Boom Box Strategy: Bomb Placement, Traps and Beating the Bots

The one rule: always have a way out

Most rounds of Boom Box, the free bomberman-style arena game, are lost to your own bomb. A bomb explodes 2.4 seconds after you drop it, and the flames stay on the floor for about half a second. Before you press the bomb key, look for the cell you'll stand in when it goes off.

• Turn a corner. The blast only travels in straight lines. Step out of the bomb's row and column, around a pillar, and you're safe even from a long blast.
• Count your blast length. With a blast of 1, two steps straight back is enough. Every 🔥 power-up adds a cell, so a straight-line escape gets longer fast. Corners never change.
• Never bomb into a dead end. You can step off the bomb you just dropped, but you can't walk back over it. If the only way out is past the bomb, you're stuck.
• Check other bombs first. Your escape cell may sit in the path of someone else's bomb.

New to the game? The Boom Box beginner's guide covers controls, power-ups and the closing walls.

Chain reactions

When a blast reaches another bomb, that bomb goes off almost instantly, whoever it belongs to. Its blast can then set off the next one. A line of bombs becomes one long explosion that ignores the fuse timers.

• A chain can reach you much sooner than 2.4 seconds. If any bomb near you is about to blow, treat every bomb it touches as about to blow too.
• You can use a chain on purpose: drop your bomb next to an opponent's bomb and it will go off when theirs does, stretching the danger zone in a direction they didn't plan for.
• A blast stops at the first bomb in its path. The chained bomb carries on from there with its own blast length.

Trapping another fighter

The surest way to win a round is to leave someone with nowhere to go. Because nobody can walk onto a bomb, a bomb is also a wall for 2.4 seconds.

1. 1

   Find a fighter in a short lane

   Dead ends between crates and pillars are good spots, especially early when crates are everywhere.

2. 2

   Block the exit

   Drop a bomb at the only way out. The fighter can't walk through it.

3. 3

   Cover the escape

   With two or more bombs, drop a second one so its blast covers the cell they would try to hide in.

4. 4

   Walk away

   Leave yourself the same escape route you'd use for any bomb. Trapping yourself in the same pocket is a common way to share the loss.

Power-up priorities

A good first goal is two bombs and one speed boost. Blast length is strong, but a blast of 4 or more in a crowded early arena mostly hits crates you would have broken anyway, and it makes your straight-line escapes risky. Also, blasts burn power-ups lying on the floor, so grab a power-up before anyone bombs near it.

How the bots think, and how to beat them

The bots in Boom Box follow clear rules, and knowing them helps you plan around them.

• They see danger. Bots work out every cell a bomb will hit, including chain reactions and the next closing-wall blocks, and they walk out of the way.
• They only bomb when they can escape. A bot drops a bomb next to a crate or when a fighter is in line with it, and only if it has found a safe cell it can reach in time.
• They like power-ups. A bot heads for a power-up before a crate and a crate before a fighter. A power-up in the open is good bait.
• They move to the middle late. As the walls get close, bots stay away from the edges.

Bots are careful about the bombs that already exist, so the way to beat them is to change the board quickly. Drop a bomb at the exit of the lane a bot is fleeing into, or set up a chain they can only see once the first bomb goes off. They are hardest to catch in open space, so make your moves while crates still box them in.

Surviving the closing walls

From 60 seconds, metal blocks fill the arena one every third of a second, starting in the top-left corner and spiralling clockwise toward the middle. Three red glowing cells show where the next blocks land. The whole arena is full in under 50 seconds.

• Leave the edge early. The outer ring fills first. Gnorman starts in the top-left corner, right where the spiral begins.
• Watch the red cells. Never stand on a glowing cell, and don't step into one while a block is about to drop.
• Bombs and power-ups vanish under blocks. A block that lands on a bomb removes it, so a bomb near the spiral may never go off.
• The middle gets tight. Near the end only a few cells are left, and one bomb covers most of them. Having extra speed here matters more than a long blast.

Two-player tips

In 2 Players mode you share one keyboard with a friend: Gnorman on W A S D and R, Toasty on the arrows and Enter. You start in opposite corners. Clearing toward each other is a race for the middle power-ups. The bots in the other two corners don't care who you are, so a friend who corners a bot can save you a round. For a full how-to on adding controllers, see the controller setup guide.

Boom Box strategy questions