Coil is a reflex game by Hakim El Hattab where your only tool is a glowing line that follows your pointer. Blue orbs pop up around a dark field, and you catch them by drawing a loop around them so your trail crosses itself. There is no shooting and no clicking. Everything depends on how quickly and cleanly you can circle a target, and on spotting the red bombs mixed in before you wrap them by mistake.
How to Play Coil
Press Start Game and move your mouse, or drag a finger, to lead the trail. The line has a fixed length, so old parts fade behind you as you move. When the trail crosses itself, the enclosed space flashes, and any orb caught inside is captured.
Each blue orb only lasts a few seconds. Shortly before it bursts it turns yellow-green and flickers, which is your last warning. A burst orb drains 30 points from your energy bar and resets your multiplier. Catching an orb gives you 30 points times your multiplier, and catching two or more with a single loop adds a bonus on top.
Red orbs are bombs that you should leave alone, because trapping one also costs 30 energy. Your score creeps up the longer you survive, and more orbs appear at once as time passes. The run ends when your energy hits zero, and the menu then shows your final score.
Coil Controls
| Action | Mouse | Touch |
|---|---|---|
| Steer the trail | Move the mouse (no clicking needed) | Drag your finger across the play area |
| Start or restart a game | Click "Start Game" | Tap "Start Game" |
| Turn off background effects if the game runs slowly | Click "Disable grid effects?" when the warning appears | Tap "Disable grid effects?" when the warning appears |
Tips and Strategies
- Draw small, tight loops. Your trail is short, so a quick little circle closes faster than a wide sweep.
- Watch for the color change. Orbs that have turned yellow-green are about to burst, so catch those before fresh blue ones.
- Group neighbors. When two blue orbs sit close together, one loop around both earns the multi-catch bonus and saves time.
- Mind the bombs. Before closing a big loop, check that no red orb sits inside it. Losing x4 to one careless circle hurts more than one missed orb.
- Let bombs expire. Red orbs fade out by themselves, so steer around them and wait.
- Keep the pointer moving. A still trail cannot close a loop, so stay in motion near the middle of the field to reach any corner fast.
Features
- Trail-only controls: the whole game is played by moving one pointer, with no buttons during a run.
- Score multiplier: steady play builds a multiplier up to x4, shown as three dots in the top bar.
- Live status bar: energy, multiplier, elapsed time and score stay visible at the top of the field.
- WebGL background: on browsers that support it, a lit grid ripples behind each catch and burst.
- Touch support: drag to play on phones and tablets, with the play area scaled to the screen.
Tested and updated:
