Special bricks, rings and gems

Some bricks do far more than break. Hit them early, and line up chains.

On this page4 parts

Special bricks
Rings
Gems and rubies
Bricks that fight back, and prize bricks

Special bricks

Bomb

From level 1

Hit it once and it explodes, breaking the 3×3 square around it. Any other bomb in the blast goes off too, so packed bombs chain across the board.

Row laser

From level 3

Hit it once and a beam fires along its whole row, hitting every brick in it (and shattering comet ice).

Column laser

From level 5

Hit it once and a beam fires up and down its whole column.

Ball cage

From level 7

Breaking it frees the balls trapped inside: they burst out and join your shots for the rest of the level.

Rocket

From level 10

Hit it once and a rocket flies up its column, smashing every brick on the way, then explodes at the top.

Ball burst

From level 14

Breaking it sprays 10 bonus balls in every direction for the rest of that shot.

Cross laser

From level 18

Fires a row beam and a column beam at once.

Mega bomb

From level 24

A bigger bomb: it flattens the 5×5 square around it, and sets off other bombs.

Tip: bombs set off other bombs. When two or three sit close together, one hit can clear half the board. Bombs, lasers and rockets also shatter comet ice and take big chunks off hazards like the star nursery, rogue planet and Dyson sphere.

Rings

+balls ring

Fly a ball through it to add balls (the number on it) for the rest of the level. Get them early so every later shot is bigger.

×2 ring

Every ball that passes through splits into two. It works a few times, then fades.

Gems and rubies

Gem

1–2 bricks on each stage hide a gem. Break the brick and the gem pops out; any ball that touches it collects it, and gems left on the board are collected when the stage clears. A brick hiding a gem glints now and then.

Ruby

Rarer than a gem and worth 5. A level hides about 15–30 gems in all.

Bricks that fight back, and prize bricks

Normal brick

The number is how many hits it needs. Numbers rise through each level, stage by stage.

Armoured brick

A darker, tougher brick with 3× the stage's normal number. A collapsing supernova makes these too.

Boss core

Regrows 40% of its life after every shot it survives, so break it in one go.

Frozen brick

The ice comet gave it an ice shell (❄ number). Normal hits chip the ice first; a laser shatters it at once.

Doubled brick

A rogue planet rolled into it and doubled its number (violet, ×2 badge).

Gold prize brick

Left by a gamma-ray burst: break it for a gem.

Green +1 brick

Left by a gamma-ray burst: break it for an extra shot.

Prize bomb

Left by a gamma-ray burst: it goes off at the first hit and breaks every brick around it.