Beetleball is a Dung Beetle soccer game where you need to score dung balls in the enemy net.

A typical game involves fighting for control of dung balls and merging dung balls together to form gold balls which can be used to score.

There are various playable beetles that each have their own abilities and playstyles for people to play with. Each beetle is balanced so choose whichever one you enjoy playing the most for what you play in matches.

Basic Movement

You can move around a field using the W, A, S, and D keys. If you hold down shift you sprint which allows you to move at a faster speed. It's usually recommended to do this at all times instead of walking unless you want to set up specific Tech that require slow positioning.

There is a setting in the accessibility settings of the game that allows you to always sprint even when not holding down the shift button. This swaps the button so that if you hold it down you swap to the walking mode so you can still go slow and set up things at certain points.

You can jump using the space button. This gives you some height if you need to reach places a bit higher up or to jump over small obstacles. Tapping the space button while in the air lets you enter glide mode which slows your falling speed. While in glide mode you can move your camera around to glide in different directions. Pointing it somewhat downwards gives you some more speed rather than pointing it straight forward as well.

You are capable of walking on any surface. This includes the floor, walls, and ceilings. If there is a large wall on the map you can just walk up it if you want.

Basic Abilities

In a match you are capable of grabbing a ball using left click and performing a headbutt or throwing a ball using right click.

In order to grab you need to go near a ball and then hit left click in order to snap onto it and move with the ball. While moving with a ball you move a bit faster than the regular walking speed. You can also hit left click and then walk towards the ball to grab it as a grab still works for 1 second after you hit the button. This can be used to perform some of the advanced techs easier since you can pre-input a grab and then do the tech into a ball without needing to input a grab in the middle of the key sequence.

You can headbutt by holding down right click and then releasing while you do not have a ball. Headbutting a beetle or ball will knock them in the direction of your headbutt. Headbutting a beetle carrying a ball will make them drop the ball. Headbutt are the main method of contesting balls and blocking shots on the net. If someone shoots on the net and you are in the net defending. You can headbutt the ball while it's moving in the air to knock it back away from the net. Headbutt can be aimed in a direction by pointing the camera in that direction

You can throw by holding down and then releasing right click while you have a ball. This chucks the ball in the direction of your camera in order to get it towards a location quickly. This can be used to throw a ball towards your teammates or clear balls away from a location to prevent the enemy team from getting it.

Scoring

You can't just score with any regular dung ball. You must obtain a golden ball by combining 5 levels of dung together.

Dung balls are laid by a rabbit around the field and you can roll them into each other to merge them together. A 1 level ball merged with a 1 level ball will make a 2 level ball. A 2 level ball merged with a 3 level ball will make a 5 level ball (aka a gold ball.) Etc.

Merging balls together to get up to the gold level will always stop the ball level at level 5. Two levels 4s merged together will become level 5 aka a basic gold ball instead of a level 8. This means that you can never accidentally destroy a ball while trying to form a gold ball unless another ball merges in afterwards.

After a ball reaches gold it can have another 2 levels of dung merged into it and then any other levels of dung will explode the ball after a second. This gets rid of the ball and creates 3 small 1 level dung balls. This mechanic is useful if there are too many gold balls around on your side of the field so you can get rid of them so there's less to defend against.

Your First Beetle

Beetleball has a lot of different beetles with different difficulty levels and playstyles. To start with one I recommend one of the following three as they require the least amount of Tech learning to get value out of them in a match.

Each beetle has two abilities they can use and optionally a passive. Both abilities can be used using the q button with one being used while you are holding a ball (the onball ability) and one being used while you are not holding a ball (the offball ability.)

Ladybug is an attacking speedster capable of moving decently fast and can fly in directions both with and without a ball. The offball ability (usable using the q button) lets you fly fast in a direction by consuming your offball ability meter as you fly (this recharges over time.) The onball ability lets you fly upwards with the ball by consuming the onball ability meter as you fly (this recharges over time.) Ladybug is a smallest beetle in the game and takes more knockback from all sources so you need to watch out for other beetles knocking you back with their abilities. It however is able to chase down other beetles and contest for ball control with them to try to steal the ball and then run away with it into the air.

Firefly is a disruptor capable of stunning any nearby beetles. The offball ability when used makes you fly and move fast for a bit towards your camera direction. After a couple seconds you explode, stunning any beetles nearby and making them drop any balls they may be carrying. The onball ability when used marks the ball you are currently holding to explode after a bit. You can use this on a small ball for example and then throw it in the direction of an enemy to have a Ranged stun effect. Both of these abilities work on a cooldown so you need to wait for around 20 seconds after using an ability in order to use that ability again.