Ball Eater

Swallow anything eight per cent smaller, and stay well clear of the spiky red one

Single player
arcade
casual

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About Ball Eater

Ball Eater is an arena of circles where size is the only currency. You start at mass fifteen in a world eighteen hundred units across, shared with a hundred and seventy scattered pellets, eleven rival balls between mass twelve and thirty-two, and one red spiked hunter.

The rules are strict about margins. You can only swallow something at least eight per cent smaller than you, and anything ten per cent larger than you will come after you. Eating a rival gives you seventy per cent of its mass, so growth accelerates. Pellets are worth a fraction of that but cost nothing.

The hunter is the complication. Its mass is recalculated from yours — roughly a third again, plus a bit — so it is permanently out of reach no matter how large you get. What it cannot do is move well: it travels at about sixty per cent of the pace its size would normally allow. You get three lives, a two-second shield each time you come back, and the score you have already banked stays banked.

What is different about this version

The hunter scales with you instead of being a fixed threat, which quietly changes what growing means: every meal makes the thing chasing you bigger too, by more than you gained. It also never loses interest — where the rival balls only notice you inside a few hundred units and commit on a coin flip weighted by their own temperament, the hunter tracks you from anywhere in the arena. Its one weakness is written into the code as a flat speed penalty.

Mass also decays. Anything over twenty loses a slice of itself continuously, so a lead you stop feeding erodes on its own and there is no parking. The speed cost of being big, though, is mild: ten times the mass costs only about a fifth of your top speed, which is far gentler than this shape of game usually is.

How to play Ball Eater

Steer with the mouse, WASD, or by dragging on a touchscreen.
Sweep up pellets to grow slowly and safely.
Swallow a rival ball once you are at least eight per cent larger than it is.
Keep away from the red spiked hunter — it is always larger than you and it always knows where you are.
Being eaten costs one of three lives and puts you back with a brief shield.

Controls

Desktop	Point with the mouse or steer with WASD; the ball accelerates toward wherever you aim.
Phone or tablet	Drag anywhere on the screen and a floating stick appears under your thumb.
Players	One player. Any other characters on screen are run by the game.

Strategy

Score is cumulative and survives your deaths — the end screen leads with total score, with your peak size and the number of balls eaten underneath. That one detail should shape how you play. A greedy run that reaches mass sixty twice and dies twice scores better than a careful one that never passes twenty-five, because points come from what you swallow rather than from how long you last.

The eight per cent margin is tighter than it feels and is the number to hold in your head. At mass thirty you can eat anything up to twenty-seven and a half, which covers most of the starting field, so the answer there is to keep moving and keep eating rather than consolidate. Swallowing a thirty-two at mass thirty takes you past fifty in one bite — and pushes the hunter past seventy-five at the same instant, so expect company shortly after the meal.

Geometry beats speed against the hunter. It is slow but it comes straight at you, so the cheapest escape is a wide arc rather than a sprint: turn across its nose and it gives up ground it cannot recover. Avoid the corners, which halve your options. Rivals are short-sighted by comparison, so a big one two hundred units away is about to notice you, while one across the arena is busy with something else.

Mistakes that cost you the game

Playing for survival. Lives are cheap and the score is cumulative, so refusing marginal meals just leaves points on the table.
Running in a straight line from the hunter. It is slower than you, but a straight chase gives it a free read; an arc across its path buys much more.
Farming pellets once you are past mass thirty. Decay is eating you faster than the pellets are feeding you at that size.

Tips

Check the size difference before you commit. Within about a tenth of your own size, neither of you can eat the other and you are just wasting time.
Use rival balls as cover. They chase each other as readily as they chase you, and a fight between two of them is a free meal for whoever arrives third.
After a respawn the shield lasts two seconds — spend them moving, not looking around.

Questions about Ball Eater

Can I kill the hunter?

No. It is resized against your own mass every time, so it stays out of reach permanently. Your only tools against it are distance and turning.

What happens when I am eaten?

You lose one of three lives and respawn away from the hunter and the larger rivals with a short shield. Your score is not reset.

Why is my ball shrinking?

Anything over mass twenty decays slowly and continuously. It is deliberate — it stops a big lead being a resting position.

How does steering work on a touchscreen?

Press anywhere and a floating stick appears under your thumb, so you are never reaching for a fixed control in the corner. The view scales to the screen you are on.

Does it cost anything?

No. Ball Eater is free to play, runs in your browser, and needs no download, install or account.

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