Countryball merge puzzle

Geo Collide: how to play

Drop countryballs into a box and merge matching pairs into bigger countries, from Vatican City up to Russia, without stacking past the ceiling line.

Play Geo Collide

What is Geo Collide?

Geo Collide is a physics puzzle. You drop countryballs into a tall box, where they roll and settle. When two balls of the same country touch, they merge into one ball of the next, larger country. The game ends if the pile stays above the dashed ceiling line.

The chain has 15 steps in order of real land area: Vatican City, Luxembourg, Belgium, Nepal, United Kingdom, Norway, Sweden, France, Egypt, India, Australia, China, United States, Canada and Russia. Every run starts with Vatican City balls only. Bigger countries join the drop queue once you have made them yourself.

Players: 1
Countries in the chain: 15, from Vatican City to Russia
Points per merge: 10 to 140, rising with size
Russia merge bonus: 1,400 points
Game over: A ball rests above the ceiling line for 2 seconds
Best score: Saved in your browser

How to play

1Move the mouse to aim and click to drop the ball. On a touch screen, drag to aim and lift your finger to drop.
2Use the keyboard if you prefer: the arrow keys aim, and Space or Enter drops.
3Check the Current and Next boxes above the board to see which ball you hold and which one follows.
4Land a ball on its twin to merge the pair into the next country in the chain.
5Watch the red danger bar and the dashed line near the top, and clear space quickly when a ball sits above the line.

Scoring

Points come only from merges. Two Vatican City balls give 10 points, two Luxembourgs 20, and so on, adding 10 for each step up the chain. Merging two Canadas into Russia gives 140.

Russia is the last country. Merging two Russia balls earns a 1,400 point bonus and both balls disappear.

There are no lives. If any ball rests above the ceiling line for more than 2 seconds, the run is over. The red bar fills as that time runs down, and it resets as soon as the ball drops back below the line.

Tips

Keep the biggest balls together on one side and feed smaller ones towards them. A large ball stuck in the middle splits the pile and blocks merges.
A merged ball appears halfway between the two that made it. Use that to pull a new ball away from a wall or into contact with its next partner.
Small balls keep coming all game. Vatican City gets rarer as you climb, but countries you have already made start dropping too, so leave a low pocket for them.
The Nepal ball is drawn in its flag shape, but it rolls and collides as a plain circle of the same size.

What you learn

The merge chain is a size ranking, so the game teaches the relative area of 15 countries. You learn that Nepal is larger than Belgium and that Sweden is larger than Norway. At the top, Russia covers roughly 17 million square kilometres, followed by Canada, the United States and China at close to 10 million each. Vatican City is under half a square kilometre.

Questions and answers

Is my progress saved?: Your best score is saved in the browser on the device you play on. The board itself is not saved, so leaving the page ends the current run.
Why do I only get Vatican City balls at the start?: A country can only appear as a drop after you have created it by merging in the current run. The Evolution chain list under the board shows which are unlocked.
What happens when I make Russia?: It stays on the board like any other ball. Build a second one and let the two touch to collect the 1,400 point bonus. The game then carries on.