The original Pac-Man maze contains 240 regular dot items, excluding its 4 larger power pellets. Pac-Man must clear the regular dots and energizers to complete a level.
The small dots are the maze’s basic collectibles and are worth 10 points each. The four power pellets, located near the corners, are worth 50 points apiece and temporarily make the ghosts vulnerable. Because the power pellets are also sometimes called pills or energizers, casual descriptions may combine all 244 items, but the question specifically excludes them.
The 240-dot count is important for scoring strategy. A player pursuing a perfect score must collect every regular dot, all four energizers, every fruit bonus, and every possible frightened ghost. Missing even one dot prevents the level from being fully cleared and undermines the perfect-score route.
Pac-Man uses the same basic maze layout repeatedly, although its difficulty changes as the levels advance. Ghosts become faster, frightened periods shrink, and eventually the power-pellet effect disappears. The maze’s fixed geometry and finite dot count are what make route planning, memorization, and championship-level play possible.