How to play Whirlyard

A visual guide · Make your first drone collision

Your goal

Make the drones meet. Keep your run going.

Move your rover around the yard while the wind-up drones chase you. Lead two drones onto the same tile, or guide one into scrap, to clear them and score. Clear a wave to face another. You can keep playing until a drone catches you, or choose End Run to bank your points.

01Choose one safe tile

The highlighted neighbors are your moves

This is a simplified teaching board. Tap one highlighted neighboring tile to move one square, including diagonally. Tap the rover or Wait to stay where you are.

On a keyboard, use the arrow keys for four directions, or Q/W/E, A/D, Z/X/C for all eight. Space waits. Every move or Wait gives the drones a turn to chase.

02Let two drones collide

A careful Wait can make a pile

Before · choose Wait

After · +50 points

In this simplified example, two drones converge on one tile after Wait. Both are cleared, leaving scrap and scoring 20 points each plus a 10-point group bonus: 50 total.

Scrap stays for the rest of that wave. A drone that enters it is cleared. You cannot move your rover onto scrap or onto a drone.

03Use Pulse when the yard gets tight

Pulse reaches the eight tiles around you

Pulse clears every adjacent drone before the remaining drones chase. It costs one charge, even if no drone is nearby. The ring here is a simplified area diagram.

Press the Pulse button or P. You begin with two charges, can hold at most two, and regain one when you clear a wave.

04Watch for the charged beat

Brass drones can move twice

Turn 1
one step

Turn 2
one step

Turn 3
two steps

The marked beat repeats every three actions in that wave.

From wave 4, charged drones have a brass body and double chevrons. On every third action of that wave they take a second step after the usual chase.

Read the marked beat in the HUD before committing to a tile. A drone reaching your rover ends the run, even if it would also land on scrap.

05Read the yard and bank your score

Shapes and counters at a glance

●Turquoise roverYour position

●Coral droneChases after each action

≫Brass charged droneExtra step on marked beats

◆Brass scrapDrones that enter are cleared

◎Pulse · up to 2Clears adjacent drones

ⅡWaitStay put; drones still move

The pieces and controls have distinct shapes as well as colors. Pulse shows your remaining charges out of two.

Each cleared drone earns 20 points. A collision of two or more adds 10 for each drone after the first.
Clearing a wave adds 100 points, plus 50 more if you used no Pulse in that wave.
There is no final wave. End Run banks your current score whenever you choose; if you are caught, you still keep earned points.

Play Whirlyard