One Shot, Straight Up
The cannon only fires vertically. You choose where it stands and when it throws — the whole game lives in those two decisions.
One-thumb precision timing
Paintblade
Lead the swing. Pin the zone.
A cannon rides a rail along the bottom and throws straight up. Above it, a target bar swings left and right carrying zones you have to pin. Blockers cross the lane between them. Knives are limited and every level is on a clock.
How it escalates
Narrower zones, faster swing
Three short lessons teach the throw, and the first levels are the swing alone — just learn the lead. Then blockers arrive, the zones narrow, the swing speeds up and the clock tightens, and from level 9 some levels split the beam in two halves swinging opposite ways. Every level you clear is kept: fail one and you go again from there, never from the start.
• One thumb, one shot straight up• Limited knives and a clock on every level• Levels you keep, with three stars to earn on each• Twelve pixel pictures to paint, one per chapter• A room of its own colour for every chapter
Gameplay overview
How Paintblade plays
Lead a Swinging Target
The bar swings fast through the middle and hangs at the ends, so the edges are the easy shot and the centre is the hard one. You work that out yourself; nothing tells you.
Blockers Take What You Throw
Bars traverse the lane between you and the target. A knife that hits one embeds in it and rides off the side of the screen, along with the throw.
A Double Prediction
Will my column still be clear when the knife gets up there, and will the zone be over it when it arrives? Every throw has to answer both at once.
Limited Knives, Live Clock
You cannot just throw until something lands. Knives run out and the clock runs down, and a wasted throw costs you a star as well as the knife.
Paint As You Play
Every ten levels is a chapter, and every chapter is a pixel picture on the floor under your cannon — a duck in sunglasses, a cat in a taco, and ten more you will have to earn to see. Every zone you pin throws its paint onto it, in the colour you hit. Every chapter has a room of its own colour, too, and your paint splashes its walls. Clear the chapter and the finished picture takes over the screen, then joins your gallery.
Levels You Keep, Stars You Earn
Every level you clear is yours for good — there are no lives, and a failed level is simply played again. Earn up to three stars on each: three for not wasting a single knife.
Sparks and Knife Styles
Earn sparks for every pin, every level and every finished picture. Spend them on knife styles — ember, jade, midnight, frost and gold — or to keep going on a tough level with more knives or more time.
How it works
From first throw to a finished level
Place
Drag anywhere along the bottom to slide the cannon into the column you want.
Read
Watch the swing and the blocker lanes, and wait for the moment your column is clear and the zone is heading over it.
Throw
Lift your thumb. The knife leaves instantly and sticks where it lands — in the zone, in bare bar, or in the blocker that took it.
Clear
Pin every zone to clear the level and collect your stars. Then the next one, faster, with less of everything.
Gameplay screenshots
See Paintblade in motion
Lead the swing. Pin every zone on the bar.
Thread the gap, or a blocker carries the knife off the screen.
Every hit paints the picture on the floor.
Finish a chapter and the picture takes over the screen.
Collect twelve pictures. The ones you have not reached stay secret.
Lead the swing. Pin every zone on the bar.
Thread the gap, or a blocker carries the knife off the screen.
Every hit paints the picture on the floor.
Finish a chapter and the picture takes over the screen.
Collect twelve pictures. The ones you have not reached stay secret.
Frequently asked questions
Paintblade game FAQ
How do I throw?
Drag anywhere along the bottom to place the cannon, then lift your thumb to throw. It is one continuous gesture, so you can hold a column and wait for the swing as long as the clock allows. Three short lessons walk you through it before level 1.
Why did my knife disappear?
It hit a blocker. Those are the bars sliding across the lane between the cannon and the target; a knife that hits one embeds in it and rides off the side of the screen. They are big, slow and fully visible, so getting caught is always a shot you could have chosen not to take.
What happens when I fail a level?
Nothing you have earned is lost. There are no lives: every level you clear is kept, and a failed level is played again with a fresh layout. Out of knives or out of time, you can also keep the same try going — the zones you pinned stay pinned — with sparks or an optional ad.
How do stars work?
Every level awards up to three stars: three for not wasting a single knife, two for a couple of misses, one for getting there. Your best is kept, so you can go back for the ones you missed.
What are sparks for?
You earn sparks for every zone you pin, every level you clear and every picture you finish. Spend them on knife styles — ember, jade, midnight, frost and gold — or on more knives or more time to keep a failed try going.
Is there a time limit?
Every level is on a clock, and it is budgeted per zone — levels carrying more zones get more time. The clock runs along the top of the target bar, right where you are already looking.
Is Paintblade free? Are there ads?
Paintblade is free to play and shows ads. An occasional full-screen ad can appear when you tap CONTINUE on the level-complete card — never during a level, and never in your first few levels. Two ads are optional and only if you choose them: doubling the sparks a level earned, and more knives or more time to keep a failed level going.
Does it need an internet connection?
No. Paintblade is fully playable offline; ads and the optional ad rewards only appear when you are connected. The game sends anonymous gameplay statistics when it can, and you can turn that off in Settings under Anonymous data.
Skill-based arcade challenge
Your next level is waiting
Every level is earned, and every level you reach is kept. Paintblade rewards precision and reading a moving target under pressure — a miss costs you a try, never the climb.