Pixel Rebound Guide: Rings, Gems, Every World and the Guardians
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Pixel Rebound is a free bouncing ball platformer in your browser. You are Rebo, a red rubber ball, rolling and bouncing through 35 side-scrolling levels in five worlds. Every level hides golden rings: pass through all of them and the exit gate opens. On the way there are thorns, gaps, water, crushers, lava and a guardian at the end of every world. This guide covers how the ball moves, how to finish a level, what every world adds, how to beat the guardians and how scoring works.
How the ball moves
Rebo is a rubber ball, and the game treats him like one:
- Rolling has momentum. Hold left or right to speed up; let go and the ball slows down and stops. Downhill it picks up speed on its own, and it keeps rolling over the top of a hill.
- A tap of jump is a small hop, holding it a full bounce of about three and a half tiles. Release early to cut a jump short.
- Holding jump keeps bouncing. Every time the ball lands while you hold the button it takes off again. That is the fastest way across a row of thorns.
- Landings rebound a little. A fall from high up bounces the ball back up a bit before it settles, and a ball that hits a wall at speed bounces off it.
- Slopes and ice. Rolling uphill is slower than on flat ground; ice keeps you sliding long after you let go.
Finishing a level
The counter at the top of the screen shows how many rings are left. Upright rings are passed by rolling or jumping through them from the side; flat rings lie on their side and are passed by going up or down through them. Big rings (they are wider) need an inflated ball, small ones a normal ball. When the last ring is passed the counter says GO! and the exit gate at the end of the level opens with a green glow: roll into it.
Every level also has three star gems. They are optional, but each one is worth 500 points, and the level map shows which ones you have found. Extra balls give you one more try (you can carry up to five), and checkpoint crystals save your place: lose a ball and you come back at the last crystal you touched, with the rings you already passed still counted.
The five worlds
Clover Hills
The first world teaches the basics: rolling, jumping, thin ledges you can jump up through, slopes, flat rings, thorns and bottomless gaps. Treetop Climb is a tall climb up a tree on overlapping ledges, Burrow Run squeezes the ball through one-tile tunnels under thorny ceilings (jumping there is a bad idea), and Runaway Wheel is a chase: a giant thornwheel rolls after you, so keep moving.
Bubble Lagoon
Water changes everything. A normal ball sinks slowly; tap jump to paddle up, and near the surface a jump takes you out of the water. Pumps blow the ball up: a big ball floats and can jump from the surface, but it no longer fits through one-tile gaps or small rings. Pins let the air out again. Many pools here have thorns at the bottom, so cross them big. Rubber blocks throw the ball high, higher still if you jump on them.
Cogworks
A factory of moving parts. Ride moving platforms (they carry you along), cross crumbling bridges before they fall (they come back after a few seconds), roll with or against conveyor belts, and pass under crushers right after they lift. Springs launch you nine tiles up. Cog Chase is another chase level, this time with a runaway cog.
Gusty Peaks
Ice makes the ball slide; plan your stops. Fans blow you upward: float in the wind and steer out of it at the top. Buttons open the blue doors of a level, and a key opens its golden locks, so if the way is shut, look for the button or the key first. Avalanche is the third chase, a giant snowball on icy slopes.
Ember Depths
The last world adds lava (never touch it) and creatures: thorn crawlers patrol floors and ledges, bobbers move up and down in shafts, and blobs can be stomped by landing on them, which also bounces you high. Deep Dive mixes water and lava, and The Gauntlet throws everything from the whole game at you in one long level.
Beating the guardians
The seventh level of every world is a guardian’s arena: the Bramble Beetle charges into the walls, Captain Clamp blows bubbles and leaps, the Press-O-Matic slams down and sends shockwaves along the floor, the Frosty Roller rolls snowballs and charges, and the Ember King does all of it and throws fire.
They all follow the same rule. While a guardian walks and attacks, its spiky back pops the ball on touch, so keep your distance and jump over shockwaves, snowballs and bubbles. After an attack it stops, dizzy, with stars circling its head and a glowing spot on its back. That is your moment: land on its back to hit it. Three to five hits (the later guardians are tougher) and it is beaten, and the exit gate opens.
Scoring and the leaderboard
| Thing | Points |
|---|---|
| Ring | 100 |
| Star gem | 500 |
| Extra ball | 100 |
| Stomped blob | 200 |
| Hit on a guardian / guardian beaten | 500 / 2,000 |
| Level cleared | 1,000 |
| Every ball left at the end | 300 |
| Every second under the level’s par time | 20 |
Your best score on every level is kept, and the Pixel Rebound leaderboards rank your total: the sum of those best scores. That means two ways up the board: clear more levels, or replay a level you know well to finish it faster, with more balls left and all three gems. Hardcore (in the game’s options) gives you a single ball and no checkpoints, on its own board. Levels you clear on either difficulty unlock the next one.
Quick tips
- Look before you leap. The camera leads in the direction you roll; slow down near the edge of the screen to see what is coming.
- Bounce across thorn rows by holding jump instead of timing every hop.
- Ring left? Check above ledges and over gaps: many rings float in the air and need a jump.
- Big for water, small for tunnels. Switch sizes with the pump and the pin as the level asks.
- Let crushers drop first. Wait until one slams down, then go as it rises.
- Guardians: never chase them while they attack. Wait for the stars.
Pixel Rebound saves your cleared levels, gems and best times on your device, and with your account when you are signed in, so you can play a world on the bus and carry on at home. Like everything on NoInternet Arcade, it keeps working offline after your first visit.