Pull a knot, let it go: the rules of Pyxis

Learn Pyxis on its first webs: drag a round knot anywhere, let go, and clear every tangle. Square knots, rails, rings, stars and the hint, one board at a time.

Shravan GoswamiShravan GoswamiMakes the gamesShravan runs Chaosmos. He designs the games, plays every build on his phone, and decides what ships., 5 min read
Aries in Pyxis, just cleared: four knots joined by green strands, one knot pulled up to the top left corner along a dotted trail from where it started
Pull a knot and watch the web come clear: a short look at Pyxis's tangles, square knots, hint, three-star clears and the denser webs later on, with one web left for you to untangle.

One of the first webs in Pyxis is Aries, the ram: four knots and three straight strands, and two of those strands cross. That one crossing is the whole puzzle. Pull one knot up to the top left corner, let go, and the web turns green.

One rule: nothing tangled

A web is clear when nothing in it is tangled, and Pyxis counts three kinds of tangle:

  • two strands that cross each other
  • a knot sitting on a strand that is not its own
  • two knots so close together that they crowd each other

Every tangle shows in rust, with a small diamond where two strands cross, and the count under Tangles at the top of the screen says how many are left. Strands that share a knot meet there without tangling, so a web can fan out from one knot as much as it likes.

Drag, then let go

Put a finger on a round knot and drag it anywhere on the board. Its strands stretch with it and the web recolours as you go, so you can watch a crossing clear before you decide. Strands may cross on the way, and nothing counts until you let go. Letting go is the move. A tiny nudge puts the knot back where it was and does not count at all.

A web only wins when you let go with nothing tangled, so passing through a clear layout in the middle of a drag never ends a level early.

Aries in Pyxis with one crossing, and the same web cleared after one pull

Level 1 shows you all of this once with a short guide. It points out the goal and where help is, and then a ghost finger shows you which knot to drag and where. How to play in Settings brings that guide back whenever you want it.

Square knots stay put

From level 21, some knots are square. A square knot is an anchor, and it never moves. Tap one and it pulses rust, with a reminder at the bottom of the screen: “Square knots stay put. Move the others around them.”

Anchors are why a web cannot be pulled into any shape you like. The rest of the web has to make room around them.

Pyxis level 21, a web with one square anchor knot among the round ones

Rails and rings

From level 41, some knots run on a track. A rail knot has a short line across it and slides along a dashed rail. Drag it anywhere and it goes to the point on its rail nearest your finger. On level 41 the rail runs straight across the lower half of the board, so its knot can only slide left or right, and the crossing has to be cleared around it.

From level 61, ring knots arrive. A ring knot has a small circle inside it and follows a dashed circle around its centre, again to the point nearest your finger. Later chapters turn the rails diagonal and upright, shrink the rings, and put more anchors and more sliders into a single web.

Pyxis level 41 with a rail knot on a dashed line, and level 61 with a ring knot on a dashed circle

Moves, the goal and stars

Every web has a goal, the number of moves in a route that clears it. The game found that route when it built the level, and it is not always the shortest one, so now and then you can beat it.

  • Three stars: clear the web within the goal.
  • Two stars: clear it in a few more. On a goal of 2 that means up to 4 moves, and the leeway grows with the goal.
  • One star: clear it in any number of moves.

The stars at the top of the screen show what you can still earn, and one goes out as soon as it can no longer be won. Undo takes your last move back, and it does not count as a move. Restart puts every knot back where the web began.

When you are stuck

The light bulb at the top right is the hint. It rings the knot to move and circles a place it can go, with a dashed line between them, and the line at the bottom of the screen reads “Move the ringed knot to the dotted circle.” It is the first move of a route that clears the web from wherever it stands now, so it still helps after a wrong turn. It never moves anything for you.

Every hint on the first 15 levels is free. After that the Android app gives you 3 free hints a day, and a hint beyond those asks for a short video you can choose to watch. With the Supporter pack every hint is free.

The Pyxis hint on level 66, ringing one knot and circling the spot where it can go

When the web comes clear

Let go of the last knot with nothing tangled and every strand turns green. The music has been building as you went, its melody rising as the tangles cleared. If the web is a constellation, night falls on the board first, and its stars glide to where they sit in the real sky. A card then shows your stars and your moves against the goal, and lets you watch your solve again, share it or save it.

Your first sitting

Look before you pull. The knot in the middle of the most rust is often the one to move, and one good pull can clear most of a web. On level 81 a single pull clears all ten tangles at once. Clear each web first and come back for stars later. There is more about the game on its page.

On this page