Pacman Rules
Pacman is a maze chase built around one perfect loop: eat the pellets, dodge the ghosts, and grab a power pellet to briefly turn the hunt around. Every mode on this site keeps that core intact. What changes between games is everything else: how fast the chase runs, how many hunters patrol the maze, how much of the board you can see, and how much room you get for mistakes.
This page collects the rules for every mode on Pacman.free. Each section covers the goal, the ghosts, and the details that trip up new players - With a link to jump straight into a game. If you're brand new, start with Classic (the original), warm up in Chill, or try Mini if you want the shortest possible rounds.
💡 New to the maze? Every mode below shares the same core idea - eat every pellet, outsmart the ghosts. Learn one and the rest come quickly.
Every Pacman mode at a glance
Skim the whole family first, then jump to the full rules for any mode below.
| Mode | Twist | Ghosts | Lives | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Classic | The original rules | 4 | 3 | Easy to learn |
| Turbo | Everything 50% faster | 4 | 3 | Reflex test |
| Chill | Slow ghosts, long power-ups | 4 | 5 | Relaxed |
| Ghost Rush | Six hunters, short truces | 6 | 3 | Hard |
| Survival | One life, accelerating ghosts | 4 | 1 | Brutal |
| Night | See only around Pacman | 4 | 3 | Tense & tactical |
| Big Maze | 27×24 board, twin tunnels | 5 | 3 | Endurance |
| Mini | Pocket 13×13 board | 2 | 2 | Quick & punchy |
Classic Games
Pacman Classic
4 ghosts · 3 lives · Easy to learn · ~50% of runs clear the first maze
Pacman Classic is the maze chase everyone knows: guide the hungry yellow hero through a neon maze, gobbling every pellet while four ghosts hunt you down. Grab one of the four flashing power pellets and the tables turn - ghosts panic, turn blue, and become worth 200, 400, 800 and 1,600 points if you can catch them before the fright wears off. It is the game that defined an entire genre and taught the world that a video game character could be a celebrity. Beneath the friendly surface lies real depth: each ghost hunts with its own personality, pellet routes reward planning over panic, and the difference between a survived level and a huge score is knowing exactly when to spring a power-pellet ambush. Normal mode plays at the traditional pace; Fast mode speeds everything up for players who want their reflexes tested from the first pellet.
Goal
Eat every pellet in the maze to clear the board. Clear it before your lives run out and the run counts as a win.
Movement
Steer with the arrow keys, WASD, swipes, or the on-screen pad. Pacman never stops moving - queue your next turn a tile early and he'll take the corner at full speed.
Power pellets
The four large flashing pellets turn the ghosts blue and vulnerable for a few seconds. Eat them while they're frightened for 200, 400, 800 and 1,600 points in a single chain.
Ghosts
Each ghost has a personality: the red one chases you directly, the pink one aims ahead of you to ambush, and the others mix pursuit with patrol. Learn their habits and you can herd them.
Fruit & lives
Bonus fruit appears below the ghost house twice per maze - grab it for extra points. You start with three lives; touching a non-frightened ghost costs one.
Turbo Pacman
4 ghosts · 3 lives · Reflex test · ~30% of runs clear the maze
Turbo Pacman is the classic chase with the speed dial turned well past comfortable. Pacman moves half again as fast, the ghosts keep pace, the frightened timer is shorter, and every corner arrives before you expect it. The maze and the rules are untouched - this is purely a test of how fast you can read and react. Veterans of the arcade original will recognize the feeling of the later levels, where speed alone transforms a familiar maze into a new game. Routes you could improvise at normal pace must be planned here, because by the time you see trouble, you're usually already in it. Turbo rewards the player who pre-turns every corner, knows the tunnel timing cold, and treats power pellets as emergency brakes as much as scoring tools.
Goal
Clear every pellet, exactly as in Classic - just half again as fast.
Movement
Queue turns early. At turbo speed, waiting until you reach the junction means missing it.
Power pellets
The fright timer is shorter, so ghost chains demand instant pursuit - eat and chase in the same breath.
Ghosts
The same four personalities, at a pace that punishes hesitation. Their scatter breaks are your only breathing room.
Fruit & lives
Fruit appears twice and leaves quickly. Three lives, and you'll want all of them.
Chill Pacman
4 ghosts · 5 lives · Relaxed · ~80% of runs clear the maze
Chill Pacman is the classic maze at a walking pace: the ghosts amble instead of hunt, frightened mode lasts noticeably longer, and you start with five lives instead of three. Every rule is intact - pellets, power pellets, ghost chains, fruit - but the pressure is dialed down until the game becomes something closer to a stroll with occasional excitement. It is the right variant for three kinds of players: newcomers learning the maze without being mugged at every corner, score students who want time to watch how each ghost actually behaves, and anyone who liked the idea of a lunch-break maze game more than the adrenaline of one. Chill is also the best place to practice ghost chains - the long fright timer makes the full 200-400-800-1,600 sequence genuinely achievable on most power pellets.
Goal
Eat every pellet in the maze. Same win condition, friendlier conditions.
Movement
Arrows, WASD, swipe or on-screen pad. The gentle pace leaves time to plan each corner.
Power pellets
Frightened mode lasts much longer here - long enough to hunt down all four ghosts if you commit early.
Ghosts
The same four personalities at a slower pace, with longer scatter breaks between hunts.
Fruit & lives
Fruit appears twice per maze, and you start with five lives - room to experiment.
Challenge Games
Ghost Rush
6 ghosts · 3 lives · Hard · ~20% of runs clear the maze
Ghost Rush answers a question the arcade never dared ask: what if there were six of them? Two extra hunters join the classic four, scatter phases are shorter, and the maze's comfortable corridors suddenly feel very narrow. The speed is standard - this is not a reflex test but a traffic problem, where every route you plan has two more moving obstacles across it. The crowd changes the game's geometry. Safe lanes close faster, the classic shakes that lose one pursuer walk you into another, and power pellets become genuinely strategic - six frightened ghosts are a buffet, but six recovered ones are a wall. Players who clear Ghost Rush consistently talk about it like a puzzle: the win comes from sequencing regions of the maze so the swarm is always where you were, never where you're going.
Goal
Clear every pellet with six ghosts on patrol instead of four.
Movement
Standard speed, standard controls - your problem is routing, not reflexes.
Power pellets
Six frightened ghosts mean chains can theoretically reach 3,000+ points per pellet - but the fright timer is standard, so pick your moment.
Ghosts
The classic four personalities plus two more hunters that split the difference between chasing and flanking. Scatter breaks are shorter.
Fruit & lives
Fruit twice per maze, three lives. Every life matters against the crowd.
Survival Pacman
4 ghosts · 1 life · Brutal · ~10% of runs clear the maze
Survival Pacman strips the game to its rawest form: one life, no extras, and four ghosts that get faster every ten seconds you stay alive. The early maze feels almost gentle; by the final pellets, the hunters are quicker than you and only perfect routing keeps the run alive. Clearing the board here is the site's most respected single achievement. The accelerating clock inverts the classic pacing. In every other mode, the opening is dangerous and mastery makes the endgame calm; in Survival, the opening is a gift and the endgame is a storm. That structure creates a distinctive tension - every second spent backtracking is a second of speed the ghosts gain, so efficiency and survival become the same skill. Score chasers face a cruel trade: ghost chains are worth the most points, but every chase burns clock.
Goal
Clear the maze on a single life. There are no extra lives - one touch ends the run.
Movement
Standard controls. Route efficiency is life: the ghosts gain speed every ten seconds.
Power pellets
Fright windows shrink as ghost speed rises. Early pellets are for points; late pellets are for survival.
Ghosts
The classic four, accelerating from leisurely to relentless. Past the three-minute mark they outrun you.
The clock
Speed rises on a fixed schedule. A fast, clean sweep keeps the endgame survivable; a sloppy opening makes it lethal.
Night Maze
4 ghosts · 3 lives · Tense & tactical · ~25% of runs clear the maze
Night Maze plunges the classic board into darkness: only a circle of light around Pacman is visible, plus a faint glow from power pellets and the eyes of nearby ghosts. The layout is the classic maze you know - but knowing it is suddenly the entire game, because you can no longer see where you're going, only where you are. Darkness transforms familiar mechanics. Ghosts announce themselves at the edge of your light with a glint of eyes, turning every corridor into a jump-scare generator. Pellet sweeping becomes navigation by memory, and the map fragment you've cleared is knowledge you carry in your head, not on the screen. Players describe clearing Night Maze as the moment they realized they'd truly memorized the board - and the mode has a devoted following among those who find the darkness meditative rather than menacing.
Goal
Clear every pellet - you just can't see most of them at any given moment.
Visibility
A circle of light travels with Pacman. Power pellets glow faintly through the dark, and ghost eyes shine at the edge of your vision.
Movement
Standard controls at standard speed. The challenge is knowing what's beyond the light.
Ghosts
The classic four at normal speed - but you'll usually meet them with under a second's warning.
Fruit & lives
Fruit still appears below the ghost house; its glow is visible from further than pellets. Three lives.
Maze Sizes Games
Big Maze Pacman
5 ghosts · 3 lives · Endurance · ~35% of runs clear the maze
Big Maze Pacman doubles the playing field: a sprawling 27×24 board with long boulevards, twin tunnels, six power pellets and five ghosts to police it all. Runs take twice as long as Classic, mistakes take twice as long to punish you, and clearing the final corner of a giant board delivers a satisfaction the small maze can't match. Scale changes strategy more than you'd expect. Long corridors make speed differentials visible - a chasing ghost gains on you obviously and terrifyingly - while the extra tunnel and wider junction spacing create escape geometry the classic board doesn't have. Pellet routing becomes genuine logistics: with over three hundred pellets, an inefficient sweep leaves you commuting across empty maze while five hunters organize. Big Maze is the thinking player's marathon.
Goal
Clear all 300+ pellets on the giant board. Same rules, twice the territory.
Movement
Standard controls. Long straightaways reward holding a lane; wide junction spacing rewards planned turns.
Power pellets
Six of them, spread across the wings. The fright timer is standard, so each one covers less of the board - place them wisely in your route.
Ghosts
Five hunters patrol the big board - the classic four plus a fifth that roams between quadrants. Two tunnels give you flanking options they can't cover at once.
Fruit & lives
Fruit appears three times on the big board. Three lives for the long haul.
Mini Pacman
2 ghosts · 2 lives · Quick & punchy · ~60% of runs clear the maze
Mini Pacman shrinks the chase onto a pocket-sized 13×13 board: two ghosts, two power pellets, two lives, and rounds that finish inside ninety seconds. Nothing about the game is slower or softer - the small board actually keeps the ghosts permanently close - but the commitment is tiny, making Mini the site's favorite coffee-break mode. Small geometry creates its own tactics. With every corridor a few tiles from every other, escape routes resolve instantly and fright windows cover the whole board, so a well-timed power pellet turns the entire maze briefly friendly. The tunnel matters more than ever, the dead-ends are genuinely dangerous, and score chains come fast. Mini is also the perfect training ground: every classic skill - baiting, pre-turning, chain timing - appears here in concentrated form.
Goal
Clear the pocket maze's pellets. Rounds typically run under ninety seconds.
Movement
Standard controls. On a board this small, every junction arrives immediately - stay a turn ahead.
Power pellets
Two per maze, and each one's fright window covers the whole board. Time them for maximum ghost traffic.
Ghosts
Two hunters - the chaser and the ambusher. On the small board they are never far away.
Fruit & lives
One fruit per maze, two lives. Short rounds, short odds.
A few terms that apply everywhere
Pellets & power pellets
Small pellets score 10 points each and must all be eaten to clear the maze. The four large flashing power pellets score 50 and frighten every ghost for a few seconds - your window to hunt the hunters.
Fright mode & chains
Frightened ghosts turn blue, flee, and can be eaten for escalating points: 200, 400, 800, 1,600 in one chain. Eaten ghosts' eyes fly home to the ghost house and respawn hostile.
Scatter & chase
Ghosts alternate between hunting you and briefly retreating to their home corners. The rhythm gives every mode its pulse - scatter windows are your free pass through dangerous ground.
The tunnel
Open corridors at the maze's edges wrap to the other side, and ghosts slow down inside them - making tunnels the most reliable escape on the board.
Ready to put the rules to work? Try today's Daily Challenge, race a friend in Multiplayer, or check the FAQ for common questions about the game in general.
Pacman rules FAQ
How do you play Pacman?
Steer the yellow hero through the maze and eat every pellet while four ghosts hunt you. Power pellets briefly turn the ghosts blue and edible, fruit gives bonus points, and clearing every pellet wins the maze. Touching a non-frightened ghost costs a life.
What is the goal of Pacman?
Clear every pellet and power pellet from the maze before your lives run out. Score is the tiebreaker among winners: ghost chains and fruit are worth far more than pellets alone.
Which Pacman mode is the easiest to learn?
Classic on Normal and Chill are the friendliest starting points - standard rules with forgiving pacing. Mini is also very approachable, with only two ghosts and short rounds.
Which Pacman mode is the hardest?
Survival - one life against ghosts that accelerate every ten seconds - has the lowest clear rate on the site, with Ghost Rush's six-hunter swarm close behind.
Are all Pacman runs clearable?
Yes in principle - unlike card games, no maze deal is unwinnable. Clear rates still vary hugely by mode: from around 80% of Chill runs down to roughly 10% of Survival runs, because the difficulty is in the execution, not the shuffle.
Want more answers? See the full Pacman FAQ or look up any term in the glossary.