How to play Pin Rescue

What is the goal in Pin Rescue?

Each level is a glass tower standing over a cosy straw nest. The tower is split into one to three shafts, and the shafts are split into chambers whose floors are golden pins. The chambers hold eggs, blue water, orange lava, grey rocks or a grumpy plum critter, and the nest at the bottom can hold lava, a pond or a critter too. Pull a pin and everything on it tumbles down. You win when everything has stopped moving and every egg is resting in the nest. The level is lost if lava touches an egg or a critter ends up next to one, and a board where no order of pins can still work counts as stuck. The bar at the top shows how many eggs are home, how many pins you have pulled and the pin count for three stars.

How to play Pin Rescue, step by step

Level 7 is a good example of how a typical early board plays out.

1. 1Step 1: Read the tower before you touch anything. Here four eggs sit on the top right pin, five drops of water wait below them, two rocks sit on the left and lava fills the nest. If the eggs dropped first, they would end up in the lava, so they have to wait.
2. 2Step 2: Pull the pin under the water first. Tap the golden pin and it slides out, and the water pours down onto the lava. Water and lava meeting turns into grey stone, which is safe for eggs. On level 6 one pull did exactly that, leaving stone blocks between the pond and the lava.
3. 3Step 3: Now let the eggs fall. With the lava cooled, pull the pin under the eggs and they roll down into the nest. When every egg is home the counter turns full and confetti flies, then the win card shows your stars and the tokens you earned.

How do things fall and react?

Eggs, water, lava and rocks fall and slide sideways down slopes like sand, and water also runs along the floor toward the nearest drop. Critters only fall straight down. Eggs, rocks and critters sink through water. A few reactions decide most levels. Water touching lava turns both into stone. A rock landing on a critter, or lava touching it, makes the critter run off. Lava touching an egg, or a critter beside an egg, ends the level. That is why the order matters so much: the same pins pulled in a different order can win or lose the board.

What are the controls on phone and computer?

On a phone or tablet you just tap a pin. A double tap still pulls only one pin, and dragging off a pin does not pull it. The game is built for a phone held upright, and it also works with the phone turned sideways. On a computer you can click, or use the arrow keys to move between pins and Enter to pull the one in focus. The dock under the tower has Undo, Hint and Restart. Restart is free. Undo puts the last pin back and Hint makes the next safe pin glow; both cost OvO Tokens. After a lost board the card offers Put the pin back, which undoes the last pull, or Try again from the start for free. Settings has a Symbols option that adds symbols to the board, which helps if the colours are hard to tell apart.

How do you beat hard levels in Pin Rescue?

Look for the danger before the eggs. Find every lava chamber and every critter, then ask what each one will land on. Cool lava first: when a board has lava, it usually wants water poured on it before the eggs move. Use rocks as tools, since a rock dropped on a critter sends it away. Check the nest itself, because lava or a critter can already be waiting at the bottom. Some first pins lose straight away, so if a pull looks obvious, check what falls with it. Levels 5, 15, 25 and so on are easier breathers, and every tenth level is a hard one with an extra shaft or tier. For three stars, stay within the pin count shown at the top and finish without Undo or Hint; one Undo still gives two stars. If you get stuck, Restart is free and gives a clean count.

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