Enemy actions and threats

How moves advance

Enemies have a set of moves, each made of steps separated by placement turns. Successful placements advance the countdown, with at most one step executed per turn. Moves are drawn without repetition within each bag. Every move begins with recovery, followed by its action steps.

Recovery is separate from the move’s own delays. Recovery turns = round up(total step delays × mode recovery factor × layer factor). The layer factors are 1, 0.8, and 0.6, so enemies recover faster deeper in the adventure.

Two threats, two different responses

Countdown blocks: remove them early. Enemies create or mark blocks with a timer. Threat blocks still present when the timer expires create garbage pressure that pushes rows up from below. Clearing or successfully destroying them can remove the danger.

Area threats: meet the cell requirement. The preview marks an area and a required count. Eligible solid cells in that area counter the threat; any shortfall creates garbage pressure. Clearing every danger zone is therefore not always the right response. Affected materials may also be destroyed or transformed when it resolves.

Read the current highlighted targets and timeline instead of guessing from a move’s name. Moving a threat block does not necessarily remove its countdown.

Queue and board interference

Enemies can change queued materials, mirror or shatter shapes, or turn them into letters. They can also shear the board, disable actions, and mark forbidden placement zones. Use the preview to see locked targets and the expected effect.

See Enemy moves for step timings and Enemies for each enemy’s moveset.

Special enemies

Some passive traits change landing direction, gravity, the pace of ongoing board activity, or horizontal boundaries. These are separate from random encounter modifiers. Hidden enemy details are collapsed in the reference page.