How to play Mottle
Hold to run, let go to hide. In Mottle — Hide & Seek you steer a little creature across a garden of coloured stones. It glows while it moves and turns the colour of the ground when it stops. Survive each round’s timer without filling the Alert meter.
Mottle controls
The game is built for one thumb, but it works just as well with a mouse or keyboard. There are no other buttons: no sprint, no dodge, no special moves.
| What you want | Phone / tablet | Computer |
|---|---|---|
| Move | Hold your finger where you want to go | Hold the mouse button, or W A S D / arrow keys |
| Stop and blend in | Lift your finger | Release the button or keys |
| Pause | Pause button (top) | Esc or P |
| Sound on/off | Speaker button next to pause | |
Two small comforts: the game pauses itself if you switch tabs or apps, and it plays in portrait or landscape. Turn the phone whenever you like.
Watch it once
A real round, recorded on desktop: run to a firefly, stop, blend, wait for the cone to pass, go again. Notice how the creature flashes from coral to the tile’s colour a moment after it stops.
Your first round, step by step
- Start. The title screen runs a little demo of the creature hunting fireflies by itself. Tap the garden (or click Play on the result card) to begin.
- Hide! (3 seconds). The Seekers count and the whole garden is frozen, you included. Use the pause to plan: where are the fireflies, and which way are the cones pointing? You always start in the middle, out of reach of every cone.
- They Seek. The Seek timer appears at the top: 13 seconds in round 1. Seekers start walking. Hold toward the nearest firefly that isn’t under a cone.
- Let go early. When a cone swings your way, release before it reaches you. The hint line changes from “Revealed — let go to blend!” to “Blending… hold still” to “Hidden — stay still”.
- Don’t flinch. While you’re hidden a cone can pass right over you and Alert won’t move. The moment you move again, you glow.
- Clear it. Survive until the timer reaches zero (the last three seconds tick) and you get “Round Clear” plus a bonus. Round 2 adds a second Seeker.
Reading the HUD
Everything on screen is there for a reason. On a phone the counters sit on top and the two meters at the bottom; on a wide screen the counters are on the left and the meters on the right.
- Score
- Fireflies (10 each) plus round bonuses (100 × round).
- Lives
- Three hearts. Fill Alert and you lose one and replay the round.
- Round
- Which round you’re on. More Seekers every two rounds, up to four.
- Seek
- Seconds left in this round. Reach zero to clear it.
- Alert
- How close the Seekers are to catching you. 100% = spotted.
- Camo
- How blended in you are. 100% = invisible while you stay still.
Under the meters a one-line hint tells you your state: Revealed (you’re moving), Blending (stopped, Camo filling), Hidden (fully blended), or SPOTTED — hide! once Alert passes 55%. When you see that last one, let go immediately.
Where to play
You can play right on our home page. The player there loads the original game from 8x.gg. Or open it directly at 5qbwd96hq.8x.gg. It’s free and there’s no sign-up either way.
Got the basics? The rules page has the exact numbers behind each meter, and tips & strategy is where you learn to survive round 6 and up.