Fruit Merge

Fruit Merge is a drop and merge puzzle with a bowl full of smiling fruit. Drop a fruit in, and when two of the same kind touch, they squish together into the next size up. Two cherries make a strawberry, two strawberries make a grape, and so on all the way up to a watermelon.

The bowl here is a round glass bowl in full 3D, not a flat box. Fruit stays roughly where you drop it, so where you aim really matters, and you can spin the bowl to shift the whole pile when a match is stuck on the far side. A ghost shows where each fruit will land before you let go, and it turns green when it’s about to land on a match. Fill the juice meter for Juice Rush and double points, and earn rainbow fruit and bombs along the way.

How to Play Fruit Merge

1. Move your mouse or drag your finger to aim. The fruit hangs above the bowl, and a line and a see-through ghost show where it will land.
2. Click, or let go of the screen, to drop it.
3. When two fruits of the same kind touch, they merge into a bigger fruit and you score points.
4. Check the Next box at the top to see what’s coming. Tap it (or press Shift) to swap the two, once per drop.
5. Hold the spin buttons in the bottom corners (or Q and E) to spin the bowl and roll the fruit around.
6. Keep the fruit below the pink rim. If anything stays above it for a few seconds, the game is over.

Juice Rush and Power-Ups

Every merge squirts some juice into the meter at the bottom of the screen. Bigger fruit fills it faster. When it’s full, Juice Rush starts: the bowl glows rainbow and every merge scores double for 10 seconds.

Each rush also gives you a power-up:

• Rainbow fruit. Tap the rainbow button and your next drop is a rainbow fruit. It merges with whatever it touches first and turns that fruit into the next size up. Use it on a big fruit that has no partner.
• Bomb. Tap the bomb button, then tap any fruit in the bowl to pop it. It’s best saved for when the bowl is nearly full, or a big fruit is blocking a merge.

The Fruit Chain

Only the five smallest fruits come out of the dropper. Everything bigger has to be merged.

Merge	Makes	Points
2 cherries	Strawberry	3
2 strawberries	Grape	6
2 grapes	Lemon	10
2 lemons	Orange	15
2 oranges	Apple	21
2 apples	Pear	28
2 pears	Peach	36
2 peaches	Pineapple	45
2 pineapples	Melon	55
2 melons	Watermelon	66
2 watermelons	Burst!	200

When one drop sets off a chain of merges, that’s a combo. The second merge in a combo scores 1.5 times its points, the third double, the fourth 2.5 times and so on, up to 4 times. So one well placed drop that sets off three or four merges can be worth more than a dozen slow ones.

Fruit Merge Tips

• Keep big fruit to one side. Let your largest fruits settle together against one wall, and drop the small ones on the other side. That way the next merge always has a partner close by.
• Use the ghost. The ghost shows where the fruit will first touch something, and it turns green over a match. Drop a fruit right on top of its match and it merges the moment it lands.
• Swap to save a bad drop. If the fruit in your hand has nowhere good to go, swap it with the next one.
• Save the bomb. A bomb is worth the most when the bowl is nearly full, so don’t spend it early.
• Spin to fix a bad drop. If a fruit ends up next to the wrong neighbour, a short spin can roll the pile enough to bring two matches together.
• Don’t panic at the red flash. You have about three seconds once a fruit sits above the rim. One good merge underneath often drops the whole pile back down.
• Watch the Next box. If the next fruit is a cherry, you can afford to drop the current one somewhere awkward. If it’s an orange, keep a spot open for it.
• Set up chains. Line up fruit from small to big, like a cherry touching a strawberry touching a grape. Drop another cherry on the first cherry: it becomes a strawberry, which merges into a grape, which merges into a lemon. That’s a three-merge combo from one drop.

Why the Bowl Changes Things

In a flat box game, fruit only ever moves left and right. In a round bowl, fruit can sit in front of or behind each other, so you get far more places for a fruit to settle. The fruit grips a little, so it stays close to where you drop it, and spinning lets you move the whole pile when a match is stuck on the far side.