Bubble Shooter Games

How it works

A bubble shooter starts with a ceiling of coloured bubbles packed in a honeycomb pattern. At the bottom of the screen you have a launcher holding one bubble, and usually a preview of the next. You aim, fire, and the bubble flies up, bouncing off the side walls, until it sticks to the first bubble it touches. If it joins a group of three or more of its own colour, the group pops.

The real scoring comes from what happens next. Any bubbles that were hanging from the group you popped, and are no longer connected to the ceiling, drop off the board all at once. A single well-placed shot under a heavy cluster can clear half the screen.

Something always pushes back. In most bubble shooters the ceiling creeps down over time, or after a number of shots, and the round is lost when the bubbles reach the launcher.

What makes a good one

• An aim line you can trust, bounces included, so the skill is choosing the shot and not guessing the angle.
• Colours that are also told apart by a mark or shape, so nobody depends on colour vision.
• A fair queue that never hands you colours that are no longer on the board.
• Pressure you can see, rather than a hidden counter.
• Boards that are checked to be clearable.

Strategies that help

Shoot for the drop, not the pop. Look for the few bubbles holding up a big cluster.

Use the walls. Bank shots reach pockets that straight shots cannot.

Plan two ahead. Use the next-bubble preview, and swap when the game lets you.

Do not waste misses. If nothing pops, place the bubble where it sets up the next match.

Our take

Our bubble shooter is Dewdrift, where the bubbles are dewdrops on a spider web and the ceiling only sags when you miss, on a Sag gauge you can always see. Swap is free, every Garden level is proved clearable, and there is a three-board Daily Dew. For more calm thinking games, see our puzzle games.