How to play
Bouncing balloons fill the sky. Walk left and right along the ground and fire a harpoon straight up. When the rope touches a balloon, the balloon splits into two smaller ones that fly apart. The smallest balloons do not split: one hit and they are gone. Pop every balloon to clear the level.
- One player. Move with A and D or the arrow keys, and fire with Space, W, Enter or Up.
- Two players, one keyboard. Coral moves with A and D and fires with Space (or W). Mint moves with the arrow keys and fires with Enter (or Up). Two gamepads work too: stick or d-pad to move, A to fire.
- On a phone, hold it sideways. In a two-player game each player gets half of the screen with left, right and fire buttons.
- P or Esc pauses and R restarts the level. The game pauses by itself when you switch tabs.
Each player has one harpoon at a time. The rope stays where you fired it, from the ground up to its tip, so a balloon that drifts into the rope is hit too. The rope disappears when it reaches the ceiling or the underside of a ledge.
A level ends the moment a balloon touches either player, or when the clock runs out. Just try again: every attempt starts the same way.
Helium balloons
Pale lavender balloons with a dashed ring are full of helium, so gravity works the other way for them. They bounce off the ceiling instead of the floor and swing down towards you. Normal balloons are slowest at the top of their bounce and fastest near the ground; helium balloons are the opposite. They hang low for a long moment at the bottom of their swing, right at head height, and then shoot back up. When you split a helium balloon, both halves float too.
Stars
Clearing a level earns one star. Clear it within one and a half times the target time for two stars, and within the target time for three. Smaller balloons are worth more points than big ones. Levels open one after another and your stars, best times and points are saved in your browser. If a level has you stuck, you can skip it from the pause menu by watching a short ad; the level is skipped even if no ad is available.
Strategy
Pop small balloons first. Every split adds a balloon to the screen. Finishing off the little ones keeps the sky calm.
Fire, then step aside. The two halves of a split balloon jump up and fly left and right. Standing still under them is the classic way to lose.
Hit helium balloons on the way up. At the bottom of their swing they are dangerous. As soon as they start rising, step under them and fire.
Use ledges as cover. A ledge stops balloons falling on you, but it also stops your rope. Fire from beside it.
In two-player games, split the room. Agree that one of you takes the left side and the other the right, and nobody gets squeezed into a corner.
If you enjoy dodging and timing with a friend, Lumen & Umbra is a co-op puzzle platformer for the same two seats. When you would rather play against each other, try the ricochet duels of Bounce Tanks or the chain reactions of Fuse Arena.
If you enjoy Pop Split, try Puck Duel or Reflex Party next.
