What is paengi, the Korean top battle?
Paengichigi is a traditional Korean game where you throw a wooden top with a string, then keep it spinning by lashing its side with a small whip. In winter, children played on frozen rice paddies and streams, seeing whose top spun longest and whose top survived when two of them collided.
This game puts that duel on a round ice rink ringed with snow. Two tops painted with saekdong rainbow stripes spin inside the rink. Push the other top off the ice into the snowbank, or keep yours going until the other one runs out of spin and falls, and you win the round. The first to win two of three rounds wins the match, and a round where both tops go down at almost the same moment is replayed.
How do I throw the top?
When a round starts, hold down and release while the power ring under your top is in the green zone (72 to 90 percent) to start at full 100 percent spin. The ring fills from zero to full and back every 1.6 seconds.
| Power at release | Starting spin | Message |
|---|---|---|
| Green zone, 72 to 90% | 100% | Perfect throw! |
| Over 90% | 84% | Too hard |
| Under 72% | 50 to 92% (higher with more power) | Weak throw |
| No throw for 9 seconds | Thrown automatically at 55% power |
Drag while holding to throw in that direction; without a drag the top goes toward the middle. A hard throw slides farther across the ice, so you can open by throwing straight at your rival.
How does the whip work?
Once your top is spinning, every tap whips it toward the spot you tapped, adding spin and pushing it that way. A tap far from the top pushes hard; a tap right beside it barely moves it and mostly adds spin.
Around each top there is an outer spin gauge (green, yellow, red) and an inner white charge ring. Each whip empties the ring and it refills over 0.9 seconds. When you whip makes all the difference.
- Crack!: whip within 0.26 seconds of the ring filling and you gain 16% spin with a 10% stronger push. The ring glows gold during that window.
- Normal: a little later and you gain 10% spin.
- Too soon: whip before the ring is full and you only gain 2 to 6%, the push drops to 40%, and the ring starts over.
When does a top fall?
Spin drops by 6% a second on its own. Below 30% the top starts to wobble, and at zero it topples and loses the round. While it wobbles, the tip wanders in circles and rattles on the ice. A good whip at that point brings it back upright with a "Saved!".
When tops collide, the one spinning faster pushes the other harder and loses less spin. Both tops lose a little spin on every hit, and the bigger the gap between them, the more the slower one loses. So fill your spin first, then go in.
After 20 seconds the snow starts creeping in from the edge, the rink shrinks, and spin drains 1.6 times faster. A round cannot be won just by running away.
How good is the computer?
There are three levels. Easy whips late and loosely, Normal lands a "Crack!" about half the time, and Hard whips almost exactly as the ring fills, in a precise direction.
| Level | Delay after the ring fills | Crack rate | Aim wobble | Throw power |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 0.45 to 0.9 s | about 10% | about 34° | 40 to 100% |
| Normal | 0.15 to 0.42 s | about 45% | about 17° | 58 to 93% |
| Hard | 0 to 0.16 s | about 85% | about 7° | 70 to 90% |
The computer retreats toward the middle when it drifts near the edge, steers around you when its spin is much lower than yours, and only charges straight in from an angle that would push you outward.
How do two player and solo endurance work?
Two players split the screen in half. In landscape the left half is 1P and the right half is 2P; in portrait the bottom is 1P and the top is 2P. Simultaneous touches are read separately, so one phone or tablet in the middle is enough.
Solo endurance is a record mode: how many seconds can one top keep spinning? Spin drains faster and faster, from 15 seconds a gust of wind pushes the top every few seconds, and from 25 seconds the snow closes in. Your rank goes up at 15, 25, 38 and 52 seconds, and your best time is saved in this browser.
Tips for winning at paengi
- Aim for the green zone when you throw. Starting at 100% instead of 84% shows up in the very first collision.
- Whip when the white ring glows gold. Mashing gives you weak whips. A steady rhythm of one whip every 0.9 seconds is best.
- Fill your spin before you collide. The faster top gets pushed less and loses less.
- Push from the middle outward. Get between your rival and the center, then charge toward the edge. If you are on the outside, circle back in first.
- Tap close near the edge. A tap right beside your top adds spin without sliding you out.
Controls
- Phone or mouse: when the round starts, hold down and release as the power ring reaches green. Drag while holding to aim the throw. Once spinning, tap wherever you want the top to go.
- Keyboard (vs computer, solo): hold and release Space or Enter to throw, and turn the throw direction with the arrow keys first. While spinning, arrows or WASD whip in that direction and Space whips toward the rival top (toward the middle in solo).
- Keyboard (two players): 1P uses WASD and Space, 2P uses the arrow keys and Enter.
- Other: the speaker button turns the whip and clash sounds on and off. The house button or Esc returns to the title.
The tops, the ice, the snow and every sound are drawn and synthesized in code, and nothing is sent to a server. Your solo best and wins against the computer stay in this browser only.