Bolt Buddy

Bolt Buddy — how to play and tips

Bolt Buddy is a calm, clever screw puzzle for your phone, tablet or computer. Bolty, a small robot mechanic, runs a workshop full of broken toys and gadgets. Every level is a machine held together by colourful plates and bolts, and somewhere inside it a toy, a kitten or a treasure is stuck. Unscrew the bolts in the right order, let the plates drop away, and rescue what is hidden in the middle.

How to play

• Tap a bolt to unscrew it. On a computer you can click, or use the arrow keys to pick a bolt and press Enter.

• Toolboxes: every bolt has a colour and a small symbol. When you take a bolt out it flies into the open toolbox of the same colour. A toolbox holds three bolts. When it is full it closes and the next toolbox arrives.

• The holder: if no open toolbox matches the bolt, it waits in the holder, the row of round slots under the toolboxes. Waiting bolts jump into their toolbox as soon as it appears. The holder only has a few slots, and if it is full and nothing else can move, you are stuck.

• Plates: a plate stays put while two or more bolts hold it. With one bolt left it swings down and hangs from it, sometimes covering bolts below. When its last bolt is out it drops off the board.

• Layers: a bolt under another plate cannot turn. If you tap one, the plate in the way flashes red so you can see which plate to clear first.

Clear every plate to fix the machine. The level is won when the rescued toy jumps out and the confetti falls.

Five workshops, fifty levels

The game has five worlds of ten levels each: the Toy Room, the Kitchen Gadgets corner, the Snowy Garage, the Clock Tower and the Space Lab. Every world adds a new idea. Rusty bolts need two taps. Chained bolts lock their partner for one move. Ice plates keep their bolts frozen until enough other plates have dropped. On a magnet plate the bolts must come out in number order. The golden key bolt unlocks two extra holder slots. Gear plates turn a quarter turn after every move, carrying their bolts with them. A bomb plate has to drop before its counter reaches zero, and the Space Lab has low gravity. Every tenth level is a big boss machine with many layers, and the final boss is a mega spaceship.

Each level has been checked by a computer solver, so there is always a way to win. The levels are built from a fixed seed, so level 23 is the same puzzle for everyone and you can compare your stars with friends.

Boosters, stars and coins

If you get stuck you can use a booster. Hint lights up a bolt that is safe to take next, Undo takes back your last move, Extra slot adds one holder slot for this level, and the Hammer smashes a plate so its bolts go into a tool bag. You start with a few free boosters, and after that they cost coins, which you earn by finishing levels. A level finished without any booster gives three stars, one booster gives two stars, and more gives one.

Tips

• Before you tap, look at the colours of the open toolboxes. A bolt that goes straight into a box is almost always a safe move.

• Keep at least one holder slot free whenever you can. A full holder is how most levels are lost.

• Watch out for the second-last bolt on a long bar. When it swings down it can cover the bolts you need next.

• On gear levels, count ahead: a covered bolt may be free after one or two more moves.

• Bomb counters go down with every tap, including the first tap on a rusty bolt, so clear the path to the bomb plate early.

Play it anywhere

Bolt Buddy runs in your browser with nothing to download, on any phone, tablet or computer. The sounds are made by the game as you play, and you can switch sound and vibration off in the menu. Your progress, stars and coins are saved on your own device. The game is free, has no pop-ups inside it, and is friendly for players of every age.