How to dodge jelly blobs thrown by the castle

Level 8 opens with a NEW! card that says it plainly: the castle throws blobs, dodge the shadow. Until then the castle just stands there and takes hits. From now on it fights back.

A jelly blob will not end your run on its own. What it does is quietly eat bears, a few at a time, right when you need every one of them for the castle. Knowing how to dodge jelly blobs is one of the cheapest ways to win more of the later levels.

When the castle starts throwing blobs

Jelly blobs belong to the end of each level, not the whole road.

• They start at level 8 and stay in every level after it, including HARD levels and boss levels.
• Bonus levels skip them. The gummy rain level after each boss has no enemies and no blobs.
• They come as you near the castle. The first part of the road is blob-free. Once you get close to the castle, it starts throwing, and it keeps throwing while your mob charges it.
• They speed up slowly. At level 8 there is a gap of roughly seven seconds between throws. Each level after that shortens the gap a little, but it never drops much below one blob every three and a half seconds.

The blob is not random candy. The castle flings it from the top block of one of its columns, that block gives a little bounce, and the blob takes that block's colour. So a green column throws a green blob.

How to read the warning

Every blob is telegraphed, which means the game shows you the attack before it lands.

Here is what to watch for:

• A whoosh sound as the blob leaves the castle.
• A dark round shadow on the road. It starts small and pale and grows bigger and darker as the blob falls.
• A red ring around the shadow that pulses quickly. The ring is the edge of the splash.
• The blob itself, arcing high through the air before it drops.

From throw to splash takes about a second and a half. That sounds short, but the shadow appears the moment the blob is thrown, so you have the whole flight to react.

The blob is aimed at you. It lands close to the line your launcher is on, a short way up the road, which is exactly where fresh bears run out of the launcher and where the launcher itself will be rolling soon. Standing still is the one choice that is almost always wrong.

What a blob does when it lands

When it hits the road, the blob bursts into a big splash, leaves a coloured goo stain and shakes the screen.

1. Bears inside the ring are knocked out. Every bear standing in the splash is gone. If more than two are lost, you see a SPLOSH number with how many.
2. Colour does not protect you. Unlike enemies and castle blocks, a blob does not care about matching. A green blob knocks out green bears just as easily as yellow ones.
3. A direct hit freezes the launcher. If the blob lands right on your launcher, it turns icy for about a second and a half. It rolls at half speed, fires far fewer bears, and your bears run slower too.
4. A shield stops the freeze. With the blue shield bubble on, a blob on your launcher does not freeze it. The bears in the splash are still lost, so the shield is no excuse to stand in the ring.

The freeze is the bigger danger. Your launcher is your bear factory, and a slow factory right in front of the castle can be the difference between a clear and a SO CLOSE! card.

Step-by-step: dodging a blob

Use these steps every time you hear the whoosh or see a shadow.

1. Find the ring first. Glance at the road just ahead of your launcher. That is where nearly every blob lands.
2. Slide sideways, not forward. Drag the launcher to the left or right, far enough that it is clearly outside the red ring. Your bear stream follows the launcher, so the bears move out of the splash with it.
3. Pick the side with room. The road has edges. If the ring is near one edge, slide towards the open middle instead of into the wall.
4. Keep holding to fire. Do not let go while you dodge. Bears keep coming as long as you hold, so you lose no time.
5. Slide back once it splashes. After the splash, return to the line you wanted, whether that is a colour gate, a x2 gate or the weakest part of the castle.
6. Expect the next one. On later levels the gap between blobs is short. After a dodge, keep an eye on the road for the next shadow while you aim.

Blobs and the rest of the road

Blobs rarely arrive alone. They mix with everything else the later levels add.

Gates near the castle. The last pair of gates often sits in blob range. If a shadow lands in front of the gate you wanted, it is usually better to slide, let it splash, then slip back through the gate, than to drive straight through the ring.

Conveyors from level 13. Sticky strips push your launcher sideways. If a conveyor is pushing you towards a shadow, drag against it early, because you are fighting two forces at once.

Shields and continues. A shield from the road guards against the freeze while it lasts. When you continue after a loss, the short BACK IN! shield does the same. Both are covered in our power-ups guide.

Hard and boss levels. These have tougher castles, so the fight at the end lasts longer and the castle has more time to throw. Our hard levels guide explains what changes on those stops.

Why dodging matters most at the very end

The last few blocks of a castle are where runs are won or lost. By then the castle is throwing, your crowd is spread across the blocks, and every bear counts.

• Keep firing through the end. A frozen launcher means fewer new bears at the worst moment, so dodging keeps the supply steady.
• Do not chase the last block into a ring. If the column you need sits behind a shadow, wait a moment for the splash, then go.
• Know who follows you. Once your launcher stops at the castle, the mob charges on its own and no longer follows your steering. Blobs still land just in front of the launcher, on the path fresh bears take, so a small slide keeps the newcomers safe.

If you keep losing with only a block or two left, our guide on one block left in Gummy Mob walks through the final seconds in detail. For a wider look at the candy enemies, castles and worms, see candy themed games.