Decay Match

A gem-matching puzzle where time is your real opponent — ignore a gem too long and it crumbles, taking your health with it.

How to play

Swap two adjacent gems to line up three or more of a colour. Matches clear, the board falls and refills, and any new lines cascade — all in one turn. The catch: at the end of every turn, every gem that survived gets one step older and more cracked.

• A gem that reaches maximum age shatters, vanishing and costing you health.
• Older gems score more when cleared, and defusing one just before it shatters earns a bonus.
• Cracked, flashing gems are one turn from breaking — clear those first, not just the easy matches.
• The run ends when your health hits zero; play for the highest score before the board crumbles.

Controls

• Desktop: click a gem, then click an adjacent gem to swap them.
• Phone & tablet: tap a gem, then tap a neighbour — the canvas is fully touch-friendly.

Game modes

• Daily: everyone gets the same seeded board each day to compare scores.
• Practice: a fresh random board any time, with 6×6, 8×8 and 10×10 grid sizes.

Tips & strategy

• Scan for the oldest gems every turn and route your swaps to include them, even if a younger match looks tidier.
• Build setups that cascade — a single swap that triggers a chain can sweep several aging gems at once.
• Watch the danger counter in the status bar; if too many gems are about to break, prioritise survival over score.

About Decay Match

Decay Match reimagines the gem-matching genre as a race against entropy, layering an aging-and-shatter system onto classic swap-to-match play. It is an original, free browser game built in-house for PlayPendium.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium — no download, no install. Browse all games →