Bopnauts: a ragdoll party brawler for 2–4 players

What is Bopnauts?

Bopnauts is a free physics party brawler you play right in your browser. Two to four squishy jelly astronauts, the Bopnauts, settle every argument the same way: on a tiny floating arena, with fists, boots, head stomps and whatever the Supply Comet drops from the sky. Nobody gets hurt. A knocked-out Bopnaut just pops into confetti and re-forms back at base, grumpy and sticky, while the crowd of floating spectator blobs goes wild.

Every fighter is a real ragdoll held upright by a wobbly balance controller, so punches land with weight, runners lean into their run, and a big enough hit sends someone tumbling, sliding and flailing toward the edge. Rounds are short and loud: last Bopnaut bouncing wins the round, and the first to five round wins takes the match. Play against bots at four difficulty levels, with up to four friends on one device, or online with friends and strangers.

How to play Bopnauts

1. Move with A and D (or the arrow keys) and jump with Space. Jumps are tall and floaty-snappy; let go early for a short hop, press jump just before landing and it still counts, and you can still jump for a moment after running off a ledge. Hold toward a wall in the air to slide down it slowly, and jump to wall-jump away. Hold toward a ledge and you grab it; jump or up climbs, down lets go.
2. Punch with J (or left click). Tap it for a jab, jab and hook combo; hold it to wind up a haymaker that glows yellow at full charge. Kick with K for a long, strong hit that knocks foes away. Up and punch is an uppercut, and attacking in the air gives an air jab or a diagonal flying kick. A punch thrown while running or falling hits much harder.
3. Land on someone's head to BOP them: you bounce high and they get dazed and squashed flat. A BOP on a fighter in the air spikes them straight down, which is deadly over a pit.
4. Hold I, Shift or right click to block: a bubble shield catches hits from the front. Tap block just as a hit arrives to PARRY: the attacker is staggered, and bullets fly back at whoever shot them. Blocking drains a guard meter; let it run out and your guard breaks.
5. Press L to grab. Grab an opponent and press L or punch again to throw them; throwing someone into a wall SPLATs them and throwing them into another fighter is a STRIKE. Grab an item or crate to pick it up, and grab again while holding one to throw it.
6. Pop Crates fall from the Supply Comet with a little parachute; a marker shows where they will land. Open one with grab for a weapon or gadget. Blasters fire with attack and are tossed automatically when empty; melee weapons replace your punches and shatter after enough hits; throwables are lobbed with attack.
7. You lose a round when your hit points run out, or instantly when you fall off the arena, fly off the top, or touch lava, deadly spikes or a crusher. The less health you have, the further you fly when hit, so finishing someone off by knocking them out of the ring is the exciting play.
8. On a phone or tablet, your left thumb drives a floating stick anywhere on the left side, and the right thumb has Attack, Jump, Block and Grab buttons. Slide your thumb from one button onto another to press it. Flick the stick up to jump. Turn the phone sideways for full screen.

Bopnauts tips and strategy

• Ring-outs are faster than knock-outs. Fight with your back to the middle of the arena and push opponents toward the edges and hazards.
• Throws are the best ring-out tool: grab someone near an edge, aim away from the middle and throw.
• A haymaker on a dazed or floppy opponent sends them flying. Land a BOP first, then charge.
• Parry is a tap, not a hold: press block just before the hit lands. It also reflects small bullets back at the shooter.
• Recoil is real. The Confetti Cannon fired straight down is a cannon jump, and the Fizz Spray lets you hover off a ledge.
• Watch the arena: bay doors vent sideways, lava rises, geysers fizz before they blow, icicles shake before they drop. Every timed hazard warns you first.
• Low on health? Stay away from edges; a nearly popped Bopnaut flies about 60 % further when hit.
• Catch a thrown item by pressing grab just as it reaches you. The crowd loves it.

24 arenas in four packs

Starstripe Station is a candy-striped research station orbiting a ringed planet, with bay doors that vent everyone sideways, a low-gravity lab, a slowly turning ring corridor with gaps that slide under your feet, solar panels that flash with electricity, a galley with a microwave that pops every fifteen seconds, and an airlock that sucks everyone toward the ceiling unless they hold a ledge or crouch.

Sugarstar is a candy planet of bouncy gumdrop hills and syrup pools, cookie floors that crumble and bake back, platforms swinging on licorice ropes, soda geysers, a taffy factory with stomping candy crushers and a lollipop windmill under a sprinkle storm.

Magma Moon brings lava that moves: a tide that rises after fifteen seconds, a crater that erupts lava bombs with shadow warnings, basalt rafts that sink when two people stand on them, lavafalls that switch on and off, an obsidian bridge that breaks for good, and a pump works full of crushers and a lava channel that fills and drains.

Frostbite Moon is all ice and wind: a skating rink where one good hit sends you gliding off the edge, an icicle cavern, a mountain pass with wind gusts, a frozen lake whose ice you can smash, a snowball fort with cannons anyone can fire, and floating ice spires where the aurora halves gravity. Every round picks a new arena, sometimes mirrored, and now and then a mutator such as Low-G Day, Hurricane or Item Rain shakes things up.

More than thirty weapons and gadgets

The Supply Comet drops toy blasters (the Pip Popper pistol, Twin Pips, the Fizz Spray, the Confetti Cannon shotgun, the Triplet burst rifle, the Long Lance sniper with a laser sight everyone can see, the bouncing Ricochet Ray, the Pop Rocket, the Prism Beam that reflects off chrome and blocking shields, the Hot Sauce Hose and the Brrr-Blaster that freezes people in ice blocks), melee weapons (the Glow Sabre that deflects bullets, the Gong Mallet with a ground-slam shockwave, the long Comet Spear, the Sproing Glove that is the ring-out king and doubles as a grapple, and the Skillet that reflects everything while you block) and throwables (the Pop Grenade, the sticky Splat Bomb you can pass on like a hot potato, the Popcorn Cluster and the Slick Puddle).

Then there are the wild ones: the Gravity Gobbler opens a mini black hole, the Disco Bomb makes everyone nearby dance, the Bubble Wand floats people away in bubbles, the Balloon Pump inflates them, the Hop Gun places a pair of portals, the Fuzzball Launcher releases fluffy critters that hop after your opponents and nibble them, and the Swap-o-Matic, Shrink Ray, Grow Ray, Rocket Boots, Meteor Beacon and Jelly Snack round it out. Every item has a counter: parry or a Skillet for bullets, block reflection for beams, catching or batting for throwables.

Play with friends: online, on one keyboard or with gamepads

Play Online offers Quick Match, which finds people near you and fills empty seats with bots, Invite Friends, which gives you a link and a short code to send, Join with a code, and a live list of open games you can drop into between rounds. Online matches run on a server that simulates every punch, so nobody gets a host advantage, and your own fighter is predicted on your device so running and jumping feel instant. If your connection blinks, a bot covers for you until you are back.

Local Party seats two to four people on one device: two on one keyboard (WASD and the arrow keys) and more on gamepads, with any empty seats filled by bots. Team Pop-Off puts you on Team Sun or Team Moon, and a knocked-out teammate floats back as a ghost who can tag one enemy.

Modes, bots and progress

Classic Pop-Off is last one standing, first to five round wins. Team Pop-Off is two against two. King of the Crown scores a point a second for standing alone in a moving crown zone, with respawns. Sumo Ring turns all damage into extra knockback, so the only way to win is a ring-out. The Training Room has an infinite-health dummy, an item spawner and a readout of every hit's damage, knockback and power, and How to Play walks you through moving, wall-jumping, combos, BOPs, parries, throws and blasters.

Bots come in Easy, Normal, Hard and Brutal. They use the same controls as people, pick up weapons, dodge telegraphed hazards, try to knock you out of the ring and make human-looking mistakes on the easier levels. Every match earns Stardust that levels up your profile and unlocks new Bopnauts, colours, hats, visor glows, trails and KO pop effects for the Locker; your progress saves in your browser.

Made for phones and big screens

Bopnauts runs a fixed 60-steps-per-second physics simulation, so it plays the same on a 60 Hz laptop and a 144 Hz monitor, with smooth interpolation in between. On a phone held upright the arena sits above a control deck so your thumbs never cover the fight; turn it sideways for a full-screen view with the buttons on top. The touch buttons can be resized and faded in Options, gamepads plug in and work at once, and options cover sound levels, the announcer, screen shake, reduced flashing, a colour-blind-safe player palette and a battery-saving 30 fps mode.

Bopnauts FAQ