Fuse Arena

How to play Fuse Arena

1. Choose Start campaign, a tournament arena, a battle or the Daily arena.
2. Move along the open floor. Plant a charge next to crates, critters or rivals, then hide behind steel or around a corner.
3. A charge blows after 2.6 seconds in four straight lines. Steel stops a blast; a crate breaks and stops it. Other charges in the blast go off at once.
4. Collect upgrades after the flames fade. Red tiles show where a blast is about to fire.
5. In the campaign, clear every critter and step on the open hatch, or defeat the boss. In battles, be the last machine standing.
6. Pause at any time. R restarts the round; stars reward speed and taking no hits.

Controls

About Fuse Arena

Fuse Arena is an original retro bomber set in a clockwork factory. You steer a small wind-up robot between steel pillars, plant timed charges and slip around a corner before the blast arrives. Charges break crates, open new routes, uncover upgrades and knock out anything caught in the flames, including you. The rule is easy to learn and hard to master: every charge is only as good as the exit you planned before lighting it.

The campaign has twenty-four stages across four workshops. Workshop stages ask you to clear the critters and then step on the hatch, and each world introduces its own machinery. The Assembly Line adds conveyor belts that carry machines and charges, and shutter gates that blink and then close like steel. Cold Storage adds ice that keeps you sliding to the end of a lane and relay pads that jump you to their twin. The Furnace adds steam vents that glow and then erupt on a rhythm. Each world also has a rival stage against computer machines.

The sixth stage of every world is a boss. The Stamp Press walks toward you and slams a ring of fire. The Freight Hauler lines up, flashes its lane and charges until it hits steel, where it stalls. The Coldframe shimmers where it will reappear and fires cross-shaped lanes of frost. The Furnace Heart burns whole rows or columns and can only be dented while its core is open. Bosses always telegraph an attack before it lands, and only your own charges can damage them.

The critters have their own habits. Sprockets roam the corridors, seekers lock on when you come close, phase gears drift through crates but not through steel or charges, brutes take two hits and speed up when hurt, splitters break into two quick minis, and lamplighters plant small charges of their own. Critters cannot walk through a charge, so a well-placed charge can also serve as a temporary wall.

Crates hide upgrades. Charge+ lets you place one more charge at a time, Reach+ lengthens the blast, Spring makes you quicker, Shove lets you kick a charge down a lane, Drill sends blasts through a row of crates, Guard absorbs one hit and Full reach maximises your blast. In battles you can also enable the Jam, a curse that slows you, shortens your fuse or stops you planting for ten seconds, and spreads to any machine you touch.

The tournament has twelve arenas against computer rivals, from one easy rival to three hard ones, including arenas built around belts, ice, relay pads and vents. Rivals follow the same rules you do. They read the visible fuses, look for an escape before planting, collect upgrades, chase opponents and try to cut off escape routes, but they never see hidden items or your next input. In the final minute, pressure plates fall from the edges inward, so rounds always end.

Battle mode lets you set up a match for up to four machines: choose an opened arena or a random generated one, one or two players, up to three rivals, Easy, Normal or Hard skill, first to one, three or five wins, the item level, jams and sudden death. The Daily arena generates a new symmetric arena every day, the same for everyone, against three sharp rivals, and keeps your best time and daily win streak.

Stages and tournament arenas award up to three stars each: one for clearing or winning, one for beating the par time and one for finishing without taking a hit. Stars open five extra robot designs. Progress, stars, best times, records and options are saved in this browser when storage is available; there is no account or online leaderboard. The look is original pixel art drawn in code for a small screen, with generated sound effects that stay off until you turn them on. Reduced-motion settings remove screen shake, flashes and the attract-mode demo and calm other decoration without changing any timing.

A few useful tricks

• Before planting, name the corner you will hide behind. If every exit sits in the same blast cross, move first.
• Red tiles mean a blast fires in under a second. Treat them like flames.
• A charge on a conveyor belt rides it: plant upstream of a target and let the belt deliver it.
• Ice commits you to the whole slide. Look where the lane ends before stepping on.
• Save a Guard for bosses. It turns one mistake into a close call.
• Critters cannot pass a charge. Use one to wall off a corridor while you escape.

Good questions