How to play Boba Blast

What is the goal in Boba Blast?

Every level has a track and a chain of coloured pearls with tiny smiling faces. The chain comes out of the dark pearl pot and rolls slowly along the track towards a milk-tea cup. If any pearl reaches the cup, the level is lost. You win when every pearl in the chain is gone. The bar at the top shows how many pearls you have popped, for example 8 of 48, next to your shot count and the shot limit for three stars. Early levels use three colours, and new colours join as you go: four from level 7, five from level 31 and six from level 141. The tracks change too, from simple snakes to spirals, and from level 34 some levels have two tracks with a cup each.

How to play Boba Blast, step by step

Each round follows the same loop: check the pearl Boba holds, aim, shoot and watch the chain react. You can aim with a finger on a phone or with the mouse on a computer, and there is no timer. The only pressure is the chain rolling towards the cup. These pictures all come from level 12, the first level with power pearls.

1. 1Step 1: Look at Boba before you shoot. The pearl on the tip of his straw is the one you shoot now, and the small pearl resting on his cup is the next one. If the loaded pearl has no good match, tap Boba or the Swap button to switch the two. Swapping is free.
2. 2Step 2: Drag to aim. A dotted guide runs from Boba's straw and a ring marks the pearl your shot will hit. Let go to shoot. A shot lands on the first pearl it touches, so aim through the gaps between laps, not across them.
3. 3Step 3: Make a group of three. When your pearl joins two or more of the same colour, the whole group pops in a burst of sparkles and the chain is pushed back a little. If the two pearls on each side of the new gap match, the chain closes up and pops again for a combo.
4. 4Step 4: Pop the ringed pearls when you can. They are power pearls, and from level 12 they show up in the chain. Here a clock pearl just popped and the game says the chain takes it easy.

What do the power pearls and buttons do?

Power pearls have a ring and a symbol, and they work when they pop. The clock is a Slow pearl that runs the chain at half speed for five seconds. The arrows are a Rewind pearl that rolls the chain back for a moment. The Burst pearl pops every pearl close to it. You earn them by popping and never buy them. Three buttons sit under the board. Freeze costs 15 tokens and stops the chain for six seconds. Swap and Restart are free. If the chain reaches the cup, Roll it back costs 20 tokens and pushes every chain back by part of its track, up to two times per level, or you can choose Try again. Tokens are the coins in the top corner that you earn by finishing levels.

Tips to beat hard levels in Boba Blast

Pop the pearls closest to the cup first, because a gap at the front stops that part of the chain until the back catches up. Look for pairs, since one pearl of the same colour next to a pair pops all three. Set up combos by popping a run whose neighbours on both sides share a colour. When you hold a colour nobody needs, drop it far back near the pearl pot, where it has the most time to find a match. On twin tracks, watch both cups. Save Freeze for the moment the front pearls are almost at the cup. Every tenth level is marked HARD and every fifth is a calmer CHILL level, so a tough stretch never lasts long.

How do stars and controls work?

Fewer shots mean more stars. Three stars need the level cleared within the shot limit shown next to the star in the top bar and without using Roll it back. Two stars allow more shots and one roll back. On a computer you can play with the mouse or the keyboard: the arrow keys aim, Enter shoots, X swaps and F uses Freeze. If two colours look alike to you, open Settings and turn on Symbols on pearls, which adds a shape for every colour.

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