How to play Silkspan

A visual guide · Weave your first pocket

Your goal

Draw a thread. Close it into silk.

Leave the woven edge, cross the dark, then return to woven silk. Moth-free pockets fill in. Reach the panel’s coverage target to move on to a harder panel.

Simplified teaching grid. The real board has more cells; the same closing rule applies.

01Steer the spinner

Hold an arrow key or W, A, S or D. Your first direction starts the game.
With a mouse or finger, press the board, then drag away from the press point. The spinner keeps moving in that direction while you hold.
Drag in another direction to turn. Release, or move back near the press point, to stop.
Time keeps moving while you stop. Escape or the pause button pauses play.

02Cross, then reconnect

1. Leave a live thread

The pale spinner leaves a fragile gold thread as it moves through dark cells. In this example, head down from the top edge toward the bottom edge.

2. Touch woven silk

The thread becomes silk. The empty pocket on the left fills, while the moth’s pocket stays dark. You may reconnect to any woven edge, including silk claimed earlier.

A live thread cannot cross or run directly alongside its earlier cells. You cannot reverse back down your thread. Leave room to turn and reconnect.

03Read the three hazards

Moth, beetle and spark

Moths move through the dark and threaten your live thread. Dew beetles patrol woven edges. If you stop mid-weave, a spark starts chasing along your thread.

A moth touching the thread or your spinner during a weave costs a spool.
Silk protects you from moths, but beetles can still catch you on its border.
Close the weave before the spark reaches you. Moving again does not erase a spark that has already lit.
Losing a spool erases the unfinished thread. You return to a nearby woven border with a brief protective shimmer, ready to try another route.

04Bigger claims pay more

The coverage percentage measures claimed interior cells. The frame does not count. Score each newly claimed cell at 5 points times that loop’s multiplier.

×1

Under 8%

×2

8% or more

×3

15% or more

×4

25% or more

These thresholds describe the fraction claimed by one weave, not your total coverage. A loop claiming 400 of the real board’s 1,564 interior cells earns ×4: 400 × 5 × 4 = 8,000 points before other bonuses.

Panel clears pay 300 × panel number, boosted by a streak of panels cleared without losing a spool, up to 50% extra.
Claiming past the target adds 30 per whole percentage point of overshoot.
Leaving a moth in a tiny pocket can earn a cornered bonus once per moth per panel.

05Keep your spools, choose your next panel

You begin with three spools. Every third panel cleared restores one, up to four. The final spool being spent ends the run.
Next Panel continues the endless run; End Run on the panel summary finishes with your score.
You can also pause and press End Run twice to stop mid-panel.
Higher panels add more hazards and demand more coverage. Watch a moth turn away before making a deep cut.

Visual Guide freezes the game. If you had already paused, closing help leaves it paused.

Play Silkspan