A tap in Bouncy Ball only fires when the vertical velocity of the ball sits above -200. Tap during the strong part of a rise and the engine silently drops the input. Every strategy worth using starts from that one check plus three constants, all listed in the sources above.
The four numbers behind every hop
Gravity pulls at 1200 pixels per second squared. A platform landing resets vertical velocity to -550 times the speed multiplier. A tap resets it to -480 times the same multiplier. The tap gate requires the current velocity to sit above -200 before the reset happens.
At the opening multiplier of 1.0 those numbers set hard ceilings. A bounce lifts the ball 126 pixels, computed as 550 squared over 2 times 1200. A tap lifts it 96 pixels the same way. The score counter divides climbed height by 8 pixels per point, so one clean bounce is worth about 15 points and one tap about 12.
The speed multiplier grows by 0.008 for every second of the run. After one minute it reads 1.48, and both the bounce and the tap scale with it. Nothing in the code caps this growth, so late climbs rise faster than early ones.
The tap ladder is the whole climbing game
The gate turns tapping into a clock you can count. After a tap the ball leaves at -480 times the multiplier, and gravity erodes that to the gate value of -200 in 0.233 seconds at multiplier 1.0, computed as 280 divided by 1200. A tap inside that window does nothing.
The climb per cycle is the difference of the squares, 480 squared minus 200 squared over 2400, which is 79.3 pixels. That is 9.9 score points every 0.233 seconds, or about 42 points per second. The ball never has to land again, because the score only tracks maximum height.
Run the ladder with these unconditional steps.
1. Get airborne from the starting platform with one bounce or one tap.
2. Wait out the gate. At multiplier 1.0 that is 0.233 seconds after a tap and 0.292 seconds after a bounce, computed from 350 divided by 1200.
3. Tap once. The velocity resets to -480 times the multiplier no matter where you are in the arc, as long as the gate is open.
4. Repeat at a steady cadence near 4 taps per second. As the multiplier grows, each tap climbs more and the wait lengthens slightly, so let the ball tell you when the rise slows.
Horizontal control supports the ladder. Arrow keys or the a and d keys set horizontal velocity to exactly 180 pixels per second in the chosen direction, they do not add to it. Friction damps that velocity by a factor of 0.98 each frame, and the ball wraps from one screen edge to the other.
Platform rules you can count on
Platforms spawn 80 pixels wide and 14 tall in three types. The difficulty value equals your score divided by 50, and both special platform odds grow from it.
The moving platform chance starts at 0.05 and grows 0.004 per difficulty point, capped at 0.25 at score 2500. Movers travel at 60 to 140 pixels per second and bounce off the screen edges. Landing on one kicks the ball sideways by 30 percent of the platform speed, so between 18 and 42 pixels per second in the direction of travel. Compensate with one arrow press after each mover landing.
The breakable chance starts at zero, grows 0.003 per difficulty point, and caps at 0.18 at score 3000. A breakable platform survives its first landing and shows cracks, then shatters on the second. The first touch is a safe bounce, so a breakable under your fall path costs you nothing once.
Vertical spacing between new platforms starts at 80 pixels and grows 1.8 pixels per difficulty point, capped at 170 at score 2500. A single bounce apex of 126 pixels clears every spacing the generator can produce below score 1400, computed from the 1.8 growth rate.
Where this implementation hurts you
Mashing fails completely. The gate drops every early tap, so players who spam produce slow, ragged climbs while rhythmic players fly. If your taps feel ignored, you are inside the gate window, not lagging.
The ladder also flattens the difficulty curve. Breakables, movers, and wider gaps threaten you only when you fall to platform level. A player who holds the cadence skips that entire layer of design, which makes long runs a stamina test rather than a route test.
The horizontal damping of 0.98 runs per frame, not per second. A 144 Hz display decays your drift about twice as fast as a 60 Hz display at the same ball speed. The wrap between screen edges can also teleport the ball across the play area mid correction, which disorients new players more than any platform type.
Your best height persists in browser storage under the key bouncy_ball_best. Clearing site data for the domain erases the record, and the engine keeps no server copy.
Pre tap checklist
- [ ] Velocity gate open, meaning the rise has visibly slowed.
- [ ] Cadence steady near 4 taps per second at multiplier 1.0.
- [ ] Horizontal velocity zeroed unless a mover kicked you.
- [ ] Breakables treated as safe on first touch.
- [ ] One arrow press queued after every moving platform landing.
- [ ] Death margin respected, meaning never drift below the screen for more than 80 pixels.
Play [Bouncy Ball](/en/bouncy-ball) and count your taps against a clock to check the ladder yourself. If your measured climb rate disagrees with the 42 points per second figure, or the gate window feels longer than 0.233 seconds on your machine, send your tap timing and screen refresh rate. Frame timing data from real runs is the most useful thing you can add to this page.
