Bomb Maze is an original browser bomb maze game. The board is a fixed 11 by 13: the border and every other cell inside it are cold iron and cannot be blown open; the remaining 44 terracotta walls can, and each one is worth 10 points. The exit sits under one of those walls — blow it open, step on it, and the level is cleared. The enemies are not a clear condition. You start in the top-left cell with one bomb and a blast that reaches 1 cell, and you raise the bomb count, the blast reach and your pace to 4, 4 and 3 by walking over the pickups hidden under the walls. The design puts the danger on the floor instead of leaving it to reflexes: for the fuse's last 0.4 seconds the whole cross — including the stretch belonging to any bomb this one sets off — is outlined inside the cells. The outline and the cells that really ignite are two calls of the same function, so “outlined but did not burn” and “burned without being outlined” cannot happen. There are two ways to die: walk into your own blast, or let an enemy touch you. The game freezes the exploding frame with the outline still on it and restarts the level on the identical board — your second attempt is the same question. Three lives per run.

A television in the corner of the living room, two of you sharing one small stool, neither willing to place that bomb first. The brickwork opens up ring by ring, the corridors start to join, and then you hear the one you buried begin to count — and suddenly the floor under you has exactly one way out. Nobody used the phrase “escape route” back then. Everybody learned to glance behind them before they pressed.

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【机】 Living-room console · 1985–1997 →

1. 01

   Know the goal before you move: blow the terracotta walls open until the hidden exit shows, then walk onto the exit cell to clear the level. The enemies only decide how safe you are and how much you score — they are never a clear condition.

2. 02

   On a phone, land your thumb anywhere on the stick pad below the board and push a direction to walk; let go and you stop on the spot. A box appears where your thumb landed, so you can see it was received. How far you push does not matter — which way you push does.

3. 03

   Drop a bomb with the cross key at the bottom right, or tap the stick pad. A press that has committed a direction can never drop a bomb, so retreating cannot accidentally bury a second one under your own feet.

4. 04

   On a desktop, move with the arrow keys or W, A, S, D; space or K drops a bomb; Esc or P pauses; Enter starts and replays.

5. 05

   The bomb lands on the cell you are standing on and opens a cross 2.5 seconds later. Walk off it and you cannot walk back — your own bomb is a wall to you too, which is why the retreat has to be decided before you press.

6. 06

   For the last 0.4 seconds every cell that will burn is outlined in red. Step outside the outline first, then look at where the enemies are: the outline marks the flame only, not that no enemy will walk through.

7. 07

   Breaking a wall reveals a pickup (walk over it to take it) or the exit. Step on the exit to clear the level: the level number goes up and you score 200.

Read the outline before you choose a retreat: a cell outside it will not burn in this blast, but you still have to stay off the cells an enemy holds or is about to cross. Decide the retreat before you press: once you step off your bomb it is a wall to you, and the way back is closed. A junction costs more than a corridor: drop a bomb at a crossroads and leaving both its lines takes 3 cells; drop one in a corridor and it takes 2. Break walls towards the exit: the exit sits behind 8 walls from level 7 on, so pushing along one corridor beats scattering bombs around. Line kills up inside one event: four enemies in one blast is 100 + 200 + 400 + 800, while two events of two is only 100 + 200 twice — the difference is the whole reward for herding them into one cross. Shoes raise your pace, and they also carry one held press further than it went before. At the top tier a pickup of the same kind stays put, so there is no need to go back. After 3 deaths on the same level the board marks the wall you have to break and one safe cell to retreat to. That is information, not a discount: the seed and the difficulty do not change by a single value.

How do you play a bomb maze game, on a phone and on a desktop?

The goal is to blow the terracotta walls open, find the exit hidden under one of them and step on it. On a phone, land your thumb on the stick pad below the board and push a direction to walk; let go and you stop on the spot. Drop a bomb with the cross key at the bottom right or by tapping the stick pad. On a desktop, move with the arrow keys or W, A, S, D; space or K drops a bomb; Esc and P pause; Enter starts and replays. The two sets mix freely with no scheme to pick first, and the third key on the control bar swaps the stick for a virtual d-pad.

How do you blow up brick walls without blowing yourself up?

Read the outline. With 0.4 seconds of fuse left, every cell that will burn is outlined inside the cell, including the stretch belonging to any bomb this one chains into. The outline and the cells that really ignite come from the same function, so a cell outside the outline will not burn in this blast — an enemy can still walk through it, which is the other half of the decision. The other thing to remember: once you step off the bomb you just placed, it is a wall to you as well and the way back is closed. Decide the retreat before you press, not after you hear it go off.

Where is the exit in a grid maze bomb game, and how do you clear a level?

The exit is under one of the terracotta walls; break that wall and it shows. Step on it and the level is cleared — the level number goes up and you score 200. Killing enemies only scores, so clearing the board is never required. How deep the exit sits is set by the level: level 1 needs only 1 wall broken, and from level 7 on it is at least 8. Pushing along one corridor beats scattering bombs, and every wall you open is another 10 points on the way.

What power-ups are in the bomb maze, and how far do bombs and flame upgrade?

Three of them, revealed by breaking a terracotta wall and taken by walking over it; they score nothing themselves. Bomb +1 (up to 4 down at once), flame +1 (the cross reaches up to 4 cells) and shoe +1 tier (up to 3). The longer the cross, the wider the area you have to get out of before the fuse ends; shoes carry a press of the same length further than it went before. At the top tier a pickup of the same kind is not taken and stays where it is, so there is never a reason to double back for one.

How do you avoid the enemies in a bomb maze, and can they outrun you?

Two enemies, two rules. The wall walker does not look at where you are and only turns when it hits something, so its route can be predicted. The chaser walks straight at you, but the terracotta walls will not let it go in a straight line, so putting one wall between you works well. Both decide only at a cell centre, neither passes through walls or bombs, and both are slower than your slowest tier — in a straight line nothing can catch you. The real danger is backing away from one while forgetting your own fuse is under your feet.

Does dying in the bomb maze send you back to level 1?

No. Losing a life restarts the level you are on, and on the identical board: the walls, the pickups, the exit and the enemy spawns are the same cell for cell, and your pickups go back to what they were when the level opened — so dying cannot farm one. Before the life is taken the frame freezes for 1.5 seconds with the outline still on it, so you can see which cell you were standing on and which cells burned. You come back with 2 seconds of invulnerability. There are 3 lives in a run, and the run only ends when they are gone; “Play again” in the summary is one click back to a clean run with your best score kept.

How many levels does the bomb maze have, and how does it get harder?

There is no final level. The first 7 escalate and nothing grows after that. Level 1 is the tutorial, with no enemies and no pickups, and asks only “place and retreat”. The first wall walker appears on level 2, the single chaser joins on level 3, enemy speed caps on level 4, and the roster caps on level 6 at 3 wall walkers and 1 chaser. After that only “how many walls the exit sits behind” still grows, up to 8, and the board rotates with the seed while the difficulty does not move. To replay a board, copy the link from the summary and send it to yourself.