🤖 Guide

How to Beat the AI in Chain Reaction (Easy to Expert)

Losing to the Medium AI three times in a row is a normal first evening. Here is what the four levels are doing – and how to stop being surprised by them.

The four levels

Easy and Medium are free; Hard and Expert are part of PlayCascade Pro.

Beating Easy and Medium

Take two corners, build edges from them and never place next to a loaded enemy cell. Medium will still find one-move captures, so check before each placement – the habit from Strategy Tips. Most players beat Medium consistently within an evening.

A plan for the Expert

The Expert is a minimax search with a tuned evaluation and deliberate variety, so it will not fall for the same trap twice in a row. It is excellent at tactics – anything that resolves within a few moves – and comparatively weaker at long, slow plans.

1. Open in corners and stay quiet. Do not contest the centre early; the Expert wins open tactical fights.
2. Keep every cell one below loaded as long as you can. A board full of your unloaded cells gives the search nothing to attack.
3. Watch its loaded cells, not its marbles. The moment an Expert spring touches one of your cells, resolve it or move away.
4. Let it run out of safe moves. On 6×6 this happens fast. The first player forced to load a cell next to the opponent usually loses the game.
5. Fire the whole chain at once. When your connected loaded cells reach one of its loaded cells, the cascade should take most of the board. Half-measures get recaptured.

Using the step-by-step mode

After a loss, replay the final cascade one step at a time. You will usually find the single placement two turns earlier that created the opening. That review is the fastest way to improve – faster than another game.

If you are new, start on 6×6 against Easy and read Learn in 5 Minutes first.