Magnet Break — Rules & Strategy

Breakout with the paddle deleted. It sits fixed at the bottom center and never moves — instead you hold the left or right side of the screen and bend the flying ball itself with a magnet.

▶ Play Magnet Break · 한국어로 읽기

The one-line version

The ball launches from dead center, perfectly vertical. The paddle is fixed and a center hit bounces straight up, so if you never touch a magnet the ball shuttles up and down the middle column forever — that is a geometric guarantee, not a tendency. Which is why no target block is ever placed in the middle column. Magnets are not a convenience here; without them nothing happens at all.

Core rules

1. Magnets. Hold the left half of the screen and the left magnet powers up, accelerating the ball leftward; the right half is the mirror image. Hold both and they cancel to nothing. On desktop, hold ← / → or hold the mouse down on the left or right half.
2. Polarity comes bundled with direction. Powering the left magnet makes the ball N (▲, blue); powering the right makes it S (▼, red). It flips the moment you switch a magnet on, and it stays after you let go. The ball starts N.
3. Magnet energy. A gauge of 100 that drains 34 per second while a magnet is on and recovers 22 per second while both are off. Empty it and you get a 1.2 second lockout with no magnets at all.
4. The paddle is fixed, but its angle is not. Where the ball lands on it decides the bounce: dead center goes straight up, and the further out you hit, the wider the angle, up to 45°. Miss the paddle to either side and you lose a life.
5. Only ★ targets matter. Break every ★ target block and the stage is cleared. Every other block is optional.
6. Three lives. Lose all three and the stage fails, with an instant retry.

The blocks

• Normal (grey) — breaks in one hit at any polarity. These exist to fill the field so it still reads as breakout; they never affect the clear condition.
• N block (blue ▲) — breaks only while the ball is N. Hit it as S and it just bounces off.
• S block (red ▼) — breaks only while the ball is S.
• Reinforced — two hits, with the remaining count printed on it.
• Magnetic block — indestructible. Within a 70px radius it pulls the ball in when their poles match and pushes it away when they don't. Both an obstacle and a tool.
• Target (★) — one hit, polarity irrelevant. These are the only blocks you actually have to break.

How the twelve stages are built

There are twelve stages, each 20–60 seconds, so a session runs from about a minute to a few. The curve goes 1–2 getting a feel for the pull → 3–4 threading narrow gaps → 5–6 polarity gates arrive → 7–8 magnetic obstacles → 9–10 both at once → 11–12 everything together. Progress and stars are stored locally, and you can replay any cleared stage from the stage list.

Two rules are baked into every layout. First, targets are never in the middle column, so no stage can be finished without using a magnet. Second, polarity gates sit directly beneath the targets. Since the left magnet makes you N, an N gate in front of a left-hand target is "with the grain" and easy; an S gate in front of a left-hand target is the reverse — the direction you need and the pole you need pull against each other. That conflict is the entire game.

Stars

★ for clearing, ★★ for clearing without losing a life, ★★★ for that plus finishing inside the stage's target time. Those times scale from 22 seconds on stage 1 to 55 on stage 12. Only your best rating is kept, so it is perfectly reasonable to grab the clear first and come back for the time later.

Strategy

1. Tap, don't hold

A magnet costs 34 per second and refunds only 22, so every second on needs roughly a second and a half off to break even. The 1.2 second lockout sounds trivial until it lands while the ball is on its way down past the paddle — then it is a life. Short, deliberate bursts at the moments that matter beat one long pull almost every time.

2. The real problem is when your direction and your pole disagree

Going left means powering the left magnet, which makes the ball N. If an S gate guards that left-hand target, those two facts are in direct conflict. The solution is to separate them in time: pull left long enough to build the horizontal travel you need, then, as the ball nears the target, flick the right magnet for a fraction of a second to flip the pole to S and coast the rest of the way on momentum. Hold the right magnet any longer and you undo your own trajectory — the whole trick is how briefly you tap it.

3. The bounce angle is your second control stick

The paddle doesn't move, but where the ball meets it is entirely up to you. Center is vertical; the edges open out to 45°. So steering the ball toward the outer part of the paddle on the way down means the next ascent already starts tilted the way you wanted. That costs far less energy than fighting the ball upward with a magnet the whole way.

4. Magnetic blocks are free acceleration, not just obstacles

You can't destroy them, but within 70px they attract a matching pole and repel an opposing one — and since their pole is fixed, flipping the ball's polarity is how you choose between pull and push. Approach a magnetic block on the opposite pole and it shoves you out of a narrow lane; approach on the matching pole and it drags you in, curving your path for zero magnet energy. The later stages are laid out expecting you to use this.

5. Come at targets from underneath

Every layout guarantees that the column below a target is open. Trying to engineer a steep descent onto a target from above is much harder than swinging wide and hitting it on the way up. It is also why the polarity gates sit immediately below the targets: the pole that gets you through the gate is the pole that reaches the target.

6. Don't break what you don't need

Only ★ targets count. Time spent tidying up grey blocks or leftover N/S blocks burns your three-star clock and gives the ball more chances to slip past the paddle. Start each stage by counting the ★s and planning the shortest path that opens a lane to each one.

FAQ

Do I need an account?

No. Nothing to install, nothing to sign up for. Stage progress and stars live in your browser only and are never sent to a server.

Is there a daily puzzle?

No — this is twelve hand-built stages rather than a daily generator. Any cleared stage can be replayed from the stage list, and your best star rating is kept.

The paddle really does not move?

It really does not. Fixed position, fixed width. Your only two ways to change the ball's course are the magnets and the bounce angle.

Why can I not just hold a magnet down?

Energy drains at 34/s and recovers at 22/s, and hitting zero means a 1.2 second lockout. The gauge exists so that when to pull is a decision instead of a reflex.

I hit a blue block and it did not break

That is a polarity gate. Blue N blocks break only for an N ball, red S blocks only for an S ball. Left magnet = N, right magnet = S.

How do I get three stars?

★ for the clear, ★★ for a no-death clear, ★★★ for a no-death clear inside the target time (22s on stage 1 up to 55s on stage 12).

I am colour blind. Can I tell N from S?

Yes — polarity is carried by glyph as well as colour: N is ▲, S is ▼, shown on both the ball and the blocks. Reinforced blocks print their remaining hits as a number.

The screen effects bother me

Turn on your browser or OS "reduce motion" setting (prefers-reduced-motion) and the screen shake on block destruction is skipped.

Controls

Mobile: hold the left half or the right half of the screen to power that magnet. Holding both cancels out.
Desktop: hold ← / →, or hold the mouse down on the left or right half of the screen. On your first visit a short tutorial overlay with an animated finger shows you the gesture.

Other guides

• Chroma Drop — rules and strategy · a full row isn't enough; the colour has to match
• Peak Load — rules and strategy · completed lines don't clear themselves; you fire them to match demand
• Murder Grid — rules and strategy · a daily deduction puzzle where sudoku buys your clues
• About playbuns · design principles, how the games are built, our advertising rules

This page is updated whenever the rules change. If you spot an error, tell us through contact.