May 28, 2024
Description
TLDR:
Hextraction is a FAN-TA-STIC game
where beads fly through tiles that create a series of paths and booby traps
that you and your opponents strategically place to get your ball in the end zone,
while blocking your opponents' balls.
If you are a happy Hextraction fan: I have more fun for you! Please look for the "I want more tiles!" section further down.
If you are new to Hextraction: please start with the “What is Hextraction?” section below.
What is Hextraction?
Hextraction is a FAN-TA-STIC game with so much action, traps, physics, effects and randomness that no two games are the same. Each turn you get to carefully place on your 3D printed board one of your 3D printed tiles from your hand of randomly picked tiles. You also get to launch a steel ball down a start ramp and frantically watch it fly through a series of tunnels and paths created by all of the hexagonal tiles laid out by all players. These paths can include traps, levers, jumps and even special effects that are all strategically placed to get your ball in the end zone (to win), while blocking your opponents' balls with devious tiles.
What's best part? This game is free to play, free to print and will forever keep improving as designers keep coming with AWESOME ideas to make CRAZY tiles (also free to print) that often flip the game on its head. This is all thanks to Zack Freedman, who chose to offer his game to the crowds of 3D printing enthusiasts, and let players and designers contribute to this wonderful game.
To get an idea of its potential and learn some rules watch the Hextraction video.
To play the game, you will need to:
Hextraction Tiles Set A Mega pack
This file contains a large set of Hextraction tiles I gathered from MakerWorld, Thangs and other sites. I have colorized them, organized them to reduce filament waste and fit them on an A1 mini build plate. I picked the position on each plate so you don't have to clean your build plate more than twice for the entire set.
You clean your plates with soap and warm water, don't you? And dry your filament?
The tiles mentioned on the Getting Started page are included in this MegaPack, except for the Flip Flop and Secret tiles, which are on my Hextraction Tiles Set B Flip Flop+Secret tiles.
To avoid printing duplicate tiles, please note that the following tiles on Makerworld are already included in my sets of tiles (all found by myself!):
Flip-Flop Tile (posted by Sanjays Crafts)
Some tiles require assembly and fasteners.
A lot of tiles come with little tabs on their underside, where the notches are. These tabs help printing horizontally the overhangs. Some tiles don't have it them as most printers can handle small overhangs. After printing your tiles, use pliers (or a knife) to remove each tab from the notches under your tiles. Thanks to @randyhargis for pointing this out.
I must have "tabbed” too many tiles in the back!
(bad pun intended)
Highlights of some of cool tiles
Some tiles look relatively simple but you will appreciate them to get a ball from A to B... or to B, C or D!
Note that on Plate 10 there is the top part of Avalanche tile from Plate 6.
Teleport (by Zack Freedman): those come as pairs, the Teleport In snaps into the Teleport Out. And yes, when your ball lands on the Teleport In tile, it gets teleported to the Teleport Out tile, or to one of the Teleport Out tiles if there are many.
Clone (by Zack Freedman): if a balls runs down the trigger area, you get to send a second ball down this tile's mini ramp.
Queen (by 3Dthee) has a lot of chess power: it can move up/down and diagonally as far as you want, but not through a tile... But you could land on a tile to remove it from the board.
King (by Zack Freedman) can only move to an empty adjacent. But then you turn its knob, which will release any trapped balls.
This tile is made of 4 parts from Plates 2 and 3 along with the spring to be printed in PETG (from this file: Hextraction Tiles A-B-C-D PETG parts). All parts would benefit from being printed on a smooth build plate, but work fine on Textured PEI.
Use a sharpie to darken the star on the to part.
Sort out which tops and flippers are left and right using the 3mf or the image below (notice the notches on the bases).
Needs one M3x12 bolt, two M3 washers for each tile. The bolts get screwed into the plastic base, so be gentle otherwise you will strip the PLA.
Sort out which tops and flippers are left and right using the 3mf or the image below (notice the notches on the bases).
Each tile needs one M3x12 bolt, two M3 washers. The bolt gets screwed into the plastic base, so be gentle otherwise you will strip the PLA.
Needs one M3x12 bolt, two M3 washers as well as one M2x12 screw (anything from 4mm to 12mm).
Requires 2 parts to be printed in PETG (from Hextraction Tiles A-B-C-D PETG parts) and one M3x8 or M3x10 bolt. Washers might be needed if the flipper does not move freely (to be verified before glueing the lid on).
Sweep (by TRIPSLORD): cleans all stuck balls off the board!
Mutagen (by Abalidoth): allows you to overwrite an adjacent tile.
Requires one part to be printed in PETG (see Hextraction Tiles A-B-C-D PETG parts).
Please do a better job than me when aligning the 2 parts of the lid!
Use a sharpie to highlight the star.
"The Red Hot Steel Ball Tile superheats your ball to 5,000 imaginary degrees Centigrade, burning through gimmicks, blockades, and anything else between you and the end zone. Melt a path to victory with this fancy effect tile for Hextraction, the hackable, 3D-printable board game.
The RHSBT is an effect tile with the same paths as the basic Peace Tile, but with a powerful effect - if the ball stops on a tile, you can destroy it right away, as if two other balls were also blocked. By shredding anything that blocks the ball, the RHSBT turbocharges the game and neutralizes any plan involving Trap Tiles and similar trickery. Just remember, if the outlet is blocked, the RHSBT can incinerate itself!.”
Once printed, add pieces of filament to make it look spiffy.
Contagion and DiceDestroyer (by CodeWookiee): when a ball ends up in Contagion, the ball gets quarantined and the last tile it touched is replaced by the Contagion tile, which gets eliminated only once it reaches the top (removed).
When a ball passes through DiceDestroyer, roll a regular dice (included in the Hextraction Super Board Game Base) to determine which adjacent tile gets destroyed.
Hammer (by elizupke): when played, it can remove any tile, but if a ball touches it, the tile gets destroyed.
Chain Reactor (by QTManygo): when played, add 1, 2 or 3 balls in the .|. slots. What will happen when someone's ball runs into them?
Avalanche (by keneispike): when played, you get to remove the tile above the Avalanche tile and place it somewhere lower on the board.
The snow mound is on the very last build plate and needs to be glued on the tile.
Seesaw (by NoStepOnDeez): looks simple, but with enough speed your ball could jump to the end goal. Or not. Requires one part to be printed in PETG (from this file: Hextraction Tiles A-B-C-D PETG parts). The text was tweaked to make bolt insertion easier (thanks to dihedral for comment).
Needs one M3x20 bolt and one M3 nut.
Clock and Coin Flip (by NoStepOnDeez): amazing concept and execution that add some randomness!
When you play the Clock tile, you set the current time thus the clock hands will direct balls.
Clock requires one part to be printed in PETG (from Hextraction Tiles A-B-C-D PETG parts) along with the black arms printed above (plate with black and orange tiles).
It also needs one M3x16 bolt and three M3 washers (optional).
Coin Flip needs the white disc from a plate above and a piece of 1.75mm 3D printing filament. Glue is optional as the filament is unlikely to come out.
Grave (by Pedgy): if your ball touches the tombstone, you will bring back a dead tile to life!
Rules for tiles
Most tiles don't require explanations, but some have “rules” about what happens when you place them on the board (On play) or when a ball touches one of its trigger point (On trigger), denoted by triangles/arrows ▶︎▶︎▶︎).
The rules are often written on the tile itself, but some tiles have 3D printable “rule cards”. As I personally prefer to print those out on paper (saves filament and makes them easier to find), I did not collect the rule cards 3D models. I instead created a PDF including the rules for all tiles that have rules (see the Documentation section below). If you wish to get the original Excel document to edit it, feel free to get in touch.
2025-02-14 update: To gauge interest, I collected rule cards for Set A in a separate print profile. I added the same color to all tiles get the text to stand out. Based on feedback I get, I might do the same for all other sets.
(The Rules for all the tiles for my sets, A to K, is a work in progress, so your feedback will be appreciated).
Comments, suggestions, ratings
As you can tell I put in a lot of time to provide the best board and tiles, documenting everything so newcomers can easily understand how to print and play this game. Every comment, suggestion, rating will be appreciated.
Boost MeAny boost will go straight to my 9 year old's DIY fund and will encourage me to put in the effort to provide clear instructions and post additional sets of tiles.
License for tiles by Zack Freedman and other creators
are under the following MIT License:
Copyright (c) 2023 Zachary Freedman and Voidstar Lab LLC Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions: The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
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