Block puzzle strategy: how to score more and last longer

How these puzzles work

Block puzzles such as Block Blast, 1010 and Woodoku share one set of rules. The board is a grid, usually 8×8. You are given three pieces at a time, from single squares to a 3×3 block and lines five long. You drag each piece onto the board; pieces don’t turn. A full row or column clears. When all three pieces are placed you get three more, and the game ends when none of the pieces you have left fits anywhere.

Scoring differs a little between games, but all of them reward the same things: clearing several lines with one piece, and clearing again soon after the last clear (a combo or streak). In Pier Blocks each crate placed scores 1, and a clear scores 10 × lines² × the combo, so two lines at once are worth four times one line.

Keep room for the big pieces

Most games end the same way: a 3×3 square or a five-long line arrives and there is nowhere for it to go. So play to keep big empty areas, not lots of small gaps.

• Fill from the edges and corners first. The middle is the only place a 3×3 can always go; the edges are where awkward pieces fit best.
• Keep one long row and one long column clear when you can, for the five-long lines.
• Don’t scatter. Put new pieces next to old ones, so the empty space stays in one or two big blocks.

Plan the whole tray

The three pieces of a tray all have to fit before you get new ones, so the order matters. Before placing the first piece, find a place for all three. Place the biggest or most awkward piece first while there is room, unless a smaller piece will clear a line and make room for it.

If a piece is greyed out in your tray, it doesn’t fit anywhere right now. Clear a line with another piece first.

Never box in a single square

An empty square with crates on all four sides can only ever be filled by the single-square piece, and you may not see one for a long time. Two-square gaps are nearly as bad. Before you drop a piece, look at what it leaves around it.

If a hole does form, try to clear a line through it: clearing the row or column frees the hole with it.

Chain clears for combos

Big scores come from combos. Set up two or three nearly full lines that one piece will finish together, and keep clearing on nearby placements so the streak doesn’t lapse (in Pier Blocks it lasts while no more than two placements in a row clear nothing). Emptying the whole board is a big bonus in most games: when only a few crates are left, look for the clear that takes them all.

Is the game fair?

Many players suspect that block puzzle apps deal pieces that don’t fit on purpose. Pier Blocks says exactly how it deals: every tray it hands you has at least one piece that fits the board as it is, and otherwise the draw is plain random from a fixed mix. It never looks at your score or what you’ve bought. Today’s Pier deals the same 30 trays to everyone, so you can compare scores fairly with friends.