How to play falling blocks
- Pieces fall one at a time from the top of the board of 10 columns by 20 rows. Move them sideways with ← and → (or by dragging your finger) and rotate them with ↑ (or with a tap).
- Look at the outline of the ghost piece: it shows where the piece will land. You can speed it up with ↓ or drop it instantly with the space bar.
- When a row is complete it disappears and the rows above come down. If you complete several rows at once, you score many more points.
- With C (or the hold button) you store the current piece to use later. Every ten lines you go up a level and the pieces fall faster. You lose if a new piece no longer fits.
Tips for playing better
The seven pieces come in batches: in each round one of each type appears, shuffled, so you never go long without the piece you need coming back. The next panel shows you the upcoming three: use it to plan where each one goes before it falls.
Try to keep the stack even and low, with no covered holes. Leave one column free at an edge to drop the long piece in and clear four rows at once, which is the move that scores the most points (800 times the level you are on). Store the long piece with hold when it has no place yet.
Everything happens in your browser and nothing is sent to any server. Only your best score and the starting level you chose are saved on your device.
Things to keep in mind
- The pieces, colors and rotation rules are our own: rotations against a wall try a short shift, so they do not match other similar games to the millimeter.
- The game pauses by itself if you switch tabs or leave the window, so you do not lose the game by accident. The record is saved only in this browser and is lost if you clear the site data.
- On a phone, dragging on the board does not scroll the page; to move around the page, tap outside the board.
Frequently asked questions
How is the score calculated?
Completing 1, 2, 3 or 4 lines at once earns 100, 300, 500 or 800 points multiplied by the level you are on. You also get 1 point for each row you go down with a soft drop and 2 points for each row a piece travels when you drop it instantly.
How often do I level up and how does the speed change?
You go up a level every 10 completed lines. At level 1 the piece drops one row per second, and with each new level it drops a bit faster, up to a limit where it becomes very fast. You can start from a higher level with the selector at the top.
What is the ghost piece for?
It is the outline that marks where the piece will land if you drop it. It helps you line it up with the gaps without having to judge by eye how far it still has to go.
What is hold and how many times can I use it?
Hold stores the current piece and gives you the one you had stored (or the next one, the first time). You can use it once per piece: until the current piece lands, you cannot hold again.
What happens when the piece touches the bottom?
You have half a second to keep moving or rotating it before it locks. If you move or rotate it, that wait restarts, but only about 15 times; after that it locks anyway, so the game cannot be stretched out forever.
Can I play on my phone?
Yes. Drag sideways on the board to move, down to lower, tap to rotate, flick quickly down to drop it instantly and flick up to hold. There are also large buttons below the board.