How to play
- Goal
- Drop stones from your tray to build a cairn that touches the moon ring.
- How it ends
- A level is won when the stones settle with one touching the ring. It cannot be lost: take a stone back or start again.
- Record
- The fastest win and the fewest stones for each level.
- Pick a stone from your tray. It hangs over the crag where it will be let go, with a dashed line down to whatever is under it. Drag across the crag (or tap a spot) to move it, tilt it with the turn buttons (30° a press, at most 60° either way), and press Drop. With keys, 1 to 7 pick a stone, Left and Right move it, Up/Q and Down/E tilt it, and Space or Enter drops it.
- A stone can be dropped only when the stones are still (the moon in the counters is bright). The level is won when the stones settle with one touching the moon ring. A stone that falls into the chasm is gone. Take back (Z) undoes the last drop and returns the stone to your tray; R starts the level again. A level cannot be lost.
- The mark on each level is the fewest stones the game's builder needed: match it to light the moon on the level's card, beat it to light it gold. River stones are slippery, wedges make slopes and steps, round stones roll, and ice and frozen rock let everything slide. The clock runs from the moment the level opens; only a level's first win in this browser counts for the fastest table, and fewer stones always count.
Controls
| Tap · Click | Pick a stone; move the held stone across the crag |
|---|---|
| Drag | Carry the held stone across the crag |
| 1 – 7 | Pick a stone from the tray |
| Left · Right | Move the held stone (Shift: half a unit) |
| Up · Down · Q · E | Tilt the held stone |
| Space · Enter | Drop it |
| Z · Backspace | Take back the last drop |
| R | Start the level again |
| Escape | Pause (the attempt's time then no longer counts for a record) |
The key art and the granite and river-stone textures were made for this game, the crag paintings and the ice and rock textures come from Totem Fall, all kept in the Morass warehouse; the sounds are warehouse recordings; the moon ring, the runes and every effect are drawn by the game. A run is sent as its drops and take-backs alone, and the records worker builds the cairn again with the same physics before it ranks the result. Your progress stays in this browser under morass.cairn.v1. No ads or analytics run inside the game.
About Cairn
A stone-stacking puzzle on the Moonwatch crags, the night country of Totem Fall, where the old builders raised cairns to touch the moon. Each level gives you a ledge over a misty chasm, a ring of moonlight in the sky and a tray of carved stones: slabs and blocks of granite, rounded river stones, wedges, ice and round stones that roll. Pick one, hold it where it should go, and let it fall. When the stones come to rest with one touching the ring, the runes in the cairn light up.
Nothing falls until you let it go, and nothing asks for speed. A stone is dropped only once every stone has settled, and the world is computed by the same small rigid-body engine as Totem Fall, identical to the last bit in every browser, so the same drops always land the same way. Take back undoes the last drop exactly, so trying an idea costs time, never the attempt. The puzzle is which stones to use, in what order, where and tilted how: a broad slab first, a counterweight on the back before anything goes on the front, a wedge to level a slope.
There are 120 levels on eight crags, each bringing one new thing: river stones that rock, wedges, sloping ledges, ice and frozen rock that let everything slide, round stones, rings far out over the chasm, and finally all of them together. Every level's mark is the fewest stones the game's own builder needed, checked against a wider search with a stone fewer; you may beat it. Each level keeps a Top 10 for the fastest win and one for the fewest stones, and the site replays every run before it keeps a place.
