Hands only · Meta Quest
How to play Dendrite Bloom
Fold, punch, predict. Every puzzle is the same three moves, and they take about a minute to learn.
The idea
A sheet of paper hangs in the air in front of you. It is folded, a hole is punched through the folded stack, and your job is to picture the paper unfolding: where will the holes be? You answer on a second, flat sheet, then press CHECK and watch the paper unfold over your answer.
There are no controllers. You fold, punch, mark and press with your fingertips, using Quest hand tracking, in your own room through passthrough.
Three moves
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Fold
Push the paper from behind with your index fingertip and it folds along the crease. Numbered diagrams beside the sheet show each fold in order, with an arrow across the crease. On a halving fold you can push either half. On a short fold only the flap moves, so only the flap glows.
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Punch
A hole goes through every layer of the folded stack at once. That is why one punch can leave two, four or eight holes once the paper is flat again: each layer of the stack is a different square of the sheet.
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Predict, then check
On the flat sheet, touch the squares where you think the holes will be. Touch a marked square again to take the mark off. When you are happy, press CHECK. The folded paper unfolds over your prediction.
What CHECK tells you
Every square of your answer is marked, so you can see exactly where your picture of the paper went wrong:
- Green: you found a real hole.
- Orange, dashed: a hole you missed.
- Red cross: a square you marked that has no hole.
There is no timer and nothing is taken away for a wrong answer. A puzzle you miss comes back later for practice, and solving it then strengthens the same connection in your growing brain.
Sessions and levels
A session is five puzzles. The game has 20 levels of ten puzzles each, starting with a single fold on a small sheet and building towards folding in your head and designing your own folds. After level 20, Infinite Bloom never runs out.
The puzzles come in three kinds: holes, light and ink.
Five tips for your first folds
- The crease is a mirror. A hole on one side of a fold has a twin the same distance away on the other side.
- Count the layers. Where the paper is folded twice, one punch makes two holes; folded four times, four.
- Unfold in reverse. Start from the last fold in the diagrams and undo them one at a time.
- Watch which squares stay put. The front layer of the stack never moves, so the punch is exactly where you see it.
- Take your time. Move the sheet to where it is comfortable. Nothing is timed.
What you need
A Meta Quest 2, Quest 3 or Quest 3S with hand tracking turned on in the headset settings, and a little room to sit or stand. See the FAQ for more.