How to Play BallRoute: A Beginner's Guide
BallRoute is a puzzle game built around one simple question: where will the ball go? The board is a grid of arrows. When you press DROP, the ball rolls from the start and follows every arrow it lands on. Your job is to turn the arrows so the path ends at the exit.
That is the whole rule. Everything else in the game builds on it.
The board
Every level has:
- a start, where the ball enters the board
- an exit, the cell the ball has to reach
- arrows, which send the ball up, down, left or right
- holes, empty cells where the ball falls off and the drop fails
The ball moves one cell at a time, always in the direction of the arrow it is standing on. If an arrow sends it off the board or into a hole, the drop fails and the trail turns red right where it went wrong.
Controls
- Tap an arrow to turn it a quarter turn clockwise.
- Long-press an arrow to turn it back the other way. This matters more than it looks: turning an arrow from "up" to "left" takes three taps, but only one long-press.
- DROP sends the ball. Dropping is free, so test an idea as often as you like.
- Undo takes back your last turn. That is free too.
Moves, the move limit and stars
Every turn of an arrow is one move. Each level has a move limit, shown at the top of the screen. Reach the exit within it and you win.
Stars show how well you solved it:
- ★★★ means you used the fewest moves possible. Every level has a perfect solution, and the game knows exactly how long it is.
- ★★ means you finished within the move limit.
- ★ means you ran out of moves and bought five more to finish.
If you run out of moves, restart the level for free, or get five extra moves by watching a short video or spending coins.
Your first levels
Level 1 is a guided tutorial: a small hand shows you which arrow to tap and when to drop. From level 4, boards have more than one way to the exit, and the move counter starts to matter. The long way wins the level. The short way wins three stars.
New ideas arrive slowly, so you have time to learn each one:
- level 6: golden arrows
- level 12: locked arrows
- level 17: portals
- level 21: ice
- level 31: keys
Each one gets a short explanation card the first time you meet it. We cover all of them in Golden arrows, portals, ice and keys explained.
Three habits that help from day one
- Read the path before you touch anything. Follow the arrows from the start with your eyes and find the first one that sends the ball the wrong way. That is usually your first move.
- Work backwards from the exit. Ask which cells could lead into the exit, then which cells could lead into those. The route often becomes obvious.
- Drop early. Testing costs nothing, and the red trail tells you more than staring at the board.
There are more in our 9 arrow puzzle tips.
Coins, chapters and streaks
Clearing a level for the first time gives you coins: more for more stars, plus anything the ball picked up from golden arrows. Every 10 levels make a chapter, and the last level of each chapter opens a chest of coins. Clear new levels in a row to build a win streak, which adds bonus coins to every win.
You can spend coins on hints, extra moves and looks: 16 special balls, 6 board themes and the flag of your country.
Play anywhere
BallRoute works offline, has no lives and no timers, and doesn't ask you to sign in. If you want your progress on more than one device, sign in with Apple or Google and it syncs.