Lantern Maze
Arcade game · Chain fireflies in a dark hedge maze, hide from moths
Lantern Maze
Chain fireflies in a dark hedge maze, hide from moths
- Swipe, tap toward a path, or use the arrows / WASD to walk. A turn you queue early is taken at the next opening.
- Walk over fireflies: they trail behind you and bank 2.4 seconds after your last pickup. The k-th firefly in a chain pays 10 × k, up to 80.
- Moths flutter (!) when your lantern comes in range, then chase. Hold Space, hold SHADE or press and hold to hide your light: they lose track, but you walk slower.
Keyboard: Arrows / WASD walk (turns are buffered) · hold Space to shade the lantern · mouse: click toward a path, hold to shadeTouch: Swipe or tap toward a path to walk · hold the SHADE button, or press and hold anywhere, to shade the lantern
© 2026 Rankeno. All rights reserved.
How to play Lantern Maze
Carry a lantern through a night hedge maze, gather fireflies into a glowing chain and shade your light to slip past moths. Grab a sun jar and the moths flee from you.
- Swipe, tap toward a path, or use the arrows / WASD to walk. A turn you queue early is taken at the next opening.
- Walk over fireflies: they trail behind you and bank 2.4 seconds after your last pickup. The k-th firefly in a chain pays 10 × k, up to 80.
- Moths flutter (!) when your lantern comes in range, then chase. Hold Space, hold SHADE or press and hold to hide your light: they lose track, but you walk slower.
- A sun jar makes your lantern blaze: moths flee, and catches pay 100, 200, 300 and up.
- Touching a moth costs one of your three lanterns. Clear every firefly to enter a bigger, darker maze.
- Keyboard & mouse
- Arrows / WASD walk (turns are buffered) · hold Space to shade the lantern · mouse: click toward a path, hold to shade
- Touch
- Swipe or tap toward a path to walk · hold the SHADE button, or press and hold anywhere, to shade the lantern
Press P or Esc to pause. Scores from signed-in players go on the leaderboard.
Lantern Maze is an original Rankeno game. © 2026 Rankeno. All rights reserved. The game, its code, artwork, sounds and name are protected by copyright; copying, re-hosting, embedding or redistributing them is not allowed. See our Terms.
About Lantern Maze
Lantern Maze is a chase-and-collect game set in a hedge maze at night. Your lantern lights only a few tiles around you, fireflies glow in the dark and pale moths drift between the hedges. Fireflies you walk over follow you in a chain and bank together for a bigger bonus, moths that sense your light flutter and give chase, and shading the lantern lets you slip away at the cost of speed and sight. Clearing a maze opens the next: the hedges grow from 13×15 to 17×21 tiles, the moths go from three to five, and the circle of light keeps shrinking until maze 7.
Lantern Maze is an original Rankeno Play game, first released in 2026. Every maze is generated from the run’s seed with most dead ends braided into loops, it plays free in any modern browser on a phone or a computer, and finished runs are ranked on the Rankeno Play leaderboards.
Lantern Maze tips and strategy
- Chains pay steeply: a lone firefly banks 10 points, a chain of five banks 150, and every firefly past the eighth adds 80. Route through clusters so each pickup lands within 2.4 seconds of the last one.
- An unbanked chain is at risk. If a moth touches you, every firefly still trailing you flies back to where it was found, so let the ring above your head run out before you walk into a busy corridor.
- Shade early rather than late. A wandering moth cannot notice a shaded lantern at all, but one that has already spotted you only loses track after half a second of shade, while you walk at about 60 percent speed.
- Save sun jars for when moths are close. A blaze lasts 6 seconds in the first maze and shrinks to 3 seconds by maze 7, fleeing moths move at half your speed, and each catch in the same blaze pays 100 more than the one before.
- Moths chase at 80 percent of your walking speed in maze 1, rising to 98 percent by maze 7, so a long corridor is an escape route and a dead end is a trap. Keep a second exit in mind before grabbing a firefly in a side passage.
- After you lose a lantern, every moth sleeps at a roost far from the start for at least 2 seconds and touches cannot hurt you for 1.5 seconds. Use that window for the fireflies nearest the start.
Lantern Maze FAQ
How does the firefly chain work in Lantern Maze?
Each firefly you walk over joins a glowing chain behind you and resets a 2.4-second timer, shown as a ring above your head. When the timer runs out the whole chain banks at once: the first firefly is worth 10, the second 20, and so on up to 80 for the eighth and every one after it. Collecting the last firefly in a maze banks the chain straight away and adds the maze-clear bonus of 250 points per maze number, up to 2,500.
What does shading the lantern do?
Holding Space, the SHADE button or a long press shrinks your light to a small circle and slows you from 5.2 to 3.2 tiles per second. Wandering moths cannot notice you while the lantern is shaded, and after half a second any moth that was about to chase or already chasing loses track and stops to look around. A blazing lantern cannot be shaded, so shading does nothing while a sun jar is active.
Is Lantern Maze free to play?
Yes. Lantern Maze is free on Rankeno Play and runs in your web browser, so there is nothing to download or install. You can play straight away as a guest; a free account is only needed to save scores to the leaderboards.
Can I play Lantern Maze on my phone or tablet?
Yes. It runs in mobile and desktop browsers, and the portrait stage scales to fit your screen. On a touchscreen: swipe or tap toward a path to walk; hold the SHADE button, or press and hold anywhere, to shade the lantern. On a computer: Arrows / WASD walk (turns are buffered); hold Space to shade the lantern; mouse: click toward a path, hold to shade.
How do the Lantern Maze leaderboards work?
When you are signed in, every finished run is submitted automatically; guest scores are not saved. Boards rank one best score per player (highest points first) for Today, This week and All time, globally or among your friends. Today and This week reset at midnight UTC, and the week starts on Monday.
