How to Play DESTROY THE CUBE
DESTROY THE CUBE is a free browser game about one enormous cube shared by every player on the internet at once. The cube is made of millions of tiny cubelets, layered like an onion. Everyone chips away at the same cube in real time — every cubelet you destroy disappears for every other player, forever. Beneath every layer is another layer, and at the very center of the final layer is the core. Whoever removes the last cubelet of the core sees what's inside and gets their name engraved in the Hall of Cores. There is one catch, and it is the whole point: the cube heals itself.
Controls
Cube view
You start looking at the whole cube floating in space. Drag anywhere to spin it — it keeps spinning with momentum, so you can flick it around to inspect all six faces. Scroll or pinch to zoom. Tap anywhere on the cube to dive down to that exact spot on the surface. From this distance you can't chip anything; the cube view is for admiring the damage and choosing where to dig.
Face view
Once you dive in, you're working on one face. Tap a cubelet to chip it. Drag to pan across the face, and use the zoom slider on the right (it appears while you zoom) or pinch/scroll to move between close-up work and a wider view. The slider never throws you back out to the cube view — to leave, zoom out to the slider's limit and then give one more deliberate scroll or pinch out.
Chipping, coins and the combo
Every cubelet you chip pays coins. Chipping quickly builds a combo multiplier: keep tapping without a pause longer than about a second and the multiplier climbs to a maximum of ×10. At full combo every cubelet pays ten coins, which is where all serious money comes from. The moment you stop, the combo resets.
Tools
| Tool | Effect | Cost | Duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron chisel | 1 cubelet per tap | free | forever |
| Steel chisel | 3×3 per tap | 2,000 | 30 min |
| Gold chisel | 5×5 per tap | 25,000 | 45 min |
| Diamond chisel | 11×11 per tap | 1,000,000 | 60 min |
| Firecracker | small crater | 400 | single use |
| Bomb | huge crater (~500 cubelets) | 4,000 | single use |
Upgraded chisels are timed: buying one starts the clock, and buying it again extends the time. When a chisel expires you drop back to the best one you still hold. Firecrackers and bombs are consumables — buy several, then select them from the toolbar and tap where you want the crater.
Regeneration — the cube fights back
The cube slowly heals its current layer: about 1% of the existing damage grows back per hour, in random spots, marked with a teal shimmer as it happens. The HUD shows the current healing rate next to the online count. Healing only happens when the cube has been left alone — as long as anyone is actively chipping, it holds off. Walk away for a day and you'll get a report when you return: “the cube regrew 4,120 cubelets while you were gone.” If the internet stops pushing, the cube quietly un-happens. That's the bet.
Layers, artwork and descent
Each layer wears a different artwork on each of its six faces — chip through the surface and you'll see the next layer's picture emerging in shadow beneath the holes. When the last cubelet of a layer dies, every player descends together to the next, slightly smaller layer. Cube #1 has 61 layers and over two million cubelets. The deeper you go, the smaller and faster the layers get — the endgame is a sprint.
The graveyard and escalation
When a cube's core is finally cracked, the cube dies — its size, lifespan, and killer are engraved on the intro screen — and a new cube forms about twelve seconds later, sized by how fast its predecessor fell. A cube that died in under two days comes back at double the edge; a slow, grinding death returns at the same size. The game balances itself to its community forever, and every fallen cube is remembered.
Winning: the core and the Hall of Cores
The final layer of every cube is small. The player who chips its very last cubelet is the winner: they see what's inside, and their name goes into the Hall of Cores (in the RANKS panel) permanently. Set your name before the endgame — anonymous players can't be engraved, and the cube only listens to the named.
Leaderboard and names
The RANKS panel shows the top miners by total cubelets destroyed, across all cubes. Your name can be set in three places: the shop, the RANKS panel, or the prompt that appears once you've chipped your first fifty cubelets. Names pass a content filter — keep it clean or the cube rejects it.
Chat: six faces, seven rooms
Each face of the cube — North, East, South, West, Crown and Below — has its own chat room; you're in a face's room while you're working on it. A separate GLOBAL room reaches everyone regardless of where they're digging. Chat requires a display name and accepting the wall's rules: no hate speech, no harassment, no personal information, no spam. Messages pass through an automatic filter — hate speech is blocked outright, profanity is masked. Rooms are wiped whenever a cube dies. Fresh cube, fresh walls.
The war report
The RANKS panel also carries THE WAR: a live bar of the internet's progress against the current layer's healing, a log of recent chips and regrowth, and a SHARE WAR REPORT button that copies a daily status line — how much of the cube still stands and how long it has held — for recruiting reinforcements.
Frequently asked questions
Is it free?
Completely. The game is funded by ads. There is nothing to buy with real money — every tool is earned with coins from chipping.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes — the game runs in any modern browser on phone, tablet or desktop, with touch controls (tap, drag, pinch) on mobile. Progress is saved on your device.
Do I lose progress when the cube is destroyed?
No. Your coins, tools and lifetime mining count are yours across cubes. Only the cube itself — and its chat rooms — start over.
Why did cubelets reappear in an area I cleared?
That's regeneration. The cube heals a fraction of its damage when nobody has chipped for a while. Keep pressure on it, or accept the tax.
What's actually inside the cube?
Only winners know, and so far they aren't saying anything useful.
DESTROY THE CUBE is an unaffiliated fan tribute inspired by Curiosity — What's Inside the Cube? (22cans / Peter Molyneux, 2012). See also: game updates · privacy policy.