Lose a board to a bot and it can feel as if the computer simply knows where every coin will go. In a sense it does, but every bot also has limits, and those limits are what separate Easy from Expert. Once you know how a bot picks its shot, you can choose the right opponent to practise against and spot the openings it leaves.
Two choices: a level and a character
On the Play vs Bot screen you choose two separate things:
- Difficulty: Easy, Medium, Hard or Expert. This sets how carefully the bot searches for a shot and how steady its hand is.
- Opponent: Arjun (Balanced), Rani (Aggressive), Vikram (Defensive) or Zara (Trick-shot). This sets which shots it likes.
Any character can play at any level, so a gentle Rani on Easy and a ruthless Vikram on Expert are both possible.
How a bot chooses its shot
Every bot goes through the same four steps on each turn.
1. List the possible pots
The bot takes each coin it is allowed to pot (in Classic, its own colour plus the queen while it is on the board) and each of the four pockets. For every pair it works out the contact point: where the striker must touch the coin to send it at that pocket. It tries that line from 17 evenly spaced spots along its baseline, plus the one spot that puts striker, coin and pocket in a straight row.
Most lines are dropped at once: another piece is in the way, the cut is too thin for this bot’s style (the cut is the angle between the striker’s path and the coin’s path), or the shot needs more speed than any stroke has. Each line that survives is kept at two strengths: just enough to reach the pocket, and about a quarter firmer.
2. Test the best ones with real physics
The bot ranks the lines with a quick estimate that favours straight, short shots and coins near a pocket. Then it plays the top of that list through the same physics engine the game uses. This is the first big difference between the levels: Easy tests 8 shots, Medium 18, Hard 36 and Expert 60. An Easy bot often never considers the pot an Expert bot finds.
Two kinds of shots are always tested at every level: any coin within 14 cm of a pocket, and a few firm “spread” shots at the middle of the remaining pieces, so the bot never runs out of things to play.
3. Judge each outcome with the rules
Each simulated stroke is judged by the same rules that judge yours. Points the bot gains count for it, points you gain count against it, and a stroke that wins the match beats everything. Fouls such as a striker off the board cost a lot. Covering the queen earns a bonus, while letting the queen go back to the centre costs. Two or more coins in one stroke earn a combo bonus.
The bot also looks at its leave: coins that end up within 9 cm of a pocket. If it keeps the turn, its own coins by the pockets are good news. If the turn passes to you, your coins by the pockets are bad news, because it has just handed you easy shots.
4. Allow for its own hand, then shoot
The simulation is perfect, but the bot is not. It weighs each pot by the chance that it really goes in with its level of aim error, so long shots and thin cuts lose value, and a likely miss counts as a likely lost turn.
The level matters here too. Expert always takes a pot if it has found one, and Hard takes one it is at least 50 percent sure of. Easy and Medium may prefer a safe spread shot to an awkward pot. Every level takes a near-certain easy pot (a coin by a pocket, at least 75 percent sure) unless another stroke wins outright or scores far more.
Then it shoots, with a little random error added to aim and power:
| Level | Shots tested | Typical aim error | Typical power error |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy | 8 | 2.6° | 14% |
| Medium | 18 | 1.2° | 8% |
| Hard | 36 | 0.5° | 4% |
| Expert | 60 | 0.18° | 2% |
Two and a half degrees sounds small, but over a long shot it turns a pot into a coin rattling in the jaws. The error shrinks for coins close to a pocket, because nobody misses a coin that is almost in already.
What the four characters do differently
- Arjun (Balanced) is the reference: cuts up to 72°, normal strength, and a moderate concern for fouls and for what he leaves you.
- Rani (Aggressive) hits about 18 percent harder, takes cuts up to 76°, worries less about fouls and much less about her leave, and gets a bigger combo reward.
- Vikram (Defensive) hits about 8 percent softer and refuses cuts thinner than 62°. Fouls hurt him most, and he weighs his leave more than twice as much as Arjun does. He is the bot most likely to pass up a risky pot.
- Zara (Trick-shot) accepts cuts up to 82°, ranks cuts above 30° a little higher, and earns the biggest combo bonus. Expect thin cuts and doubles. On a low level that ambition works against her, because thin cuts are where aim error hurts most.
Tal Gach: breaking the tower
In Tal Gach all 19 pieces start in a tower at the centre. For the break, the bot tests straight hits from seven baseline spots, full on and slightly to either side, and keeps the best. The power depends on the level: 55 percent on Easy, 70 on Medium, 85 on Hard and 95 on Expert. A soft break leaves a tight pile; a full one scatters the pieces and can pot a few.
Adaptive bots
Adaptive bots is a setting, on by default. The game keeps a “form” value for your bot matches that rises by a quarter after a win and falls by a quarter after a loss, at most four steps either way. At your lowest form the bots’ aim and power error is up to 35 percent larger; at your highest, up to 35 percent smaller. Only the bot’s hand changes, never how it chooses. To play every match at the exact level you picked, switch it off in Settings.
Bots in Quick Match
If Quick Match cannot find a person in time, bots fill the empty seats. Their ratings are within about 120 points of yours, and their level follows that rating: under 950 plays as Easy, under 1100 as Medium, under 1300 as Hard, above that as Expert. They take their time like people, usually about 2.5 to 6.3 seconds a turn, and miss long pots more often than the normal bots.
How to beat them
- Easy and Medium: take the long and thin pots yourself. They test few lines and their aim wobbles over distance.
- Hard and Expert: watch your leave. They take almost every pot they see, so do not end a turn with their coins by the pockets.
- Rani: she cares least about what she leaves you, so check every turn whether she has handed you an easy coin.
- Vikram: expect him to pass up risky pots. Be patient and do not give him easy ones.
- Zara on a low level: thin cuts are where aim error hurts most, so let her try them.
- New to the game: start on Easy with Arjun, and move up a level once you win most boards.
The bots are careful players with a fixed number of ideas per turn and a hand that shakes by a known amount. Learn where those limits sit, and you will start winning boards you used to lose.
Facts checked against the game’s bot code (bot.ts, progress.ts, launch.ts, bot-roster.ts, human-pace.ts) by the Carrom by 22Softwares team.