Bubble Trouble Beginner's Guide: Where to Stand, When to Fire and Which Bubble to Pop First

Read the bounce before you move

Every bubble in Bubble Trouble follows the same arc, and the arc never changes for a bubble of a given size. A big bubble bounces high and slow; a medium one lower and faster; the smallest ones skip along the floor. Spend the first second of a level watching rather than firing. Once you know where each bubble lands, the floor is mostly safe space and the danger is only ever a bubble's width wide.

Fire under the fall

The harpoon climbs from the floor, so it needs a moment to reach bubble height. The reliable shot is to stand where a bubble is going to land, fire as it begins to drop, and step aside. The line is already in the air when the bubble arrives. Firing at a bubble that is rising means the line reaches the ceiling with nothing on it while you stand under a bubble that is about to come down.

Halves before wholes

The mistake that ends most early games is popping a second big bubble while the halves of the first are still bouncing. Each big bubble becomes two, then four, then eight, and eight small bubbles fill a room. Pop one big bubble, chase its halves down to nothing, then take the next one. It looks slower and it is faster, because you never have to run.

The timer and the items

The red bar at the bottom is the level clock and it is what beats people on the later levels. Working one side of the room at a time spends less of it than dashing about. Items drop from popped bubbles: the double harpoon and the hook are worth a small risk because they change how the level plays; extra time and extra lives are worth a large one; a points bonus is worth nothing if it costs a life.

The hook

The hook weapon pins the harpoon line to the ceiling instead of letting it vanish, so for a moment the room has a wall in it. Fire it under a bubble's path and every bubble that hits the line is popped. Used well, one hook shot clears a corner.