Block Drop
A falling block puzzle in your browser: rotate and drop the seven kinds of blocks, fill horizontal rows to clear them, and keep the stack from reaching the top. Ghost piece, hold, next-piece preview and levels that speed up. Play with the keyboard or the on-screen buttons, and turn on Assist to see the best place for each block.
What is Block Drop?
Block Drop is a falling block puzzle. Blocks made of four squares fall one at a time into a well 10 squares wide and 20 high. Move and rotate each block before it lands. When a horizontal row is completely filled, it disappears and everything above it moves down. The game ends when the stack reaches the top of the well.
How to play
| Action | Keyboard | Button |
|---|---|---|
| Move left / right | ← / → | ◀ / ▶ |
| Rotate clockwise | ↑ or X | ⟳ |
| Rotate counter-clockwise | Z | ⟲ |
| Soft drop (one row down) | ↓ | ▼ |
| Hard drop (all the way down) | Space | ⤓ |
| Hold | C or Shift | Hold |
| Pause | P or Esc | Pause |
Click the well first so that it receives the keys. The game pauses when the well loses focus or the tab is hidden.
- The faint outline at the bottom (the ghost) shows where the block will land.
- Hold puts the current block aside and brings out the held one. You can hold once per block.
- Next shows the next three blocks. Blocks come in shuffled sets of all seven kinds, so you never wait more than 12 blocks for a particular one.
Scoring
| Rows cleared at once | Points |
|---|---|
| 1 | 100 × level |
| 2 | 300 × level |
| 3 | 500 × level |
| 4 | 800 × level |
A soft drop adds 1 point per row and a hard drop 2 points per row. The level goes up every 10 rows, and the blocks fall faster.
Strategy
Keep the stack low and flat
A flat surface has room for every kind of block. Tall towers and deep, narrow gaps only fit a few kinds and lead to holes.
Avoid holes
A hole is an empty square with blocks above it. You cannot fill it until you clear the rows above, so one careless block can cost several rows. Before you drop, look at the ghost: will it cover an empty square?
Leave one column open for the long block
Clearing four rows at once scores far more than clearing them one by one (800 vs. 4 × 100 points). Build up the other nine columns evenly and keep one edge column empty, then drop the long block (I) into it.
Use hold
Hold a long block for the moment your open column is ready, or hold a block that does not fit anywhere right now.
Look at the next blocks
Plan where the next block will go before you drop the current one. Placing two blocks together often fills a row that neither could fill alone.
Speed
At higher levels, use hard drop as soon as the block is in place, and keep your fingers on the arrow keys, Z, X and Space.
Assist: the best placement
Turn on Assist to see a dashed outline where this block fits best. It tries every rotation and column the block can drop straight into, and scores the result by a well-known formula that weighs the total height of the stack, the number of holes, how bumpy the surface is, and the rows cleared. Assist does not use hold or plan ahead for the long block, so it plays safe rather than for the highest score. Games played with Assist on are not counted for your best score.
FAQ
Is my score saved?
Your best score is saved in this browser. The game in progress is not saved, so it starts over when you reload the page.
Where can I see my past games?
Open Records & history below the game. It shows your best result and your last 10 games with the date and time, and whether Assist was on. They are saved in this browser only.