How to Play Circlegame

Complete rules, controls and scoring · Updated September 16, 2026

ON THIS PAGE

Controls
30-second quick start
The core rule: white bullets and red bullets
Enemies and waves
Scoring
Survival basics
5 beginner mistakes
Quick questions

Circlegame is a free browser survival game with one brutal twist: your own bullets are as deadly as the enemies. Everything happens inside a white circle arena. Your ship is a white triangle, the enemies are red rings, and the circle wall reacts to every impact like water. The goal is simple — survive as many waves as you can and beat your high score.

The Circlegame arena: your ship always fires toward the center, so the line between you and the center is your real weapon.

Controls

Desktop: move with WASD or the arrow keys, or simply drag with your mouse — your ship follows the pointer.
Mobile: touch and drag anywhere — your ship follows your finger directly, with no virtual joystick covering the arena.
Shooting is automatic. Your ship fires one bullet every 2 seconds, always aimed at the exact center of the circle. You never control the aim — you control your position.

30-second quick start

Open circlegame.win — no download, no sign-up, no install.
Click or tap the arena to start. Wave 1 sends a single enemy so you can learn safely.
Move with WASD, arrows or your finger. Never stop moving for long.
Let the auto-fire do the shooting; you only decide where to stand.
After every miss, step away from the center — your bounced bullet is coming back red.

The Core Rule: White Bullets and Red Bullets

This is the rule that makes Circlegame different from every other survival shooter:

A freshly fired bullet is white. White bullets kill enemies (+100 points each).
If a white bullet misses and hits the circle wall, it bounces back and turns red.
A red bullet that touches you kills you instantly. There is no health bar — one hit, game over.
A red bullet that hits the wall again simply vanishes, leaving a ripple.

The four states of a bullet — white kills them, red kills you, the second wall hit ends the threat.

Every shot is a promise: either it kills an enemy, or it comes back as a bullet that can kill you. Before the gun fires, always ask where the bullet will go if it misses.

Enemies and Waves

Enemies spawn near the wall on the side opposite to you. Before an enemy appears you see a 1-second warning — a small red star-like dot twinkling at the spawn point. Nothing can hurt you during the warning, so use it to reposition.
Once spawned, an enemy locks its direction toward where you were standing and flies in a straight line, bouncing off the wall like a billiard ball. Enemies never chase you — they only ever travel on predictable straight paths.
New waves arrive on a timer, and enemies accumulate: if you don't kill them, the arena keeps getting more crowded. Wave 1 is a tutorial wave with a single enemy — the timer pauses until you clear it.

How fast do waves arrive?

The wave timer starts at about 10 seconds and grows by roughly 2 seconds per wave, up to a 20-second ceiling. Clear the arena and the countdown runs at more than double speed, so an active player meets waves far sooner than a passive one. Full numbers and the difficulty curve are documented on the Scoring & Waves page.

Scoring

Action	Result
Kill an enemy with a white bullet	+100 points
Get touched by any enemy or a red bullet	Game over
Beat your best score	Saved automatically in your browser

There is no bonus for time survived and no multiplier — score is purely kills, which is why the safest line is usually also the highest-scoring one.

Survival Basics

Watch the red warning dots — they tell you exactly where enemies will enter.
Stand so that enemies cross the imaginary line between you and the center: that line is your barrel.
After a miss, the bounced red bullet travels back through the center area. Step away from your own bullet's return path.

5 Beginner Mistakes

Chasing enemies. They move in straight lines; you will meet them anyway. Move to where their path crosses your line instead.
Camping near the center. Every missed bullet passes back through the middle — the center is the most dangerous place on the map.
Ignoring the warning dots. The 1-second telegraph is free information; reposition before the enemy exists.
Firing into a crowd. A bullet that misses into a cluster comes back through it. Kill the isolated target near your line.
Letting waves stack. Enemies never despawn. Three leftover enemies plus a new wave is how runs end.

Quick questions

Is Circlegame free?

Yes — completely free in the browser, ad-supported, with no download, account or payment. See the FAQ for the long answers.

Does it work on my phone?

Yes. The layout adapts to portrait and landscape, and touch dragging works exactly like mouse dragging.

Where is my best score stored?

In your browser's local storage on this device. Clearing site data resets it — details in the Privacy Policy.

Ready to try? The first wave is gentle — one enemy, one lesson in the core rule.

▶ PLAY CIRCLEGAME FREE

Next step: read Tips & Strategies to learn positioning, bullet discipline and how to survive the late-game crowd. Once you are clearing waves consistently, How to Survive Wave 10 shows how to push past the point where most runs end. Questions? Check the FAQ, or follow development in the Dev Log.