How to play the watermelon game
Everything you need in two minutes: the rules, the controls, the scoring, and the full fruit evolution chain.
The rules
- Drop. A fruit hangs at the top of the box. Move it left or right and drop it.
- Merge. When two fruits of the same kind touch, they merge into the next fruit up the chain — two cherries become a strawberry, two strawberries become a grape, and so on.
- Only small fruits drop. Cherries, strawberries, grapes, oranges and persimmons are the only fruits that fall. Apples and everything bigger must be created by merging.
- Don't cross the line. If the stack settles above the dashed line at the top of the box, the game ends. A brief pile-up that quickly collapses is forgiven — a settled stack is not.
- Two watermelons? If you ever merge two watermelons, they vanish in a burst of points. Very few players get there.
Controls
- Mouse: move to aim, click to drop.
- Touch: drag to aim, release to drop.
- Keyboard: ← and → to aim, Space to drop.
The small fruit icon labelled Next above the box always shows the fruit after the one you are holding — plan two drops ahead, not one.
The fruit evolution chain
Eleven fruits, smallest to largest. The points listed are what you score for creating that fruit with a merge — bigger merges are worth far more, which is why late-game chains score so fast.
- Cherry — drops · merging two scores as Strawberry (3 pts)
- Strawberry — drops · → Grape (6 pts)
- Grape — drops · → Orange (10 pts)
- Orange — drops · → Persimmon (15 pts)
- Persimmon — drops · → Apple (21 pts)
- Apple — merge only · → Pear (28 pts)
- Pear — merge only · → Peach (36 pts)
- Peach — merge only · → Pineapple (45 pts)
- Pineapple — merge only · → Melon (55 pts)
- Melon — merge only · → Watermelon (66 pts)
- Watermelon — the goal. Two watermelons merging clear both for a 100-point bonus.
Scoring, in one paragraph
Your score is the sum of every merge you make, using the values above. Because a single drop can set off a chain — your new fruit lands on its twin, merges, and the result rolls into another pair — skilled play is mostly about setting up chains: the same drop that scores 3 points dropped carelessly can score 30+ when it lands in a prepared pile. Scores around 1,000 mean the box got away from you; 2,000+ means you reached the melon stage; a watermelon of your own usually comes with 2,500–3,500.
Now play it: back to the game — or read the strategy guide first if you want the watermelon on your first evening.