What Mole Mash is
Mole Mash is a tapping game on a three-by-three grid of holes. Moles pop up briefly and you tap them before they drop back down. Gems appear occasionally and are worth more than an ordinary mole. Every round starts at sixty seconds on the clock.
Two things cost you. Tapping a bomb takes five points off your score. Tapping an empty hole takes one second off the clock, so a round can finish in less than a minute of real time if you tap at nothing often enough. Both penalties are shown on screen as they happen.
How it plays
Tap a mole as soon as it appears. Take gems when you see them, avoid the bombs, and try not to tap empty holes. On a keyboard the nine holes map to a three-by-three block of keys, so the game is playable without a touchscreen. When the clock reaches zero the round ends and your score is final.
Getting better at it
Moles can appear in any of the nine holes and nothing signals which is next, so there is nothing to be gained by anticipating a particular one. Keeping the whole grid in view is an alternative to tracking a guess.
Resting a hand near the middle of the grid leaves every hole roughly the same distance away. From one edge, the holes on the far side are further than the ones nearby.
The penalties bite hardest at the end of a round. A bomb costs five points with little time left to earn them back, and an empty tap costs a second of what remains, while a missed mole costs only the points it was worth.
Who it suits
A round cannot last longer than a minute, and tapping is the only input. There is no strategy layer on top of it: the whole game is the grid, the clock and what you tap.
Every round starts from the same sixty seconds, so two scores begin on the same footing even though empty taps can shorten one of them. Spawn patterns are random and differ from round to round, so a single pair of scores says as much about the two rounds as about the two attempts.
Questions
How long is a round?
The clock starts at sixty seconds. Because tapping an empty hole removes one, a round can end in less real time than that.
What are the gems for?
Gems are worth more than an ordinary mole, so they are worth going for whenever one appears.
Can I play it with a keyboard?
Yes. The nine holes map to a three-by-three block of keys, so a touchscreen is not required.
What do the penalties cost?
A bomb takes five points off your score. Tapping an empty hole takes one second off the clock, which is why a round can finish in under a minute.
At a glance
- Genre
- Arcade, reaction
- Players
- One
- Controls
- Tap or click; a 3x3 key block on a keyboard
- Penalties
- Bomb -5 points; empty tap -1 second
- Round length
- Starts at sixty seconds; empty taps reduce it
- Cost
- Free, no account, nothing to install