Bomb

Verified against the spelunky.ai port v0.1.10 on 27 October 2026.

The player carries bombs as a count, shown at the top of the screen, and the bomb key throws one, lit ^[3]. Its explosion breaks the blocks it touches, letting out the gold and gems inside them, kills most monsters outright and costs the player 10 hearts on every step he's in it. More come in Bomb Bags and Bomb Boxes, and Paste makes them sticky.

The bomb key throws a lit bomb from the player at 8 pixels a step across plus his own speed, rising at 3; holding up throws it at 9 upward, and holding down drops it almost at his feet if he's on the ground, or throws it down at 3 if he isn't ^[4]. It flies, bounces and comes to rest as any thrown item does ^[5], and one flying faster than 2 pixels a step that touches a monster hurts it as a thrown Rock does, unless it's sticky ^[6]. In the clip, the player throws a bomb ahead of a Snake walking toward him, and the explosion kills it ^[7].

A lit bomb burns for 80 steps (2.67 seconds), then flashes for 40 steps (1.33 seconds) and explodes ^{[8] [9] [1]}. One that sinks into lava explodes at once ^[10].

The item key takes a bomb out into the player's hands, unlit, putting away what he held; pressing it again swaps the bomb for a rope, and a third time brings back what he had ^[11]. The attack key lights a bomb in his hands, starting its fuse, without throwing it; pressed again, it throws the bomb as any item is thrown, so a Pitcher's Mitt throws it farther, and what he held before comes back to his hands ^{[12] [13]}. A lit bomb can't be put away with the item key ^[14], and one still held when it goes off explodes in his hands ^[15]. With down held on the ground, the attack key tosses a lit one low along the floor, as it does any item.

At an exit, an unlit bomb in his hands goes back into his count; one he lit is left behind, where it explodes ^[16]. The bomb key works whatever he's holding, so he can throw bombs with a lit one in his hands ^[17].

The explosion lasts 12 steps (0.4 seconds) ^[18], and on every step it does this to whatever it touches:

So a bomb at the player's feet takes the four hearts he starts with and more; each step in the blast costs 10 hearts, and the game's tally of deaths by explosion never counts the one that kills him ^{[29] [30]}. In the clip, the player drops a bomb, picks it up lit, sets a second one down beside it and walks away: the first explosion sets off the second a few steps later, well before its own fuse would have run out ^[18].

A destroyed block lets out what it hides, gold and gems. In the last clip, a bomb dropped at the player's feet blows six bricks out of the rock around it ^[31].

Wearing Paste, every bomb the player makes is sticky: a lit one stops dead against the first wall, floor or ceiling it touches, and one thrown faster than 2 pixels a step into a monster sticks to it and rides along until it goes off ^{[32] [33] [34]}.

• The player's own. A new game starts him with 4, the Tunnel Man with none ^[35], and the Tutorial with none, where a Crate holds a bag of three ^[36]. He can carry 99 at most ^[37].
• Bomb Bags and Bomb Boxes, 3 and 12, picked up by touch once they're free: in shops and in Crates ^[38].
• Kali. Once the player's favour with her reaches 32 at one of her altars, her gift, if he has fewer than 80 bombs, brings them up to 99 ^[39].
• Chests: one in twelve throws out a lit bomb when it's opened, outside the Tutorial ^[40].
• Monkeys: one clinging to the player sometimes takes a bomb and throws it out, lit one time in ten ^[41]. An unlit one can be picked up, and goes into his count when he puts it away with the item key or takes it through an exit ^[42].
• The Sun Room, a bonus room, drops lit bombs from its ceiling until the player has 50 points there ^[43].
• Custom levels start the player with the bomb count the level editor gives them, 99 at most ^[44].

• Shopkeepers. A bomb the player or a Monkey lit, in a shop and within 96 pixels of a Shopkeeper, angers him ^[45], as does hurting him with the explosion. A bomb lit any other way (a Chest's trap, another explosion, a Magma Man) isn't marked armed, so it doesn't, and at an exit it goes back into the player's count like an unlit one ^{[46] [47] [48]}.
• Magma Men. A bomb that touches one is lit, to go off 8–12 steps later, and knocked away ^[49]; so are bombs that touch the mothership's barriers, 4–8 steps later ^[50].
• The Bow. With the Bow fully drawn, the bomb key readies a bomb arrow instead of throwing a bomb, and costs no bomb ^[29].
• Pitcher's Mitt. A bomb thrown from the hands goes farther and flatter; one thrown with the bomb key doesn't ^[51].

• Dropped with down held, a bomb lands almost at the player's feet: he has 2.67 seconds and more to get clear.
• An explosion sets off every bomb it touches within 4–8 steps, so bombs placed together go off almost together.
• An explosion off the screen breaks no blocks, so a bomb thrown far out of sight only hurts what it touches.

• A Chest's trap bomb and a Monkey's lit one burn for only the last 40 steps of a fuse, flashing from the start ^{[52] [53]}.
• The line that took a bomb from the count when one in the hands is lit is commented out: the count goes down when the bomb is taken out instead ^{[54] [55]}.
• An explosion that breaks a block also sets every treasure on the level moving, to wake any that had come to rest; but treasure never rests, as the treasure's own code that would stop it sets status where the rest of its code reads state, so the line changes nothing ^{[56] [57]}.