Dune Drop: drop, merge and grow the golden Sunfruit

Dune Drop is a merging puzzle with real falling and rolling. At the top of the jar a fruit hangs from a hook. Move it left or right, then let it go. It drops, bounces off the other fruit and settles. When two fruit of the same kind touch, they pop together and become the next fruit in the chain, so two berries make an apricot and two apricots make a plum.

The chain has ten steps: Berry, Apricot, Plum, Lemon, Lime, Orange, Pomegranate, Peach, Melon and finally the golden Sunfruit. The small row at the bottom of the board shows the order at all times. You only ever drop the four smallest fruit, so every big fruit in the jar is something you built by merging.

Every merge scores points based on the fruit you create, and bigger fruit are worth much more. Merges that follow each other within about a second and a third build a combo, and each extra step in the combo adds half again to the base points, up to three and a half times. Two Sunfruit that touch vanish in a burst for a 500 point bonus, which also gains from the combo.

• One star for 800 points, two stars for 2,500 points and three stars for 5,000 points.
• Your best score, stars and streak are remembered on this device.
• The result screen tells you your biggest fruit and how many merges you made.

The dashed line near the top of the jar is the limit. Fruit can fall past it while they are on their way down, but if fruit rest above it for about two and a half seconds, the glow turns red and the run ends. A good merge in that time can bring the pile back down, so do not give up when the line starts to flash.

Choose Daily challenge and everyone who plays on the same date gets the same order of fruit to drop, so you can compare scores from identical conditions. Finishing the daily on consecutive days builds your streak. Free play deals a new order every run. After a run you can copy a challenge link that carries your seed and score, and a friend who opens it plays the same fruit order and sees whether they beat you. No account is needed.

• Keep the biggest fruit along one wall and build the smaller ones next to it, so merges roll toward your big fruit instead of away from it.
• Look at the fruit shown as next before you aim. If the next one matches the current one, you can set up a double merge.
• Drop gently into gaps rather than on top of the pile. A fruit that lands on a ledge often rolls into a bad spot.
• Use the dotted guide to see where the fruit will land before you let go.
• Leave room for the next big merge. A new Peach or Melon pushes its neighbours aside, and a crowded jar turns that into a disaster.