Star Bubbles

With your finger, aim where you touch and let go to shoot; with the mouse, move it left and right to turn the arrow and click to shoot (the arrow keys and the space bar work too). The bubble bounces off the walls. Three or more bubbles of the same element touching each other pop, and the ones left hanging fall. Tap the spare bubble to swap it. The background music can be turned off from the pause menu (or with the M key); the speaker button turns everything off.

• Fire Aries, Leo, Sagittarius
• Earth Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn
• Air Gemini, Libra, Aquarius
• Water Cancer, Scorpio, Pisces
• Aether · Moon The fifth element and the Moon: they appear from Taurus on

Each sign has ten levels, harder every time: the colours change from one level to the next, Aether and the Moon arrive from Taurus on, and matching bubbles sit further and further apart. The tenth is the trial of the sign: at the top of the field the creature of the sign is waiting. You hurt it with bubbles of its element (or with Venus, Mars and the comet); a wrong colour heals it instead. Now and then it throws stones. Defeat it and the next sign opens. From the menu you can start again from any sign you have already opened.

The planets

• Venus, from level 6: she comes in the launcher and, where she lands, takes the colour that makes the biggest group.
• Mars, from level 16: he comes in the launcher and explodes, clearing every bubble around, stones included.
• Saturn, from level 26: stones already on the field. They never pop: they only fall when left without support.
• Mercury, from level 36: bubbles that change colour every few seconds. They count as the colour they have when you hit them.
• Jupiter, from level 46: in the third, sixth and ninth level of every sign he floats on the field and his gravity bends the bubbles passing close to him. With the spyglass the aim shows the curve.

Surprises of the sky

As you go on, levels change shape (funnels, towers, stairs, bridges, waves) and surprises arrive: constellations (from level 11), bubbles joined by a thread of light that pop all together; the black hole, the portals and the spinning ring (from 21); ice bubbles (from 31), which crack at the first nearby hit and melt at the second; nebulae (from 56), which hide their colour until a bubble next to them pops. Now and then the spyglass passes by: catch it and for ten shots the dotted aim comes back and shows, see-through, the bubble where it will stick.

Every level is worth one to three stars, depending on how many shots you need compared with the bubbles there were: play it again to get them all. The menu shows the stars of each sign, up to 30.

Points: each good shot in a row is worth 10% more (up to 50%), and finishing a level in under a minute earns a speed bonus. A missed shot resets the streak.

During the levels a medallion now and then crosses the field: hit it with a bubble to take it. The hourglass works at once: for one minute the wall stays put and missed shots don't count. The spyglass works at once too: for ten shots it brings back the dotted aim. The comet (you start with a comet in hand) and the calm Moon (the wall waits for eight missed shots instead of five) are talismans: they wait for you at the bottom right. Tap one whenever you like and it works at once, for that level; if you keep them, they light up by themselves in the trial of the sign and stay yours until you win it. The rainbow puts in reserve a bubble that matches every colour it touches: it pops every neighbouring group that reaches three with it. The shield blocks the next asteroid: the bubble goes through and the wall stays up. The Uranus bolt puts a lightning bolt in reserve: where it lands it clears its whole row, stones included.

Each creature has its own move: Aries charges and brings the wall down, Taurus covers itself with an earth shield (once broken it takes a while to rebuild, but in its trial the wall comes down more often), Gemini are two (one is a reflection), Cancer hides in its shell, Leo roars and scrambles the colours, Virgo reorders the field, Libra flips it, Scorpio poisons a bubble, Sagittarius shoots stone arrows, Capricorn raises walls, Aquarius makes new bubbles rain down and Pisces swim in a circle. Just before attacking, the medallion fills with light.

From level 20, flying objects cross the field, announced by an arrow on the edge. A red arrow is an asteroid: if your shot hits it, the bubble breaks and the wall drops two steps. A golden arrow is the rescue star: catch it and the wall goes back up one step.

Now and then, from level 8, there is a supernova in the field: the dark bubble with a beating red heart. It explodes when a bubble lands next to it or when a group touching it pops, and takes away everything around it, stones included.

Every day there are three new challenges, the same for everyone: you find them in the menu. Each challenge completed gives you a talisman.

Today's sky

Once a day, after you clear a level, the bonus level of today's sky starts by itself, built on the real sky and the same for everyone: the background is the sign the Moon is in, and only that day's retrograde planets enter the field (with Mercury retrograde, Mercury changes colour backwards). On full Moon days points are doubled. You win by freeing the three stars: extra points and a talisman. If you lose it the game doesn't end: you go back to the journey with the points you had.

This week's ranking

If you play with your account, the points you gain from Monday to Sunday enter this week's ranking: all the points of new levels, and how much better you do on levels you already cleared. So every Monday everyone starts again on equal terms. No names are shown: only the Sun sign and the Ascendant of the profile. Each bubble's points grow along the journey: ×1 in Aries, then a tenth more for every sign and every house, up to ×3.3 in House XII. There is also an all-time ranking: your journey total counts, and it never resets.

The twelve houses

After Pisces the wheel turns again and the twelve houses of the sky open, ten levels per house. Each house has a rule tied to its meaning:

1. House I · The self: Fire bubbles are worth double.
2. House II · Resources: Your shots are counted: you see them at the bottom right.
3. House III · Communication: Lots of Mercuries that change colour.
4. House IV · Roots: Saturn's stones are the foundations.
5. House V · Play and joy: A full Moon with double points, and shooting stars to hit on the fly.
6. House VI · Daily work: The wall comes down every 5 seconds.
7. House VII · Partnership: Venus comes often and joins any colour.
8. House VIII · Transformation: Mars comes often, and Mercury reshuffles the cards.
9. House IX · Far journeys: Jupiter is always there and bends your shots.
10. House X · The summit: Every level has trapped stars to free.
11. House XI · Friends: Good shots in a row multiply your points, up to ×5.
12. House XII · The unconscious: Now and then an eclipse comes and the field goes dark.

The third round: the planets

After the houses the ten planets open up: ten levels per planet, and the tenth is the trial, with stars to free. Each planet has its own rule:

1. ☉ Sun · vitality: The Sun bubble arrives: where it lands it melts the ice and uncovers the nebulae around it.
2. ☽ Moon · emotions and phases: The sky changes with the phases: at full Moon points are doubled, at new Moon you can barely see the bubbles.
3. ☿ Mercury · the moving mind: Many bubbles change colour, and faster.
4. ♀ Venus · harmony: Venus comes often, but the wall drops faster.
5. ♂ Mars · action: Mars comes often, and more asteroids fly by, often in pairs.
6. ♃ Jupiter · expansion: Two Jupiters in the field bend your shots.
7. ♄ Saturn · limits and time: Shots are counted and there are many stones.
8. ♅ Uranus · surprise: Now and then two rows of bubbles swap places.
9. ♆ Neptune · dreams: A fog drifts over the field and hides the bubbles.
10. ♇ Pluto · rebirth: When half the bubbles are left the field is reborn: they change colour and a new row comes down.

After Pluto the endless sky opens: the levels go on forever. Each takes the rule of a house or a planet, difficulty is at its highest and the wall speeds up every 25 levels. Every new level adds its points to your total, so it counts for the ranking too.

Pop something eight shots in a row (ten in the houses) and a glowing comet arrives: wherever it lands, it takes away every bubble of that element. A missed shot resets the streak.

The dotted path is there only in the first level, to learn. After that you have the astrolabe's arrow: the bounces are up to you. The spyglass brings the dots back for ten shots.

Don't wait too long: if you don't shoot for seven seconds (ten in the first levels) the astrolabe heats up, counts to three and shoots by itself. Bubbles you drop are each worth double the one before: 10, 20, 40, 80 points and so on up to 2,560 each, so dropping a big cluster is worth a lot. When the bubbles get close to the line, the line pulses red and you hear a heartbeat. Next to the astrolabe is Astra, who travels with you: she cheers for big shots and worries when the wall is close.

Now and then a bubble carries a letter of Astra's name, each in its own colour: pop it or drop it to collect it. Collected letters light up above Astra's medallion and stay from one level to the next. Once you have all five, A-S-T-R-A, you win 10,000 points, more as you travel further.

The journey total is the sum of your best score in every level, plus the sky bonuses you won. A new level adds all its points; one you already cleared only adds how much better you did than last time. At the top you see the total rising while you play and, next to it, your best in the current level.

At the top there is a wall that comes down one step, dragging all the bubbles with it. It drops at fixed times (every 10 seconds from Aries to Gemini, every 8 from Cancer to Virgo, every 7 from Libra to Sagittarius, every 5 from Capricorn to Pisces) and also after five shots that pop nothing. Just before it drops it shakes and sheds a few crumbs. If the bubbles reach the line at the bottom, the game is over.