Blast

Starting a run

Every run opens on the new-run menu:

• The portrait is your character. Click its left half or right half to step through all eight, from the Sapper to the Fox.
• Campaign gives you three lives, Challenge two and Hardcore one: the first death ends a Hardcore run.
• The mob row picks what the run deals: All mobs, a mix that gains a new kind each level in a shuffled order, or one kind alone. Any difficulty can be played against any mob.
• Each difficulty-and-mob combination keeps its own leaderboard, and the menu shows its best score.
• Start puts the menu away. It comes back after Restart or New, with your last choices kept.

How to play

The goal on each level is to cover every coloured plate with its matching block and then walk through the exit door, an arch in the middle of the top wall. The door stays shut until every plate is covered. Enemies are worth points, but you do not have to kill them all.

• Nothing moves until your first click on the field, so you can read the level before an enemy does.
• Left click a floor cell to walk there by the shortest route, one cell at a time. Click again to change your mind and the route turns.
• Right click a cell to walk there and plant a bomb under your feet when you arrive.
• A bomb burns for three seconds, then throws fire in a straight line in each of the four directions. The fire never turns a corner. A pillar stops it. A crate stops it and is destroyed. Stand clear when it goes off.
• Fire that reaches another bomb halves what is left of its fuse, so a line of bombs goes off one after another, not all at once. A bomb power-up lying on the floor goes off too if fire reaches it, at your fire's reach, so grab it before the flame does or keep clear of it.
• A bomb is solid. Walk into it and it rolls away, up to seven cells. A roll that hits a wall, crate, stone, bomb or enemy stops there and explodes half a second later. Shove one down a clear hall into a chaser, and step clear if it stops beside you.
• Coloured blocks are walls: you cannot walk through one. Click a block and you walk up to it and shove it one cell away, stepping into the cell it left. Push each block onto the plate of the same colour. An enemy standing where a block must go holds it up, so bomb it out of the way. Fire that reaches a block greys it out for a few seconds, and it then comes back on a fresh lane. A block that can no longer reach its plate does the same, so a level never locks up.
• Crates sometimes hide a power-up. A crate can also sit on top of a plate and hide it. Bomb it open to reveal the plate.
• An enemy or fire on your cell costs a life and drops every power-up you carry down one step. Your bombs outlive you: the level plays on until they have all gone off, so they can still take down whoever cornered you, even on your last life. Then you restart at the entrance with two seconds of safety.
• Every enemy you kill leaves a heart where it fell, once the fire there is out. It waits for you, but a blast destroys it, and it stays behind when you leave the level. A heart restores one life, up to the number you started with. With full lives it is worth points instead.
• Every level has a clock: 180 seconds. The bar above the field drains, turning yellow at 30 seconds and red at 10. If it runs out, the whole run is over, not only a life.

Enemies

A new kind joins the mix on each of the first nine levels, in a different order every run. Each level draws from the kinds unlocked so far, and more of them come as you go deeper.

• Slime - a slow jelly that wanders and never hunts you.
• Rat - fast and jittery. It only comes at you when you are close.
• Mushroom - stands rooted until you come near, then walks at you.
• Bat - flies over crates and flits about erratically.
• Skeleton - always takes the shortest way to you.
• Mimic - a shut chest until you step close, then quick. Get far enough away and it shuts again.
• Wraith - slow, but drifts straight through crates at you.
• Watcher - floats through crates and rushes you whenever it can see you down a clear row or column. Break its line with a crate or a pillar.
• Zombie - a slow shambler that comes at you once you are near. Burned, it gets back up half the time: as a torso that drags itself after you wherever you are, or as a pair of legs that stumble about blind. Both are slow, both still kill, and both count toward a flawless clear.

Power-ups

Each has its own icon on the floor and in the rack beside the field.

• Bomb (a lit bomb) - you can have one more bomb down at once.
• Fire (a flame) - your blast reaches one cell further.
• Speed (a boot) - you walk faster, for up to three boots.

The rack on the right of the field shows what you are carrying: one icon per power held above where you started, with how far above beside it. A fresh run holds nothing, so the rack is empty until you pick something up.

A death drops each power one step, so protect them.

Scoring

• Each enemy is worth 50 to 250 points, fixed by its kind. Each crate is worth 10, and each heart taken at full lives is worth 100. They pay out as they happen.
• Clearing a level adds 100 per plate, 5 per second left on the clock, and 250 more for a flawless clear: every enemy killed and every crate broken.
• Each clear shows a card that counts the level in, row by row. Every enemy you killed lights up, and the ones that got away stay dark. Each crate on the card stands for ten you broke. Click anywhere to fill the card at once, and click again to start the next level. After your last life, a click puts the card away so you can start a new run.
• Each level is laid out from the classic grid of pillars, with a few pillars knocked out and a few added at random, plus crates scattered at random. Deeper levels bring more crates, more plates and more enemies. No enemy starts near you.
• A run ends when your last life is lost or a level's clock runs out. There is no final level.

Controls

Left click a cell     walk the shortest route there
Left click a block    walk up to it and shove it one cell
Right click a cell    walk there and plant a bomb
Restart               start a new run, back at the menu
New                   start a new run, after a game over
Exit                  leave the game

The game is solo. A cell you can reach lights up under the cursor, and a cell you cannot reach stays dark.