Shatterzone

Bounce a ball through layers of bricks, chain combos without touching the paddle, and clear each level before the timer hits zero.

Objective

Each level loads a fixed brick layout. Knock out every breakable brick with the ball before you lose all your lives. Levels also run a three-minute clock — finish early for a time bonus, run out and the timer just turns red (clearing still wins). You start with 3 lives and the cap is 5. Six unique layouts cycle through the run: rectangle, pyramid, diamond, fortress, checkerboard, invader.

Controls

Input	Action
←  →  /  A  D	Move paddle left / right
↑  ↓  /  W  S	Nudge paddle up / down (limited band near the bottom)
Space	Launch the stuck ball, release sticky balls, advance menus
Mouse	Move paddle by hovering; click to launch / release
Esc	Pause & open settings (paddle speed 2–20)

How it works

• Brick types — green 1-HP bricks pop in one hit, yellow 2-HP need two, orange 3-HP need three, and grey solid bricks are indestructible. Damaged bricks show crack marks.
• Combo counter — every brick a ball breaks before it touches the paddle adds 1 to that ball's combo. Touching the paddle resets it. Multiple balls each track their own combos.
• Paddle english — where the ball lands on the paddle nudges its angle: edges shove sideways, the centre keeps it vertical. Ball speed creeps up by 0.5% per brick toward a hard cap of 7.
• Powerups — 15% of broken bricks drop a capsule. Catch with the paddle to apply. Most last roughly 20 seconds (slow is 10s); the red SMALL capsule is a trap.
• Powerup roster — Wide paddle, Multi-ball (splits into three), Slow ball, + extra life, stiCky paddle, Gun (auto-fires bullets), eXplosive ball (clears adjacent bricks on each kill), Big ball, SMALL paddle (bad).
• Solid bricks & the explosive ball — bullets and explosive blasts both bounce off solids harmlessly. Only a direct paddle strategy can route around them.
• Lives — losing every active ball costs one life, the paddle resets, and the next ball spawns stuck to the paddle. Lose your last life and the run ends.

Scoring

• Brick kill: base value is 10 (green) / 25 (yellow) / 50 (orange), then multiplied by the ball's current combo. A 5× combo on a 3-HP brick is 50 × 5 = 250.
• Explosive collateral: bricks vaporised by the blast pay their base value (no combo multiplier on the splash).
• Bullet kills: gun powerup bullets pay the base brick value, no combo.
• Time bonus: seconds remaining × 10 at the moment the last breakable brick falls.
• Lives bonus: lives remaining × 100, paid at every level clear.
• Level total: the slot-machine tally rolls up bricks destroyed, highest combo, level score, time bonus, and lives bonus into one jackpot.

Strategy

• Protect the combo. A 3-HP brick at 10× is 500 points; the same brick at 1× is 50. Letting the ball roam the top of the field is worth far more than panicking it back to safety.
• Multi-ball is the combo killer. Three balls each on a 1× combo score less than one ball on a 5×. Catch M only when you need to dig out a corner or restart a stalled run.
• Refuse the SMALL capsule. A red SMALL paddle for 20 seconds will cost you a life on most layouts. Let it fall, or dodge it sideways.
• Sticky is a chess move, not a panic button. Use the C paddle to line up a deliberate shot into a tight gap — but remember the combo resets the moment the ball lands, so only stick when you've already cleared the easy bricks.
• Explosive eats fortress layouts. Level 4 (the fortress) and level 6 (the invader) are stacked with 3-HP bricks. Hold the X powerup until the ball reaches the dense centre, then watch the chain reaction.
• Use the paddle's vertical room. The paddle can climb roughly 30% up the screen with W/↑. Lifting it shortens reaction time but cuts off escaping balls that would otherwise slip past a corner.
• Beat the clock when you can. Once the timer drops below 30 seconds it turns orange, under 10 seconds it flashes red. Each remaining second is 10 points — finishing with 1:00 left is a flat +600.

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