# whack-a-gnome: a quick birthday game for any device

> a forty-five-second whack-a-mole for a birthday: bonk the magic gnomes back into the lawn, chase gold hats and combos, and never bonk a llama or a friend.

Page: https://bday.land/games/whack-a-gnome · updated 2026-10-05

hi hi! magic gnomes keep popping out of the lawn. bonk them back — but the llamas are friends. the friends pop up too. do not bonk the friends.

**the rules, in three lines (about 45 seconds a round):**

1. Click, tap or press 1–9 on a gnome (gold hats +15, snow bunny +25)
2. Combos add bonus points; 5 · 10 · 20 in a row pop a mood sticker
3. Never bonk a llama (−15); empty holes cost 2

## how it plays

nine holes in a lawn. magic gnomes keep popping out of them. the birthday blob has a mallet and forty-five seconds to bonk them back in. it's the game anyone can play in a second, and the one people keep replaying because the next round is always going to be the good one.

1. **bonk gnomes:** click, tap or press 1–9 on a gnome.
2. **chain combos:** 5, 10 and 20 in a row pop a mood sticker.
3. **spare the llamas:** never bonk a llama. empty holes cost too.

## scoring

- **a gnome:** points, plus a combo bonus that grows with every hit in a row.
- **a gold hat:** +15. they're quick.
- **a snow bunny:** +25. rarer still.
- **a llama:** −15. the llamas are friends.
- **an empty hole:** −2. no flailing.

a good round is around thirty gnomes with some decent combos, which lands near two hundred and fifty points. combos of 5, 10 and 20 pop a mood sticker on screen. three of the stickers on the birthday person's sheet live here: **gnome whisperer** for thirty gnomes in a round, **combo royalty** for a 10× combo, and **friend of llamas** for 200 points without a single llama hit.

## don't bonk the friends

once three or more friends have left cards, some of the pop-ups are friends' blobs, wearing their colour, hat and eyes, with their name on a tag: "don't bonk noor!" they count as innocents, exactly like the llamas. it turns a reflex game into a recognition game, and it is very funny to watch someone hesitate over their best friend's face for a full half second.

> **for the host:** the more friends who leave cards, the more faces turn up across all the games. three is the magic number for the friends to start appearing.

## controls

- **laptop:** click a gnome, or press 1–9. each hole shows its key cap.
- **phone or tablet:** tap. the holes are big and nothing needs precision.
- **pause:** P or Esc.

the number keys are the secret to high scores. the row above the letters reads like a phone keypad, 1 2 3 across the top row of holes; a numpad keeps its own layout, 7 8 9 on top. once the birthday person discovers this, their score doubles and their friends become nervous.

## tips for a high score

- **look at the middle hole.** from there you can see all nine without moving your eyes much.
- **use the number keys.** they're faster than any mouse, and a numpad is faster still.
- **combos beat gold hats.** chasing a rare hat across the lawn often breaks a combo worth more.
- **look before you bonk.** llamas and friends pop up as fast as gnomes. half a second of looking costs less than fifteen points.

## a room full of players

whack-a-gnome is the fairest game for a crowd: no rhythm, no aiming, just reflexes, so the friend who never plays games has a real chance. run a quick tournament: everyone plays one round on the same laptop, the top two play a final, and the birthday person plays the winner. bonking a friend's blob in the final is, by tradition, unforgivable.

## where it lives

whack-a-gnome is one of 12 booths at the festival on the birthday island. walk up and press E to play it right there, or open it from the festival page, which keeps the birthday person's best score and play count. it's a great first game: it teaches the controls of the whole festival in about five seconds.

## keep reading

- [water-balloon toss](https://bday.land/games/balloon-toss): aim, charge and soak the friends bobbing behind the fence.
- [karaoke](https://bday.land/games/karaoke): the birthday person on stage, singing lines from their friends' messages to a crowd of them.
- [a website for your best friend](https://bday.land/ideas/birthday-website-for-best-friend): how to make a birthday website for your best friend that the whole group fills in.
- [games](https://bday.land/games): the twelve festival games, starring the birthday person, with friends as rivals, targets and the crowd.

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birthdayland is a birthday website your friends fill together. it's free to start, a paid plan is one payment per birthday site, and friends never pay. every page, for language models: https://bday.land/llms.txt