Boom Bloom Guide – How Firework Chains Work, Every Shell Explained and How to Get 3 Stars
Boom Bloom! is a free fireworks chain reaction game for your browser and phone. You tap the sky, a rocket bursts there, and every paper lantern its sparks touch bursts too. This guide explains exactly how the chains spread, what every lantern shell does and how to get 3 stars on all 16 shows.
How a chain works
- Tap or click the sky. The nearest of the three barges on the lake fires a rocket that bursts where you tapped. It takes a little over half a second to get there, longer for high or far targets. A ring shrinks onto the spot to show where it will burst.
- The burst grows for a moment and then fades. Any lantern its sparks touch catches fire, wobbles for a tenth of a second and then bursts with its own shell.
- Each new burst can light more lanterns, so one well-placed rocket can set off the whole sky. The lanterns’ faces help you: they look nervous when sparks get close.
- One rocket = one chain. You can fire again while a chain is still going, but every rocket you save is worth points if you light every lantern.
A plain rocket burst reaches about 2.5 units, which is roughly two lanterns’ widths. Lanterns that sit further apart than that need a shell with a longer reach to connect them.
The 10 lantern shells
| Shell | Colour | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Peony | red | A round burst, a little bigger than your rocket’s. |
| Big Mum | orange, larger lantern | A huge golden chrysanthemum that reaches about a third further than a peony. The best bridge between two groups. |
| Crossette | blue, “+” icon | A small burst plus four comets that fly about 6 units in a cross and pop at the end. Some are turned 45° into an “×”. |
| Willow | green | Six golden trails that rise a little and then drip down for over two seconds, lighting lanterns below it. |
| Halo | purple, ring icon | A ring that reaches further than a peony but skips lanterns right next to it. Their neighbours often catch them anyway. |
| Crackle | white, sparkle icon | Nine little pops scattered around it over about a second. A bit random, very loud. |
| Zoomer | cyan, arrow icon | Shoots off the way its arrow points, over about 11 units, then pops. Follow the arrows! |
| Sweetheart | pink | Bursts into a giant heart. +250 points. |
| Kitty | teal, cat ears | Bursts into a cat face (with a meow). +250 points. |
| Lucky Star | yellow, star icon | Gives you one extra rocket and +100 points. |
Scoring
- Every lantern scores 10 × its place in the chain: the 1st lantern of a chain is worth 10, the 10th is worth 100, the 20th 200. Long chains are worth far more than several short ones.
- Chains of 5 or more get a bonus of 20 points per lantern, and the crowd starts cheering (“Ooooh!”, “Aaaah!”, and from 16 lanterns on, something funnier).
- Sweethearts and Kitties add 250, Lucky Stars 100.
- Light every lantern and each rocket you have left adds 150.
Stars depend only on how many lanterns you light. The bar at the top shows the three marks; the third star usually needs every lantern or close to it.
Tips for 3 stars
- Look before you tap. Find the lantern that connects the most groups, usually a Big Mum, a Crossette or a Zoomer, and start the chain there.
- Follow the arrows. A row of Zoomers is a fuse: light the first one and the rest follow. Light one in the middle and you lose half the chain.
- Willows go down, not up. Start chains from the top when there are Willows above other lanterns.
- Halos need help. A lantern hugging a Halo is skipped by the ring, so make sure a neighbour can catch it.
- Aim ahead of moving lanterns. Rockets take time to fly. Aim where a swaying or circling lantern will be, or wait until two groups drift close together and then fire.
- Wait for the rain. Grumpy rain clouds soak every lantern inside them, and a rocket that bursts in a cloud just fizzles. Wait until the cloud has drifted off your target.
- Lucky Stars first. On Lucky Stars you start with a single rocket. Light a group with a Lucky Star in it to earn the next rocket, and so on.
- Your second rocket is for the leftovers. If the first chain leaves a small cluster dark, finish it off rather than firing at single lanterns.
Festival mode
Festival is the endless mode. Lanterns float up from the lake in groups, faster and in bigger groups as time goes on, and new shells join the mix. Every lantern that floats off the top costs one of your 5 lanterns of life.
- You start with 6 rockets and get one back every 5 seconds (up to 9).
- Chains of 3 or more give a rocket back, 6 or more give two, 10 or more give three.
- Fire into the thick of a group just as it rises, so its bursts catch the stragglers behind it.
Your best Festival score is saved for each venue.
Show Maker
The Show Maker lets you build your own firework puzzles. Pick a shell, tap the sky to place it, tap a lantern to select it and drag to move it. Each lantern can stay still, sway, bob, circle or drift, and Crossettes and Zoomers can be turned. You can add up to 3 rain clouds and 60 lanterns, choose the venue, the number of rockets and the goal, then test your show. Shows can be copied, deleted and shared with a short code that a friend can paste into the import box.
Burst palettes
Stars unlock new colours for your fireworks: Gold Rush (6 stars), Sakura (12), Neon Night (18), Deep Sea (24), Candy Shop (30), Dragon Fire (36) and Rainbow (42). They only change the colours, never the gameplay.