How to play Elastic Thief
Elastic Thief is a free one-screen heist puzzle. Drag the thief's stretchy arm to the diamond without letting any part of it touch a spike or a laser. The whole arm counts, not just the hand.
How to play
Grab the hand
Press or touch the glowing hand at the end of the thief's arm. The thief never moves; only the hand does.
Drag a safe route
The arm stretches from the shoulder to wherever you drag. It is always pulled taut, so it bends around the corners of walls rather than following your exact wiggle.
Watch the whole arm
This is the real puzzle. A route can be perfectly safe for the hand and still drag the middle of the arm through a laser. Plan the shape, not just the destination.
Press the coloured buttons
Touching a coloured button switches off every laser of that colour for the rest of the attempt. Later levels chain them, so the order matters.
Let go whenever you like
Releasing snaps the arm home but keeps disarmed lasers off, so you can take a long level one leg at a time. Touching a hazard resets everything.
Tips
- Walls are your friends. The arm cannot pass through them, so a wall between you and a laser is cover.
- The arm bends at wall CORNERS. Before you drag, look at which corner it will catch on.
- Going the long way round is often the only way. The short route usually drapes the arm across something lethal.
- If a button seems unreachable, you probably need to turn a different colour off first.
- Stuck? Let go and try a completely different side. Any laser you have already switched off stays off.
About Elastic Thief
Elastic Thief on 100 Daily Games is a one-screen puzzle about reach. You play a stick-figure thief whose arm stretches as far as you drag it, and every level asks the same question: what shape does the arm have to make to touch the diamond without touching anything lethal?
The arm is always taut, which is what makes it a puzzle rather than a test of steady hands. It takes the shortest path from the shoulder to your hand, bending only where it catches on the corner of a wall. Wobble as much as you like on the way; what matters is which side of each obstacle you committed to.
The twist is that the whole arm is deadly surface, not just the hand. Plenty of routes look clear right up until the middle of your arm sweeps across a laser you had forgotten about. Coloured buttons switch off matching lasers permanently, so the later levels become dependency chains: blue to reach red, red to reach the diamond.
Thirty hand-built levels, from a two-second first heist to boards where only a handful of possible routes work at all. Free in your browser on desktop and mobile, no download, and your progress saves automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Why did I die when my hand never touched the laser?
Because the whole arm is lethal, not just the hand. The middle of your arm crossed the beam. It is the central idea of the game: plan the shape of the arm, not just where the hand goes.
How do the coloured buttons work?
Touching a button with the hand switches off every laser of that colour for the rest of the attempt. It stays off even if you let go of the hand. Only dying on a hazard turns them back on.
Do I have to do a level in one continuous drag?
No. Releasing snaps the arm home but keeps any lasers you have already disarmed switched off, so you can take a long level a leg at a time.
Why does my arm bend where it does?
The arm is always the shortest path from the shoulder to your hand that does not pass through a wall, so it bends only at wall corners, like a rubber band caught on a peg.
Is Elastic Thief free?
The first 15 levels are free to play in your browser with no download. Levels 16 to 30 are part of 100 Daily Games Plus.