Item Reference

The same catalogue is used by both Mayhem and Loadout, in duels and in rumbles. They split into two kinds, and the split is absolute: an offensive item always lands on your target and never touches your own board, while a self item always applies to you and never sends anything. Nothing in the catalogue does both.

Two rules are worth knowing before the list. Nothing here can complete a line for anybody: Quake permutes rows and Current slides cells within their own row, so neither creates nor destroys a cell. And a Shield absorbs an offensive item exactly as it absorbs a Sludge volley, which makes an unshielded moment the one you are aiming for.

Offensive items

These fire at whoever you are targeting. In a duel that is your opponent; in a rumble it follows your targeting strategy, and landing one marks you as that player's attacker, so expect it back if they are playing Counter.

Quake: offensive, free forever

Shuffles and reorders your opponent's top 4 rows. Best fired at someone who has just flattened their stack for a big clear: it cannot bury them or complete a row, but it destroys the shape they were counting on. If you take one, rebuild the surface before you attack again rather than trying to place around the mess.

Blackout: offensive

Darkens the opponent's Well for 10s (their blob stays visible). It hurts most at high gravity, when the victim cannot afford to slow down. If it lands on you, do not guess at the middle of the stack; your own blob stays visible, so place simple pieces flat against a wall you already know until the lights come back.

Riptide: offensive

Doubles your opponent's gravity for 10s. Fire it while your target is stacking high, not while they are digging low. If you hold Slow, using it cancels the effect out for as long as both are running.

Freeze: offensive

Locks your opponent's blob rotation for 10s (it keeps falling). Time it for the moment an awkward piece is in flight. On the receiving end, stop fighting it: slide the blob flat against a wall and drop, because it keeps falling whether you have a plan or not.

Flip: offensive

Mirrors the opponent's Well once. Aimed at a player holding one open column for a Quad, this moves that column to the other side of their Well. If it hits you, take one blob to re-read the board before you hard drop anything.

Self items

These apply to your own Well. None of them sends Sludge, so a self item is time or board space rather than damage: which is exactly why they decide long games.

Dissolve: defensive / self, free forever

Melts your bottom 4 rows (no attack sent). Your emergency dig. It melts the bottom four rows outright (Sludge, your own stack, whatever happens to be down there) so it is worth most when those rows are mostly garbage and worth least when you have been building something. It sends nothing at all: use it to survive a volley, not to swing a game you are already winning.

Current: defensive / self

Packs every row against one wall (blocks and Sludge alike), no gaps left. The hole fixer: it closes buried gaps that no amount of stacking will reach, and because cells only move within their own row it can never hand you a free line. The direction is chosen for you, toward whichever side already holds more.

Shield: defensive / self, free forever

Blocks the next incoming Sludge volley or item attack. Fire it early. It has no timer, so once it is up it simply waits until something hits you, but a Shield still sitting unused in a slot protects nothing, which is the mistake worth avoiding. The attack it eats is usually the one that would have ended the game.

Slow: defensive / self

Halves your gravity for 10s. Most valuable when your stack is high and you need placement accuracy rather than speed. It also neutralises an incoming Riptide for as long as both effects overlap.

Wildcard: defensive / self

Your next blob becomes whatever fits your Well best. At its best when your Well is a mess, because a jagged surface has an obvious best piece and a flat one does not. The game picks for you, so do not save it for a shape you have in mind.

Cost

Quake, Dissolve, Shield are free forever, and between them they cover attack, board repair and defence, so a complete Loadout is always available at no cost. Every other item is bought from the Store at 50 Droplets for one use, and you must own a use before you can field it in an online Loadout match; an item you take into a match and never fire stays in your stock. Capsules picked up in Mayhem are always free, whichever item they turn out to be, and offline games against bots never cost anything at all.

Quick reference

If you are learning the set, start by holding nothing back. The most common mistake in item play is saving a good item for a perfect moment that never arrives: in Mayhem a full hand blocks your next capsule, and in Loadout an unused item is worth nothing at all when the game ends. For where items sit in the wider game, see Strategy and Attack & Sludge.