Paddle Cannon

About Paddle Cannon

Paddle Cannon takes the trajectory solver that runs underneath every game on this site and exposes it as a puzzle. There is no opponent, no rally and no clock. You get ten launches, a table covered in targets, blockers standing between you and them, and as long as you like to think about the angle.

Clearing an entire wave refunds three shots, which is what makes long runs possible. Each new wave adds a row of targets, shrinks them slightly, and from wave two onward introduces blockers that stop a shot dead — moving ones from wave four.

How to play Paddle Cannon

1. Aim the crosshair with left and right, and set the depth with up and down.
2. Hold Space to charge the power meter, release to launch.
3. Targets are knocked out by any low contact, not only by the landing bounce.
4. Blockers stop the ball completely. Arc over them or go around them.
5. Clear a full wave to refund three shots and advance.

Controls

On a touchscreen: Use the aim buttons under the game to move the crosshair, then press and hold the serve button.

Gameplay mechanics

Reading the arc

The solver computes the launch velocity that lands the ball exactly where the crosshair sits, at the speed you chose. Higher speed means a shorter flight, which means a flatter arc; lower speed means a longer, higher one.

That relationship is the whole puzzle. A blocker ten units high in the middle of the table can be cleared by a slow, lofted shot and cannot be cleared by a fast, flat one aimed at the same point.

Waves and refunds

Wave one has a single row of five large targets. Each subsequent wave adds rows up to a maximum of three, shrinks the radius by about 0.3 units, and raises the value of each target by twenty-five points. From wave three, some targets take two hits.

Clearing a wave pays 400 times the number of waves cleared and refunds three shots. With ten to start, a player who clears every wave can keep going indefinitely in principle — which is the intended long-run shape.

Blockers

Blockers appear from wave two, up to three of them, and are ten world units high. Any ball that reaches one below that height stops immediately and the shot is over. From wave four they oscillate sideways.

They are placed between the net and the target rows, which means the usual flat shot stops working and the lofted arc becomes necessary. That progression is deliberate: the game teaches the flat shot first and then takes it away.

Ball physics

The ball carries a height as well as a table position, so it arcs, bounces off the surface and can clip the net. When a paddle strikes it, the engine picks a landing point and solves for the exact launch velocity that reaches it, which is why the aim marker on the table is honest. In Paddle Cannon the physics run at the site's standard values, which makes it a good reference point for the variants that change them.

Paddle mechanics

The paddle is a blade that slides along your baseline. Four numbers decide how it feels: how fast it moves, how hard the ball leaves the face, how accurately a shot lands where you aimed it, and how high above the table it can still make contact. In Paddle Cannon the blade is 17 world units wide and travels at 118 units per second.

Where the ball meets the blade steers the return. A contact at the centre sends the ball straight down the table, and a contact at the edge sends it roughly 26 units off centre. Holding a direction key at the moment of contact adds a smaller correction on top.

Serving

Serving uses a hold-to-charge meter with the sweet spot short of maximum. Charging past the marked line reduces the accuracy multiplier and flattens the arc, so a full charge is always the wrong answer.

Scoring

• Destroying a target pays its full value; damaging a two-hit target pays 35 per cent of it.
• Clearing a whole wave pays 400 times the number of waves cleared and refunds three shots.
• Every clean return is worth points, and a well-timed one is worth more than an ordinary one.
• Consecutive successful actions build a combo multiplier that caps at eight and lapses if you stop scoring.
• Your best score and your longest rally are saved in this browser and shown on the ready screen.

Difficulty

Paddle Cannon is rated Medium overall. A balanced opponent that returns most things competently and misjudges perhaps one ball in eight. Use the difficulty buttons above the table to change the opponent at any time; restarting applies the change immediately. Expert is deliberately hard rather than impossible.

Tips for a better score

1. Take your time. There is no clock here, and the only resource is shots. A shot spent thinking is free.
2. Loft over blockers rather than around them. Going around usually costs you the angle to the targets behind.
3. Target the clusters. Targets are knocked out by contact along the whole flight, so a well-chosen line can take two or three in one launch.
4. Clearing a wave is worth far more than any individual target. When three targets remain, plan the shot that takes all three rather than the safest one.
5. The sweet spot at eighty per cent is a suggestion, not a rule — in this game power mostly controls the arc, so pick the arc you need and accept the multiplier.

Features

• A pure physics shooting range with no opponent and no timer
• Ten launches, with three refunded for every wave cleared
• Waves that add rows, shrink targets and raise their value
• Static blockers from wave two and moving ones from wave four
• Targets knocked out by contact anywhere along the flight path
• The same trajectory solver used by every other game on the site

Paddle Cannon — frequently asked questions