The object of the game is to bring the robot of the correct colour to the field indicated on the overturned chip using as few moves as possible.

As soon as one of the players has found a solution, they state the total number of moves for all of the robots used and start a timer.

If they correctly demonstrate a solution in the stated number of moves or less, they earn the chip.

Because of Ricochet Robots' game structure and complex problem solving techniques, it has been the subject of academic study.

The study, argues that Ricochet Robots is a good game to analyze problem solving techniques of humans and computers.

[1] Although Ricochet Robots has an initially exponential increase in complexity, it is solvable by polynomial time algorithms.