Burrow Blast

How to Play Burrow Blast

Burrow Blast is a free daily arcade game. You play a gopher with an air pump, digging tunnels through the dirt to hunt the garden pests living underneath. Pump them up until they pop, or drop a rock on them. Clear the garden and a bigger one takes its place.

The goal

Get rid of every pest in the garden. Each pest you pop or crush counts, and once the last one is gone you move on to the next garden. You lose if you run out of lives.

Controls

• Keyboard: arrow keys or WASD move and dig. Space fires the pump. Hold space to keep pumping.
• Phone or tablet: use the four arrow buttons and the large PUMP button under the game. Hold an arrow to keep moving and hold PUMP to keep pumping.
• Sound: press M or tap the Sound button to mute.

Digging through fresh dirt is slower than walking through a tunnel you've already made.

Pumping pests

• The pump fires up to 3 squares in the direction you're facing. Faint dots show how far it reaches.
• When the hose catches a pest, it freezes in place. Each press inflates it a little more, and the fourth press pops it.
• If you move too far away, the hose lets go. The pest then slowly deflates and starts chasing you again.
• A pest you're pumping can't hurt you, but touching a free pest costs a life.

The pests

Green grubs are the steady ones. Purple beetles are faster. Both move quickly through tunnels and slowly through dirt, and when one is burrowing through dirt you only see its glowing eyes. They always head for you, so every tunnel you dig is also a road for them.

Rocks

Rocks sit buried in the dirt. Dig out the ground underneath one and it wobbles for about a second, then drops. A falling rock crushes any pest it lands on, and it will crush you too if you're underneath. When you see a rock start to shake, move out of the way.

Lives and scoring

• You start with 4 lives. Touching a free pest or being hit by a rock costs one, and you restart at the top with a short moment of protection.
• A popped pest is worth 100 points near the surface, rising to 400 at the bottom. The deeper the pest, the more it pays.
• A pest crushed by a rock is worth 300 points.
• Clearing a garden earns a 500-point bonus.
• Your best score of the day is saved in your browser.

The daily garden

Everyone digs the same garden each day. The position of the pest caves and the rocks both come from the date, so you can compare scores with friends who played the same day. The garden changes at midnight your time. The first garden has 3 pests and moves slowly. Each garden after it adds a pest and speeds them up a little.

Tips for a high score

• Dig narrow, straight tunnels. Pests have to follow them in a line, which puts them right in front of your pump.
• Face the pest before you fire, and pump from 2 or 3 squares away. That leaves you room to back off if another one shows up.
• Rocks are your best weapon. Dig a tunnel under one, lure a pest beneath it, then step aside and let it fall.
• Don't dig straight down under a rock while standing in the spot where it will land.
• Deeper pests are worth more but are harder to reach. Take the safe ones near the top first and work your way down.