Potion Explosion brews up a second edition and expansion

Potion Explosion is giving its cauldron a polish in an upcoming second edition of the magical marble-matching game.

The new version of the Kickstarted 2015 set-collecting hit has been given a general visual makeover, the biggest improvement being a plastic replacement for its cardboard ingredient dispenser. It’ll also save you from having to piece it together like a tiny Ikea project, for what it’s worth.

The gameplay hasn’t changed, as players continue to pick marbles out of the rows of ingredients, collect matching balls that ‘explode’ when they collide and add them to flasks in front of them to mix up concoctions, before necking them to gain their magical powers (rather than a bad stomach, which is what would likely happen in real life).

As well as a second edition of the main game, Potion Explosion is also getting a second major expansion, The 6th Student, which introduces a way to play with up to six people and use two dispensers at once – it will also include a plastic dispenser, doubling as an upgrade pack for owners of the first edition, with which the expansion is fully compatible. It can also be combined with the first expansion, The Fifth Ingredient.

The new expansion box also includes two extra potions that let players share ingredients – sometimes against their will – and the ingredient of mandragora leaves, which count as an extra colour during explosions and act as wilds when being used in potions, but can’t be combined with any other ingredient.

Both Potion Explosion’s second edition and The 6th Student will be released at Essen in October, followed by their arrival in shops later in 2018.