Timber is a one-button lumberjack game. Your blob stands at the foot of an endless tree and chops the bottom log. Each chop drops the whole trunk by one log, and branches stick out to the left and right. If a branch lands on your side, you're squashed. A quick tap chops where you stand. Hold for a moment and let go, and you hop around the trunk and chop from the other side. A timer drains faster and faster, and every chop tops it up, so you have to be quick and careful at the same time. There's a new tree every day, with friends' ghost lumberjacks chopping beside you.
How to play Timber
- Tap anywhere to chop the bottom log on your side of the tree.
- Hold until the ring fills, then let go to hop to the other side and chop there.
- Look one log up: if the next branch is on your side, hop before you chop.
- Keep chopping to refill the timer bar. If it empties, or a branch lands on you, the run ends.
Tips to get a high score
- Ignore the branch level with your head. That log is the one you're chopping. The branch one log higher is the one that can land on you.
- A hop costs a short hold, so plan a beat ahead when branches start switching sides.
- Steady tapping builds a rhythm streak with a rising pitch; long pauses reset it.
- Golden logs drop a coin for hats when you chop them. They score the same as any other log.
- After about a minute the timer drains faster than a calm pace can refill it. Speed is everything.
How fast the timer drains
The timer bar doesn't move until your first chop. If you stand still for 8 seconds without chopping, the run ends anyway.
At the start, a full bar lasts about 11 seconds and each chop refills about 7% of it, so roughly one or two chops a second keeps you even. Over the first 70 seconds or so the drain speeds up until a full bar lasts only 2.5 seconds, and each chop refills a little less. By then you need close to seven chops a second just to hold steady.
After that the drain keeps creeping up. Each chop has a swing of a tenth of a second, so you can't chop more than about ten times a second. A little before the two-minute mark the drain overtakes even that, and the bar runs down whatever you do. Every run ends, and a long one comes from keeping the bar full going into that stretch.
How the branches change
The first three logs are always bare. After that the tree gets busier based on how many logs you've chopped, not on time. Early on about half the logs have a branch, and a bare log often follows a branch, which gives you room to think.
Over roughly the first 140 chops, branches spread to about 85% of logs, the bare gaps become rare, and each branch gets more likely to sit on the opposite side from the one before. That last change is what hurts, because back-to-back switches mean back-to-back hops.
Golden logs only appear where there's no branch. Chopping one gives a coin for hats, which is the gold +1 you see pop up. It scores the same single point as any other log.
Tap or hop: getting the input right
A hop needs a hold of about a sixth of a second, until the ring fills, followed by letting go. Let go any sooner and you get an ordinary chop on the side you're already on. That too-short hold is the most common way to get squashed when you meant to switch.
Each hop costs that extra moment, so stretches of alternating branches drain more of the timer than straight tapping. When the bar is low, a run of same-side branches is your chance to tap fast and fill it back up.
If you tap during a chop's swing, the game saves it and chops as soon as the swing ends, but it only saves one. Mashing faster than the swing just throws taps away, so a quick, even beat works best. The streak counter tracks chops within about half a second of each other. It only changes the sound, never the score.
Daily levels and ghost races
Today's Timber level is the same for everyone, and you race the ghosts of other players' runs. How daily levels and challenges work.
FAQ
How do I switch sides with one button?
Hold your finger down until the ring around your lumberjack fills and an arrow appears, then let go. You hop around the trunk and chop in one move. A quick tap just chops.
Why did I get squashed?
After every chop the tree drops one log. If the log that drops to head height has a branch on your side, it lands on you. Hop to the other side first.
Is it free?
Yes. Every Tapamine game is free to play in your browser with no download and no account.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. Tapamine is built for phones first: portrait, one thumb, and it works offline after your first visit. It also works with a mouse or the spacebar on a computer.
How do challenges work?
After a run, tap “Challenge a friend” to send a link. Your friend plays the exact same level and races your ghost — a replay of your run — to see who wins.
Add Timber to your site
Timber is free to embed on your blog, class page or website. Paste this code:
<iframe src="https://tapamine.com/embed/timber/" title="Timber: free one-tap game" width="360" height="640" style="border:0;border-radius:16px;max-width:100%" allow="autoplay; fullscreen; web-share" loading="lazy"></iframe>