Guide
How to Play Marble Run
Marble Run is a build-and-test puzzle. Place ramps, curves, planks, springs, and boosters on the grid, release the marble, and adjust your track until it rolls into the goal cup — passing every star on the way.
Play Marble RunThe objective
Get the marble from the chute to the cup
Every level is a grid. The marble waits in the yellow drop chute; the green goal cup sits somewhere else on the board. Between them are fixed obstacles — stone pieces, brick walls, red spikes — and an open bottom edge the marble can fall through.
You get a tray of track pieces. Place them, rotate them, and press Run. The marble falls under gravity and follows whatever you built. Land it in the cup to clear the level; pass through the stars on the way for a perfect three-star clear.
The game is free, runs in the browser, and needs no account. Open the board whenever you are ready; this guide covers every piece, the controls, and the rules that decide a run.
Track pieces
Six pieces, many rotations
Your own pieces are drawn in warm wood; tap one you placed to rotate it. The number key in each card selects that piece on a keyboard.
Key 1
Ramp
A 45° slope. Rotate it to slope left or right, or flip it into a ceiling deflector that turns a rising marble sideways. Ramps chain diagonally into long, fast descents.
Key 2
Curve
A quarter-pipe guide track. A marble dropping into a curve is steered into a sideways roll and keeps most of its speed. Upside-down curves bend a rising marble across.
Key 3
Plank
A flat floor. Rotate it to stand it up as a wall or hang it as a ceiling. Planks bridge gaps, catch landings, and stop a marble from rolling past a goal.
Key 4
Spring
A pad that fires the marble straight off its face at a fixed speed — about three squares of height when pointed up. Set one into a track to turn a roll into a leap, or mount it on a wall to bat the marble back.
Key 5
Booster
Two shapes in one. As a floor pad (→ or ←) it accelerates the marble along the floor. Rotate it upright and it becomes a lift that cancels gravity and pushes up — stack lifts to build an elevator shaft.
Key 6
Block
A solid square. Use it as a backstop to kill a flying marble’s speed so it drops exactly where you want, or as a wall to keep it in a channel.
The board
Fixed parts, spikes, and the open floor
Fixed pieces and walls
Grey stone pieces and brick walls are part of the level. They work exactly like your own pieces, but they cannot be moved, rotated, or removed.
Spikes
Touching red spikes ends the run immediately. Bridge over them with planks, jump them with a spring, or route the marble away.
The open floor
The board has side walls and a ceiling, but no floor. A marble that drops out of the bottom edge is lost.
Controls
Tap, click, or use the keyboard
Every input builds the same track. Use whichever fits the device in your hand.
Phones and tablets
Tap and drag
Tap a tray piece, then tap squares to place it. Drag across empty squares to paint several at once. Tap a placed piece to rotate it, long-press it to remove it, or switch to the eraser.
Desktop
Mouse
Click to place or rotate, drag to paint a line of pieces, and right-click to remove one. A faded preview shows exactly where the selected piece will go and which way it faces.
Desktop and accessibility
Keyboard
Keys 1–6 pick a piece, R rotates, E selects the eraser, and Space runs or stops the marble. With the board focused, arrow keys move a cursor, Enter places or rotates, and Delete removes. U undoes, C clears, L opens levels, N goes to the next level, and M mutes.
The loop
Build, run, adjust, repeat
- 1
Read the board
Every level shows a yellow drop chute where the marble starts, a green goal cup, and up to three stars. Grey stone pieces, walls, and red spikes are fixed. The bottom edge is open — a marble that falls off it is lost.
- 2
Place your pieces
Pick a piece from the tray and tap an empty square to set it down. Tap a piece you placed to rotate it, or tap its tray button again to rotate the next one before placing. The badge on each tray button shows how many you have left.
- 3
Release the marble
Press Run (or Space). The marble drops from the chute and rolls under real gravity — it speeds up on slopes, flies off edges, bounces off blocks, and launches off springs. Press Stop at any time to go back to building.
- 4
Reach the cup, collect the stars
The run is won the moment the marble lands in the goal cup. Pass through every star on the way for a perfect three-star clear. Your pieces stay on the board between runs, so adjust one piece and run it again.
Rules & stars
What decides a run
Winning a level
A level is complete when the marble reaches the goal cup. The cup has a floor, so the marble can roll in along a track or drop in from above; a marble fired up from below passes through it and counts on the way.
Stars
Most levels hold three stars, a few hold two. A star is collected when the marble passes through its square during a winning run. Your best star count for each level is kept.
Ending a run
A run fails if the marble falls off the bottom of the board, touches spikes, comes to a complete stop, or has not reached the cup after 25 seconds (180 seconds in the sandbox).
Limited pieces
Each level gives you a fixed set of pieces — exactly enough for the intended solution. Unlocking the next level only needs the marble in the cup; three stars is the extra challenge.
Same layout, same result
The physics runs on a fixed timestep, so an unchanged track plays out the same way every time. If a run almost works, a single piece moved or rotated is usually the fix.
Levels
14 levels, one idea at a time
Levels unlock in order — reaching the cup opens the next one. The sandbox is open from the start.
- 1
First Drop
Pick the ramp, tap a square under the marble, and press Run.
- 2
Switchback
Tap a placed ramp to flip which way it slopes.
- 3
Curveball
A curve turns a straight drop into a fast sideways roll.
- 4
Bridge
Planks make a floor. Cover the gap above the spikes.
- 5
Backstop
A block stops a flying marble dead in the air.
- 6
Spring Step
Springs fire the marble straight off their face.
- 7
Push Start
Booster pads launch a resting marble along the floor.
- 8
Trampoline
A spring set into the track turns a roll into a leap.
- 9
Elevator
Rotate a booster upright to make a lift. Stack lifts into a shaft.
- 10
Bank Shot
Ramps work upside down too — bounce off a ceiling.
- 11
Zigzag
Work down the shelves one gap at a time. The side walls bounce.
- 12
Lift Off
Roll in, ride up, roll out.
- 13
Round Trip
The goal is on the far side. Go all the way down and come back up.
- 14
Grand Tour
Two curves and a spring. Turn the drop, cross the board, then leap.
Common mistakes
Why a track almost works
Placing pieces where the marble never goes
It is tempting to build the whole track before the first run. Release the marble early instead, watch where it actually goes, and build to meet it.
Fighting momentum
A marble coming off three ramps is fast. Planks alone will not stop it in time; let it hit a wall or block, or use that speed for a jump.
Leaving a lip in the track
Floors sit near the bottom of each square. A plank placed one row too high next to a ramp creates a small step the marble can stall against. Keep a track stepping down, never up.
Forgetting the open floor
The bottom edge has no wall. Any route that drops the marble low on the board needs something underneath it.
- Run the marble once with an empty board to see where it falls — most solutions start by catching that first drop.
- Follow the stars. They sit on the path the level was designed around, so they show you where the marble should travel.
- Use a curve instead of a ramp to catch a long fall: curves keep most of the speed, ramps lose more of it on impact.
- A marble flying too far? Put a block in its path. It stops dead and drops straight down.
- Springs fire at a fixed speed, so a spring hit gently still launches hard — great for crossing spikes.
- Stack upright boosters to build a lift, and cap the shaft with a ceiling ramp to send the marble sideways at the top.
- Change one piece at a time between runs. The physics is repeatable, so you can see exactly what each change did.
Where you can play
Same game on phone and desktop
playmarblerun.app runs in any modern browser with no app to install. Progress stays on the device you played on.
Desktop browsers
Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari all run the game with no plugin. The tray sits beside the board, a hover preview shows each placement, and every action has a keyboard shortcut.
Phones and tablets
The board, tray, and Run button fit on one portrait screen. Tap to place, tap to rotate, long-press to remove, and drag to paint. The board resizes to your screen.
Progress on this device
Unlocked levels, best stars, your unfinished tracks, and your sandbox build are saved in local browser storage. They stay until you reset them or clear site data, and they do not sync between devices.
Still have a question? Read the Marble Run FAQ or jump in and build.
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