How to play
- Tap an arrow. It slides off the board head first, the way its arrowhead points. The rest of its body follows the same track, like a snake leaving a garden.
- Only free arrows can leave. An arrow is free when the straight line from its head to the edge of the board is empty. If another arrow crosses that line, the tapped arrow bumps into it and slides back.
- A bump costs a heart. You have three hearts on every board. Lose all three and the board starts again.
- Clear every arrow to finish the board. The shape underneath fills with color and the next level opens.
Only the line in front of the head matters. The body can wind and turn as much as it likes; it will follow the head out along the same path. So to judge an arrow, ignore its tail and look straight ahead of its point.
A method that works on every board
Big boards can hold more than forty arrows, and at first glance they look like a tangle. A calm routine beats guessing:
- Start at the rim. Arrows on the outside of the shape that point outwards have nothing ahead of them. They are free, and clearing them first is never wrong.
- Read from the head. Put your eye on an arrowhead and follow the line it points along. Stop at the first arrow body you meet. If you reach the edge first, the arrow is free.
- Work in waves. After a round of easy arrows, look again. Every arrow that leaves opens a lane, and arrows that were stuck a moment ago are often free now.
- Watch the long snakes. A long, winding arrow crosses many lines. Freeing it early can unlock half the board, so it is worth working out what blocks it.
- Use the holes in the shape. Gaps inside a silhouette, like the eyes of the owl or the window of the cottage, count as open space. Arrows pointing into a hole may still be blocked by something on the far side, so follow the line all the way through.
- Chase the blocker. When the arrow you want is stuck, find the arrow sitting in its line and ask what blocks that one. Working backwards like this always ends at a free arrow.
Hearts, hints and second chances
Arrows Away has no timer and no move limit. The only thing that can end a board early is running out of hearts, and the only way to lose a heart is to tap an arrow that cannot leave. If your finger lands on the wrong arrow, keep it pressed and slide to the right one before you let go: the arrow under your finger is highlighted, and only the one you release on moves.
A hint lights up one arrow that is free right now. You start with three, earn another every fifth level, and can watch an optional video for two more when you run out. On a board where you have lost track, one hint is usually enough to get the waves flowing again.
Levels and shapes
There are 400 levels. The first ones are tiny and teach the rules in a few taps; the last ones fill a phone screen with long, interlocking arrows. Every board is a silhouette from the outdoors: pebbles, leaves, mushrooms, owls, foxes, fish, whales, mountains and more.
| Levels | What to expect |
|---|---|
| 1 to 10 | Small boards with short arrows. Most arrows are free from the start. |
| 11 to 50 | Boards grow to about ten cells across. Arrows start to wait on each other two or three deep. |
| 51 to 170 | Longer, bending arrows and chains of eight or more arrows that must leave one after another. |
| 171 to 400 | Full-size boards up to 15 by 19 cells, where only a handful of arrows are free at the start. |
Every fifth level is a breather with a smaller, friendlier board, and every tenth level is a showcase animal at the largest size of its stage.
The daily board
Each day brings one new board, the same for everyone. Early-week boards are gentler and the weekend ones are the hardest. Solve it on the day to grow your streak, then share your result: it shows how many hearts you kept and your time, without giving the board away. Missed a day? The last week of dailies stays open in the statistics screen.
How the boards are made
Each board is built backwards, in the order it will be cleared. The generator lays down the first arrow you could send away, then the next, and so on, and every arrow it places must have a clear line out through the space the earlier arrows will leave behind. That is why no board can ever trap you. The shapes come from drawings that are turned into grids, and the difficulty comes from how deep the chains of waiting arrows run: on level 3 everything leaves in two rounds, while level 380 takes seventeen.
Questions
- Is Arrows Away free?
- Yes. It runs in your browser at no cost and needs no account. A short ad may appear between some boards, never in the middle of one.
- Can a board be impossible?
- No. Every board is built in the order it can be cleared, so there is always a way through. You can lose hearts by tapping blocked arrows, but you can never paint yourself into a corner.
- Do I have to find one exact order?
- No. Any arrow with a clear line to the edge can go at any time, and sending one away only ever opens space for the others. The puzzle is spotting which arrows are free, not memorising a sequence.
- What happens when I run out of hearts?
- You can start the board again, or, where the game offers it, watch a short video to get one heart back and carry on from where you were.
- How do hints work?
- A hint makes one free arrow glow. It picks the arrow that is in the way of the most others, so it is the most useful move on the board. You start with three hints and earn another for every five levels you clear.
- Can I play with a keyboard?
- Yes. Click the board or press Tab to focus it, use the arrow keys to move between arrows, press Enter or Space to send the highlighted one, and H for a hint.
- Is my progress saved?
- Yes, in your browser on this device. Clearing your browser's site data for pebblewit.com resets it.