Block Puzzle

Block puzzle is a free browser game where you fit three pieces at a time onto a grid, and any row, column or box that fills completely clears. You can play it with a mouse, a touch screen or the keyboard, and no sign-up or account is needed. It is a grid-placement puzzle, so nothing falls and there is no timer, which lets you think through each move.

The game has three board options. 8×8 and 10×10 use the classic rules, where only rows and columns clear. “9×9 with boxes” is a Sudoku-style board where the nine 3×3 boxes also clear. Your score and best score for each board are kept on your device, and a game in progress is saved if you reload the page. The pieces are plain coloured blocks, the same shapes you may know from wooden block puzzles.

How to play block puzzle online

1. Choose a board in the Board select: 8×8 (the default), 10×10 or 9×9 with boxes. Changing it starts a new game on that board.
2. Look at the three pieces in the tray below the board. Pieces cannot be rotated.
3. Drag a piece from the tray onto the board. A ghost shows where its cells will land: green means it fits, red means it does not.
4. Release over a green spot to place the piece. If you release anywhere else, the piece stays in the tray.
5. Or tap a piece to select it, then tap a board cell. The tapped cell becomes the piece’s top-left cell. Tap the piece again to deselect it.
6. Keep placing. When all three pieces are used, three new ones appear.
7. Full lines clear straight away. Watch Score and Best at the top, and the status line that shows the points and lines from your last move.
8. When none of the pieces in the tray fits anywhere, the game ends. The dialog shows your final score and your best for that board. Press Play again to start over.

On a keyboard, press 1, 2 or 3 to pick a piece, the arrow keys to move the ghost, and Enter or Space to place it. Esc cancels a selection. N starts a new game, U or Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on a Mac) undoes your last move, and F opens fullscreen. Adding ?seed=123 to the page address starts a game with a fixed sequence of pieces.

What are the block puzzle rules?

A piece can only be placed if every one of its cells lands on an empty cell inside the board. No cell can overlap another piece, and no part of a piece can hang off the edge. After each placement, every completely filled row and column clears at once. On the 9×9 with boxes board, every completely filled 3×3 box clears too.

Rows, columns and boxes completed by the same placement are cleared together. A cell that belongs to two of them is cleared only once. Cleared cells never fall or slide, so the empty spaces stay where they were.

How does block puzzle scoring work?

You earn 1 point for each cell of the piece you place. On top of that comes a line bonus for the lines cleared by that one placement. One line gives 10 points, two give 30, three give 60, four give 100, five give 150 and six give 210. The formula is 5 × k × (k+1), where k is the number of lines cleared.

A combo is a run of placements that each clear at least one line. From the second clearing placement in a run, you get 20 × (run length − 1) extra points: +20, then +40, then +60. A move that clears nothing ends the run.

What are good block puzzle tips and tricks?

Look for rows and columns that are almost full. A line missing only one cell is the easiest to clear. A single cell placed where a row and a column both need that cell clears both at once. For example, if both lines are missing only the crossing cell, 15 cells clear and the move scores 1 + 30 = 31.

Avoid leaving lone holes scattered across the board. Each one can block a line you would otherwise clear. Keep some open space for the bigger pieces, such as the 3×3 square and the 5-cell lines. These are the rarest pieces, so they may not appear often.

Before each move, check all three pieces in the tray. The game only ends when none of them fits, so one piece that still has room is worth keeping in mind.

What is block puzzle strategy?

Plan with the three pieces you have, not only the one you are about to place. The game makes sure that a fresh set of three has at least one piece that fits somewhere, but it does not promise all three will fit. Placing one piece can leave a gap that makes the next one hard to use.

On the 9×9 with boxes board, a single move can clear a row, a column and a box together, so look for cells that complete more than one shape. Undo only goes back one step, so think before you place a piece in a hard-to-reverse spot.

Frequently asked questions

Is block puzzle free, and do I need to sign up?

Yes, the game is free to play in your browser. You do not need to sign up, because the game has no accounts and no online leaderboard.

Can I play block puzzle on a phone?

Yes. Drag a piece with your finger, or tap a piece and then a board cell. The board fits a 320 px screen with the tray below it, and there is no horizontal scrolling.

Is my block puzzle game saved?

Yes, on this device only. The whole current game is saved after every placement, so reloading the page returns you to the same position. Your chosen board and the best score for each board are saved too. Nothing is sent anywhere. If the saved data is invalid, a new game starts.

Why won’t my piece go where I dropped it?

The piece does not fit there. Every cell must land on an empty square inside the board, with no overlap. The ghost shows red when a spot is not legal, and the piece stays in the tray. Try another spot or another piece.

Can I rotate the pieces?

No. Each piece keeps its shape, so you need to find a place where it fits as drawn.

How many times can I undo a move?

Only one step. After you undo, the Undo button is disabled until you place another piece.

Does block puzzle have a timer, hints or levels?

No. The game has no timer, hints, levels, sound, multiplayer or daily puzzles, and you cannot hold a piece for later.

More games

• 2048: another grid puzzle that rewards planning several moves ahead.
• Water Sort Puzzle: a sorting puzzle for when you want to think in colours and containers.
• Stacker Game: a timing game where you stop a sliding row of blocks to build a tower.
• Minesweeper: a grid game where you work out hidden spots from numbers.
• Peg Solitaire: a board puzzle where you jump pieces to leave one behind.
• Bubble Shooter: an aiming game where you clear groups of colours.