Panel de Pon mechanics: frame data and garbage tables
In a Panel de Pon / Tetris Attack style engine, a combo of N panels sends a fixed set of one-row-tall garbage rods, while a K-chain sends a single full-width block K−1 rows tall. Cascade Puzzle's versus engine runs at a fixed 60 frames per second with a matched panel flashing for 49 frames before popping, a 9-frame hover window that makes chaining possible, and stop time of 120 frames for a combo, 180 for a chain, and 420 for any clear made while topped out. The tables below are the exact values this engine uses.
Why these numbers matter
This family of puzzle games is unusually timing-sensitive: whether a chain continues depends on whether a panel is still hovering when the panel beneath it pops, and that is a question about frame counts, not about intuition. The values below are what Cascade Puzzle's versus engine actually runs, calibrated to the classic Normal preset of the reference implementation.
Panel state timings
| Constant | Frames | Seconds | What it controls |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flash | 36 | 0.60 | How long a matched panel flashes before the pop begins |
| Face | 13 | 0.22 | Extra frames appended to the flash |
| Match total | 49 | 0.82 | Flash + face — the full delay from match to first pop |
| Pop | 8 | 0.13 | Stagger between each panel popping within one match |
| Hover | 9 | 0.15 | How long a panel hangs after its support is removed. This window is what makes chaining possible |
| Swap | 4 | 0.07 | Duration of a swap animation |
| Fall | 3 | 0.05 | Frames to fall one cell (sub-cell, so the slide is smooth) |
| Land | 12 | 0.20 | Buffer after landing before a panel can match again |
The hover window is the single most important value for chain play. A panel whose support pops does not fall instantly — it hangs for 9 frames first, and a chain continues only if the resulting match forms while the game still considers that panel part of the ongoing cascade.
Combo garbage table
A combo sends flat rods one row tall. Clearing fewer than four panels at once sends nothing. Widths are in columns, on a 6-wide board, so a width of 6 is a full row.
| Combo size | Garbage sent | Total panels |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | one 3-wide rod | 3 |
| 5 | one 4-wide rod | 4 |
| 6 | one 5-wide rod | 5 |
| 7 | one full-width rod | 6 |
| 8 | a 3-wide and a 4-wide rod | 7 |
| 9 | two 4-wide rods | 8 |
| 10 | two 5-wide rods | 10 |
| 11 | a 5-wide and a full-width rod | 11 |
| 12 | two full-width rods | 12 |
| 13 | three full-width rods | 18 |
| 14–19 | four full-width rods | 24 |
| 20+ | six full-width rods | 36 |
Chain garbage formula
Chains use a formula rather than a table. A K-chain sends one full-width block, K−1 rows tall. A 2-chain sends a 6×1 block, a 3-chain a 6×2, a 5-chain a 6×4, and so on. Chains below 2 send nothing.
| Chain | Garbage block | Panels | Equivalent combo |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2-chain | 6 wide × 1 tall | 6 | a 7-combo |
| 3-chain | 6 wide × 2 tall | 12 | a 12-combo |
| 4-chain | 6 wide × 3 tall | 18 | a 13-combo |
| 5-chain | 6 wide × 4 tall | 24 | a 19-combo |
| 6-chain | 6 wide × 5 tall | 30 | beyond any combo below 20 |
This comparison is the whole argument for chain play. A 4-chain — three linked clears after the first — sends as much as a 13-panel combo, which is far harder to build deliberately. It also arrives as one tall slab rather than separate rods, and a slab takes many more clears to peel away.
Stop time
Clearing panels freezes your own rising stack. This is the mode's core defensive mechanic, and the danger value is a deliberate comeback rule.
| Situation | Frames | Seconds |
|---|---|---|
| Combo clear | 120 | 2.0 |
| Chain clear | 180 | 3.0 |
| Any clear while topped out | 420 | 7.0 |
Because a clear made in the danger state buys seven seconds, the correct play when you are about to lose is to find any clear at all rather than the safest one. Incoming garbage is also telegraphed 78 frames (1.3 seconds) before it lands, which is the window you use to start that clear.
Rise speed
Speed is an integer from 1 to 99, and each value maps to a fixed number of frames the stack takes to rise one full row. The progression is steep at the top end and then flattens.
| Speed | Frames per row | Seconds per row | Used by |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 942 | 15.70 | the slowest possible setting |
| 5 | 755 | 12.58 | Sprout, the first ladder rung |
| 11 | 474 | 7.90 | online 1v1 (fixed for both players) |
| 20 | 256 | 4.27 | mid-ladder |
| 30 | 138 | 2.30 | Master, the final ladder rung |
| 50–99 | 47 | 0.78 | the floor — speed stops increasing here |
Online matches fix both players at speed 11 so neither side has a pacing advantage and the simulation stays identical on both machines. The single-player ladder runs from Sprout at speed 5 to Master at speed 30 — roughly a five-fold difference in how fast the stack climbs.
The chain rule, precisely
A panel is flagged as chaining when a pop opens empty space directly beneath it, or when the flag propagates from a chaining panel below. Two consequences follow, and together they define skilled play:
- A swap never starts a chain. Swapping two ordinary panels into a match is a fresh combo, however large.
- A swap preserves the flag. Manually swapping a panel that fell from an earlier clear into a new match DOES extend the chain — the technique known as a skill chain.
The chain counter starts at ×2 on the first linked clear and rises by one per link after that; a fresh combo never advances it. The chain stays alive while any panel is still moving or still carries the flag, so a chain can survive a brief pause in visible activity.
For the practical version of all this, see chain reactions and cascades and the versus guide.
Frequently asked questions
How much garbage does a 4-chain send in Tetris Attack?
A K-chain sends one full-width garbage block K−1 rows tall, so a 4-chain sends a 6-wide, 3-row-tall block — 18 panels. That matches the output of a 13-panel combo, which is far harder to build on purpose.
What is the difference between combo garbage and chain garbage?
Combo garbage arrives as flat rods one row tall, sized by how many panels were cleared at once. Chain garbage arrives as a single full-width block as many rows tall as the chain length minus one. The slab is much harder to clear because peeling it takes one adjacent match per row.
How long do matched panels flash before clearing?
49 frames at 60 frames per second, about 0.82 seconds — 36 frames of flash plus 13 face frames. Panels then pop one at a time with an 8-frame stagger.
Why can't a swap start a chain?
The chain flag is granted only when a pop opens empty space beneath a panel. A swap creates a match by moving panels sideways rather than by clearing something underneath, so it starts a fresh combo. A swap does preserve an existing chain flag, which is how skill chains work.