How to Play Trickle
Everything you need to know to drop smarter, bank at the right time and climb the bankroll leaderboard.
The basics
Trickle is a game of falling chips. At the top of the board is a drop point, below it is a triangle of glowing neon pegs, and at the bottom is a row of 13 slots. Every slot shows a multiplier. When you drop a chip, it bounces from peg to peg on its way down and pays out your bet multiplied by the slot it finally lands in. A 20-coin chip that lands in a 2.4× slot pays back 48 coins. A 20-coin chip that lands in a 0.4× slot pays back only 8.
The rule to remember is simple: the edges pay big and the middle pays low. Most chips drift toward the centre, because that is how bouncing works when there are many pegs in the way, so the big edge slots are rare and exciting when they hit.
Every new run starts with a bankroll of 10,000 play coins. Trickle uses play money only. Coins cannot be bought, cashed out or exchanged for anything.
Dropping chips
- Use the gold slider to set your bet per chip.
- Pick LOW or HIGH risk.
- Tap DROP. Hold DROP (or hold the board) to keep firing chips in rapid succession.
Up to a dozen chips can be in the air at once, and each one pays its own slot. On a keyboard, Space drops, 1 and 2 switch risk, the arrow keys or [ and ] change the bet, ↑ and ↓ double or halve it, P pauses and M toggles sound.
Aiming and the sideways nudge
The drop point is not fixed. It swings slowly from side to side like a pendulum, taking a little under a second and a half to cross from one side to the other. When you press DROP, the chip is released wherever the drop point is at that moment.
A chip released on one side also gets a small sideways push in that same direction. That push leans the spread of results toward your side of the board, but it does not decide where the chip ends up. The pegs still do that. Think of aim as tilting the odds slightly, not as steering. Timing your drops when the pointer is far to one side gives your chips a small lean toward that side's edge slots.
LOW vs HIGH risk
The risk buttons change the multipliers printed on the slots.
| Slot (edge → centre) | LOW | HIGH |
|---|---|---|
| Edge (jackpot) | 5× | 20× |
| 2nd | 2.4× | 10× |
| 3rd | 1.4× | 2.9× |
| 4th | 1.05× | 0.85× |
| 5th | 0.84× | 0.38× |
| 6th | 0.6× | 0.18× |
| Centre | 0.4× | 0.12× |
LOW takes bets from 5 to 100 coins. The losses in the middle are gentle, so your bankroll drains slowly and you have time to wait for power-ups. HIGH needs a bankroll of at least 100 and takes bigger bets, with no fixed upper cap other than what you can afford. The edges are huge, but the centre keeps barely anything. HIGH is how you make a big jump fast, and also how you go broke fast. If your bankroll drops under 100 while on HIGH, the game switches you back to LOW once your chips have landed.
Landing in the very edge slot is a JACKPOT, with its own celebration.
Power-up pegs
Two pegs on the board glow in a colour with an icon. Those are power-up pegs. Hit one with a chip and it triggers:
- MULTI two free chips drop right away, at the bet and risk of the chip that hit the peg.
- FREE you bank a free drop. Your next drop costs nothing and uses the bet that earned it.
- 2X your next 3 chips pay double.
- SHIELD your next 3 losing chips are refunded.
- BONUS your next 5 chips earn 2% of their bet for every peg they touch.
While a power-up is active, pegs flash in its colour when your chips hit them. A used power-up peg comes back somewhere new after a few more drops.
Power-up pegs don't last forever. Each one stays for 60 seconds of play. In its last five seconds it blinks and ticks with a rising sound, then vanishes with a soft pop. If you see a peg blinking, that is your last chance to hit it.
Rare pegs
- GOLDEN PEG appears very rarely. Hit it and your next chip pays ×5.
- SPLIT ✸ bursts the chip that hits it into 5 chips. The four extras are free and each pays its own slot.
- SWAP ⇄ is the rarest. When it shows up a message announces it, and it only sticks around for a short while. Hit it and for 3 seconds the board flips: the big jackpot values move to the middle slots, where most chips land, and the low values move out to the edges. Have chips in the air when it triggers. The store is closed during a SWAP.
The store
Tap 🛒 to spend bankroll on boosts. Prices scale with your current bet, so a boost is never free money on a big bet.
- 2X CHARGE (3.5× your bet): next 3 chips pay double.
- SHIELD (2.5× your bet): next 3 losing chips refunded.
- MULTI (2.3× your bet): 2 free chips drop right now.
- EXTRA PEG (1.5× your bet): one more power-up peg on the board for 15 drops.
- HOLE BLOCKER (6× your bet, capped by your level): tap a slot to close it for 60 seconds, so chips can't land there.
While bought boosts are still active, your bet and risk are locked so the price you paid matches the chips it applies to.
Banking and the leaderboard
Next to your bankroll is the 🏦 BANK pill. Tapping it locks in your current bankroll as your leaderboard score without ending your run. Only banked amounts count on the Best Bankroll board, so the smart move is to bank after a good streak, before you risk it again. Your run keeps going either way.
To appear on the 🏅 leaderboard, enter a name on the home screen. Without a name you can still play, but no scores are sent. There are two boards, Best Bankroll and Biggest Hit, each with all-time and this-week views.
Busting and resets
If your bankroll falls below the 5-coin minimum bet with nothing in the air and no free drops left, you are busted. You get a couple of free resets each day, plus a few more by watching a short ad. Both refill at midnight. A reset starts a new run at 10,000.
Levels, achievements and looks
Your level rises as your peak bankroll doubles beyond the starting 10,000. Achievements in 🏆 unlock chip skins and board themes, such as landing a 9× or better, triggering 10 power-ups, reaching 20,000 or hitting a jackpot.
Tips and strategy
- Bank early, bank often. Since only banked amounts count, bank every time you hit a new high.
- Use LOW to wait for power-ups. A cheap LOW chip can trigger a 2X or SHIELD, and then switching up is where you profit. Remember the bet locks while store boosts are active.
- Watch the blink. A blinking power-up peg is about to disappear, so drop a few chips toward it.
- Time your aim. Release when the pointer is near an edge for a slight lean toward that side.
- Save the Hole Blocker for HIGH. Closing a low-paying centre slot matters most when the centre pays 0.12×.
- Fill the air before a SWAP. SWAP lasts 3 seconds, so it pays most when several chips are already falling.
- Don't chase losses on HIGH. In our own testing, careful LOW play lasts far longer than aggressive HIGH play, which can bust in minutes.