Blocks.

How to play Blocks

1. Press Play. On your first visit a short guided board shows the idea: drag the highlighted piece into the gap to fill two rows at once. After that, Blocks returns you to whatever you were playing last.
2. Look at all three pieces before you commit. The one that looks easiest now can block the space a larger piece needs. Pieces keep the orientation shown in the tray unless you spend a Rotate.
3. Drag a piece over the board. A tinted outline shows exactly where it will land, and any row, column or square it would complete lights up in the piece’s colour. On touch screens the piece floats above your finger so it never hides the squares underneath. You can also tap a piece and then tap a square.
4. Clear lines to make space and to score. Clear again within three placements to keep your combo alive. When all three pieces are placed, a new set arrives.
5. If nothing fits, Blocks offers any tool that can help: Swap deals a fresh placeable set, Undo takes back your last placement, and Rotate turns a piece that would then fit. Otherwise the run ends and the results screen shows your score, lines, best combo and personal best.
6. Open the menu at any time to switch between Classic, Nine, Adventure and the Daily, change the board theme, or turn sound and vibration on and off. Every mode keeps its own saved board.

Make your move

About Blocks

Blocks is a calm placement puzzle about making room. The board starts empty or with a prepared pattern, and you have three pieces waiting underneath it. Drag a piece onto any empty squares where it fits completely. When a whole row or column is full it clears at once, and a row and column that cross clear together. Nothing falls, nothing moves by itself, and there is no clock, so every decision is about which shape to place where and in what order. It is not a falling-block game: pieces stay exactly where you put them.

The pieces come in 38 fixed shapes, from single squares and bars of up to five, through corners, hooks, tees and steps, to two-by-three rectangles, a plus and the large three-by-three square. They never turn on their own. Each set of three is dealt so that all three can be placed in at least one order, which means you are never handed a set that was impossible from the start. When the board gets crowded, the deal sometimes includes a piece that can finish a line; the longer a Classic run lasts, the more large pieces appear. The deal only looks at the board, never at where you were about to move.

Scoring rewards planning. Every square you place is worth five points. A cleared line is worth 80 points, a double clear 240, a triple 480 and a quad 800, and all of it is multiplied by your combo. The combo counts clears made within three placements of each other, so a quiet placement between clears does not break it, and a small row of dots shows how much time is left. Emptying the whole board adds a 600 point All clear bonus. Gems add 40 points, stones and cracked ice 20 each.

Adventure is a journey of 70 levels in seven chapters. First Steps teaches line and combo goals. Gem Hunt asks you to collect gems by clearing the row or column they sit in, and later gems also arrive on your pieces. Stone Yard fills the board with stones to clear, Frost adds ice that takes two clears, Odd Boards cuts holes and corners out of the grid, Nine Squares moves to the nine-by-nine board, and Master Table mixes everything with fewer spare pieces. Each level has a piece budget; finish with enough pieces to spare for two or three stars. Stars unlock the Walnut, Jewel and Night board themes.

The game saves after every move on this device. Classic, Nine, your current level and the Daily keep separate boards, and your best scores, stars, streak and settings stay in the browser with no account. Sound is synthesized live in the browser, vibration works on Android phones, and both can be switched off. The board fits phones held upright or sideways as well as desktop windows and fullscreen, and reduced-motion settings remove the shards and screen shake.

A little help for your next high score

• Keep one open area big enough for the three-by-three square or a five-long bar. Scattered single holes look like space but take almost nothing.
• Plan the three pieces as a set. Place the awkward piece first while you still have choices, then use the small ones to finish lines.
• Build towards crossing lines. Filling a row and a column with one piece clears both and can start or extend a combo.
• Your combo survives two placements without a clear. Use them to set up the next clear instead of forcing a poor one.
• In Adventure, clear the lines that hold goals first. A gem or stone in a nearly full row is worth more than a clean line elsewhere.
• Save Swap for when you are truly stuck. It deals a fresh set that is guaranteed to fit, which can rescue a long Classic run.

Good questions