The rules
How to play Koketsu
Koketsu (虎穴, “the tiger’s den”) is two free games in your browser, with no ads and no install. Uzushio is a chain puzzle you play on your own, anywhere, at any age. Koji is tag for grown-ups, played for real in a park with friends.
Uzushio
Open koketsu.xyz and slide Home to the side. No sign-up: your progress saves on your phone, and if you sign in with your email it follows you to any phone.
Press, chain, clear
Animal heads tumble in a round pond. Press a head and its whole group of touching heads of that animal lights up. Let go to clear three or more. Bigger groups score far more. Each round shows its goal at the top: so many heads of certain animals, and sometimes bombs to set off, before the clock runs out.
Bombs
- 7 or more: a blue bomb. It just explodes.
- 11 or more: a pink bomb. Double score for 6 seconds.
- 15 or more: a green bomb. 3 more seconds on the clock.
- 19 or more: a gold bomb. Showers coins.
Tap a bomb to set it off. Any bomb caught in the blast goes off too.
Fever
Clearing fast heats the thermometer. Pause and it cools. When it boils over, the clock stops for 7 seconds, every score doubles and even groups of five drop bombs.
Your cat
You play as one of twelve characters: eleven wild cats and a forest ranger. Each has a special, like pouncing on the bottom of the pond or stopping the clock, and a passive that helps all round. Clearing fills its meter, and its prey (the tiger’s is the deer) fills it four times as fast. Full, tap your cat. The tiger is yours from the start; the rest you buy with coins, or win on the way: at a level, in a chapter’s chest or with a daily streak. In the Den, rank a cat up with coins and pugmarks to make it stronger.
Stuck, short on time, or done early
- Spin: tap the wheel at the bottom to turn the pond and shake up the heads.
- Continue: out of time with goals left? Buy 10 more seconds with coins, at most twice a round.
- Rush: meet every goal early and the seconds left turn into bombs and bonus points.
- Boosts: before a round, spend coins on double coins, one less kind of head, or 10 extra seconds. Tough rounds wear flames and suggest the boost that helps.
Stars, chapters and chests
Every win earns one to three stars and coins. Rounds come in chapters; finish a chapter to open its treasure chest. The map shows them all, and you can replay any round you’ve reached for more stars. The Pond album counts every head you clear and pays out at 100, 1,000 and 5,000 of a kind.
Can’t tell two heads apart? Turn on head marks in Uzushio’s settings: each head gets its own symbol, in the pond and in the goals.
Koji
Some of you are big-cat hunters, the rest are prey, and your phones keep score. Hunts are for players 13 and older.
1. Set up the grounds
One player hosts. They open koji.koketsu.xyz, start a hunt and draw the grounds on the map: the edges of the play area, plus a few things inside it.
- Camps: places where players trade points for hints and abilities, mid-game only.
- Caches: hidden spots. The first player to reach one gets a free ability.
- Start points for each side.
- No-go zones: fence off roads, gardens or water so nobody runs into them.
Everyone else joins with the hunt’s four-letter code. The host picks the length (10, 15 or 20 minutes), how often the prey are broadcast (every 30, 60 or 90 seconds) and when the camps open (after 2, 4 or 6 minutes). Each side needs at least one player.
2. Hunters and prey
If you’re a hunter
You can’t see the prey. Not until the broadcast: every 30 to 90 seconds, every prey’s location flashes on your map. Read where they were, guess where they’re going, and close in.
To catch someone, get within about 10 metres and hold Pounce for two seconds while you stay in range. A held pounce means a catch needs a real chase, not a lucky tap.
If you’re prey
Stay uncaught. Your location lands on every hunter’s map at each broadcast, so be somewhere else by then. Two short buzzes warn you a broadcast is about ten seconds away. Your phone also buzzes when a hunter is close.
Keep your phone in your pocket and play with your eyes up: it buzzes when something matters, including when you step outside the grounds.
3. Points
- Everyone starts with 30 points.
- Prey earn 2 points every 5 seconds they stay free. Hunters earn 1.
- A catch is worth 50 points to the hunter.
- Spend points at camps on hints and abilities. Every spend comes off your final score, so pick your moments.
- Camps close for the last 30 seconds of the hunt.
4. Hints and abilities
Trade at a camp (stand within about 12 metres of it) or grab a free ability from a cache.
Hunters
| Name | What it does | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Bearing Hint | A line to the nearest prey for 10 seconds. | 25 |
| Head Count Hint | How many prey are within 60 metres of you. | 15 |
| Scent Ability | Broadcast every prey, right now. | 60 |
| Roar Ability | Every prey phone sounds for 3 seconds. | 40 |
| Ambush Ability | A 20-metre trap. Prey who cross it are broadcast. | 50 |
Prey
| Name | What it does | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Hunter Ping Hint | See where every hunter is, once. | 30 |
| Range Hint | Distance to the nearest hunter for 30 seconds. | 15 |
| Still Water Ability | The next broadcast skips you. | 45 |
| False Trail Ability | Hunters chase a fake trail for 10 seconds. | 35 |
| Tall Grass Ability | Hunter maps go dark for 8 seconds. | 60 |
5. Play it safe
- Pick a park or open ground, and fence off roads and water as no-go zones.
- Look up, not at your phone. It buzzes when something matters.
- Phone GPS is often 5–10 metres off, so a pounce allows for it. Don’t dive.
- Agree the edges out loud before you start, and stop if anyone’s hurt.
Ready?
On your own? Play Uzushio now. Got two or more friends in the same park? Open Koji on every phone and start a hunt.
Play Uzushio → Start a hunt →Questions? Read the FAQ.