---
title: "Smoke and dust"
package: "@phaser-ae/vfx-smoke"
tier: Pro
version: 3.0.0-4
released: 2026-10-14
updated: 2026-10-19
description: "Twelve ready-made 2D smoke, steam and dust effects, from columns, chimneys and puffs to smoke rings, mist, poison gas, exhaust, skids and dust clouds."
url: https://phaser.io/packs/vfx-smoke
site: Phaser - https://phaser.io
---

# Smoke and dust

Twelve effects for everything that burns, vents, lands or skids. They are drawn with normal blending, so they darken
what is behind them as real smoke does, and read over bright skies and dark ones.

## What it does

Every effect is soft puffs that swell as they rise, cool from pale to sooty grey, thin to nothing and waver on curl
noise. Only the glow and bubbles of `poisonGas` are additive.

Spawn one with `game.particles.effect(name, opts)`. Loops such as `smoke` and `chimney` stay until `kill()`; one-shots
such as `puff` and `dustCloud` remove themselves, so you fire one per event. `smokeTrail` lays puffs per unit travelled
behind whatever it follows, and its smoke stays in the air when the missile dies. `scale` sizes everything, and `angle`
aims the exhaust and the skid and turns the drift of the dust and mist; the smoke still rises whatever the angle.

## Features

- **Columns** — a heavy billowing `smoke`, thin `chimney` wisps and white `steam` from a vent.
- **Ground effects** — drifting `dust`, a `mist` bank about 220 units wide, and green `poisonGas` with bubbles.
- **Event one-shots** — a landing `puff`, a `smokeRing`, a `skidDust` kick and a big `dustCloud`.
- **Trails and jets** — `smokeTrail` behind a moving object, and an aimed `exhaust`.
- **Light on particles** — the biggest loop holds about 90 live particles, a fast trail a few hundred.
- **Data you can copy** — a black smoke or a purple gas is a copied definition.

## Good for

- **Action games and shooters** — wrecks smouldering after a fight, missiles trailing smoke.
- **Platformers** — landing puffs, dash dust and steam vents in a factory level.
- **Racing and driving games** — exhaust from the tailpipe and dust on every skid.
- **Villages, swamps and traps** — chimneys, mist banks and poison gas.

## Make it yours

Size with `scale`: `dustCloud` at 0.4 is a small landing and `mist` at 3 fills a valley. A racing game puts `exhaust` on
each car, aimed backwards, and fires `skidDust` on every slide; a village gives every house a `chimney` and the bakery
a `steam` vent.

## A quick look

A chimney, an exhaust that follows a car, a missile's smoke trail and a puff on every landing:

```ts
game.particles.effect('chimney', { x: house.x + 24, y: house.y - 40 });
const pipe = game.particles.effect('exhaust', { follow: car, offset: { x: -30, y: 6 }, angle: 180 });
game.particles.effect('smokeTrail', { follow: missile });
const land = (x: number, y: number) => game.particles.effect('puff', { x, y, scale: 0.6 });
```

## Works with

- `particles-2d` and `particle-textures` — required; `core-2d` includes both.
- `feel` — a camera shake behind a puff or a dust cloud.
- `vfx-fire` and `vfx-explosion` — the flames and the bangs themselves.
- `vfx3d-smoke` — smoke and dust in 3D.

## Good to know

- Pale smoke fades into a white sky; copy an effect with darker colour stops for a bright level.
- Nothing collides or does harm: a damaging gas is game logic, and dust falls past its spawn point with no floor.
- `smokeTrail` draws only while what it follows moves; use `smoke` for a fixed source.

---

## For AI agents: Phaser AE

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