About Marble Chain

A chain of coloured marbles rolls along a track towards a hole, pushed from behind. You sit in the middle with a shooter. Fire a marble into the chain and it takes its place there; get three or more of one colour together and they pop. Let the front of the chain reach the hole and the run is over.

Popping leaves a gap, and the part of the chain in front of the gap stops and waits for the rest to catch up — unless the marbles either side of the gap are the same colour, in which case the front rolls back to meet them, and if that makes three or more they pop too, worth double, then triple if it happens again. Setting up those chain reactions is how big scores are made and how a chain that is getting too close to the hole is pushed back.

You always hold two marbles, the one in the shooter and the next, and can swap them. A marble is only ever a colour still on the track. Each level is one of three tracks — a spiral, a switchback and a loop round the edge — and each one after the last has more marbles, more colours and a faster chain. The daily run is the same chains in the same order for everyone, once a day, ranked by score; free play is unlimited.

Tips to win

• Fire into pairs: two of a colour side by side need only one more
• Pop a group between two marbles of the same colour, and the gap will close into a second pop
• Watch the front of the chain: a pop near the hole buys the most time
• Swap when the marble in hand has nowhere good to go — the next one might