Ricochet is a physics slingshot game set on a pixel-art battlefield. Each level places block structures — Stone, Wood, and Glass tiles — on a ground platform, with circular target markers nestled among them. Fire projectiles from the slingshot on the left to destroy every target.
Click or tap near the slingshot to grab it, drag to pull back (a dotted arc shows your trajectory), then release to launch. Stone blocks need 3 hits to break, wood needs 2, and glass shatters in one. Clearing all targets with shots to spare earns 200-point bonuses per leftover shot.
Behind every shot in Ricochet is a small parabolic physics simulation. The slingshot pivots near the lower left of the canvas, and your drag distance maps directly to launch velocity — pull farther for more power, up to a cap of 120 pixels from the pivot. Once the projectile is airborne, gravity pulls it down at a constant acceleration while a small horizontal drag factor gradually slows it. That means the arc you see in the dotted preview is exactly the arc the projectile will fly, so trust the preview when you line up your shot.
Blocks have different hit points that determine how many strikes they take. Glass shatters in a single hit, wood needs two, stone takes three, and iron blocks introduced from level eleven onward demand four direct hits to break. Crates marked with a plus symbol grant one extra projectile when destroyed, which is one of the most reliable ways to recover from a wasted opening shot. Use the trajectory preview to weigh whether a stack is worth a Standard shot or whether an Explosive round will collapse the structure in a single launch.
Open every level by reading the layout before you grab the slingshot. Identify which targets are exposed, which are buried inside structures, and where any crates sit — a well-placed first shot that knocks down a crate effectively gives you a free extra round to spend on harder targets later. Save Explosive projectiles for dense stone or iron towers where the area-of-effect blast can damage many blocks at once, and use Splitter mid-flight by clicking again after launch when several targets are spaced out across the screen.
Aim for chain reactions whenever a stack looks unstable. Knocking out a load-bearing wood block at the base of a tower often topples the entire structure, taking targets and surrounding blocks down with it for compound scoring. Because every unused projectile at the end of a level grants a 200-point bonus, the most efficient route to a high leaderboard total is fewer shots, not more — even if a level looks easy, treat each launch as if it counts. Holding back one or two reserve shots also gives you a safety net if a structure refuses to fall the way you expected.
Physics slingshot games are a well-loved genre, popularized by Angry Birds and other mobile classics where players fling characters at toppling forts. Ricochet sits in that tradition but is built from the ground up in vanilla JavaScript on an HTML5 canvas, with no external physics engine and no install required — the entire game loads and runs directly in your browser. The pixel-art aesthetic, neon projectile trails, and warm dusk skybox give it a distinct retro-arcade feel rather than a cartoon-mobile one.
The three projectile types — Standard, Explosive, and Splitter — turn each shot into a small puzzle about resource choice, since you switch between them freely with the Switch Type button rather than being forced into a fixed sequence. Fifteen handcrafted levels, a seeded daily challenge that shuffles the level order, balloon-style targets that bob gently in place, and crates that reward aggressive offense with extra ammunition all push Ricochet toward the puzzle end of the slingshot spectrum. If you have enjoyed casual arcade games or casual physics puzzles elsewhere, this is a familiar feel with its own scoring twist — free to play online with no download or signup.
How many levels are there in Ricochet? The game ships with fifteen hand-crafted levels that introduce new block types and structural complexity as you progress. Iron blocks and crates appear from level eleven onward, increasing both the difficulty and the strategic depth of late-game stages. Completing level fifteen submits your cumulative score to the leaderboard.
What is the daily challenge mode? The Daily Challenge button on the start overlay launches a run where the level order is shuffled using a date-based seed, so every player tackles the same sequence on the same day. Once you finish, your completion is recorded in localStorage and you cannot replay the daily until the seed rolls over at midnight — come back tomorrow for a fresh order.
Can I pause Ricochet mid-shot? Yes. Press Escape on desktop to pause and resume; the canvas dims and displays a PAUSED label while the simulation is frozen. This is useful if you need to step away mid-level without losing your in-progress run or your shot count.
How does scoring compare to similar physics games like Tilt or Fuse Alley? Ricochet rewards efficiency directly — every unused projectile is worth 200 points and every target destroyed is worth 500 — while related physics games on the site score on different mechanics entirely. If you enjoy the score-chasing aspect, the leaderboard tracks cumulative points across all fifteen levels in a single uninterrupted run.
