Block Battle Arena Rules: How to Play

Each player needs a phone, tablet or computer with a web browser. Nothing to install.

You can play alone, against bots, or with friends. One player hosts a room and the others join with the room code. The host can add up to three bots.

There are no settings to choose. Everyone starts at level 1 on an empty board.

Your board is 10 cells wide and 18 tall. Pieces made of four blocks fall from the top, one at a time. There are seven shapes: the long bar, the square, the T, two L shapes and two zigzags.

You can see the next piece before it drops. The same shape never comes twice in a row.

Each player gets their own random pieces, so your board will not match anyone else’s.

A faint shadow shows where the falling piece will land.

1. The host starts the round. The game waits for everyone to reach the game screen, including anyone still reading the instructions.
2. A 3, 2, 1 countdown plays, then everyone’s first piece drops at the same moment.
3. Slide and spin each piece as it falls. A faint outline shows where it will land. When it lands on the floor or on another block, it waits a moment, then locks in place.
4. Any row that is completely full clears, and everything above it moves down.
5. The next piece drops. Keep going until only one board is left.

Points for clearing rows depend on how many you clear with one piece, times your current level:

• 1 row: 40 points
• 2 rows: 100 points
• 3 rows: 300 points
• 4 rows: 800 points
• A fast drop also scores 1 point for each row the piece falls.

• Clear 3 rows with one piece and every other player still in the round gets 1 junk row. Clear 4 and they get 2. Clearing 1 or 2 rows sends nothing.
• Junk rows are gray and come in at the bottom of the board, full except for one gap. Everything on the board moves up to make room. When two arrive together, their gaps are in the same column.
• A falling piece that the rising stack runs into moves up with it.
• If junk pushes a block off the top of your board, or leaves the falling piece nowhere to go, you are out.
• Junk rows clear and score like any other row, and clearing 3 or 4 rows that include junk sends junk on to everyone else.
• Playing alone, there is nobody to send junk to and nobody sending it to you.

Your level goes up by one for every 6 rows you clear. Each level makes your pieces fall faster.

Every player has their own level and speed, so a player who clears more rows also plays a faster game.

• If a piece locks with any part of it in the top row, your board is topped out and you are out.
• When only one player is still going, that player wins the round.
• The round ends when nobody is still playing.
• If the last two players top out at about the same moment, there may be no winner that round.
• Playing alone, there is no one to outlast. You play until you top out and try to beat your best score, which is kept on your device.
• Big clears send junk to everyone else, so attacking is one way to make the others top out first.

• If the host leaves the game, everyone goes back to the room.
• If another player leaves or loses their connection, the round goes on without them, and they no longer count when the game checks who is last standing.
• If you arrive more than a few seconds after a round starts, you watch it and join the next one.
• When you are out but others are still playing, you watch their boards until the round ends.
• After a round, the host can start another one.

Any player can pause a live round with the pause button, or P or Escape on a keyboard, and any player can resume it. While the game is paused, every board is hidden so nobody can plan ahead.

The host can add up to three bots, each set to easy, medium or hard. Medium is a casual player that someone new to the game can beat. Hard makes almost no mistakes and drops its pieces straight in.

Bots play by the same rules: same board size, same scoring, and they speed up as their level rises.

• Solo: host a room on your own and press Play to chase a high score.
• With bots: add one to three bots for a quick match.
• With friends anywhere: share the room code. Everyone plays on their own device, and every other board shows live along the top of your screen with its score, level and lines.
• As a party: open the watch page on a TV or laptop and enter the room code. It shows every board at once, so the room can see who is about to top out. A board glows orange when it sends junk and red when junk hits it.

On a touch screen:

• Drag left or right anywhere on the board. The piece follows your finger, a column at a time, so your thumb never covers it.
• Tap the piece to spin it.
• Tap any other column and the piece jumps straight there, if nothing is in the way.
• Drag down and the piece comes down with your finger. Flick down to drop it straight in.
• A piece that lands waits about half a second before it locks (longer at slow speeds), so you can still slide or spin it. Each slide or spin gives it the full wait again, up to a dozen times.
• On a keyboard: left and right arrows move, the up arrow spins (Shift and up spins the other way), A and D also spin, the down arrow moves it down one row, and Space drops it.

Block Battle Arena also turns up as a 20-second duel inside other games. Both players start on the same board, with four rows of rubble near the bottom that are each one block short of full, and get the same pieces at a steady speed. Most rows cleared in 20 seconds wins. Clearing 3 or 4 rows sends junk to the other player, the same as in a full game. Top out and you lose.

How do you play Block Battle Arena?

Slide and spin falling block pieces so they fill whole rows. A full row clears. Keep your stack from reaching the top, and outlast everyone else in the room.

How many players can play Block Battle Arena?

One player or a whole room of friends, each on their own device. The host can also add up to three bots.

Can you play Block Battle Arena alone?

Yes. Host a room on your own and press Play to chase a high score, or add bots to play against.

How do you win Block Battle Arena?

Be the last player whose board has not topped out. Score does not decide the winner; lasting longest does.

Does Block Battle Arena get faster?

Yes. Every 6 rows you clear raises your level by one, and each level makes your pieces fall faster. Each player has their own level.

Do you send garbage lines to other players?

Yes. Clearing 3 rows at once sends 1 junk row to every other player, and clearing 4 sends 2. Junk comes in at the bottom with one gap and pushes the whole stack up.