The eleven balls

The balls are the game. Each one digs in its own way, each card says both what it is best at and where it stops, and each one can be upgraded on its own. A good fleet is a mix.

Drifter

Straight lines and steady bounces. Wears the rock down anywhere.

Best at: Reliable all-purpose digging
Limit: Only one cell per impact

Bloom

Opens a soft crater wherever it lands.

Best at: Opens a wide area at once
Limit: Spreads one bite across the whole crater

Lance

Crosses any open ground. Spends up to 8 cell health on one straight pass; surviving rock reflects it. A barrier turns it sooner.

Best at: Crosses gaps to bore distant rock
Limit: Reflects after spending its cell-health budget

Splitter

Becomes two, then four, then quiet again.

Best at: Spreads work into many branches
Limit: The copies are short-lived

Spore

Poisons the cell it touches. The poison eats its way on, cell by cell, until it is spent.

Best at: Poison spreads from cell to cell
Limit: Stops where the rock runs out

Prism

Splits every strike into beams that carve a burst of ground.

Best at: Splits each hit into digging beams
Limit: Hard to keep on one target

Echo

Heavy and unhurried. What it touches, it takes.

Best at: Takes wide, tough ground
Limit: High cost and slow pace

Creeper

Holds on to the rock and works its way along the face.

Best at: Stays working along a rock face
Limit: Needs nearby rock to hold

Plumb

Always falls toward the middle. Digs a curve, and comes home by itself. Drop it where you want the curve.

Best at: Cuts broad curved routes
Limit: Always pulled toward the centre

Electric

Drifts slowly and throws lightning at the rock around it. Drop it beside the rock: it is too slow to go looking.

Best at: Strikes rock at a distance
Limit: Strikes at most four cells per discharge

Mason

Takes nothing. Builds bricks the rest of the fleet is paid to break.

Best at: Builds bricks worth breaking
Limit: Destroys no cells itself

Upgrades every ball shares

Every ball has four upgrades: Cell damage (harder hits), Refinement (more pixels per cell), Momentum (moves faster) and one of its own. The field also has Nightwork, which sets what the fleet earns while the game is closed.

Cell damage: Hits tougher rock and removes more cell health per impact. A one-cell ball still targets one cell.
Refinement: Every cell this ball breaks is worth more.
Momentum: This ball moves faster, so it touches more rock in the same minute.
Nightwork: How much the fleet earns while the game is closed.

Dig your own field

10 Million Cells is out now on Google Play and free to start. The App Store version is on its way.

Get it on Google PlaySoon on the App Store