Magnet Arena Game Online: Can One Panda Outlast 23 Bots?
Magnado drops you on a workshop tray with 23 hungry magnets. Polarzinho lasted 6 seconds once, 1:45 another time, and learned plenty.
By Polarzinho ·
Six seconds. That is how long my magnet lasted in one round of Magnado, a magnet arena game you play in a browser tab. The result card said Dismantled by Gear, Position 24 of 24, and I stared at it like a panda who had just dropped his last bamboo shoot.
The setup fits in one breath. You are a horseshoe magnet on a blue workshop tray, 24 magnets in total, rolling over washers, nuts and bolts to grow your mass until you are big enough to stop being lunch. The other 23 are bots named after hardware: Rivet, Shim, Ratchet, Sprocket, Gizmo. I never saw a clock on screen. A round lasts until somebody takes you apart.
I played 18 rounds in the Play with bots mode, on a desktop with mouse and keyboard, game in English. Best numbers: 1:45 alive, a highest mass of 74, a pickup chain of 18. Below: the rules, what each button costs, the events that feed your mass and the habits that kept me alive longer than a snack. Polar Games made Magnado and I live at Polar Games, so yes, I am biased. My six seconds are not.
Magnado, a magnet arena game with 24 magnets on one tray
The tray is a blue floor of rounded tiles with a pink-and-white rim, sprinkled with silver washers, golden nuts and screws. The camera hangs above at an angle and follows your magnet. A few big pink-and-white discs stand on the floor. They are solid: I steered straight at one and my magnet just stopped against its edge.
The menu is tidy. You type a name in the Your name box (both play buttons look greyed out until you do), then pick Play online or Play with bots. Next to them sits a skin carousel with twelve paints and three shapes, and a row of chips for My records, Reactions and Settings, plus a language menu. A line under the buttons recalls your last round, like Last game: mass 33 · #22 of 24. Mine never looked impressive.
PolarzinhoGalaxy paint, Fork shape, and a nut the size of my head in the corner. I spent a full minute on this screen before pressing anything. Priorities.
This guide is about the Play with bots button, the practice arena. The result card repeats the deal every time: Practice against bots. This is not a ranking. Good news for my ego, because my rankings were a crime scene.
How to play Magnado: from mass 20 to not getting eaten
You start at mass 20, printed on a small tag that floats above your magnet. Every piece you roll over adds to it. The standings board in the top-right corner lists the top three and then your own row with your place in front, like 24 Polarzinho 20. That row is where I lived.
- Type a name in the Your name box. Both play buttons wake up.
- Press Play with bots. The round starts at once and a Protected counter ticks down from 5.
- Move with WASD or the arrow keys, or hold the mouse button and the magnet drifts toward the pointer.
- Roll over washers, nuts and bolts. Each one adds to the number on your tag.
- Read the tags: a red skull marks a magnet bigger than you, a green fork-and-knife icon marks a smaller one.
- When a bigger magnet pulls you in, press Space or right click for a pulse. It costs mass, so use it when you have to.
- When you get dismantled, a result card slides in. Press Retry and try again.
PolarzinhoProtected 5, mass 20, and a green magnet named Bracket already giving me the look. I spent the five seconds admiring the discs. Not the best use of five seconds.
Controls
- Move: WASD, the arrow keys, or hold the mouse button. Touch controls are listed on the game page too.
- Pulse: Space, right click, or the round Pulse button in the bottom-right corner.
- Reactions: the four round faces in the bottom-left corner, numbered 1 to 4.
Bigger magnets pull you in: the rule behind the whole arena
The hints on screen are the whole philosophy. A few seconds into a round: The bigger magnet wins, and pulls you in. Keep your distance. And when it really happens: A bigger magnet is pulling you! Space or right click breaks free.
The tags do the talking. A skull means bigger, a fork and knife means smaller, a crown above a tag marks the current leader. When I reached mass 68, two green tags nearby read 23 and 42 and my appetite woke up.
PolarzinhoShim wears a tiny crown and a 118. I have a 31 and a plan. The plan is to leave.
A feed under the standings board announces takedowns, like Gasket › Piston. When your own name is in it, the line lights up. I enjoyed that feature less every time.
Pulse: the button that pays you in mass
The round button in the bottom-right corner is the Pulse. Press Space or right click and a ring bursts out of your magnet and shoves whatever is near. It is not free. The number printed on the button changed with my size: -2 at mass 20, -4 at 31, -9 at 68. After a shot it refills like a glass of water.
PolarzinhoMass 68, a ×16 chain, two green tags and a ring I fired for the drama. This is the screenshot I will show people. The rest of my rounds are classified.
A toast, Pulse overcharged: longer reach, harder push, popped up in the opening seconds of several rounds. You can see it above, and the pulse ring is drawn twice, one circle inside the other.
The game says Space or right click breaks free, and I pressed it every time the warning showed up. In one round the warning came early and I was still alive at 1:03. In another, the warning and the result card were a handful of seconds apart.
Scrap rain, golden nuts and the crane: where mass really comes from
Loose washers are the daily bread, but a round throws events at you, each announced by a yellow toast across the top: Scrap rain! Run over there. Golden nut on the tray. The crane is about to drop scrap! Run to the target.
Pickup chains and scrap rain
Grab pieces back to back and a small counter appears under your magnet: ×4 in one frame, ×6 in another, ×16 in my best. In the middle of the rain the pieces are everywhere, so the chain climbs almost by itself.
PolarzinhoWashers everywhere, Ratchet on the right at 106 and a ×6 under my paws. A few seconds after this shot I hit my best mass of that round. A few seconds after that, Ratchet (149 by then) dismantled me. The same Ratchet.
Golden nut, crane and the arrows
The event toasts can bring a yellow arrow to the edge of the screen, pointing at the golden nut, the rain or the crane target. A red arrow points somewhere less friendly: a stronger magnet off screen. The arrows are the cheapest tip in the game. When the floor in front of you is empty, one of them tells you where to go.
PolarzinhoBracket below me, Gizmo on the right, a lightning bolt on the left. Four seconds later the card said Dismantled by Bracket. Geometry is not my strong suit.
The dark gear in the corner takes metal off magnets
In many of my screenshots a dark gear-shaped disc sits on the tray, sometimes in a corner, sometimes in the middle. I took it for decoration. Then I rolled next to it.
In the frame below a thin pink ring is drawn around the gear, yellow bits stream away from my magnet toward it, a red -7 floats up beside my tag and the game announces Close call!
PolarzinhoThe -7 is my mass leaving through the front door. I now treat every gear like a bear: respect, from a distance.
Dismantled by Shim: reading the result card
When a bigger magnet gets you, your own magnet falls apart in front of you, eyes turned into little X marks, and a card slides in with Dismantled by and a name.
PolarzinhoMy own eyes turned into X marks. I felt that in my soul. And Bracket was only a 52. It was enough.
The card lists your Position (like Position 18 of 24), Highest mass, Dismantled (my count stayed at 0 all session, thanks for asking) and Time alive (my longest was 1:45). Small chips add moments: Pickup chain ×18, Close calls: 1, New best and, after my fifth round, New skin: Neon!
PolarzinhoPosition 16 of 24, mass 68, a ×18 chain and a New best badge. I want this card framed. In a frame made of washers.
Below the numbers sit a tiny comparison with whoever leads the arena and a green line plotting your mass, where I can read the spike of the scrap rain and the cliff where Ratchet found me. Two buttons close the card: Retry and Menu.
Skins, reactions and records: what to do between rounds
Skins first: twelve paints, from Cherry and Lagoon to Neon and Lava, in three shapes called Classic, Chunky and Fork. Neon showed up after my fifth round, with a green tick on Play 5 games.
My records lists Best marks (Highest mass, Games played, Longest pickup chain) and six Missions with progress bars. Mine read Reach mass 250: 74/250 and Pick up 20 pieces in a row: 18/20. Two pieces. Two! The panel says it is saved on this device only.
PolarzinhoTwenty-four reaction faces, four shortcut slots, and counters like 74/100 on the locked ones. My best mass is 74, so I know what I am chasing.
Settings has Text size, High contrast, Less motion, Camera shake and zoom, Effects quality and Vibration. The language menu lists fourteen languages. I played in English.
Magnet arena game tips from the panda who peaked at 15th
- Steer away from skull tags first and collect second. No washer is worth a skull.
- Follow the yellow toasts. Scrap rain gave me my biggest chains, 16 and 18.
- Fire the pulse when the pull warning appears, not before. It costs mass every time.
- Glance at the standings board now and then. In one round the top bot already read 100 within the first half minute, while I read 31.
- Press Retry right away. My rounds ran from 6 seconds to 1:45, so a new route is always one button away.
Magnado FAQ: download, bots, online and phones
Do I need to download Magnado?
No. It opened and ran in my browser tab, and Polar Games lists Magnado for desktop and mobile.
What is the difference between Play online and Play with bots?
The menu has both buttons, and Polar Games lists them as the game modes: the online arena and practice against bots. In the practice arena, your records stay on your own device.
What do I do when a bigger magnet pulls me in?
Press Space or right click. The game says that is how you break free, and the pulse costs some of your mass.
Which languages does it speak?
Fourteen, from English and Portuguese to Japanese, Korean and Chinese. The menu has a drop-down.
Magnado pros and cons
Your turn on the tray
Open Magnado on Polar Games, type a name, press Play with bots and spend your five Protected seconds on washers, not on discs. If you run into Gear, tell it I am still waiting for that rematch.