Rattle & Roll Guide – Bones, Throwing Arms, Every Creature and Boss, and How to Get 3 Stars

Rattle & Roll! is a free browser game where you play Rattle, a little skeleton who fell to pieces on Halloween night. The one idea behind everything: your bones are your body, your weapon and your goal. This guide explains how bones work, how to throw, how to deal with every creature and boss, and how to earn all three stars.

Controls

• Move: WASD or the arrow keys, or hold the right mouse button where you want to go. On phones and tablets, drag anywhere for a floating joystick (Settings can switch it to “walk toward your finger”).
• Throw an arm: Space, E or a left click (it flies toward the mouse cursor). On touch screens, the THROW button aims at the nearest creature; a second finger also throws.
• Sneak: hold Shift (the SNEAK button on touch screens, or tilt the joystick just a little). Slow, but silent.
• Pause: Esc or P. Restart: R.

Your bones

• You have five bones to collect: two legs, two arms and your ribs. The little skeleton in the top left corner of the screen shows which ones you have.
• No legs: your skull rolls (or drags itself on its arms). One leg: you hop. Two legs: you run.
• Arms are for throwing. Ribs soak up one hit.
• Roll over a bone to snap it on. Markers at the edge of the screen point to bones you still need.
• When you have all five, your grave’s beacon turns green: walk into the grave to finish the stage.

Getting hit

• A hit knocks a bone off (your ribs go first) and it flies a few metres away. Go and pick it up before something else does.
• If you are hit with nothing left to lose, your skull cracks. Three cracks and you fall to pieces. A carton of milk mends one crack.
• After a hit you blink for a moment and nothing can hurt you.

Throwing arms

• A thrown arm flies about nine metres and stops at walls, tombstones and fences.
• Where it lands it makes a noise: zombies and the gravekeeper walk over to look. Use that to lure them away.
• After a second the hand crawls back to you on its fingers. You never lose an arm by throwing it.
• Throw a bone at a bell to make it ring (everything nearby goes to the sound), or at a lever to open the gates.

The creatures

• Shambler (zombie): slow, and it chases you when it sees you. Hit it with an arm and its head pops off; hit it again while it gropes around headless to finish it (it drops candy). Open graves are not empty: something climbs out when you get close.
• Gnasher (hound): sleeps by its kennel. Running feet wake it (sneak!), and it is faster than you. It doesn’t hurt you: it steals a bone and hides it in its kennel. But it can never resist a throw: toss an arm away from the kennel, and while it plays with it, grab your bones back.
• Old Mort (gravekeeper): walks a patrol with his lantern. The light on the ground shows exactly what he sees; tombstones and walls cast shadows in it. Stay in the light too long and he shouts “HEY!”, rings the alarm and comes with his shovel (it knocks off two bones). A bone to the head stuns him.
• Flitter (bat): circles and swoops at you. One arm knocks it down.
• Wailing Wisp (ghost): drifts through walls and your arms pass right through it. Ghosts can’t enter the light of the lamp posts, so stand in it.
• Jack (jack-o-lantern): looks harmless until you get close, then it hops after you and bursts. Pop it with an arm first for three candies.

Bosses

• Big Bertha charges in a straight line after crouching (a red line shows where). Step aside so she crashes into a tombstone or a wall: while she is dizzy, throw. She smashes the tombstones she hits, and gets faster every time.
• The Pumpking spits fans of seeds (dodge sideways) and calls little Jacks. When his mouth glows, throw an arm right in.
• Mortimer the Undying blocks anything thrown from the front with his shovel. Get behind him, or let him swing: while he pulls the shovel out of the floor, he is open from every side. At half health he rings a bell and the graves open.

How to get three stars

1. Get home before dawn (or beat the boss). The moon at the top of the screen sinks toward sunrise.
2. Find the golden skull hidden in each stage.
3. Beat the par time shown on the stage card.

You don’t need all three in one run: every star you earn is kept. Candy buys upgrades in the Bone Bazaar (a stronger throw, quicker feet, extra skull hearts and more), and stars unlock new looks for Rattle.

The Witching Hour

After you clear four stages, the Witching Hour opens: a new random graveyard every night, bigger and spookier each time. You start every night as a skull. Your hearts carry over (you get one back after every night).

Too spooky?

Turn on Gentle mode in Settings for softer jump scares (no stingers or flashes). You can also turn off screen shake and the tips.