# How to play Mixmote

> Mixmote is a crafting game you play in the browser. This page is part of the [reading room](https://mixmote.com/reading-room), the game's handbook in plain text.

Mixmote is played on a table. You take things from your stores, put them on the table and work on them. Every try at changing something, whether or not it works, is one action.

## The two moves

- **Combine**: drag one card onto another. Stone onto Stone, Fire onto Wood, Water onto Earth.
- **Use a tool or a force**: pick it from the hotbar (keys 1 to 9) so it rides on your cursor, then click a card on the table. Pick the Hammer and click Stone; pick Fire and click Sand.

Ingredients become the result. A tool stays in your hand, though tools can wear with use.

## Where things come from

- **The hotbar** at the bottom holds the starting tools, forces and basic ingredients. Number keys pick a slot; the arrow keys switch rows.
- **The Codex** opens after your first few actions and lists everything you have discovered. Drag a card out of it, or press cmd + K and type a name.
- Results usually come in portions: one Stone breaks into ten Gravel. That is the usual yield; now and then a craft gives one more or one less.

## Actions

An action is one try: a combination, a tool used on something, an apparatus run. A try that makes nothing still counts. Free play gives 300 actions without an account and 800 in all with a free account ([access and price](https://mixmote.com/reading-room/access)).

## Worked example: Glass

**Answer:**

1. Hammer on Stone gives 10 Gravel.
2. Hammer (or Knife) on Gravel gives 10 Sand.
3. Fire on Sand (or drag Fire onto Sand) gives 2 Glass.

**Hint, if you would rather work it out:** Glass is sand that has been in a fire.

## Equipment

Some things you make are equipment: a Workbench to assemble parts, a Kiln to fire things, a Glass Beaker to brew in. Drag ingredients into their slots and press their button. [Equipment](https://mixmote.com/reading-room/equipment) says what each one is for.

## Useful keys

| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| 1 to 9 | Pick up a hotbar slot; press again to put it down |
| Arrow up, arrow down | Switch hotbar rows |
| cmd + K | Find anything you have discovered by name |
| Q | Show or hide the Codex |
| Right-click | Put down what you are holding, or return a card to your stores |
| Shift + drag | Select several cards |
| Esc | Close whatever is open; on a clear table, open the menu |

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From the Mixmote team. Built from the game's data (seed v3, version 2), last changed 2026-10-07.