How to play Bubble Shooter

Rows of coloured bubbles hang from a carved beam over the Himalaya. Shoot bubbles up at them from a guleli, burst three of a colour, and clear the board before the ceiling brings them down to the line.

Players: 1
What you need: A guleli, a ceiling of bubbles and the line under them
How long: Two to five minutes a board

What Bubble Shooter is

Bubble Shooter is a game for one. Rows of coloured bubbles hang from the ceiling, each bubble resting in the dip between two above it. You shoot one bubble at a time up at them, and three or more of a colour joined together burst. Clear every bubble off the board to win.

Here the board is the sky over the hills seen through a carved Newar window, the ceiling is a wooden beam hung with prayer flags, and the shooter is a guleli, the forked catapult every child here has made from a branch and a strip of rubber.

The bubbles hang from the beam. The guleli at the bottom shoots one at a time.

Playing it here

Press on the board and drag. The guleli turns to your finger, and a dotted guide shows where the bubble will fly.
Lift your finger to shoot. With a mouse, point and click. To let go without shooting, drag back down below the guleli and lift there.
The next bubble waits in the doko beside the guleli. Tap the doko, press Swap or right click to change them round, as often as you like.

Nothing moves until you shoot, so take your time. The arrow keys turn the guleli, Space or Enter shoots and S swaps.

Banking off the walls

A shot flies in a straight line until it touches a bubble or the ceiling, and sticks in the empty place nearest where it stopped. When it meets a side wall it bounces off at the same angle it came in, like a ball off a cushion.

Banking is how to reach a bubble that others are in front of. The guide shows the line as far as the first bank and on to where it goes next. Set the guide to none for a harder game.

A shot off the left wall reaches the gap the bubbles in front were hiding.

Bursting

When the bubble you shoot joins two or more of its own colour, the whole group bursts, however it winds through the rows. Each bubble burst is worth 10 points.

A red shot in beside two reds makes three joined together, and all three burst.

What falls

Every bubble hangs from the ceiling through the bubbles it touches. When a burst cuts a group loose so that nothing joins it to the ceiling any more, the whole group falls off the board, whatever its colours.

Falling is where the points are. Each bubble that falls is worth 20 times the number that fell with it: one alone is 20, five together are 500, and ten together are 2000. Clearing the board is worth 1000 more, and 100 for every row the ceiling still had to come down.

The three reds at the top held up four more. Burst them and the four fall.

The ceiling and the line

A shot that bursts nothing is a miss. After a number of misses in a row, eight on easy, six on medium and five on hard, the ceiling comes down a row and takes every bubble with it. The dots under the score count the misses left, and the bubbles shiver when one is left. A burst puts the count back to the start.

If a bubble is left on or below the dotted line, the game is over. A bubble you shoot onto the line is safe if it bursts with its group.

After a run of shots that burst nothing, the beam comes down a row and every bubble with it.

The signs on the bubbles

Every colour carries a sign of its own, the same as Marble Shooter's marbles: a lali guras on red, the sun from the flag on yellow, a peepal leaf on green, the moon from the flag on blue, a lotus on purple and the Himalaya on white. You can match by sign as well as by colour. The guleli is only ever given colours that are still on the board.

Lali guras, the sun, a peepal leaf, the moon, a lotus and the Himalaya.

The board of the day

Each level has a board of the day. It is dealt the same for everybody in Nepal, so the luck is the same for everyone, and a new one comes at midnight Nepal time.

Once you have played it, the page opens on a new board instead. Your best score at each level and today's score are kept as your records.

A few tips

Look for the bubble that holds up the most. Bursting a small group high up can drop a whole branch below it.
Check the doko before you shoot. If the bubble in the guleli fits nowhere useful, the next one may.
When nothing bursts, put the bubble beside its own colour, high up, so the next of that colour can finish the group.
Watch the dots under the score. When one miss is left, a sure burst is worth more than a long shot.

Settings

The level is the colours, the rows of bubbles at the start and the misses the ceiling waits for, together, so a best score at a level is a score at one game. The guide is help and changes nothing in the rules. Today's board or a new one is picked on the game page.

Setting	Standard	What it changes
Level	Easy, four colours, six rows	Medium has five colours, seven rows and six misses to the ceiling. Hard has six colours, eight rows and five misses.
Aiming guide	To the first bank and on	None takes the dotted guide away, so every bank is judged by eye.

Words

Ceiling: The carved beam the bubbles hang from. It comes down a row after a run of misses.
Line: The dotted line near the bottom. A bubble left on it ends the game.
Bank: A shot that bounces off a side wall on its way.
Guleli: The forked catapult the bubbles are shot from.

Every rule on this page is the one the app plays by. Change any of them on the game's own page before you start.