How to play

CandlesClash is a brick-breaker played on a candlestick chart. Break candles, build combos and survive the market.

Controls

• Move: mouse or finger drag, or A / D and the arrow keys.
• Launch: click, tap or Space.
• Liquidation Pulse: Space, right-click or the round button when the meter is full.
• Pause: P or Esc. Mute: M.

Candles

• Green and red candles pay double when they match the market regime (bull or bear). The regime flips every so often.
• VOL explodes and damages neighbours. LIQ repairs your core. MOM pays more and builds combo faster.
• RUG hurts you if a ball breaks it. Blast it with a volatile candle or the pulse instead. SHD takes several hits. WHALE is tough and drops power-ups.
• Every fifth wave is a boss: THE WHALE. It drops sell walls on your paddle. Catch or shoot them.

Your core, combo and heat

• Losing a ball, letting a candle reach the danger line, or taking a sell wall costs core. At zero the run ends.
• Your combo multiplies every kill. A dry bounce (a paddle hit that broke nothing) halves it.
• Breaking candles fills market heat. At full heat a random event starts: Bull Run, Flash Crash, FOMO or Short Squeeze.

Between waves

Clearing a wave lets you pick one of three perks for the rest of the run.

Run timer

A run needs you to keep playing. After 15 seconds without input you get a warning, and after 25 seconds the run ends with a 10% score penalty. Pausing is allowed, but each pause lasts at most 60 seconds and all pauses together at most 3 minutes per run. If you do not choose a perk within 30 seconds, one is picked for you.

Versus duels

Open the Live screen to challenge someone by username or link, or press Find a match to be paired with the next player who searches. In live versus both of you press Ready, the countdown starts together, and you play the same level at the same time and see each other's score. Duels use base stats, have no prizes or stakes, and each run also counts as a normal ranked run. The server replays both runs and decides the winner, and someone who never starts forfeits. Open duels and the search queue are kept in server memory and clear if the server restarts.

Ranked and free play

Signed in, your runs are ranked: the server issues the layout seed and later replays your inputs to verify the score. Ranked runs use base stats. Free play (signed out) can use Vault upgrades bought with tickets. Signed in, your tickets belong to your account: the server credits them when it verifies a ranked run and checks every Vault purchase, so they cannot be edited from the browser and they follow you to other devices. Signed out, tickets and Vault levels are stored only on your device and are separate from your account.

See competition rules for how weekly and seasonal prizes work.