How to play sobosuba

The developer's description distinguishes soft shots, used to place a blob without disturbing the stack, from hard shots, used to push other blobs and squeeze into gaps. Aim and shot strength both matter. The Steam description says there is no explicit time pressure; you can consider a move before firing. These are public descriptions, not a claim of a personal playtest.

The merge

Equal numbers combine into the next value. The pieces are soft. 80.lv, quoting the developer, describes the body as a ring of small rigid beads plus a skin force and internal pressure. You see that as squash and rebound, which changes what touches what. AUTOMATON (2026-08-23) and the community wiki agree on a waiting column of about three or four blobs, and matches inside that column can combine before you shoot. I am not quoting a hidden formula. The wiki’s “score equals the sum of eligible blobs” line is one site only, so it stays labeled as that.

How a run ends

AUTOMATON and the wiki both say the run ends when the pile presses the upper-left and upper-right switches at the same time. Neither source gives a public duration in seconds, so this page does not invent one. Leave the top of the container clear.

Controls that are actually documented

• Mouse aim and shot strength. Right-click cancels, per the itch page.
• From Steam patch 1.2, pulling the arrow back to the center past a threshold also cancels. The developer confirmed that path for trackpad players on Steam.
• Full controller support, including DualShock and DualSense. Patch 1.2 lets any shoulder button shoot and lets you swap sticks.
• Touch input in the Steam 1.2 notes, with the caveat on the itch page that the demo is not designed for phones.

There is no official key chart beyond those notes. I am not filling in keys the posts never name.

Next: how this differs from 2048 and Suika, then stacking ideas from public guides.

A short sequence for a first move

1. Choose a numbered blob from the waiting area and look for a matching value in the stack.
2. Aim toward the match or an open space. The official description recommends a softer shot when careful placement matters and more force when pushing is useful.
3. Let the soft bodies settle before choosing the next shot. Avoid crowding both upper switches.

Patch-specific controller, touch and save features above refer to Steam announcements. We have not established that the itch browser demo includes the identical build. Use the achievement conditions for exact challenges and the credited player notes for optional strategy.