How to play Ringol: a guide for new players

Ringol is a calm puzzle game built on one idea: a smaller ring fits inside a bigger one. Everything else comes from that rule. This guide covers what a new player needs to know.

The one rule

Every ring in Ringol has a size. You can put a ring inside another ring only when the other one is bigger. A ring can never go inside a ring of the same size, and it can never go inside a smaller one. If you try, the game refuses the move and shows a short "Does not fit" message.

The game's own tagline puts it simply: the small one goes inside the big one. Sizes are easy to compare at a glance, and colour gives you a second way to tell rings apart.

The three modes

Ring by ring

A sorting puzzle with 100 levels. Rings of several colours are mixed across the stacks. You take the inner ring of a stack and put it into another stack whose inner ring is bigger, or into an empty one. The goal is to gather each colour into a stack of its own, with the big ring outside and the small one in the middle. Each level counts your moves and gives one to three stars, so there is always a tidier solution to look for. You can read more in the Ring by ring guide.

Full box

A physics game. You drop rings into a box, where they roll and settle. Build a chain of rings from the biggest to the smallest to clear it. A danger line comes down a little with every ring you drop, and clearing chains lifts it back up. If the pile stays over the line for too long, the game is over. Precise drops raise your multiplier, and bonus pieces (a bomb, a joker and a vortex) help when the box gets crowded. There are three difficulties: Normal, Medium and High. The Full box guide explains the details.

Ring Chains

A board of wells, one ring per well, in shapes such as a heart, an arrow or an hourglass. Hidden in the board are sets that run from the biggest ring to the smallest, for example 4, 3, 2, 1, lying in neighbouring wells. Swipe through a whole set and it bursts. Clear the whole board to win. Watch out for traps: taking the wrong set first can leave rings that can never meet. See the Ring Chains guide.

Controls

Ringol is played in portrait and works with one hand.

Ring by ring: tap a stack to pick up its inner ring, then tap the stack where it should go. You can also drag the ring there and let go.
Full box: press, drag across the box to aim, and release to drop the ring. An aim line shows where it will land.
Ring Chains: swipe through neighbouring wells, up, down, left or right (not diagonally). If you go too far, slide back onto the previous well to take the last one off the swipe.

The first time you open a mode, a small hand shows the first move on the real board, with one short line of text. It goes away as soon as you make a move. In Ring by ring and Ring Chains, the "?" key brings the rules back whenever you need them, and in Full box it opens the bonuses card.

Undo, restart and hints

Undo is free in Ring by ring and in Ring Chains, and you can use it as many times as you like. In Ring Chains, undo also takes back the points the set gave you.
Restart starts the same level again from the beginning.
In Ring by ring, if you wait for a while without moving, the game lights up one possible move.
In Ring Chains, the Hint key shows a set that is safe to take. You start with 3 hints and get one more for every 10 levels you win; when they run out, you can watch an ad for another. If the board can no longer be cleared, the game tells you and suggests Undo.

Full box has no undo, because the rings fall and roll for real. Its bonus pieces are what get you out of a bad pile.

No rush

Ring by ring has no timer and no lives. You can stop at any move, think for as long as you want, and come back later. Ring Chains works the same way: the only thing to watch is the order of your sets. Full box is the one mode with some pressure, because every ring you drop brings the danger line lower. If you want the calm side of the game, start with Ring by ring. The guide Puzzles and calm explains why the game is made this way.

A solved Ring by ring level with every colour gathered into its own stack — A solved Ring by ring level: each colour in its own stack, big ring outside, small ring in the middle.

Your progress is saved

Ringol saves as you play. Ring by ring remembers the level you are on, Ring Chains remembers your level, and Full box keeps your best score. Your settings are saved too. The save lives on your device. In the web version at ringol.app/play, it is kept in your browser, so clearing the browser's site data also clears your progress. The game works offline once it is installed.

Light and dark theme

By default the game follows your system: light when your phone is in light mode, dark when it is in dark mode. The Theme key on the home screen switches between light and dark, and the game remembers your choice. You can also turn sound, vibration and visual effects off, each on its own.

Languages

Ringol is available in 20 languages: English, Armenian, Russian, Ukrainian, Spanish, Portuguese (Brazil), French, German, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Arabic, Hindi, Indonesian, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese (Simplified and Traditional). You can change the language at any time with the Language key on the home screen.

Ring materials

The rings can be drawn in 12 materials, from Classic, Wood and Glass to Neon, Lava and Gold. All of them are open to everyone from the start. Nothing is locked, earned or bought. Pick one on the Rings screen, reached from the home screen. The ring materials guide shows them all.

Where to start

Ringol is free to play and contains ads. It is on Google Play, the App Store and the web. A good first session is ten levels of Ring by ring: by then the rule feels natural, and the other two modes will make sense right away. When you are ready, open the game and pick up your first ring.

Play Ringol