How to Destroy Buildings in Blow Up The City
Hit mass that is still standing. Update 1.5 gave you bridges, a train, and clearer craters.
Every payout in Blow Up The City comes from structure that has not fallen yet. This page is targeting: what to hit, what to skip, and which strike shape matches which block. Read How to Play for the loop and how to earn cash for why this matters.
Read the skyline before you fire
Official media shows glass towers with rooms blowing outward, brick walk-ups on fire, a yellow crane, and streets already full of debris. That is your checklist:
- Glass towers — tall HP, satisfying collapse, easy to overkill with Nuke.
- Open walk-ups — cheaper HP, good for starter drops and 30mm runs.
- Crane + site — vertical plus a dense lot. One strike can clip both.
- Rubble fields — already paid out. Walk away.
Update 1.5 improved crater scorching. Use that. Black, glassy lots are dead. Do not “finish” them.
Clusters beat monuments
A lonely landmark looks good in a screenshot and pays like a tutorial dummy. Three ordinary buildings that share walls pay like a district. Stand where your blast radius overlaps as many footprints as possible. If your strike has a circle, cover two lots minimum.
Wide tools from 1.5 — Tornado and Earthquake — exist for messy, still-standing districts. Pinpoint bombs exist for a crane you want to pick off without wasting Nuke. Rank the actual order on the airstrike tier list.
Bridges and the train
The patch added two bridges and a working train. Treat them as clustered HP, not scenery.
- Strike a bridge when buildings still sit on both banks. The deck is a connector; the payday is the lots it touches.
- Strike the train when it is beside houses, not in an empty cutting. A moving target is easy to miss with a slow nuke reticle and easy to clip with a gun run.
- Do not stand on the deck while you call a strike unless you enjoy a physics yeet. Early-testing collisions are part of the joke and part of the bug report.
Match the tool to the block
| Target | Better tools | Worse tools |
|---|---|---|
| One remaining house | Cheap drop | Nuke, ICBM |
| Crane + lot | Mid bomb, Attack Heli | Weather tools that drift |
| Full street of walk-ups | Earthquake, Tornado, AC-130 | Tiny bombs |
| Bridge + banks | Nuke, ICBM, wide bomb | NPC-only toys |
| Train + row | Attack Heli, AC-130 | Static placement you cannot lead |
| Already-scorched crater | Nothing — hop servers | Everything |
AC-130 is a pass that lets you walk 30mm fire down a street. That is the right answer for a long row of intact walk-ups. ICBM is the right answer for a skyline you have not touched and the wrong answer for a single billboard.
NPCs are garnish
Spawning civilians makes a street look like the thumbnails. They help wide strikes feel busy. They do not make an empty lot valuable. Use Unlimited NPCs to pack a private city before a showcase run, not as a substitute for aiming at mass.
Server hygiene
Eight players will not politely wait for your perfect crane shot. If someone Nukes your block, rotate. If the whole map is down, leave. Destroying buildings is a targeting skill; it is also a server-picking skill. Getting Started said the same thing because it is the whole game.
When a patch adds more structures in Update 2, return here. New HP is only useful if you can still tell intact from ash.
Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers for airstrikes, cash, codes, Update 1.5, and the Update 2 teaser.
Why did my nuke do no damage?
The lot was already a crater, or the reticle missed the cluster. Aim at standing mass.
Should I hit the train?
Yes, when it sits next to buildings. A train in an empty cutting is a weak target.
Are bridges worth a Nuke?
If both banks still have buildings, yes. A bare deck is not.
How do I know a building is already destroyed?
Look for Update 1.5 crater scorching and missing interiors. If it looks like ash, move.