Pick one weight.
Salvage Bell
SALVAGE BELL
Midday on a becalmed North Atlantic. Drop one of your weights 1 to 9 face down, and whoever stops deeper salvages the cargo. Stop at the same depth and they collide, the lift fails, and the cargo is carried over.
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FREE BOARD GAME
Salvage Bell is a free bluffing game online for two, played in your browser. Each side holds one of every lead weight from 1 to 9, and every dive both seal one weight and drop it into the sea at the same moment; whoever stops deeper salvages the cargo on the seabed, worth 1 to 5 points. The two weights sink at the same speed, so the lighter one stops first and only the heavier keeps going. Equal weights collide, the lift fails, and that cargo is carried over onto the next one. There are four effects - chain, buoy, chart and harpoon - and a bell that drops two weights once a game. The CPU comes at three levels, and there is a daily puzzle. No sign-up, free, and it plays straight from a phone browser. A game is nine dives, three to five minutes.
Unlike rock-paper-scissors, a bluffing game like this never lets you use the same move twice. In Salvage Bell you hold only one of each weight from 1 to 9, and a weight you drop sinks for good, so it becomes a question of allocation: spend the 9 now, and you can never win with a 9 in the other eight dives. What is at stake changes too - a 1-point cargo and a 5-point cargo come up in turn, so a heavy weight spent on cheap cargo wins the dive and loses the game. And dropping the same weight does not simply cancel out, the way a tie does in rock-paper-scissors: that cargo is carried over and the stake swells. Nine dives share out 25 to 29 points in all.
| Rock-paper-scissors | Salvage Bell | |
|---|---|---|
| Your hand | Rock, paper and scissors, as often as you like | One each of 1 to 9. Spent is gone |
| What is at stake | The same every time (a win or a loss) | Different every time (1 to 5 points, some cargo with effects) |
| When both play the same | A tie. Nothing happens | The lift fails. That cargo is carried over onto the next one |
| Time per game | A few seconds | Nine dives, three to five minutes |
© Rinblog
Salvage Bell is a mind game for two. Each side holds nine weights, one of every number from 1 to 9, and every dive both seal one and drop it into the sea at the same moment; whoever stops deeper salvages the cargo on the seabed. Weight is depth: a 1 reaches 10 fathoms, and a 9 touches down on the sand at exactly 50. There are nine pieces of cargo, 1 to 5 points each, 25 to 29 in all. A spent weight sinks for good, so the game becomes an auction of allocation - which of the nine weights goes on which cargo. A game is nine dives, three to five minutes, and on this page your opponent is the CPU.
There are only four rules. Both players pick one weight from 1 to 9 and seal it, then drop together. Whoever stops deeper - that is, whoever played the heavier weight - takes the points and the effect of that cargo. Equal weights collide, the lift fails, and that cargo is carried over onto the next one. A spent weight never comes back. Repeat nine times, and the higher score wins. Nine weights match nine pieces of cargo exactly, so you can decide from the start which cargo to give up and which to take.
Win the same effect twice and it doubles up (two chains make +4).
Winning turns on how you spread the nine weights. The manifest shows the points of all nine pieces of cargo from the start, so settle early on putting 9 and 8 on the 5-point cargo and 1 and 2 on the 1-point cargo. On top of that comes the important part: win by one. One heavier than your opponent scores exactly the same, so every extra pound you spend is missing from a later cargo. The weights your opponent has spent stay readable as numbers in the pans on screen, so there is nothing to memorise. The moment their 9 is gone, your own 9 is safe to spend even on a 1-point cargo.
The first thing to learn is to dump the 1 and the 2 on the first two dives. If there is a 1 or 2-point cargo at the head of the manifest, putting the light weights there frees the other seven for expensive cargo. The next thing is to watch your opponent's pan. Their weights 1 to 9 are laid out in the upper row, and a spent number is struck through. One heavier than the heaviest they have left takes that cargo for certain. The third is to take your time over the bell. It comes once a game, and ringing it leaves the next dive empty-handed. Waiting for a tower two or three high, built by carried-over cargo, turns the same two weights into far more points.
The daily puzzle, Today's Salvage, is a solo problem that changes at midnight Japan time. Everyone gets the same run of cargo, and the opponent is today's captain, whose habit is published. The captain plays to a fixed pattern, so planning all nine dives in advance opens up a big margin. Your margin is rated with one to three stars against the best possible margin of the day, worked out here by a solver (three stars at 85% or more, two at 55% or more, one for a win). The solution itself is not shown. The result can be shared on X, and a streak of winning days is recorded.
This game has no take-back. Both sides seal a weight and drop at the same moment, so if you could redo your move after seeing your opponent's weight, the reading contest itself would fall apart. Instead, you can change your pick as often as you like before you press Drop, and from the result screen Replay this cargo deals the exact same run of cargo again. That is the place to try out how you should have taken that 5-point lot.
Each side holds nine lead weights numbered 1 to 9, one of each. Every dive both seal one weight and drop it at the same time, and whoever stops deeper - that is, whoever played the heavier weight - salvages the cargo on the seabed, worth 1 to 5 points. Nine dives, and the higher score wins. On this page you play against the CPU.
Yes. Your opponent is the CPU, at easy, standard or hard. Both sides move at once, so the CPU has fixed and sealed its weight before you choose; it never decides after seeing your pick.
It is completely free, with no account and nothing to install. It runs straight in the browser on phones, tablets and computers. Your record is kept only in your own browser.
The two weights meet at the same depth, collide and are thrown apart, so the lift fails. That cargo stays on the seabed and the next one comes down on top of it. The points add up, and both effects go to whoever lifts next. Both sides lose their weight, so a run of ties piles a huge score onto one later dive. If the last cargo ends in a tie, it belongs to nobody.
For the next dive only: the chain puts +2 on your own weight (two links are added on top of it and it sinks two marks deeper), the buoy takes 2 off your opponent's weight (never below zero), and the chart narrows your opponent's sealed weight down to two. The harpoon takes the cargo for you the next time a tie happens. Win the same effect twice and it doubles up (two chains make +4). If both sides hold a harpoon on a tie, both harpoons break; on a dive where both hold a chart, the two charts disagree and neither can be read.
Once a game you may drop two weights at the same time and compete with their combined weight. Weights dropped on a bell dive bite past the sand into the seabed. The price is that the next dive is empty-handed: you cannot drop a weight. The bell has to be rung by the seventh dive. Bell or no bell, nine weights are spent over exactly nine dives, so both sides always still hold a weight for the last cargo.
No. Every spent weight stays readable as a number in the pans at the top of the screen, and the numbers also lie face up on the seabed. Spent weights are open information for both sides by the rules, so this is not a memory test. The only hidden thing is which weight was chosen this dive.
No. If you could redo your move after seeing your opponent's weight, sealing them and dropping at once would stop meaning anything. You can change your pick as often as you like before you drop, and the result screen offers Replay this cargo, which deals the exact same run again.
It is a solo puzzle that changes at midnight Japan time. Everyone gets the same run of cargo, and the opponent is today's captain, whose habit is published. The captain's moves are fixed, so planning all nine dives in advance opens up a big margin. Your margin is rated against the best possible margin of the day with one to three stars (three at 85% or more, two at 55% or more) and can be shared on X. A streak of winning days is recorded too.
Nine dives, three to five minutes if you think it through. The animation itself runs about 3.7 to 4.9 seconds a dive (measured), and the rest is your planning. Once the outcome is settled the animation speeds up to about 2.3 seconds. The manifest is open from the start, so settling how to spread the nine weights early keeps things moving.