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How to play

pow2 is a fast physics arcade game built on powers of two.

  1. Numbered balls drop into an open-top pit.
  2. When two balls with the same number touch, they merge into one ball worth double: 2 + 2 → 4, 4 + 4 → 8, all the way up to 2048.
  3. Chain merges quickly to build a huge multiplier and post a big score.

Controls

Mouse

Move left and right to aim
Click to drop

Touch

Swipe anywhere on the board to aim
Tap to drop

Keyboard

Left arrowRight arroworADAim
SpaceDrop

A ball falls automatically every two seconds, so keep the dropper moving. Can't wait? Drop early once a second has passed. The next three balls are shown stacked above the dropper so you can plan ahead. Sometimes a double drop (marked ×2) releases two balls at once.

Game modes

Weekly Issue
  • Read the week's comic, then play the day's stage.
  • The day's stage has its own pit and twist: 90 seconds, with faster drops in the last 20.
  • Retry as often as you like; missed a day? Unlock it with an ad.
Missions
  • Fixed runs, each with a goal.
  • Score points, make a ball of a given number, hold several same-numbered balls at once, or survive 90 seconds.
  • Clear one to open the next, and retry as often as you like.
Endless
  • No clock, but a checkpoint comes every 40 seconds.
  • Reach the score goal shown at the top to keep going; the next goal is higher.
  • Miss one and the run ends.

Don't stack to the top

In every mode, the run also ends if the pile stacks up past the dropper line for more than a moment. A red dashed line warns you when you're getting close.

Scoring

Merging

Two balls with the same number merge into one worth double. Every merge scores the new ball's value, times your multiplier. The bigger the ball you make, the more it's worth:

  1. start
  2. +4
  3. +8
  4. +16
  5. +32
  6. +64
  7. +128
  8. +256
  9. +512
  10. +1024
  11. +2048
+ → ×x2.0=128

Runs start with 2s. After that the dropper picks numbers that are already in the pit, so there's usually something to match. A ball that's On Fire doubles the score of every merge it's part of.

Multiplier

The multiplier sits at the bottom of the screen, next to two gauges:

  • Multiplier gauge (orange): every merge adds points to it, more for bigger balls. Two 2s add 1, two 64s add 6, two 1024s add 10. At 20 it fills, the multiplier goes up by ×0.5 and the gauge starts again.
  • Keep-alive gauge (green to red): appears once you're above ×1 and drains all the time, faster the higher your multiplier. Every merge tops it back up. If it empties, the multiplier drops back to ×1, so keep merging.

Endless extras

  • Goal chains: if your score already beats the goals after the current one, you clear them all at the checkpoint. Each extra goal raises your multiplier.
  • 2048 explosions: a 2048 explodes and raises the smallest ball that can drop (2 → 4 → 8 … up to 1024).
  • Overdrive: make a 2048 when 1024s are already dropping and a beam wipes the whole pit. Drops go back to 2s, the current goal is cut in half, and your multiplier gets a new floor it never falls below: ×50, then ×100, ×200 …

Powerups

Every few seconds a glowing orb appears as a shadow, then falls into the pit. The first ball it touches gets the power:

Magnet

Pulls nearby balls toward it for a few seconds, setting up merges for you.

On Fire

The ball grows bigger. Merges with it give 2× score and fill the multiplier gauge twice as fast.

Earthquake

Stone spikes burst from the floor and launch every ball into the air, shuffling the whole pit.

Duplicator

Spawns a ring of five smaller balls (two steps below the one it hit) that burst outward, giving you plenty to merge.

Rapid Fire

The claw charges up with electricity, then blasts out five bonus balls (ten in the last sprint) in a random spray across a wide arc.

Storm

A storm swirls the whole pit for 10 seconds. While it blows, merges score 3×, your multiplier won't decay, and the pile can't overflow.

Geyser

For 10 seconds, jets of water burst from the floor and the lower walls, blasting balls around the pit.

Blackhole

A blackhole rises to the middle of the pit and sucks in small balls (64 and under) for 3 seconds, then collapses and spits out one ball: their total, rounded up.

Flash Freeze

Freezes the ball it hits, and the ice spreads to the balls around it. Frozen balls can't move or merge: smash balls into them to break the ice (bigger balls take more hits). Each smash scores and feeds your multiplier.

Trick or Treat

Time stops and you choose. Trick drops a tombstone orb. Treat costs 15% of your score and drops 2 random powerups at once.

Tombstone

Only comes out of a Trick. Your next ball drops as a tombstone: a heavy stone slab that never merges with anything and stays in the pit, taking up room.

When two balls merge, the new ball keeps any powerup they had.

Tips

  • Keep small numbers together and big numbers along one side so merges don't get blocked.
  • A steady stream of small merges keeps the multiplier alive better than waiting for one big merge.
  • Watch the preview stack and position the dropper before the ball falls, not after.

Contact

Questions, feedback or bug reports: info@indeptusentertainment.com