Whack
Whack the moles as they pop up and beat the clock.
How to play Whack
Moles pop up anywhere on the field for just a moment. No field, no warning. Click or tap one while it is up to whack it and score. Miss and it ducks back down. Whack as many as you can before the thirty-second timer runs out.
How to score high in Whack
Whack is a thirty-second burst of pure reaction. Moles pop up at random spots for only a split second, and you have to tap each one before it ducks back down. There is no pattern to learn and no warning of where the next mole will appear, so your score is a direct measure of how fast you can spot a target and get your cursor or finger onto it.
The single biggest improvement most players can make is to stop hunting and start scanning. Rather than staring at one hole and waiting, keep your eyes moving over the whole field so you catch each mole the instant it surfaces. The sooner you see it, the more of its brief appearance you have left to land the hit. Against a split-second window, those fractions add up fast across thirty seconds. Sports scientists call the habit quiet eye: a steady, wide focus beats darting glances, and it is trainable.
Reaction tips
- Watch the whole field with a soft, wide gaze instead of fixating on a single spot. Peripheral vision catches pop-ups fastest.
- Hover your cursor near the center of the field so every hole is roughly the same short distance away.
- Commit the instant a mole appears; hesitation wastes the fraction of a second you have to hit it.
- Do not swing wildly after a mole that has already ducked. Reset to center and be ready for the next.
- On a touchscreen, play with two thumbs or two fingers and split the field between them.
- Stay loose; a relaxed hand reacts and repositions faster than a tense, clenched one.
The quarter-second problem
An average person needs roughly a quarter of a second just to react to something appearing on screen, and that is before the hand moves at all. Add the trip your cursor makes across the field and a far-corner mole can cost half a second door to door, which against a target this brief is the entire budget. That is the real reason center position matters. It does not make your reflexes quicker; it makes every journey shorter, so your ordinary reflexes arrive in time. The same math says to click the moment you arrive rather than pausing to line up a perfect hit. A rough tap that lands beats a careful one that comes late. Even top esports players, whose reactions dip near 150 milliseconds, miss when the cursor starts its trip from the wrong place.
The clock should change your tactics at the end, too. For the first twenty-five seconds, play controlled: center hover, wide gaze, clean commits. In the last five, swing at everything. There is nothing left to save yourself for, and a wild miss costs nothing when the timer is about to end the round anyway.
Rhythm beats rage
Misses come in streaks, and the streak is usually your own doing. After a whiff, most players tense up, grip the mouse harder and start stabbing at shadows, and each stab leaves the cursor stranded in a corner. Break the loop the moment you feel it. Drift back to center, loosen your hand, and let the next mole come to you. A calm player who misses one mole loses one mole. A rattled player who misses one often donates the next three chasing the feeling of getting it back.
The carnival classic
Whack recreates one of the most recognizable carnival machines ever built. The first mechanical version, Mogura Taiji, appeared in Japan in the mid-1970s from the amusement maker TOGO, and American engineer Aaron Fechter built the cabinet the world knows as Whac-A-Mole in 1976. The formula never needed updating: holes, moles, a soft mallet, and a crowd laughing at someone trying to be everywhere at once. The game even burrowed into the language. When engineers or politicians describe a problem that keeps popping back up somewhere new every time it is put down, they call it whack-a-mole, which is about the highest honour a carnival cabinet can earn. The browser version strips away the mallet but keeps the heart of it: raw reflexes, a short clock, and a score that tells you exactly how sharp you were today.
Watch a Whack run
A quick gameplay clip from our official channel.
Whack leaderboard
Top scores. Log in to compete.
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Whack: frequently asked questions
How long is a game?
Thirty seconds. Your score is the number of moles you whack before time runs out.
Any tips for a higher score?
Keep your cursor near the center so you can reach any spot quickly, and scan the whole field: moles can appear anywhere.
Where should I keep my cursor between hits?
Near the center of the field. From there every hole is roughly the same short distance away, so you can reach a mole popping up anywhere without a long, slow swing across the screen.
How do I react faster to the moles?
Use a wide, soft gaze over the whole field instead of staring at one hole. Your peripheral vision spots pop-ups sooner, giving you more of the mole's brief appearance to land the hit.
Should I chase a mole that is already ducking down?
No. Once it has gone, swinging after it just leaves you out of position. Reset to the center and be ready for the next one, which could appear anywhere.
Is there any pattern to where the moles appear?
No, the spots are random with no warning, so you cannot pre-aim. That is why positioning and reaction speed, not prediction, are what raise your score.
How long is each mole visible?
Only a split second. That short window is the whole challenge, so spotting the mole early and committing to the hit immediately matters far more than a powerful, late swing.
Why do I miss moles I clearly saw?
Reaction time. Just registering the mole takes around a quarter of a second before your hand starts moving, and the cursor still has to travel. If it was parked in a far corner, the mole can duck before you arrive. Hovering near the center shortens every trip and turns those late swings into hits.
Is Whack free to play?
Yes. Whack is completely free on Inkplay, with no download, no sign-up, and no in-game purchases. Open the page and play instantly on desktop or mobile.
Can I play Whack unblocked?
Yes. Whack runs entirely in your browser with no download, install, or plugins, so it loads instantly and keeps working even on school or work networks where bigger game sites get blocked.
More games to play
In the mood for more? Try Reflex, Simon, Aim Trainer, Stacker, or browse all skill games and the full games list on Inkplay. Whack also appears in Quick Games.