How to Play Block Blast

What it is

Block Blast is a relaxed but surprisingly deep block puzzle. You get three random neon shapes at a time and place them on an 8x8 grid. There’s no timer and nothing falls from the sky, so every move is yours to think through. The challenge is keeping enough open space so the next set of shapes always has a home.

How to play (rules)

Your tray holds three shapes. Place all three and a new set of three arrives.
Shapes range from single squares to straight lines up to five long, 2x2 and 3x3 squares, L shapes, T shapes and diagonal pieces.
Shapes can’t be rotated. You place them exactly as they appear.
Fill an entire row or column and it clears away. Rows and columns can clear at the same time.
A shape that no longer fits anywhere on the board turns gray in your tray.
The run ends with “No room left” when none of your remaining shapes fit.

Controls (desktop and mobile)

Mouse or touch: drag a shape onto the grid. On touch screens, the dragged piece lifts a little above your finger so you can see where it lands. You can also tap a shape to select it, then tap a cell to place it.
Keyboard: press 1, 2 or 3 to pick a shape (or X to cycle), move the preview with the arrow keys, and press Space or Enter to place it.
A see-through preview shows where the shape will land. It turns red if the shape doesn’t fit there.
P pauses, R restarts and F toggles full-screen.
M mutes or unmutes the sound.
Two toolbar buttons control sound and motion. Mute sound (M) turns the sound effects off, and its label changes to “Unmute sound (M)” so you can switch them back on. Reduce motion turns off screen shake, flashes and particle bursts. Placed pieces appear without the pop, cleared squares simply fade away, and a dragged shape follows your pointer directly instead of gliding. It starts out matching your device’s reduce-motion setting. Each button has a short text label next to or under its icon. Your choices are remembered on your device and shared by every game in the Arcade.

Sound and effects

Block Blast comes with sound effects and neon visual effects. Pieces click into place with a little pop, cleared lines shrink away in a shower of sparks with a rising chime, and combos and multi-line clears flash up messages like “COMBO x2” and “2 LINES!”. Big combos and multi-line clears also shake the screen. Every placement shows the points you earned, and beating your previous best mid-run sets off a “NEW BEST!” celebration.

Scoring and high scores

You earn 1 point for every square you place.
Clearing lines earns a bonus of lines × lines × 10 × your combo. Clearing two lines at once is worth four times as much as clearing one.
Your combo rises each time you clear with back-to-back placements, and it resets as soon as you place a shape that clears nothing. The game shows “Combo x2!”, “Combo x3!” and so on while it’s active.

Your best score is saved in your browser. When a run ends, the game-over screen shows your score next to your best and adds ”★ New best!” when you beat it. If your score would make the global top-10 board, the screen tells you where you’d rank and lets you enter a name and press Submit. If the board is full and you fall short, it shows the score you need to get in. When Block Blast is the daily challenge, the goal is to clear two lines with a single shape.

Tips to beat your best

Keep the center of the board open. Big pieces like the 3x3 square need room.
Before placing, check that the other shapes in your tray will still fit afterward.
Build toward rows and columns that cross, so one piece can clear two lines at once.
Chain clears to keep your combo alive. The multiplier grows fast.
Use the long lines to finish rows and columns you’ve nearly filled.
The first few sets of shapes in every run are small and friendly (short bars, squares and little corners), so the opening clears come easily. After that, any shape can show up.