You are the gold core. Gravity is the pull your orbit has, earned every lap a partner runs, every introduction that lands, and every deal you close.
Three waves, forty seconds each. Every wave sets a line, and the ring around your core fills as you close on it. Cross it and the field speeds up and you gain a slot. Come up short and the round ends there.
Laps. Every partner in your orbit pays you each time it completes a lap. Bigger orbs pay more, and momentum compounds the rate every lap you bank.
Introductions. Once your slots are full, gold you have no room for goes to a partner of the same shape, if that partner is close enough. A line drawn between them means it will land. No line means leave it: a bad introduction pays nothing and costs half your chain.
Deals. Four landed introductions into the same partner close a deal, worth a payout, a permanent raise on every lap that partner runs, three more laps of contract, and their burnout risk goes out. Introductions go cold after five seconds, so a deal takes aim rather than volume.
The chain. Every clean tap raises a multiplier up to five times, and it multiplies everything above. Pull a spread of shapes early, or half the field will fit nobody you hold.
Every orb arrives grey for half a second before it shows what it is, so grabbing on sight is a coin flip.