Every level is a web of knots and straight strands, and some of the strands cross. Drag a round knot anywhere and let it go. When no strand crosses another, no knot sits on a strand and no two knots crowd each other, the web turns green.
Free to play
No timers
Plays offline
Never an ad mid-level
How to play
Look. Pull. Clear.
1Look
Rust marks every tangle: two strands that cross, a knot sitting on a strand, or two knots too close together.
2Pull
Drag any round knot anywhere and let it go. Strands may cross on the way, and only letting go counts as a move.
3Clear
When nothing is tangled, light runs along every strand and the web turns green. Clear it within the goal's number of moves for three stars.
Drag any round knot anywhere. Strands may cross on the way, so a drag never fails, and one good pull can clear a whole web.
Square knots stay put
A square knot is an anchor. It never moves, so the rest of the web has to make room around it.
Rails and rings
Some knots slide along a dashed rail and some follow a dashed circle, and later chapters turn and shrink the tracks.
A hint that shows the way
The hint rings the knot to move and circles a place it can go. It never moves anything for you.
Stars for the short way
Every web has a goal, the moves in a route that clears it. Match it or beat it for three stars. Undo never counts.
Real constellations
Some levels are real constellations, played on the night sky. Each opens on its figure, then tumbles into a tangle, and once you clear it the stars glide home, from little Aries to Orion the hunter.
Screenshots
See it on a phone
Pyxis's title screen: the wordmark, a small web that untangles itself, and the Play button
A Pyxis level in play: a comet's head and tails knotted into 22 tangles in rust, two of its knots on dashed rails
Pyxis's hint ringing the knot to move and circling the spot where it can go
A cleared Pyxis web with three gold stars, and its share card ready to share or save
Cygnus cleared in Pyxis: on the night sky, the swan's stars settle back into their places with its name above
A Pyxis web drawn in the Constellation look on the dark theme, its knots as small stars
Watch
Pyxis in 48 seconds
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.
About the game
Behind Pyxis
Pyxis on a star chart, north up and east to the left. Its three brightest stars, Alpha, Beta and Gamma Pyxidis, run almost straight.
The name
Pyxis is a small, faint constellation of the southern sky. Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille introduced it in the 1750s as a mariner's compass, and its brightest stars run in a short, almost straight line, like a compass needle. The word itself is Greek and Latin for a small box.
A cleared web is a few points joined by straight lines with nothing crossing, which is how a constellation looks on a star chart. So many cleared webs look like one that the game took a constellation's name, some of its webs are real constellations, and its Constellation look draws every knot as a star.
Every web is built from a solved layout. Each chapter draws its own kind: scattered webs, wheels around a fixed hub, tidy lattices, lines that cross at every knot, spirals, twin clusters, and real constellations projected from the sky the way a star chart draws them. Square knots keep their place in the solved layout and every rail and ring passes through it, while the other knots are tangled in the chapter's own way, so moving each knot back to its spot always clears the web.
A measure of what each web asks of you, from the moves its goal takes and the fewest knots any solution has to move to how many crossings there are and how far the pulls reach, rises from one level to the next, so none is easier than the one before. No two webs are copies of each other, turned, mirrored or relabelled. The art and the sounds are made in code, and the music, Room to Breathe, has a melody that rises as the web comes clear.
How it stays free
Pyxis is free to play, with no account, no timers and no energy to wait for.
It has a few ads, placed so they never touch a puzzle: a banner below the web and at the foot of the title, the level list and each result, an ad between levels now and then, and short videos you can choose to watch, for a hint or to try a pack. Its shop is optional, since every level opens by playing. The Supporter pack turns the ads off for good and makes every hint free, and the other packs, level keys and the tip jar help pay for the next game.
Pyxis now has a daily web. Every player untangles the same one, the clock runs, and Play Games keeps a leaderboard. What daily webs are like and how to clear them fast.
Every Pyxis level starts as a finished web and is tangled backwards. Here is how the webs are drawn, tangled, measured and put in order, chapter by chapter.
Some Pyxis webs are real constellations, from little Aries to Orion the hunter. How a figure from a star atlas becomes a level, and what happens when you clear one.
Drag a round knot anywhere and let it go. Each level is a web of knots joined by straight strands, and it is clear when no strand crosses another, no knot sits on a strand and no two knots crowd each other. Square knots never move, rail knots slide along a dashed line, and ring knots follow a dashed circle.
Is Pyxis free?
Yes. Pyxis is a free Android game, coming soon to Google Play. It shows a few ads, never during a level, and its shop is optional: every level opens by playing.
Does Pyxis need an internet connection?
No. Pyxis plays completely offline, and your progress is saved on your device. The Android app goes online only for its ads, for purchases through Google Play and, if you use it, for Google Play Games. Without a connection no ads appear, and a hint that would ask for a video is given anyway.
How do I get three stars?
Every web has a goal: the number of moves in a route that clears it. Clear the web in that many moves or fewer for three stars, in a few more for two, and in any number for one. The goal is a route the game found, not always the shortest, so you can sometimes beat it. Undo takes back a move without counting it, and restart begins the web again.
Ready to untangle?
Pyxis is free, with nothing to sign up for. It is coming soon to Google Play.
