About this game
Dropwell is a match-three game down an old wishing well. Swap two things that are next to each other to line up three of a kind, and they come up out of the water. There are six things down there: a coin, a key, a ring, a bell, a star charm and a marble.
Here is the part worth knowing before you start. Everyone in the world gets the same well as you today. Every other game like this deals you a random board, which means your score is a private number and nobody can tell if it was any good. Yours changes at midnight, and it is the same one your friend gets. So the number finally means something.
You get one minute and one go a day. If you want to keep playing, Quiet has no clock, never ends, and there is no way to lose it.
How to play
- Swap two things. Swipe one into the one beside it. You can also tap one and then tap the other — both do exactly the same thing. Three in a row is a match.
- Watch what falls. Everything above the gap drops down, and it often lands three in a row on its own. That is a chain, and it is where the points are. A chain four deep is worth four times as much per piece as the match you made yourself.
- Make the big pieces. Four in a row makes a Streak, which clears a whole line. An L or a T shape makes a Cross, which clears a line each way. Five in a row makes a Wish — swap it onto anything and every single one of that thing leaves the board.
- Go fast. Playing quickly is worth more than playing carefully. Three quick matches in a row starts paying a bonus, and nine sets off a Rush, where every match takes the ring of pieces around it too.
Controls
| Input | What it does |
|---|---|
| Swipe | flick a piece into the one next to it to swap them |
| Tap, tap | tap a piece, then tap the neighbour you want to swap it with |
| Today | the well everybody gets today — one minute, one go |
| Quiet | a fresh well with no clock that never ends and cannot be lost |
| Hint | in Quiet, marks a move that works — three of them per well |
| Sound | turn the noise off, or back on |
| Fullscreen | hides the browser so the game has the whole screen. Press it again to bring the browser back |
Tips for a better score
- Look at the bottom of the board first. This is the best tip there is. A match low down drops everything above it, so it has a chance of chaining. The same match at the top drops almost nothing and just ends.
- Speed beats thinking. Three fast matches start a bonus that grows every time you keep it going. A good ordinary match made quickly is worth more than a great one you spent eight seconds finding.
- Do not save the big pieces. A Streak or a Cross sitting on the board is worth nothing. Set it off, and set it off next to another one if you can — they go off in a chain.
- Swap a Wish onto whatever there is most of. Count what is crowding the board and give the Wish that one. Two Wishes swapped into each other clear the whole well.
- You can move while things are still falling. You never have to wait for the animation. If you can see your next move, make it.
- Play Quiet to practise. It has no clock, and the Hint button lives there. Learn where the chains hide, then go and spend your minute.
What "read" means
At the end of a minute the game shows you three numbers. The score is the obvious one. The best is the deepest chain you set off. The interesting one is read.
Every time it is your turn, the game works out the best move on the board. Read is how much of that you actually took, added up over the whole minute. A big score with a low read means the well was kind to you. A smaller score with a high read means you saw almost everything there was to see — and that part is you, not the board.
It also tells you the best chain that was still sitting there when the clock ran out, and marks it on the board. Other games in this genre hide that and then sell you five more moves to go and get it. There is nothing to buy here, so you may as well know.
Good to know
- Nothing to buy, nothing to unlock, no lives, no coins and no sign-up. No chat, and no way for players to contact each other.
- The well changes at midnight UTC and is the same for everybody. Your result is kept in this browser and is not sent anywhere, so a different device starts you fresh.
- The board can never get stuck. If there is ever no move left, the well stirs itself and you carry on. Running out of moves is the game's problem, not yours.
- Every piece is a different shape as well as a different colour, so it plays perfectly well if you cannot tell red from green.
- It plays with a finger or a mouse, needs nothing installed, and starts the moment it loads.
Want something slower? Try Anagrove, the daily word game here, or Glasswort, which is sorting colours instead of matching them.
