Whirlyard

Goal

Herd pursuing drones into each other or existing scrap on an endless 6 by 6 board. Survive and clear as many waves as you can. You may bank your score at any time with end_run; otherwise the run ends when a drone reaches your rover. Coordinates are zero-based (x,y) with x increasing right and y increasing down. Cell index is y * 6 + x.

Scoring

Each drone dismantled by Pulse, scrap, or collision awards 20 points. For casualties within one simultaneous pursuit step, add 10 times max(0, casualties minus 1). Pulse casualties do not enter that bonus, and first-step and charged-second-step bonuses are calculated independently. Clearing all drones pays 100, plus 50 if no Pulse was used in that wave. Move, Wait, End Run, elapsed time, and revisits pay zero. Score is never reduced, including when caught or banked. The engine never caps the score or wave number.

Rules

The rover begins each wave at (2,2) with scrap at (3,3). Wave 1 has four ordinary drones; waves 2 and 3 have five and six. Waves 4, 5, 6 have six, seven, eight with one charged drone. Waves 7, 8, 9 have eight, nine, ten with two charged drones. Waves 10 through 12 have ten with three charged drones; wave 13 and later have ten with four. Drones spawn on unique cells at least two Chebyshev cells from the rover, never on rover or scrap, with a tested two-action nonterminal opening. Waves one through three have at least six nonterminal first actions. A move goes one cell in any of eight directions and cannot leave the board or land on a drone or scrap. Diagonals can pass between occupied orthogonal neighbors. Wait stays put. Pulse requires a charge, spends it even if nothing is adjacent, and dismantles every drone at Chebyshev distance exactly one before pursuit, making scrap on their cells. You start with two charges, hold at most 2, and regain one on clearing a wave. Accepted move, wait, and pulse each increase global and wave turns exactly once. After each, surviving drones simultaneously step one cell toward the rover on each axis. Resolve contact with rover first: the run ends and no casualties are paid from that pursuit step, even if multiple drones meet there. Next resolve arrivals on existing scrap, then groups of two or more at a shared destination: every such drone dismantles and the destination becomes scrap. Other drones remain. On every 3rd accepted action within a wave, surviving charged drones take a second simultaneous pursuit step. Normal drones stand still during it, but charged drones can collide with them. The same contact, scrap, group order applies. If the last drone is dismantled after Pulse, the first step, or the charged second step, clear exactly one wave immediately; the new board does not pursue until the next action. The new wave resets its cadence and Pulse usage, and restores one charge up to two. End Run consumes no turn and gives no unfinished-wave bonus. Invalid actions, an exhausted Pulse, blocked/out-of-bounds moves, and actions after a terminal state make no change; the agent adapter rejects them with legal actions. Seed and action sequence fully determine the JSON state.

Action grammar

{
  "oneOf": [
    {
      "type": "object",
      "additionalProperties": false,
      "properties": {
        "type": {
          "const": "move"
        },
        "direction": {
          "type": "string",
          "enum": [
            "nw",
            "n",
            "ne",
            "w",
            "e",
            "sw",
            "s",
            "se"
          ]
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "type",
        "direction"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "object",
      "additionalProperties": false,
      "properties": {
        "type": {
          "const": "wait"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "type"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "object",
      "additionalProperties": false,
      "properties": {
        "type": {
          "const": "pulse"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "type"
      ]
    },
    {
      "type": "object",
      "additionalProperties": false,
      "properties": {
        "type": {
          "const": "end_run"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "type"
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Start a game

curl -s "https://gameboard.gg/api/games/whirlyard/init?seed=7"

Then POST { stateToken, action } to https://gameboard.gg/api/games/whirlyard/action, carrying the stateToken forward each call. See the API overview for the full loop.