Corebreak — complete guide
The full breakdown: the boosts you draft mid-run, the Forge upgrade tree, how the Well gathers Cores while you're away, mutators, and the build strategies that carry you deepest.
How it works
Break blocks
Drag to aim and release a stream of marbles. They ricochet off the walls and the numbered blocks above, and every hit knocks your marble damage off a block's number. After each volley the blocks drift down a row — one row is one metre of depth.
Earn Cores
Cores are earned when a run ends, even a lost one — mostly for how deep you got, with a little extra for breaks, combo and score. Spend them in the Forge and the Well. Power-ups are separate: you win them from Core Blocks and other in-run rewards, and can bank them for later.
Forge
The Forge is a 21-level upgrade tree across seven nodes, bought with Cores and kept forever. It raises your starting marbles, your base damage and the Cores you earn per run.
Survive
If a block crosses the line, the run is over — there are no continues. Blocks get tougher the deeper you go, so grow your marbles and damage to keep up. In an endless run, a Core Block drops in every 15m; break it for a score bounty, a banked power-up and a cleared row.
Three expeditions
Replay Shieldworks, Glassworks and Repairworks as often as you like. Each is an 18m expedition with boost drafts at 6m and 12m, its own challenge, and a Core to shatter at the end.
The Daily
One seeded board a day, the same for everyone: same rule, same starting stats, no saved power-ups and one official attempt. The Official Daily is free. Pro adds the Pro Open Daily, a separate leaderboard with unlimited replays and saved power-ups, open once your official attempt is in.
Twelve run boosts
Boosts are drafted during play: pick one of three every 15m in an endless run, plus bonus drafts as the blocks you break add up, and at 6m and 12m in Shieldworks, Glassworks and Repairworks. They last only for the current run and stack with each other. Endless runs and expeditions draw from all twelve below; the Official Daily uses a smaller pool of the first seven.
Volley
Offense
Adds 3 marbles to your stream for the rest of the run. Best taken early — more marbles means more breaks per volley, and that compounds across everything that follows.
Power Core
Offense
+1 damage per marble hit. Stacks with your Honed Tips and Overdrive upgrades, and a second Power Core adds another +1. Close to essential on deep runs, where block numbers climb fast.
Blast Radius
Offense
Each broken block damages the blocks around it — the ones directly above, below and beside it — for your marble damage per level. Strongest on crowded boards; on sparse ones there's often nothing next door to hit.
Lucky Strike
Luck
+15% chance per level for any hit to deal triple damage, up to 60%. With a wide stream in play, it works out to a steady damage multiplier.
Aim Rig
Utility
Extends your wall-bounce shot preview, so you can see further along a ricochet before you let go. A precision pick that pays off most on tight angles and narrow gaps.
Pushback
Defense
Moves every block up 3 rows the instant you take it. Grab it when the blocks are close to the line and you need breathing room. It buys time rather than damage, so it's worth most when the board is already crowding you. In an endless run it's only offered once the blocks are closing in.
Chain Reaction
Offense
+12% chance per level that a broken block detonates a neighbor, up to 60%. Scales well with Volley — more marbles breaking more blocks means more chances to chain.
Split Shot
Offense
The first block you break each volley releases two half-damage marbles. Once per volley, and you can only take it once per run. Endless and expeditions only.
Bank Charge
Offense
A bounce off a side wall charges your marble, and its next block hit deals +1 damage per level. Rewards banked angles over straight shots. Endless and expeditions only.
Finisher
Offense
+1 damage per level against blocks at 25% health or less. Cleans up the stragglers a wide stream leaves behind. Endless and expeditions only.
Crackshot
Offense
+1 damage per level against blocks at full health. Makes the first hit on every fresh block count. Endless and expeditions only.
Safety Catch
Defense
Once per run, it stops a descent that would end the run and gives you one rescue volley. It doesn't stack, and it's gone once used. Endless and expeditions only.
With a specialization active, the right pair of boosts unlocks an evolution: Bankshot with Blast Radius and Lucky Strike becomes Aftershock, Needle with Aim Rig and Power Core becomesThreader, and Focus with Power Core and Blast Radius becomes Impact.
The Forge — seven upgrades
The Forge tree is deliberately small — seven nodes and 21 levels across three tiers, bought with Cores and kept forever. Every node changes how a run feels rather than nudging a percentage. You start each run with 6 marbles and 1 base damage; the tree is what moves those numbers. Tier 1 is free. Tiers 2 and 3 unlock with Pro — purchased levels are kept in storage either way, so paid-tier nodes simply go inactive if an entitlement lapses. Costs shown are the base price of the first level; each further level in a node costs more.
Tier 1 — Foundation
| Upgrade | Max lvl | Base cost | Effect per level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deep Stock | 5 | 80 Cores | +1 marble in your starting stream |
| Honed Tips | 3 | 130 Cores | +1 base damage per marble |
| Salvage | 4 | 100 Cores | +12% Cores earned per run |
Tier 2 — Advanced Pro
| Upgrade | Max lvl | Base cost | Effect per level |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reinforced | 3 | 420 Cores | +2 marbles in your starting stream |
| Prospector | 3 | 380 Cores | +15% Cores earned per run |
Tier 3 — Endgame Pro
| Upgrade | Max lvl | Base cost | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Streamline | 1 | 1,100 Cores | +3 starting marbles, but −1 base damage. A wide, thin build. Needs +1 base damage from another upgrade first. |
| Overdrive | 2 | 1,000 Cores | +2 base damage per level. Pure punch. |
Streamline is a one-time buy at a flat price; Overdrive's second level costs 2,400 Cores. Fully maxed, the tree takes you from 6 marbles and 1 damage to 20 marbles and 7 damage, with Cores earned up to +93% per run.
Upgrade priority: Max Deep Stock first — 11 starting marbles instead of 6 is the biggest early swing you can buy. Take Salvage next so every later purchase arrives sooner, then Honed Tips to take your base damage from 1 to 4. On Pro, Reinforced (+6 marbles over three levels) outpaces Prospector unless you're saving for tier 3. At tier 3, Streamline is the wide build and Overdrive is the narrow one. Streamline needs at least +1 base damage before you can buy it, so it has something to trade — and if you own both, Overdrive's +4 damage more than covers Streamline's −1, and you keep all the extra marbles.
The Well — sixteen upgrades
The Well gathers Cores while the game is closed. With nothing bought, it discovers6 Cores/hr into a 70-Core basin and keeps going for up to36 hours offline. Once the basin is full, discovery stops — so rate and storage have to grow together, and you have to come back and collect. With Pro, every full basin is collected automatically. Two upgrades are free; the other fourteen unlock with Pro. Costs shown are the base price of the first level; the curve is steep and every further level costs roughly twice the last.
Basics — free
| Upgrade | Group | Max lvl | Base cost | Effect per level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Core Pump | Basics | 6 | 400 Cores | Discovery rate +5/hr |
| Catch Basin | Basics | 6 | 340 Cores | Well storage +50 |
Pro upgrades Pro
| Upgrade | Group | Max lvl | Base cost | Effect per level |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Power Spring | Production | 4 | 1,200 Cores | Discovery rate +12/hr |
| Depth Gauge | Production | 3 | 2,400 Cores | Rate +1/hr per depth zone of your best run (1 zone = 15m) |
| Deep Tapping | Production | 2 | 3,600 Cores | Rate +2/hr per depth zone of your best run — stacks with Depth Gauge |
| Echo Engine | Production | 3 | 3,000 Cores | Rate +10/hr per Master Core you hold |
| Grand Reservoir | Storage | 4 | 1,100 Cores | Well storage +120 |
| Lucky Vein | Storage | 3 | 2,600 Cores | Well storage +100 per Master Core you hold |
| Overflow Tank | Storage | 3 | 2,000 Cores | Bank up to +20% over storage; the overflow bleeds off if left too long |
| Long Reserve | Storage | 3 | 1,600 Cores | Extend offline discovery +24h (base 36h) |
| Perfect Fill | Collection | 3 | 1,500 Cores | +20% yield when you collect at 80% full or more |
| Core Polish | Collection | 3 | 1,800 Cores | +8% flat collection yield |
| Golden Batch | Collection | 3 | 2,800 Cores | 15% chance per level that a collection pays double |
| Daily Spark | Collection | 3 | 2,200 Cores | Rate +5/hr for every day of your current check-in streak (streak counts to 14) |
| Morning Glow | Collection | 2 | 2,600 Cores | Your first collection each day is worth +40% |
| Clockwork Collector | Collection | 1 | 12,000 Cores | Automatic Well batches pay +15%. Auto-collect itself is included with Pro. |
Master Cores are the Well's long-term reward. Invest 8,000 Cores in Well upgrades and you can Rebuild the Well for one Master Core; each one after that needs about four times as much lifetime investment as the last. Rebuilding resets your Well upgrades and any uncollected Cores, so collect first — your wallet Cores, Forge upgrades, run progress and Master Cores are kept. Every Master Core is a permanent, compounding +15% on your discovery rate, and it's what Echo Engine and Lucky Vein scale off — those two do nothing until you hold at least one.
Well order: Core Pump and Catch Basin together — a big rate with a small basin just fills up and stalls. On Pro, Power Spring is the best rate-per-Core buy, with Grand Reservoir behind it to hold the extra output. Add Core Polish and Perfect Fill once you're reliably collecting near full, and Daily Spark if you open the game daily — at three levels and a 14-day streak it's worth +210/hr on its own. Take Long Reserve only if you're regularly away longer than 36 hours. Save Depth Gauge and Deep Tapping until your best run is genuinely deep, since both pay per 15m zone. Echo Engine and Lucky Vein come after your first Master Core, and Clockwork Collector is the last thing you buy — it only boosts the automatic batches Pro already collects.
Five mutators
Every run carries exactly one mutator, and you don't pick it. In an endless run the board seed decides which of the five you get. The Daily takes its mutator from the UTC date instead, so everyone in the world plays the same rule on the same day — the Daily screen shows it as "Today's rule" before you start. All five are free for everyone.
Tough Blocks
The hard mode. Every block spawns with 2.5× its normal number — in an endless run that eases in over the first 30m — and rows come in denser. Nothing descends faster; you simply have far more to chew through. Denser rows mean more neighboring blocks, so boosts that hit more than one at a time — BLAST RADIUS and CHAIN REACTION — earn their slot here.
Gem Rush
Gems spawn at double the usual rate — 11% of blocks instead of 5.5%. That matters because breaking a gem clears its entire row, so twice the gems means twice the row-wipes, and gems score double on top. The friendliest of the five, and the best one to be handed when you're testing a new build.
Slow Volley
Marbles fly 8% slower. That's the whole rule — the flight path is unchanged, just stretched out. Volleys take a little longer to resolve, which makes bounces easier to read and pairs naturally with AIM RIG. The gentlest mutator in the set.
Fragile Cores
Cuts 12% off the depth part of every block's number. It's an easing mutator, not a risk one — but it only bites deep. The depth part doesn't kick in until past 30m and doesn't dominate until well beyond that, so shallow runs feel identical and a long descent feels noticeably softer.
Double Pickups
Marble pickups pay 2 marbles instead of 1, and slightly more of them spawn. This is a marble-economy mutator, not a Cores one: it grows your stream far faster than normal, and since the board scales its pressure against marbles × damage, expect the blocks to push back harder as your stream grows.
Build paths and tips
- 01Deep Stock is the single best early investment.Five levels take your starting stream from 6 marbles to 11 — a much wider opening volley for the cheapest node in the tree. More marbles per volley means more breaks, and more breaks means deeper runs, which is what pays out Cores.
- 02Buy income before you buy power.Four levels of Salvage is +48% Cores on every run, and on Pro three levels of Prospector stack another +45% on top for +93% total. Tier 3 starts at 1,000 and 1,100 Cores; nearly doubling your income per run is what turns that from a grind into a goal.
- 03Your pressure is marbles multiplied by damage — keep them balanced.The game measures how hard you're pushing as marble count times marble damage, so ten marbles at 1 damage and two marbles at 5 do the same work on paper. The wide stream wins in practice because it touches more blocks per volley. Take VOLLEY when your damage is already up, POWER CORE when your stream is already wide, and stop taking whichever one you're long on.
- 04The Well earns while you sleep — but only until it fills.With nothing bought it's 6 Cores/hr into a 70-Core basin, so it tops out in under twelve hours and then discovers nothing. Raise Core Pump and Catch Basin together. On Pro, auto-collect banks every full basin for you, Overflow Tank lets you bank up to +20% over storage per level — the excess bleeds off if you leave it too long, so it buys slack, not immunity — and Long Reserve is the one to own if you're regularly away longer than the 36-hour offline window.
- 05AIM RIG is worth more on a wide build than a narrow one.Streamline trades a point of base damage for three extra marbles, and the wider the stream the more a launch angle decides. AIM RIG extends the wall-bounce preview, so a well-read bounce sprays a whole column instead of clipping its edge. Take it early on a Deep Stock or Streamline run; on a narrow Overdrive build it matters less, because a few heavy marbles forgive a sloppy angle.
- 06Deep Tapping ties the Well to your best run.Maxed at two levels it pays +4/hr for every 15m zone of your best run, and it stacks with Depth Gauge. That closes the loop: upgrades → deeper runs → more Well income → faster upgrades. It's the late-game engine, but only once your best depth is genuinely deep — at 30m it's worth +8/hr, at 150m it's +40/hr.