B-TIER news
Block Blast reverse-engineered — on-device XGBoost rigs difficulty for ad revenue
100k ft — What is this?
Block Blast reverse-engineered — on-device XGBoost rigs difficulty for ad revenue
50k ft — Why care?
A reverse engineer found Block Blast runs a local XGBoost model on device signals (phone model, country, past ad revenue, vibration setting) to predict your ad value and adjust difficulty. Rules like 'Boost Then Kill' and 'High Value Ad Harvest' trigger a 'death algorithm' right when a pricey revive ad is ready. Full code evidence is promised later on the creator's site.
10k ft — Key takeaways
• Free-to-play difficulty can be tuned per player to ad value
• On-device ML models are discoverable by decompiling the app
• Revive-ad timing is A/B tested to the minute
5k ft — Tools & techniques
XGBoost
ad LTV prediction, dynamic difficulty adjustment
1k ft — Deep-dive / try it
The full technical explanation + code evidence will be available through my website(check bio) soon! Submit your email to get notified when it comes out.
Transcript excerpt
A reverse engineered block blast to figure out how a free puzzle game makes over a hundred million dollars in ads. That's more than candy crush. And it turns out how well you do in the game has less to do with your skill and more to do with how much you're worth to them in ads. It takes your phone model, your country, how much your past ads have made them, even whether you turned off the vibration on your phone. It all goes into an XGBoost model that runs locally on your phone that predicts how much you can be worth to them in ads. Then depending on your value, it'll make the game easier or harder. One rule called Boost Then Kill secretly makes it easier so you think you're on the best run of your life right up until you hit your average game length. And if it detects a really expensive ad is ready, that's when it turns on you. A rule called High Value Ad Harvest confirms that you have a history of watching ads then helps you beat your high score before it triggers something called the death algorithm, which rigs your next turn so there's no way to survive. And the moment you lose, the first thing you see is an offer to revive if you watch that same ad. And if you do revive, they'll even secretly add 10% to your high score so you keep coming back for more. In fact, they even run experiments on the exact minute to make you lose. And they measure which one gets you to watch the revive ad. So all things considered, Block Blast isn't really a puzzle game. It's more of an ad…