How to start
- Open bigboard.games on every device and tap Start a table on one of them.
- The others join by themselves on the same Wi-Fi; elsewhere, scan the QR code or type the four-letter code.
- Lay the devices edge to edge, screens up, as the drawing shows, and pick the game.
Every mole goes to the leader
With three, the bar is shared three ways and the moles you bop have to go somewhere. They go to whoever is ahead, so the player in front gets the most moles to deal with and a runaway lead is hard to keep. When you are the leader yourself, your bops land on one of the other two at random.
A player is out once their share of the bar falls to a quarter of an equal share, about 8 % of the whole bar. Their screen tells them to watch the rest finish, the other two play on, and the last one with ground left wins the match. In whack a mole on two phones, a duel ends when one player is down to an eighth of the bar.
A ring or a T
Three devices can lie in a ring, everyone facing the middle, or in a T. Each player keeps a whole screen of their own, upright for a tall field or sideways for a wide one. The extra moles arrive a little later than in a duel, at 30, 60 and 100 seconds, because three fields are busier from the start.
If a device drops out in the middle of a match, its moles move to the devices still in and the others can play on without it. Misses work as on two devices: a touch on empty felt gives ground to the others, and a four-finger slap counts as one miss. A fourth player joins the same ring: see 4 player whack a mole.
Three as one team
Pick Cooperative and the three screens join into one field that the three of you defend together, with five lives between you. Golden moles give a life back, bombs take one when you bop them, and armoured ones need two hits.
Two friends and nobody else? A bot can take the third seat. It sits at an edge of one of your screens and plays a zone of it, so you can watch it bop, and it takes its share of the bar like anyone.
3 players: questions and answers
Is it last one standing?
Yes, a player drops out at a quarter of an equal share of the bar, and the last one left wins.
Can three people play as one team?
Yes, Cooperative gives the three of you one field across all three screens and five shared lives.
Can a bot be the third player?
Yes, add a bot and it plays a zone of one of your screens, in plain view.