How to play Panel de Pon, Tetris Attack and Cascade Puzzle

The rules in 30 seconds

1. One move. Swap two blocks that sit side by side in the same row. You can also swap a block into an empty cell next to it. There are no vertical swaps.
2. Match three or more. Three or more of the same block in a row or a column clear. Diagonals do not count.
3. Gravity. When blocks clear, everything above them falls straight down.
4. Chains. If a falling block lands in a new line of three, that line clears too. Each clear set off by a fall adds a step to the chain: x2, x3 and up.
5. Combos. Four or more blocks clearing at the same moment are a combo, whether they form one long line or two lines at once.
6. Two ways to win. In puzzle mode, clear the whole board within the move limit. In versus, outlast a rising stack while your chains and combos bury your rival in garbage.

A worked example: one swap, two clears

This is a one-move puzzle. Only the bottom two rows of the board hold blocks, and the columns are numbered 1 to 6 from the left. There are three hearts and three stars, so the goal is two lines of three with a single swap.

1. Swap the heart in column 1 into the empty cell in column 2. The bottom row now reads empty, heart, heart, heart, star, star. Three hearts in a row clear. Moving a block into empty space is a legal swap and costs a move like any other.
2. The star above column 4 loses its support and falls. It lands beside the stars in columns 5 and 6, and three stars in a row clear on their own. That second clear came from a fall, so it is a chain, shown as x2.
3. The board is empty after one move. Puzzle solved.

In versus the same two clears would be a 2-chain, which drops a full-width row of garbage on your rival. The next section has the numbers.

Combos and chains

Both reward clearing more than three blocks, in different ways. A combo is many blocks clearing at the same moment. A chain is clears that follow one another, each one set off by blocks falling from the last.

Combo

Four or more blocks clearing at once. In versus, a 4-combo sends a garbage rod 3 blocks wide, a 5-combo a 4-wide rod, a 6-combo a 5-wide rod and a 7-combo a full row.

Chain

A clear caused by falling blocks. The counter starts at x2 on the first linked clear and adds one for each clear after it. In versus, a chain of K sends one full-width garbage block K minus 1 rows tall, so a 3-chain sends two full rows.

Skill chain

A swap never starts a chain, but it can keep one going. Slide a block that is still falling from an earlier clear into a new match and the chain counter goes up. Long versus chains are built this way.

Chains are worth far more. A 4-chain sends as much garbage as a 13-block combo, and it arrives as one tall slab instead of thin rods. The full tables are in the frame data and garbage reference, and chain reactions shows how to set chains up on purpose.

Puzzle boards have no garbage, but chains still decide them: a swap that sets off a chain clears more of the board than a swap that does not, and the move limits are tight.

Versus rules: the rising stack

Versus is the mode Panel de Pon and Tetris Attack are known for. Each player has a stack that rises from the bottom a row at a time, and it speeds up as the match goes on.

• Raise. Hold the raise button to push your stack up early and bring new blocks into play. On the SNES that is L or R. Here it is Shift, or the raise button on a phone.
• Garbage. Your combos and chains drop garbage blocks on your rival. Garbage cannot be matched. Make a match right next to it and its bottom row turns into normal blocks.
• Warning. Incoming garbage shows for 1.3 seconds before it lands, time enough to finish a clear or get out from under it.
• Stop time. Every clear freezes your own stack for a moment: 2 seconds for a combo, 3 for a chain, and 7 for any clear made while your stack touches the top.
• Top out. Let your stack reach the top and you lose.

Cascade Puzzle's versus mode runs these rules in a browser, tuned to the classic Normal settings, with an eight-bot ladder from Sprout to Master and real-time 1v1 online. The versus guide covers tactics.

The puzzle board and the blocks

Cascade Puzzle's puzzles use a grid 6 columns wide and 12 rows tall, the same size as the Panel de Pon stack. Blocks rest at the bottom under gravity. A starting position never has floating blocks, and no puzzle begins with a match already on the board.

There are six block types. Each one has its own colour and its own shape, so the game is fully playable if you are colour-blind. The shape always tells you what a block is.

Swapping blocks

You may swap two horizontally adjacent blocks: side by side in the same row. That is the only move in the game. There are no vertical swaps, no rotations and no dragging a block across the board.

Two rules about swapping surprise most new players, and both matter a lot:

1. You can swap a block into an empty cell. This is how you move a block sideways across open space, and it is the start of nearly every setup move.
2. Every swap costs a move, even if nothing matches. There are no free moves. A swap that lines up nothing still spends one from your budget.

Matching and clearing

Three or more blocks of the same type in a straight line, horizontal or vertical, form a match and clear. Diagonals never match. A line of four or five clears as one match.

When blocks clear, every block above the gap falls straight down to fill it. If those falling blocks land in a line of three or more, they match too, and the process repeats. That repetition is a cascade, and it is where the game gets its name. It has its own guide: chain reactions and cascades.

Winning, losing and the move limit

Win

Clear every block on the board. Leaving even one block behind is not a win, no matter how many moves you have left.

Lose

Reach zero moves with any block still on the board.

Move limit

Each level states an exact number of moves and is verified solvable within it before it ships. If a level says 3 moves, a 3-move solution exists.

The move limit is the whole difficulty curve. An easy puzzle gives you enough room that most sensible swaps make progress. A hard one has about one correct sequence, and any wasted swap ends the run. Retrying is instant and the board resets exactly. Puzzles are deterministic, so a solution that works once works every time.

Controls

Touch (phone, tablet)

Tap a block, then tap the block beside it to swap the two. Cascade Puzzle is built for phones first, so touch targets are sized for thumbs.

Mouse

Click a block and then click its neighbour, or drag one block sideways onto the other.

Keyboard

Arrow keys move the cursor, which spans two cells. Space or Enter swaps the pair under it.

Coming from the SNES

In versus, the d-pad is the arrow keys, A or B is Z or Space, and L or R (raise) is Shift.

In real-time versus mode you drag a block sideways on a touch screen and it moves one cell per swap toward your finger, because there is no time to tap twice.

Where to play

• The daily puzzle: three new boards every day at midnight UTC (easy, medium, hard), an emoji grid to share and a streak to keep. See the daily puzzle guide.
• The 50-level campaign: the best place to start. Levels unlock one at a time, so the mechanics arrive in order.
• Versus: the rising stack against an eight-bot ladder or a person online.
• Practice: a pool of standalone boards with no unlock order.
• The interactive tutorial: ten short lessons, each on a board built for one mechanic.
• Grew up on the originals? Panel de Pon online and Tetris Attack online compare this game with the Super Famicom and SNES versions.