How to play Nova Bricks
A complete guide: the controls on a phone and on a computer, every kind of brick, the nine power-ups, how scoring works in this version, and the habits that get you through all fifty stages.
In one paragraph. A ball bounces around a closed field with a wall of bricks at the top. You move a paddle along the bottom and keep the ball in play; every brick the ball touches cracks or breaks. Clear every breakable brick to finish the stage. Miss the ball and you lose a life - lose all three and the run is over. Broken bricks sometimes drop capsules with power-ups: catch them with the paddle.
The rules
- Keep the ball alive. The ball bounces off the walls, the ceiling and the bricks. The bottom edge is open - if a ball falls past the paddle, it is gone. With several balls in play you only lose a life when the last one falls.
- Aim with the paddle. Where the ball lands on the paddle decides where it goes: the centre sends it almost straight up, the ends send it off at a sharp angle. A paddle that is moving adds a little spin.
- Clear the stage. A stage is finished when every breakable brick is gone. Steel bricks do not count - you never have to break them.
- It gets faster. The ball speeds up slightly every time it comes off the paddle, and every stage starts a little faster than the one before. Losing a life resets the speed for that stage.
Controls
On a phone or tablet
- Swipe left or right anywhere on the field and the paddle follows the motion of your finger. It does not jump to where you touch, so you can keep your thumb low, away from the ball, and still reach both walls.
- Tap the field to launch the ball, or to release it early when the Magnet is holding it.
- Pause is the button under the field. The game also pauses by itself when you switch apps.
- The page never scrolls while your finger is on the field, and the field sizes itself to fit your screen.
On a computer
- Mouse: the paddle follows the pointer over the field. Click to launch.
- Keyboard: ← → or A D move the paddle, Space (or ↑) launches, P or Esc pauses.
Bricks
| Brick | Hits | Points | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coloured | 1 | 10 | Red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, purple, pink and white - the colours draw the picture. |
| Armoured, 2 rivets | 2 | 25 | Silver. A crack shows after the first hit. |
| Armoured, 3 rivets | 3 | 40 | Silver, the toughest breakable brick. |
| Steel | - | 50 | Dark, striped. Only a fireball or an ice ball breaks it. Not needed to clear the stage. |
| Bomb | 1 | 15 | Orange with a black bomb. Blows up the eight bricks around it; other bombs in range go off in a chain. |
| Mystery | 1 | 15 | Purple with a question mark. Always drops a power-up. |
Any other brick drops a power-up one time in ten.
Power-ups
Capsules fall straight down. Touch one with the paddle to use it; the timed ones show a draining bar in the top right of the field.
- MMulti-ball - every ball in play splits into three (up to twelve at once).
- WWide paddle - the paddle grows by 60% for 16 seconds.
- FFireball - for 10 seconds the ball burns straight through everything it touches, steel included, without bouncing.
- IIce ball - for 12 seconds the ball bounces off a brick as usual, but freezes it together with the bricks touching it within one cell - up to a 3 × 3 block, armour and steel included. The ice spreads only through bricks that touch, never across a gap. Less than a second later the whole frozen block shatters. Anything else that hits a frozen brick breaks it straight away. The ice ball also flies a little slower.
- LLasers - for 10 seconds the paddle fires twin beams on its own. Each beam cracks the first brick it meets; steel stops it.
- CMagnet - for 15 seconds the ball sticks to the paddle. Move to aim, then tap (or press Space) to let go; it releases itself after two and a half seconds.
- SSlow motion - for 12 seconds every ball moves 30% slower.
- +Extra life - rare. You can hold up to six lives.
- −Tiny paddle - the one bad capsule: a narrow paddle for 10 seconds. Dodge it.
Fireball and ice ball cancel each other, as do the wide and the tiny paddle - the newer one wins. Losing a life ends every power-up.
Scoring and progress
Every brick you break adds its points to your score. Clearing a stage adds a bonus of 250, plus 100 for every life you still have, plus ten times the stage number. Your score carries over from stage to stage for as long as the run lasts; the header shows it next to your best score ever and the stage you are on.
Clearing a stage unlocks the next one. From Pick a stage you can start a new run from any stage you have unlocked, with three fresh lives. A run is saved at the start of every stage and after every lost life, so if you close the tab, Continue brings you back to the start of the stage you were on, with the score and lives you had.
The fifty stages
Every stage is a picture or a pattern made of bricks. The early ones teach the basics; armour, steel and bombs appear gradually, and the last ten mix everything.
- First Light
- Pyramid
- Heart
- Invader
- Diamond
- Checkers
- Smile
- Arrow
- Halo
- Twin Keeps
- Rocket
- Lynx
- Waves
- Crown
- Crossfire
- Bomb Bay
- Ghost
- Pine
- Nested
- Spiral
- Invader Fleet
- Hourglass
- Star
- Anchor
- Key
- Fish
- Mystery Box
- Steel Maze
- Skull
- Trophy
- Umbrella
- Apple
- Note
- Sword
- Lightning
- Planet
- Butterfly
- Snowflake
- Flame
- Robot
- Eye
- Falling Blocks
- Chess
- Lynxy
- Target
- Staircase
- Meteor Rain
- Mandala
- Iron Curtain
- The Core
Tips
1. Aim with the edges
Hitting the ball with the middle of the paddle is safe but predictable. To send it somewhere specific - into a gap, behind a row - catch it near one end. The further out, the flatter the angle.
2. Get the ball behind the wall
The best thing that can happen is a ball trapped above the bricks, bouncing between the wall and the ceiling and breaking bricks from behind. Open a gap near one side and aim for it.
3. Let the bombs work for you
A bomb clears a 3 × 3 area, and bombs set off each other. On stages like Bomb Bay or The Core, hitting one bomb in the right place can clear half the field.
4. Save the fire for steel
Steel never has to be broken, but it often shields the bricks you need. A fireball melts it; an ice ball freezes it together with the bricks around it and shatters the lot. Use those power-ups where the steel is, not on the open bricks.
5. Watch the capsules, but watch the ball first
Many lives are lost chasing a capsule while the ball falls somewhere else. If you cannot reach both, keep the ball - there will be more capsules.
6. Pause before a hard stage
There is no penalty for pausing. Look at where the steel and the bombs are before you launch, and plan your first gap.
A short history
Ball-and-paddle games go back to the earliest arcade machines of the 1970s, where a single ball knocked bricks out of a wall. Over the following decades the genre grew: paddles became spaceships, falling capsules brought power-ups, some bricks needed several hits or could not be broken at all, and stages were drawn as pictures. Later 3D takes added fireballs, ice balls, lighting and physics. Nova Bricks is an original game in that modern style, built for a phone-sized field.
Frequently asked questions
Is this Nova Bricks game free?
Yes. All fifty stages are free, with no account and no purchase. The site is paid for by the advertising described in our Privacy Policy.
How do I move the paddle on a phone?
Swipe left or right anywhere on the field. The paddle moves with your finger, a bit further than your finger does, so a short swipe crosses the whole field. Tap to launch the ball.
Do I have to break the steel bricks?
No. A stage is cleared as soon as every other brick is gone.
Can I skip a stage?
Not before you have cleared it once. After that, Pick a stage lets you start from any stage you have reached.
Is my progress saved?
Yes, in your browser's local storage: the stages you have unlocked, your best score and your current run. Clearing your browser data or playing in private mode erases it.
Can I play offline?
Once the page has loaded, the game needs no connection - everything runs in your browser. Only the advertising and the measurement need the network.