How do power pellets work?

Power pellets are the game's reversal mechanic - four moments per maze where the hunted becomes the hunter. Using them well is the difference between surviving and scoring.

Quick answer: Eating one of the four large flashing pellets scores 50 points and frightens every ghost for a few seconds - they turn blue, reverse direction and flee. Catch them while frightened for escalating points: 200, 400, 800 and 1,600 in one chain. Eaten ghosts' eyes fly home to respawn.

What happens when you eat one

All ghosts instantly reverse direction, turn blue and start fleeing at reduced speed. A timer starts - a few seconds in most modes, longer in Chill, shorter in Turbo. Near the end, the ghosts flash white as a warning. Touch a blue ghost and you eat it: its eyes fly back to the ghost house, where it respawns fresh and hostile.

The chain: 200 to 1,600

Captures in a single fright window double in value: 200 for the first ghost, then 400, 800, and 1,600 for the fourth. A full chain scores 3,000 points from one pellet - which is why experts herd ghosts close before eating one. Bait, gather, flip the switch, feast.

Strategic uses beyond points

A power pellet is also a safe-passage ticket: frightened ghosts can't hurt you, so the window is perfect for clearing the maze's most dangerous ground - the center, the dead ends, the ghost house perimeter. In hard modes like Survival and Ghost Rush, veterans deliberately save late pellets as escape tools rather than point sources.

Practice full chains in Chill mode

Related questions

Why do the ghosts behave differently?

Each ghost follows its own targeting rule: the red one chases your exact position, the pink one targets a few tiles ahead of you to ambush, the cyan one computes a flanking position, and the orange one alternates between chasing and wandering. The personalities were a deliberate design decision to make the game feel alive and learnable.

What is a good Pacman score?

On a single maze, 2,000-3,000 points means you cleared it cautiously; 4,000-6,000 means you took fruit and some ghost chains; above that you're squeezing near-full value from every power pellet. The famous arcade perfect score - every pellet, fruit and chain on all 255 boards - is 3,333,360.

How do you win at Pacman?

Eat every pellet in the maze before your lives run out - that clears the board and counts as a win. Scores go further: power pellet chains, fruit and efficient routes decide your leaderboard rank among winners.