Drag to move, tap to turn, flick down to drop.Arrows move, up turns, space drops, C holds, P pauses.
Stack the falling blocks and clear full lines.
Tetris is the block-stacking puzzle Alexey Pajitnov created in 1984. Seven shapes fall one at a time, and you turn and place them to complete rows across the well, which then clear away.
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Why you will love it
Learn Tetris in a minute
Pieces fall into the well one at a time. Fill a whole row and it clears; let the stack reach the top and the game is over.
How Tetris works
This version follows the rules most modern versions of the game share.
- Pieces: Seven shapes, I, O, T, S, Z, J and L. They come in shuffled sets of seven, so every piece turns up once in each set and you never wait long for one
- Next and hold: The next three pieces are shown. Hold puts the current piece aside for later, once per piece
- Turning: Pieces turn both ways. A turn blocked by a wall or the stack tries a few nearby positions first (the Super Rotation System)
- Ghost: A faint copy of the piece shows where it will land
- Landing: A piece that lands has half a second before it locks, so you can still slide or turn it into place
- Clearing: A full row clears and the rows above drop down
- Speed: In marathon the level goes up every 10 lines, and pieces fall faster at each level
- Game over: The game ends when a new piece has no room to appear
Controls
The game is built for a phone first, and plays just as well with a keyboard.
- Drag: The piece follows your finger, one column for each cell you move, anywhere on the screen, so your thumb never has to cover the well
- Tap: Turns the piece clockwise
- Drag down: Soft drop, one row at a time. A quick flick down drops the piece all the way, and a quick flick up holds it
- Buttons: On touch screens, buttons under the well move, soft drop, hold, turn and drop. Left, right and down repeat while held
- Keyboard: Left and right arrows move (hold to slide), down soft drops, up or X turns clockwise, Z or Ctrl turns counterclockwise, space drops, C or Shift holds
- Pause: P, Escape or the pause button. The game also pauses by itself when you switch tabs or apps, and waits for you to carry on
- Saving: A game in progress is saved on your device, so you can close the page and carry on later
Marathon, sprint and points
Choose a mode when you start a new game. Marathon keeps your best score and sprint keeps your fastest time.
- Marathon: Play for as long as you can while the speed climbs, for the highest score
- Sprint: Clear 40 lines as fast as you can. The speed stays the same throughout
- Line clears: 100 points for a single, 300 for a double, 500 for a triple and 800 for a tetris, times the level
- T-spins: Turning a T into a tight slot scores more: 800 for a single, 1,200 for a double and 1,600 for a triple, times the level
- Back-to-back: A tetris or T-spin right after another is worth half as much again
- Combos: Clearing lines with pieces in a row adds 50 points per step of the combo, times the level
- Perfect clear: Emptying the whole well earns a large bonus
- Drops: 1 point a row for a soft drop, 2 for a hard drop
Strategies and tips
A few habits keep your stack low and your score climbing.
To start with:
- Build flat: An even stack fits more pieces than a bumpy one
- Leave one column open: Keep a column at the side clear for an I and clear four lines at once
- Look ahead: Place the current piece with the next ones in mind
- Hold an I: Keeping an I in hold means one is ready when your well is deep enough
Once that feels natural:
- Use the lock delay: A landed piece can still slide under an overhang before it locks
- Try T-spins: Leave a T-shaped slot under an overhang and turn the T into it at the last moment
- Dig out when high: When the stack gets tall, clear single lines to get back to safety before building again
Frequently asked questions
Quick answers to the things players ask most about Tetris.
What are the seven Tetris pieces?
I (a straight line of four), O (a square), T, S, Z, J and L. Each is named after the letter it looks like.
Why do I sometimes get the same piece twice in a row?
Pieces come in shuffled sets of seven. The last piece of one set can be the first of the next, so a piece can repeat, but you never wait more than twelve pieces for any shape.
What is a T-spin?
A T-spin is when the last thing you do to a T before it locks is turn it, and at least three of the four corners around its centre are filled. It scores far more than the same lines cleared any other way.
Is my game saved if I close the page?
Yes. A game in progress is saved on your device and kept for 30 days. It comes back paused, and carries on when you tap or press space.
Who created Tetris and when?
Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris in 1984 while working at the Computing Centre of the Soviet Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
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