Pill Panic Rules: How to Play

Each player needs a phone, tablet or computer with a web browser. Nothing to install.

You can play alone, against bots, or with friends. One player hosts a room and the others join with the room code. The host can add up to three bots.

Your bottle is 8 cells wide and 16 tall. Viruses sit in the lower part of it, in three colors: red, yellow and blue. A few loose pill halves sit among them at the start.

Two-tone capsules fall from the top, one at a time. Each half of a capsule is red, yellow or blue. You can see the next capsule before it drops.

Every player in a round gets the same bottle and the same capsules in the same order. What you do with them is up to you.

While everyone waits for the round to start, the host picks a level and a speed. The choices are remembered for next time.

• Level goes from 0 to 20 and starts at 5. A bottle has 4 viruses per level, counting level 0 as one, so level 0 has 4 and level 20 has 84.
• Higher levels also let viruses sit higher up the bottle, from level 15 on.
• Speed is Low, Med or High and starts at Med. It sets how fast capsules fall and how much each virus is worth.

1. The host starts the round. The game waits for everyone to reach the game screen, including anyone still reading the instructions.
2. A 3, 2, 1 countdown plays, then the first capsule drops.
3. Steer the capsule left and right and spin it as it falls. A faint outline shows where it will land. When it lands on the floor, a virus or another pill, it waits a moment, then locks in place.
4. If four or more cells of one color now line up across or down, they flash and clear. Viruses count as cells, so a virus is cleared by lining it up with three pill halves of its color.
5. Any pill halves left hanging fall down. If that makes a new line of four, it clears too. This is a chain.
6. When the bottle is still, the next capsule drops. Keep going until someone wins.

• A capsule is two halves joined together. While both halves are there, they fall and rest as one piece.
• When one half is cleared, the other half becomes a loose single. A loose half falls straight down until it lands on something.
• Viruses never move. Only pills fall.
• Capsules fall faster as the round goes on. Every 10 capsules you drop, the fall speeds up a little, up to two and a half times the starting speed.

You only score for clearing viruses. Fast drops score nothing.

In one clear, the first virus is worth 100 points, the second 200, the third 400, and each one after that doubles again. That total is multiplied by the speed: 1 on Low, 2 on Med and 3 on High.

Score breaks ties in the standings, and your best score is kept on your device.

Clear two or more lines with one capsule, counting every line in the chain it sets off, and you send junk to every other player.

Junk is up to four loose pill halves, one for each line you cleared, in the colors of those lines. You see "SENT" on your bottle, and they see "INCOMING".

Junk you receive waits until your current capsule has landed and settled. Then the halves appear along the top row, each in its own random column, and fall. Junk can line up and clear like any other pill.

If you get hit more than once, each batch drops in turn before your next capsule.

• Clear every virus in your bottle and you win. The round ends for everyone at that moment.
• If a capsule cannot fit at the top, or locks with a half sticking out above the bottle, your bottle is full and you are out.
• When everyone else is out, the last player still going wins, even with viruses left.
• The standings put the winner first, then everyone else by fewest viruses left, then by score.
• Playing alone, there is no one to outlast. You win by clearing your bottle and lose by filling it.

• If the host leaves the game, everyone goes back to the room.
• If another player leaves or loses their connection, the round goes on without them. They no longer count when the game checks who is last standing.
• If you arrive more than a few seconds after a round starts, you watch it and join the next one.
• When you are out but others are still playing, you watch their bottles until the round ends.
• After a round, the host can play again with the same or new settings.

Any player can pause a live round with the pause button, or P or Escape on a keyboard, and any player can resume it. While the game is paused, every bottle is hidden so nobody can plan ahead.

The host can add up to three bots, each set to easy, medium or hard. Medium is a casual player that someone new to the game can beat. Hard thinks faster and makes fewer mistakes.

Bots play the same bottle and the same capsules as you. They send junk to human players when they clear two or more lines, and they take junk from human players. Bots do not send junk to each other.

• Solo: host a room on your own and press Play. Try to clear the bottle and beat your best score, and raise the level as you improve.
• With bots: add one to three bots for a race when no one else is around.
• With friends anywhere: share the room code. Everyone plays on their own device, and every other bottle shows live along the top of your screen.
• As a party: open the watch page on a TV or laptop and enter the room code. It shows every bottle at once, big enough for the room to follow.

On a touch screen:

• Drag left or right anywhere on the bottle. The capsule follows your finger, a column at a time, so your thumb never covers it.
• Tap the capsule to spin it.
• Tap any other column and the capsule jumps straight there, if nothing is in the way.
• Drag down and the capsule comes down with your finger. Flick down to drop it straight in.
• A capsule that lands waits about half a second before it locks (longer at slow speeds), so you can still slide or spin it. Each slide or spin gives it the full wait again, up to a dozen times.
• On a keyboard: left and right arrows move, the up arrow spins (Shift and up spins the other way), A and D also spin, the down arrow moves it down one row, and Space drops it.

Pill Panic also turns up as a 20-second duel inside other games. Both players get the same short bottle with 4 viruses. The first to clear it wins. If time runs out, the fewest viruses left wins, and on a tie, whoever got there first.

How do you play Pill Panic?

Steer and spin falling two-color capsules into a bottle of viruses. Line up four of one color across or down to clear them, viruses included. Clear every virus in your bottle before anyone else to win.

How many players can play Pill Panic?

One player or a whole room of friends, each on their own device. The host can also add up to three bots.

Can you play Pill Panic alone?

Yes. Host a room on your own and press Play to clear your bottle and chase your best score, or add bots to race against.

How do you win Pill Panic?

Be the first to clear every virus in your bottle. You can also win by being the last player whose bottle is not full.

How do you send junk in Pill Panic?

Clear two or more lines with one capsule, chains included. Every other player gets up to four loose pill halves dropped into their bottle.

What do the level and speed settings do?

Level sets how many viruses are in the bottle, from 4 at level 0 to 84 at level 20. Speed sets how fast capsules fall and multiplies the points for each virus.