Drag’n’Boom is an explosive twin stick-style arcade romp starring an acrobatic, fire-breathing dragon. Our heated hero’s one goal in life is to amass gold while smiting would-be dragon slayers with flame and fang. His projectile fireballs are able to take …
Drag’n’Boom is an explosive twin stick-style arcade romp starring an acrobatic, fire-breathing dragon. Our heated hero’s one goal in life is to amass gold while smiting would-be dragon slayers with flame and fang. His projectile fireballs are able to take down soldiers, wizards, and sheep alike, while his impressive speed sends him flying through villages’ defenses and straight towards their treasuries. Gamezebo’s Drag’n’Boom Tips, Cheats and Strategies will help you maximize your dragon skills to earn more bucks with your bang.
Score and stars: At the end of each level, you’ll receive up to three stars as well as a numerical score. The stars are based on completing three objectives which are the same on every stage: you get one star for simply reaching the end, another star for finishing the level with full health, and a third star if you slayed all the enemies along the way. Sheep do count as enemies for this star, so be sure you take down anything that moves, even if it’s not a direct threat.
These stars are individual, so you can earn one or two stars on one playthrough and then replay the level to collect any others you missed. Once you earn a star it’s permanently unlocked, so if you already have the full health star and then take damage on a subsequent replay, you won’t lose that star. If you’re having trouble earning the health star on later stages, play a separate solo run with this as your only goal and fly up and above any dangers until you reach the end of the level.
The numerical score is simply the number of coins you earned. This can fluctuate wildly depending on how many combos you achieved throughout the level, but this is the number that is used on the Game Center leaderboards. The crown at the end of the level and on the stage select screen indicates your highest score for each stage.
Powering up: The coins you earn are used to level up your dragon. As he gains levels, he’ll learn new styles of attack for taking down enemies. While the dragon starts off with a single fireball, subsequent attacks allow him to spit laser-fast beams of flames, multi-wave arcs of fire, large grenade-like firebombs, and tons more. He can only use one type of attack at a time, and you can equip a different power (including any you previously unlocked) by going to the fireball menu, scrolling left or right, and tapping the icon you want. These icons illustrate the power’s attack pattern in case you don’t remember each one individually, and they are always listed in the order they were unlocked.
While certain attacks may seem less useful when first unlocked, each one has a benefit and a type of level it excels at. The first power you unlock after the initial single fireball is the thin laser beam which requires very precise shots to hit an enemy directly. However, this laser ricochets off walls and buildings, which means it is very useful in areas with tight corridors. Some powers make it easier to maintain combos—the red bouncy bomb—while others are good for aerial approaches—the long flame snake. (It’s also just fun to play around with different abilities.)
Keep your combo going: The only way to earn lots of coins in a level, and thus a higher score, is by building up a combo. Every time you hit an enemy, you’ll receive plus one to your combo meter. If you do nothing, the meter will slowly tick down—the number in the upper-right corner fills with orange—and then vanish, resetting to zero. If you hit another enemy before it vanishes, you’ll get another point added to the meter, so a 1x combo would become 2x. Any coins you collect while the combo meter is active will be multiplied by that amount: so, if you have a 2x combo and pick up five coins, you would earn ten coins once the meter is gone. If your combo increases from 2x to 4x before it counts down, you would receive 20 coins instead of ten.
If you shoot and do not hit any enemies, the combo meter will reset immediately. Because of this, shooting randomly and too frequently is not advisable: you might hit a few enemies but you’ll likely miss some shots as well, negating any combos you would have built up. While you can play Drag’n’Boom very manically by racing all over and shooting constantly—and it’s fun to do so—this playstyle will not earn combos. Instead, drag to move or aim often, keeping your dragon in bullet time slow motion mode, and always aim for enemies or coins.
If you prefer to shoot wildly, some abilities are more forgiving when it comes to the combo meter. The large, ball-like bomb—the fourth power on the menu, unlocked at level six—does not count as a “miss” until it explodes and doesn’t hit anything. But it takes the bomb just as long to detonate as it does the combo meter to count down, so you can shoot bombs all over the place without resetting your combo meter directly. On the other end of the spectrum, the short-burst spitfire—the seventh power on the menu, unlocked at level 15—will reset the meter the instant you use it and miss. (But you can still keep the combo meter going with this power by playing very aggressively and staying close to enemies, and it’s actually one of our personal favorites.)
Max your attack: If you hit an enemy once, they will bounce around and no longer be an active threat—wizards will stop casting spells, archers will not aim their bows, etc.—until they eventually poof out of existence. During this time you can continue shooting the same enemy to increase your combo. Use this strategy to keep the meter active for slightly longer so you can reach the next set of enemies or coins before it expires.
Remember that you can run into enemies to kill them as well: if someone is in a tricky spot and you’re worried your fireball will miss, use your body instead. Flinging yourself at someone and missing won’t reset your combo meter, and you can often use a combination—hit them directly and then shoot them—to keep the meter going. The highest combo you can earn is 12x: after this point, any enemies you hit will merely reset the countdown but the combo will remain at 12x.
Make bank: The other key to earning high scores besides simply increasing the combo meter is actually collecting coins. Enemies will release coins when hit, but you need to fly close enough to the coins to pick them up to benefit from the multiplier. Coins that fly out of enemies will be magnetically drawn to the dragon, but this takes about a second and you can speed up the process by going to the coins yourself. If you kill all the enemies and don’t actively collect their coins before the combo meter runs out, it is wasted.
If there are enemies near the end of a level, try building up a combo and hitting one enemy towards the exit path. If you can keep your combo going as you fly through the final tunnel to the giant treasure chest at the end, all of those coins will be multiplied as well.
Move strategically: The dragon can move up through platforms but cannot go back down them. If you’re approaching a turret with multiple levels of soldiers, start at the bottom and work your way up. It will be easier to hit them in succession and keep your combo going if you can jump straight up the platforms.
Otherwise, try to come at enemies from the air. If you attack them from the side or below, they’ll often go flying up and away, making it harder to keep hitting them for more coins and combos. Flying in from above and shooting down will keep them bunched up closer and in an easily picked off group.
Be aware of enemies’ defenses and adjust as necessary: standard wizards deflect your fireballs and need to be hit directly with the dragon himself. Ice wizards—visible via the snowy shimmer surrounding them—shoot projectiles in a large ring that continue expanding even after the wizard is defeated. Soldiers with large shields must be hit from behind. If you’re coming up on a large group of enemies—the red arrows indicate where they are located—slow down and evaluate how to best attack them in one fell swoop.
