack a course off their own floor, and their Mend restores more than anyone else's. Since a worn fighter digs worse, healing buys back both the damage AND the ability to dig out of it — the trade for having the weakest Strike on the ladder.

YOUR SIGNATURE MOVE: clearing lines fills the meter under your name. When it reads READY, press F to unleash it — your style decides what it does, and the foe has one too. It costs nothing but the clears you earned, so it is always available to both of you.

YOUR WEAPON matters here: Strike chips them harder, Guard means their blows chip you less, Heart is a longer bar, Tempo gives you more time to place each piece, and Venom keeps your garbage unclearable longer. A weapon swings a blow by about a third either way; it never sends more garbage, so it can shorten a fight you were winning and cannot win one for you. This is a friendly spar — no real HP is lost.

• The ball of Stardust is a GUST. Your sail is the bar at the foot — A / D or drag to point it
• Catch gusts and she draws; every one you miss is a push she never gets
• ⭐ WHERE the gust strikes the sail sets where it goes — centre sends it back steep and slow, the outer edge sends it flat and FAST. That is your angle to the wind, and it is the whole craft
• Punch a lane clean through the bank and the wind gets a straight run at you
• Miss and the DOLDRUMS creep up from the foot: your trim falls and the sail itself goes sluggish
• The bank never runs out — clear one and the next bank rolls in, in a new shape
• The notches left of the board are your LEVEL. Sail well and new Stardust opens; lose gusts and it falls back

THE STARDUST

• Colour is TOUGHNESS: red is one hit, then blue, green, yellow, pink, black, striped, rainbow, and the brown shell is the hardest thing out there. Every hit knocks a block down one colour, so you can always see how much is left in it
• CHARGED DUST bursts into everything next to it — aim for the middle of a mass, not the edge
• SPARK SWARMS drift along their row and will not hold still
• DRIFT-ROCKS never break. Learn to bank the gust off them
• STARWINDS never break either, but they pay you and throw the gust out faster
• HAZE gathers BACK if you leave it. Clear it last
• Some blocks you cannot see at all until something touches them

BROKEN BLOCKS DROP THINGS — CATCH THESE

• SQUALL! — The gust splits in three.
• MORE CANVAS — A broader sail.
• STEADY AIR — The gust eases off.
• GRAPPLE — The gust sticks. Space to let it go.
• HARPOONS — Space fires from the sail.
• EMBER WIND — The gust burns straight through.
• SAFETY NET — One gust saved at the foot.
• SPARE CANVAS — Wins back a doldrum.
• FAIR WIND — Trim, free.

⚠️ AND DODGE THESE

• GALE — The gust runs away with you.
• REEFED IN — Your sail is cut down.
• CROSSWIND — Left is right.
• THICK DUST — You sail on memory.

You are at the wheel. Turn it to lay the shot over, and send drift-rock into the field above.

Three of a colour touching breaks them — and anything left hanging with nothing above it falls, which is worth far more than the three you broke.

HOLD YOUR FIRE and the wheel winds up: that shot BANKS its group instead of breaking it, and the held rock sits there glowing and breathing together. Break anything touching a bank and the whole run goes off at once, with a blast that takes the rock around it. Bigger run, bigger blast.

The sky comes on every few shots. If it comes on with nowhere left to go you have BOOCHED — she turns about and re-sails the leg. It costs you course, never your hull.

Turn the wheel: A / D, the left stick, or just point.

Fire: Space.

Hold fire: Shift.

Your ship has 4 guns. Each one takes its charge IN ORDER — powder, then wad, then shot — and the deck brings the pieces down whether you want them or not.

Ram the piece a gun is waiting for as it crosses the line. LET EVERYTHING ELSE GO BY: a piece you ignore costs you nothing, and a wrong piece FOULS the gun. A fouled gun takes nothing but water.

Water saves a fouled gun — and washes a half-loaded one out, so think before you use it.

A loaded gun waits for your word. Fire one and it pays one shot; fire all 4 at once and it pays 16. Your streak multiplies it. But a loaded gun is a lane you cannot reload, and the deck keeps coming.

A chain shot lands on two guns at once - ram both halves. A long wad trails its ramrod: hold the key until the rod is home, or it springs back out.

Land every gilded piece of a run to gather Stardust; at half a meter, unleash it to double your multiplier. Foul too often and the Gun Captain relieves you.

Ram: A S D F G H, or the D-pad and shoulders.

Give the word: Space. Unleash Stardust: Shift, or Y.

• DRAG a piece from the tray onto the hull — or click it, then click where it goes
• Pieces go in as they come: no turning them. Use all three and a fresh set arrives
• Green = it fits, red = it won't; the lines it would finish light up
• Fill a whole ROW or COLUMN → it BLASTS clear; clear on back-to-back moves for a combo
• If none of your pieces fits anywhere, the hull GIVES WAY: the board clears and you lose a quarter of your score

Play as long as you like — your best run sets your rank; hit ← Leave when you're done.

• CLICK a stone, then click a neighbour above, below or beside it — or DRAG it onto one.
• Arrow keys move the cursor; SPACE picks a stone up and puts it down.
• EVERY swap is allowed, even one that matches nothing — spend moves setting a combo up.
• Line up 3+ of a hue in a row or column to ignite them. Every clear breathes clean air into the hold.
• Clear MORE THAN ONE line in a SINGLE swap (a combo: Spark! / Aurora! / Firstlight!) for big LIFT.
• THE STARDUST seeps in through the hull and hangs in the air, thicker every move. Clear stones to vent it; dawdle on weak clears and it fills the hold until she's overcome.

THE DUTY GAUGE IS YOUR GRADE. It reads your last 10 swaps — lift banked per swap — and the word it shows is the word the duty report will give you. The lantern in the hold burns that same colour.

YOUR LEVEL is the bar down the left. Fly Good or better and it climbs; fly Poor and it falls back. It remembers where you settled, so the board finds the level that challenges YOU. Each level adds something to the board and raises what your best combo is worth (×2 at the bottom, uncapped at the top).

• BELLOWS (level 2) — a pale sack that drifts in. Press it and it blows its own nine. It banks NO lift; what it buys is the cascade that falls in after, and air against the Stardust.
• GALE (level 3) — match FOUR in a line. The stone earns a double arrow; match it again and the wind clears the whole line the arrow points along.
• BALLAST (level 4) — an iron-banded crate lands on the board and stays put. You can't swap or match it, and stones slide round it, but every clear BESIDE it snaps a band off. When the last band goes it's thrown OVERBOARD for big LIFT (more the thicker the Stardust) and the air clears. A Bellows blast beside it counts.
• BURST (level 5) — match an L or a T. The stone earns a star; match it again and it blasts everything around it.
• NOVA (level 6, and dealt from level 7) — match FIVE. A dark stone with a star in it: swap it onto any stone and every stone of that colour ignites.

Plan four moves, then press Ready — or the glass runs out and whatever you planned sails. The raider plans at the same moment, and you do not see her moves.

Each phase: your move, then the stardust currents push one square and the whirls swing you round, then the guns fire. Forward sails one square; left or right sails one forward and one to that side, and turns you.

HOP leaps her off the board for one phase: she keeps her square, and broadsides and grapples aimed at her that phase pass underneath — but in the air she cannot fire or grapple. Her sailors make a hop only every other turn, so save it for the broadside you see coming.

Guns fire straight out of your sides, three squares. Click a phase card's left or right edge to load a ball. Your gunners make the shot; your sailors make the moves, and moves you do not use go off after five turns.

Throw a grapple (the hooks at a card's foot) at a ship right alongside to board her. Damage you do buries her crew before the boarding starts — and the damage she does buries yours.

The box closes in from turn 4; the thin line shows where its wall will be next. Its walls stop you and hurt. Stay unshot for ten turns and you may disengage.

Moves: W A D or the D-pad. Hop: H or the left shoulder. Clear: S. Guns: Q / E or the triggers. Grapple: G or Y.

Next phase: Tab. Ready: Space or A.

Look around: drag, or the right stick. Zoom: the wheel.