We study finite-energy blow-ups for prescribed Morse scalar curvatures in both the subcritical and the critical regime. After general considerations on Palais-Smale sequences we determine precise blow up rates for subcritical solutions: in particular the possibility of tower bubbles is excluded in all dimensions. In subsequent papers we aim to establish the sharpness of this result, proving a converse existence statement, together with a one to one correspondence of blowing-up subcritical solutions and {em critical points at infinity}. This analysis will be then applied to deduce new existence results for the geometric problem.
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