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RxDrop, step by step

Every mode, every kind of virus, and every modifier, shown as real moments from the game. Each sequence was staged in the game itself and captured frame by frame.

The basics

Capsules fall in two halves. Line up four of one colour in a row or column and they burst. Viruses count toward the four. Clear every virus to finish the level.

You only lose when capsules back up out of the neck, the small chamber at the top of the bottle. A full bottle is not a loss by itself.

The twenty levels run through ten eras of medicine. The bottle and the physician change, but red, yellow and blue always keep the same hue.

Clearing a virus

A yellow virus and one yellow half sit on the floor. Steer the yellow capsule into the gap beside them.

Virus + 3 halves = four in a row. They burst together.

The virus is gone. Two left to go, and the next capsule is already coming.

The three modes

Mode	What you do
Solo	The ladder. Choose a level (0–20) and speed. Clear the bottle to move up. Beating level 20 finishes the campaign.
Daily	One bottle a day, the same for everyone. It always comes with two modifiers, named on the card. That's why Daily feels different. Read them before you start. Your best try of the day is kept.
Versus	Two players, one keyboard. Same layout, same capsules. Clear more than four at once, or chain clears, to drop garbage halves on your opponent. Clear your viruses first, or outlast them.

Resistance: viruses that change colour

Turn on Resistance in Options and viruses age. Every 8 capsules each one ages by a step. When one reaches the limit it changes to a different colour.

A virus close to turning shows a pulsing dashed ring. The panel shows how close the board is to its next mutation.

How to beat it. Don't hoard. If you have a clean clear on a ringed virus, take it now. A setup built around a red virus is worthless once it turns blue.

Tolerant viruses: use the other colour

Viruses that survive long enough become tolerant. Your normal clear through them bounces off: you hear a dull thud, the medicine clears, the virus stays. Each bounce still wears it down one step, so the slow way always works.

The fast way is collateral sensitivity: a tolerant virus dies to one specific other colour, cleared beside it (touching it, not through it). That kill also pays double.

You don't need to memorise this. A tolerant virus glows in the colour that kills it.

A tolerant red virus, glowing blue. Two blue halves already touch it. Bring the blue capsule down to the right.

Four blue clear next to the virus. It dies with them.

Cured, for double points. The first time, the find goes in your formulary notebook.

Hybrid strains: clear both parents

A virus kept covered by the wrong colour for too long can combine into a hybrid. You'll recognise one because it is split down the middle into its two parent colours, for example half yellow, half blue, with a dark seam. Four of one colour won't clear it. There are three ways to beat one:

1. Both parents, any time. Clear one parent colour beside it, later clear the other beside it. The game remembers the first one.
2. Same parent twice. It reverts to a normal virus of that colour. Then clear it the normal way.
3. Both parents in one cascade (expert). This makes an antibody, which destroys the hybrid and the cells around it, for 4× points.

Here is the expert play, frame by frame:

A yellow/blue hybrid. Three yellow halves sit beside it, with blue halves stepped above them. Drop the capsule yellow-end-down into the last column.

Four yellow clear beside the hybrid. That's parent one.

The blues fall into the gap and make four in a row. Parent two, in the same cascade: an antibody fires.

Hybrid gone, area cleaned up, 4× points.

Modifiers

Modifiers change the rules of a run. Daily always uses two. In Solo you can switch them on under Options. Each one has a built-in limit, so none can make a level impossible.

Quarantine

One column is sealed. You can't place in it, but lines still clear through it, and pieces still fall through it.

To clear it: make a clear right next to the sealed column, or wait. It lifts on its own after 10 capsules.

Contaminated batch

Some capsule halves are duds. They stack and fall but never match.

What to do: park a dud right next to a clear you're planning. An inert half touching any clear washes out with it.

Outbreak

Viruses copy themselves into adjacent empty cells on a timer. In exchange, capsules come twice as fast. Each virus spreads at most once.

What to do: kill early, and don't leave empty pockets next to viruses. The space you're "saving" is where they will grow.

Rationing

For a stretch, one colour isn't dealt at all. It rotates back on a fixed timer, so the wait is always predictable. While a colour is out of stock, viruses of that colour build tolerance.

What to do: it's a slow grind. Keep spaces open for the returning colour, and expect to use the collateral colour on viruses that turned tolerant.

Phototherapy

The bottle clouds over row by row, worst where viruses are. Press Shift or L to enter the light chamber. Your controls now steer falling block-shaped light pieces. Each line of light you complete scrubs the lowest cloudy row clean. Viruses are frozen while you are in there.

The lower rows are fogging up. The Light therapy meter shows how dirty the sample is.

In the chamber: a light piece falls. Complete lines with it to clean rows from the bottom up.

Controls

Rotation has two shapes, not four. Rotating twice just swaps the colours in place.

Cheat sheet: "how do I clear this?"