How to play Wax Crush

Press and hold the ball until the wax shell cracks, drag the pieces off, then squish the clay inside. Tap New ball whenever you want a fresh one; each ball cracks in its own pattern.

On a phone or tablet

• Crack: put one finger on the ball and hold it still. The wax dents and creaks under your finger, faint stress lines appear, and then it crunches. Thicker wax takes a little longer.
• Split: press with two fingers on opposite sides of the ball at the same time to split it along the line between them.
• Peel: once it has cracked, touch a piece and drag. It lifts, lets go with a tick, and you can fling it to the pile at the bottom.
• Break smaller: press and hold a piece, on the ball or in the tray, to crunch it into smaller bits. Bigger pieces break into more bits; the smallest ones crumble.
• Let it fall: once most of the shell is broken into small pieces, the rest loosens and slides off by itself. You can keep peeling by hand before that.
• Shape the clay: it behaves like modeling clay and stays the way you leave it. Press to dent it. Drag from near its edge to pull out a lump or a rope that gets thinner the farther you pull. Pinch with two fingers to squeeze it.
• Roll it back up: rub in small circles on the clay, or rest two fingers on it, and it gathers back into a round ball.

The page still scrolls when you swipe outside the play area, so you can always get back to the menu.

With a mouse or trackpad

Click and hold to press, drag with the button held down to peel a piece or pull the clay, and let go to drop a piece. Circle the mouse with the button held down to roll the clay back up. Splitting and pinching with two fingers need a touch screen.

With the keyboard

• Press Tab until the play area is focused. A ring shows where you will press.
• Arrow keys move the ring. Hold Shift for bigger steps.
• Hold Space or Enter to press. While holding, the arrow keys drag: use them to pull a piece off or to stretch the clay. Let go of the key to drop the piece.
• N makes a new ball. A line under the play area says what just happened, for screen readers too.

No sound?

• Tap Tap to start first. Browsers only allow sound after you touch or click the page.
• On an iPhone, check the silent switch on the side of the phone. When it is set to silent, Safari mutes web game sounds.
• Turn the volume up and make sure the Sound toggle under the game is on.
• If sound stopped after you switched apps, tap the ball again.

Vibration and motion

On Android phones the ball gives a short buzz when it cracks and a tiny tap when a piece lets go. iPhone browsers have no vibration support, so the play area gives a small shake instead. Turn Vibration off if you prefer quiet hands.

Reduce motion turns off the screen shake and the bouncy drop of a new ball and keeps the squash small. It starts on by itself if your device asks for reduced motion. Your three settings are saved in this browser only.