BOMB SQUAD

A ticking bomb, a paper manual and three strikes to spare: snip, flip, read, don't panic.

BOMB SQUAD All games

BOMB SQUAD

A ticking bomb, a paper manual and three strikes to spare: snip, flip, read, don't panic.

A bomb sits on your desk under the lamp, with a manual open beside it. Pick a module and the booklet flips to its page: cut the right one of three to six wires, tap or hold the button and let go on the right digit, set five switches by their cap colours, press four symbol keys in column order, answer Simon with the mapped colour, steer through a maze whose walls you cannot see, or spin four letter wheels to the one word that fits. Almost every rule depends on the serial number, the batteries and the lights along the top.

Every wrong move is a strike and makes the clock run a quarter faster, and three strikes is BOOM. The campaign is twenty bombs that bring in the modules one at a time, until four modules and a hissing Vent share one clock. Endless keeps them coming until one goes off, and the Daily is one new bomb a day.

What is in it: A cartoon bomb that goes BOOM with a comic-book explosion, a bright white flash and a sooty pair of eyes when you fail. A strike tints the screen red and shakes it. Nobody is hurt and there is no blood. More for parents

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Controls

  • Clickpick a module · cut, press, flip, spin
  • Tabnext module
  • 1 - 6cut a wire · flip a switch · press a key
  • Space (hold)hold the button, let go to release
  • ArrowsSimon pads · steer the maze · code wheels
  • Z X CVent valves, from anywhere
  • Esc / M / Rpause · manual · retry
  • Tapeverything on touch; the manual is a drawer
Read the serial, the batteries and the lights before you touch anything: nearly every rule asks about them, and each strike makes the clock run 25 per cent faster.

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How to play

BOMB SQUAD puts a ticking bomb on your desk under a lamp and a paper manual beside it. It has a timer and one to four modules, small puzzles to solve. Click or tap a module to pick it, and the manual flips to that module's page. Do what the rule says and the module's corner light turns green. Clear every module and the bomb is defused.

The rules lean on the outside of the bomb, so look at the top rail first. It shows a serial number, batteries and up to two indicator lights. What counts is the serial's last digit (odd or even), whether it has a vowel (only A, E and U are used), the battery count and which indicators are lit.

A wrong move is a strike. The clock runs 25 per cent faster for every strike, so a slow right answer beats a fast guess. Three strikes, or the clock reaching 0:00, and it goes BOOM. The card that follows tells you the right answer, and R tries again.

There are seven modules and one needy one:

  • Wires (3 to 6 wires). Cut one. Use the manual section for your wire count; the first true line names the wire.
  • The Button. The manual says TAP or HOLD (a press under 0.45 seconds is a tap). Held, a coloured strip lights up; let go when the clock's last digit matches the strip: red 2, blue 7, yellow 5, white 0.
  • Switches. Set five switches up or down by cap colour, then press SET.
  • Keypad. Four symbol keys. Exactly one of the manual's five columns holds all four; press them in that column's order, top to bottom.
  • Simon. Pads flash a sequence and you press the mapped colour, not the one that flashed. An even or odd battery count picks the table. Three rounds, four on the last three campaign bombs and from bomb 10 in Endless.
  • Dial Maze. Steer a white square to a red triangle. The walls are hidden; the green ring tells you which of six mazes in the manual it is. Bumping a wall is a strike.
  • Code Wheel. Spin four letter wheels until they spell the one word from the manual's list of 24 that can be made, then SUBMIT.
  • Vent (needy). It never clears. Now and then it hisses and gives you 14 seconds to open the valve for its lamp colour: red left, green middle, blue right, or one to the right if the lamp blinks (blue blinking wraps round to the left). Too slow, or the wrong valve, is a strike.

Tips and strategy

  • Read the rail before you touch anything. Note "odd, vowel, two batteries" once and you will not need the Info page mid-module.
  • Wires: always read from the top of the section. Several lines can be true at once; only the first counts.
  • Hold the button early. Each digit comes round every ten seconds, so press as soon as you know it is a HOLD and watch the clock.
  • Simon repeats the whole sequence. Each round adds one flash, and you answer every flash from the first. A wrong pad starts that round's input over.
  • Code Wheel: work from the first wheel. Cross off every word that does not start with a letter on wheel 1, then do the same for wheel 2.
  • Keep a hand free for the Vent. On a keyboard, Z X C open the left, middle and right valves from anywhere, without leaving the module you are on.

What's in it

Campaign is 20 bombs. It brings in the modules one at a time, starting with three wires on 40 seconds, adds the Vent on bomb 15, and ends with four modules plus the Vent on 70 to 85 seconds. Each bomb earns up to three stars: one for defusing it, one for no strikes, and one for finishing with a third of the clock left. Defusing a bomb unlocks the next one. Every attempt is a fresh random bomb, so you learn rules, not answers: bombs 1 to 15 keep the same modules each time, while bombs 16 to 20 draw a new set of modules on every try.

Endless keeps the bombs coming. They grow from one module up to four plus the Vent, the Vent joins from bomb 7, and from bomb 10 Simon plays four rounds and mazes get longer. Clocks top out at 80 seconds; from bomb 18 each one is 1.5 seconds shorter, down to 30. One boom ends the run, and your score is the number of bombs defused.

Daily is one bomb a day, the same for everyone on that date: three modules plus the Vent on 75 seconds. Your best time left for the day is kept.

Questions

Do I need a second player?

No. It borrows the idea of games where one person defuses and another reads the manual, but here you do both, with the manual on screen beside the bomb.

Can I play on a phone?

Yes. On a phone the manual is a drawer at the bottom of the screen. A tap slightly off a wire, key, switch or valve snaps to the nearest one, though Simon and the Button need a real hit.

Can I play with the keyboard?

Yes. Tab picks the next module, number keys cut wires, flip switches and press keys, Space holds the button, the arrows play Simon and steer the maze, and Enter presses SET or SUBMIT. Press H in a game for the full list.

Does it save?

Yes, in your own browser: which campaign bombs are unlocked, your stars and best times, your best Endless run, today's Daily best and your sound settings.

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