How to play Cascade Puzzle

The board and the blocks

Every puzzle is played on a grid 6 columns wide and 12 rows tall. Blocks rest at the bottom under gravity — there are never floating blocks in a starting position, and no puzzle begins with a match already on the board.

There are six block types. Each one has both a distinct colour and a distinct 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 free-form dragging across the board.

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

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 foundation 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 — horizontally or vertically — form a match and clear. Diagonals never match. A line of four or five clears as one match rather than scoring separately.

When blocks clear, every block sitting above the gap falls straight down to fill it. If those falling blocks happen to 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 in 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 shipping. 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 essentially one correct sequence, and any wasted swap ends the run. When you fail, the retry 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 mobile-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.

In real-time versus mode the controls differ — you drag a block sideways and it carries one cell per swap toward your finger, because there is no time to tap twice.

Where to play

• The 50-level campaign — the best starting point. Levels are ordered by difficulty and unlock one at a time, so the mechanics arrive gradually.
• The daily puzzle — three fresh puzzles (easy, medium, hard) every day at midnight UTC, with a streak for consecutive days. See the daily puzzle guide.
• Practice — a pool of standalone levels with no unlock order, for when you just want another board.
• Versus — real-time 1v1 against a bot ladder or another person. A different game with the same blocks.
• The interactive tutorial — hands-on lessons that teach each mechanic on a purpose-built board.