Dodge Circle 3D

One ring, throwers all round the rim, and a dash with just enough invincibility to matter

Single player
arcade
3d
action

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Prefer it full screen? Open Dodge Circle 3D on its own.

About Dodge Circle 3D

A round platform, a handful of figures standing on the rim, and balls coming inward. You have one job and no weapon. The throwers wander slowly along the edge while they wait and are quietly nudged apart if they get too close together, so there is never a quiet arc of the circle to stand in.

This is more than a reflex test, because a throw is not instant. Each one winds up visibly, tracking where it thinks you will be, then locks its aim and holds it for about a quarter of a second before letting go. That gap is the whole game. The score runs at fifty a second while you are alive and adds a hundred every time a ball passes close enough to count as a near miss, with a brief drop into slow motion when it does — so the arena pays you for playing near the traffic rather than round the edges of it. Three settings decide how many lives you start with, how many throwers there are and how far ahead of you they aim, and the gap between them is wide.

What is different about this version

The dash is invulnerable for longer than it lasts. You travel for under a fifth of a second but stay untouchable for a little over a quarter, which means dashing straight into an incoming ball is a real option rather than a mistake — the extra frames carry you out the far side. It changes the shape of every decision, because the safest direction is often the one with a ball in it. The cooldown is a full second, and on the hardest setting throws arrive faster than that, so it cannot be your answer to everything. Taking a hit hands the dash straight back to you, on top of a second and a bit of invulnerability, which turns a life lost into a free repositioning window.

How to play Dodge Circle 3D

Pick a difficulty. It sets how many lives you have, how many throwers there are, and how much they aim ahead of you.
Move around the ring. Balls come from whoever is winding up, and the wind-up is your warning.
Dash through a throw you cannot walk away from — you are briefly untouchable while you do it.
Keep going until your lives run out. Time survived and near misses make up the score.

Controls

Desktop	Walk with WASD or the arrows, or hold the mouse button to head towards the pointer; Space dashes.
Phone or tablet	Left-hand stick to move, Dash button on the right.
Players	One player. Any other characters on screen are run by the game.

Strategy

Learn the lock. While a thrower winds up, its aim follows you and adjusts continuously. Then the aim freezes, a random scatter is added, and only then does the ball leave. Anything you do before the freeze is already accounted for; anything after it cannot be. So move steadily and plainly through the wind-up, then break in the last fraction of a second. Standing still and then sprinting beats jinking constantly, which only feeds the tracker.

The three settings change that maths, not just the speed. On the easiest, throws are aimed close to where you actually are and scattered widely, so walking sideways covers it. On the hardest they are aimed nearly a second ahead, which at running speed is a good five paces of lead — stopping dead sends the ball wide in front of you, and reversing is better still. Hard also puts a ricochet on every ball off the rim, so the throw you just dodged comes back through the arena once. Stand near the wall and you meet it again.

Score accordingly. Hiding at the far edge earns fifty a second and nothing more. A near miss is worth two seconds of survival on its own and drops the game briefly into slow motion, which makes the next dodge easier — so a good run is a series of deliberately narrow escapes rather than a lap of the perimeter. The longer you last, the tighter the scatter and the shorter the gaps, so every run ends; what matters is what you banked on the way.

Mistakes that cost you the game

Jinking constantly during a wind-up. The aim is still tracking you, so the only movement that helps comes after it locks.
Dashing on reflex. The cooldown is a second long, and a dash spent on a throw you could have walked away from is the one you needed next.
Hugging the wall on the hardest setting, where balls come back off the rim and catch you on the return.

Tips

Watch the thrower, not the ball. The wind-up gives you half a second the ball never will.
Dash across a throw rather than away from it — away leaves you in the same line, just further along.
After a hit, spend the invulnerable moment walking somewhere better instead of standing still.
The throwers are kept spread around the rim, so facing the widest gap cuts the angles you have to read.
Near misses feed on themselves: the slow motion one gives you makes the next easier to set up.