How to Play Break Bricks: Controls, Power-Ups, Modes and Tips

Break Bricks is the classic ball-and-paddle brick breaker — easy to pick up, hard to put down. You slide a paddle along the bottom of the screen, bounce a ball into a wall of bricks, and try to smash every one without letting the ball slip past you. This guide covers everything you need to start: the controls, the two game modes, how power-ups work, and how you earn XP and coins.

The goal

Every board is a wall of bricks at the top and your paddle at the bottom. Keep the ball in play by bouncing it off the paddle, and clear the bricks by hitting them. Clear them all and you either advance to the next level (in Levels mode) or trigger a fresh wave (in Infinite mode). If the ball falls past your paddle you lose a life — run out of lives and the game is over.

Controls

You can move the paddle however feels natural, and you can switch between methods at any time:

• Keyboard: hold A / D or the left and right arrow keys to slide the paddle.
• Mouse: just move the mouse — the paddle follows your cursor across the playfield.
• Touch: on a phone or tablet, drag your finger to move the paddle.
• Launch & fire: press Space or click / tap to launch the ball at the start of a turn, to release a ball you've caught, and to fire when the laser power-up is active.

The ball starts stuck to the paddle. Line up your shot and launch — the angle is slightly random, so no two serves are identical.

The two modes

Break Bricks has two ways to play, and you pick one on the start screen:

Levels mode

A procedurally generated campaign. Level 1 is gentle — about fifteen bricks and a slow ball — and each level adds a few more bricks, the occasional tougher multi-hit brick, and a little more ball speed. Crucially, every increase is capped, so the difficulty keeps rising without ever becoming impossible, and the campaign can run for hundreds of levels. Clearing a level rewards you and bumps you up to the next one, and the game remembers where you are so you can resume later.

Infinite mode

An endless survival run. Clear all the bricks and a fresh wave slides in from the top, over and over. The ball gradually speeds up the longer you survive — again up to a safe limit — so the pressure builds steadily. Your score is the number of bricks you break, and the run ends when you lose your last ball.

Lives

You begin each run with three lives, shown as hearts in the scoreboard. Lose the ball and you drop a life and re-serve; lose them all and it's game over. The Life power-up can top you back up, to a maximum of six.

Power-ups

Some bricks release a falling capsule when they break. Catch it with your paddle to trigger its effect:

• Wide (W): makes your paddle larger for a while — easier returns.
• Multiball (M): instantly splits your ball into several, clearing bricks much faster.
• Slow (S): calms a fast ball down, great breathing room on quick waves.
• Life (♥): an extra ball in reserve.
• Catch (C): the ball sticks to the paddle when it lands, so you can aim your next shot — tap to release.
• Laser (L): arms your paddle so you can fire straight up and chip bricks directly.
• Shrink (X): the rare bad one — it makes your paddle smaller for a short time, so it's the one to avoid.

How you earn XP and coins

Break Bricks ties into your CPSCount account. In Infinite mode you earn 5 XP for every brick you break and 1 coin for every wave you clear. In Levels mode you earn 200 XP and 2 coins for completing each level. XP counts toward your account level when you're signed in; you can still play and earn coins locally as a guest, but signing in is what saves your progress and puts your best runs on the leaderboard.

Beginner tips

Watch the ball, not the bricks — your paddle should already be moving to where the ball will land. Use the paddle edges to steer (more on that in the strategy guide), don't chase risky power-ups into a corner, and remember that numbered bricks take more than one hit. Most of all: keep at least one ball alive. A slow, safe clear beats a flashy one that costs you the ball.