Arkanoid power-ups and bricks

How capsules work

A broken brick drops a capsule about 1 time in 7. It falls slowly, and you catch it by moving the paddle under it. Each capsule has its own color and symbol, the same as the icons on this page, so you can tell what is falling before you go for it. A missed capsule is simply gone; it never costs a life. The same capsule never drops twice in a row. Only one capsule per 2 balls in play can be falling at a time, and always at least one.

Two rules decide how powers combine. The paddle has one mode at a time: Wide, Laser and Magnet replace each other, and the newest one wins. Slow, Fireball and Shield stack, so they work together with each other and with any paddle mode. Active timers are shown in the top bar. When you lose a life, all powers end.

Every power-up

• Wide

  The paddle grows to 1.5 times its normal width for 20 seconds. Catching the ball and capsules gets easier.

• Laser

  For 15 seconds the paddle fires twin shots straight up with a click, Space or the up arrow; on a touch screen it fires by itself while your finger is down. Each shot counts as one hit on a brick. Up to 2 shots can be on the screen at once.

• Magnet

  For 20 seconds the ball sticks to the paddle when it lands. Move to aim, then release it with a click, a tap or Space. If you wait, it launches by itself after 3 seconds.

• Slow

  The ball moves 35% slower for 12 seconds. Take it when the ball has become fast after a long rally.

• Multi-ball

  Every ball on the field splits into 3, up to 24 balls. You lose a life only when the last ball falls.

• Fireball

  For 8 seconds the ball burns straight through every brick instead of bouncing off. It even passes through gold bricks, the only power that does.

• Shield

  An energy barrier appears under the paddle. The next ball that would fall out bounces back up, and the barrier is used up. Up to 3 Shields can stack.

• Extra life

  One more life, right away. This capsule is rare.

• Warp

  A gate opens in the right wall. Move the paddle into it to skip to the next level with a 5,000-point bonus. Rare, and never in the Daily or on the boss level.

Every brick type

Colored bricks break with one hit; the color sets the points: white 50, orange 60, cyan 70, green 80, red 90, blue 100, magenta 110 and amber 120.

Silver bricks are armored and show a crack when hit. They take 2 hits in the first world, Neon Harbor, 3 in Crystal Caverns and 4 in Solar Forge. Their value rises every 4 levels: 50 points in levels 1 to 4, 100 in levels 5 to 8, and so on up to 450 in levels 33 to 36. A laser shot counts as one hit.

Gold bricks are permanent parts of the level. Use them as walls to bounce the ball where you want it.

Explosive chains

When an explosive brick breaks, it destroys the 8 bricks around it, diagonals included, except gold ones. Each of them gives its points. If one of them is explosive too, it goes off as well, and the chain can run through a whole cluster.

In the picture, the ball hits the explosive brick in the third row through a gap. It blows up with its neighbors, the blast reaches the explosive brick above, and that one goes off too. One shot opens a big hole in the wall.

The Splitter, our own brick

The Splitter breaks with one hit, like a colored brick, and gives 100 points. When it breaks, 2 extra balls fly out of the spot where it was, so a single ball suddenly becomes 3 without any capsule. Splitters deep inside a wall are worth aiming for: the new balls start among the bricks and often break several before they come down.

Putting it together

The tips and strategies page explains when to take which capsule and how to deal with silver walls, and the How to Play guide covers the controls and scoring. You can try every brick yourself in the level editor.