Swap Adjacent Tablets (⇄)

Click or tap two neighboring tablets, or drag onto a neighbor. With the board focused, use Arrow keys and Enter or Space to select and swap.

• Smart Move Indicators (⇄): When you select a tile, any adjacent neighbor that forms a valid 3+ match will light up with a green swap arrow!
• Idle Move Coach: If you pause for 4.5 seconds, the Seeker's sonar gently highlights a valid swap pair on the board.
• Cascading Combos: Gravity drops new tablets from above. Chain cascades multiply your Depth and Score!

Forge & Detonate Cores (✚ ✕ ◎ ❖)

Matching 4 or more tablets condenses their energy into a glowing Creature Core right where you swapped:

• Bat Core (✚) [Match 4]: Fires a cross sonar beam that clears the entire Row & Column.
• Spider Core (✕) [L or T Match]: Detonates a heavy 3×3 shockwave blast, shattering rocks and webs.
• Guardian Core (❖) [Match 5]: Siphons every tablet of the target color on the board + restores +20% Warmth!
• 2 Ways to Trigger: Swap a Core with any neighbor (swap two Cores together for a Mega Combo Blast!), OR simply click a selected Core a second time to detonate it in place!

Survive the Subterranean Cold

Every Chamber has a live Mission Checklist above the board. Complete all checklist items before your Turns run out:

• Cavern Warmth: Drops slightly each turn. If Warmth drops below 35%, hypothermia sets in and spawns Frost! Match Orange Ember (4 Pips) to gain +12% Warmth.
• Creeping Frost & Webs: Locked tiles cannot be swapped. Make a match directly adjacent to them (or blast them) to thaw/cut them.
• Cave Spiders: Guard their cells and spin webs every few turns. Match next to a Spider or hit it with a Core blast to repel it!
• Bedrock Obelisks: Stone pillars have 2–3 HP. Adjacent matches chip them; core blasts deal heavier damage. Shattering stone grants bonus depth.

Spend Charge to Cast Instant Abilities

Campaign chambers begin with 20 charge. Each move earns 6 per cascade, capped at 18 before the Lens bonus. Spend Charge during play using the buttons on the right (or keys 1–4):

• [1] Bat Sonar (25%): Highlights a valid swap AND upgrades a separate tile into a row/column Bat Core (✚).
• [2] Ember Torch (35%): Immediately thaws 3 Frost/Web tiles, restores +25% Warmth, and spawns a Spider Bomb Core (✕).
• [3] Squid Siphon (50%): Uses one turn to clear all tablets of the most common color across the entire board.
• [4] Buzzer 84Hz (60%): Spawns 4 Gold Reliquaries (yields 2× Depth & Score) + 2× rich Mineral Veins.

Equip Ancient Artifacts into your Backpack [R]

Completing all checklist objectives in each Chamber discovers an ancient passive Relic. Press R or click CODEX [R] in the bottom-right panel to equip up to 2 Relics (expands to 3 slots at Depth -750m / Backpack Lv 3).