How to play Block Knock!
Block Knock! – Fair & Square is a free block puzzle game you play in your browser. You drag pieces onto an 8×8 board, fill rows and columns to clear them, and play on for as long as your pieces fit. Here are the full rules, the exact scoring and a few tips.
The board and the three pieces
The board has 8 rows and 8 columns, and three pieces wait under it. Drag a piece onto the board and let go where it fits: it can’t overlap the blocks already there, and a piece dropped where it doesn’t fit goes back. Place the three in any order you like. Once all three are on the board, you get three new ones. Pieces can’t be turned.
Every set of three can be placed: at least one way of putting all three on the board always works, and each piece fits the board at the moment it’s dealt. Each piece is drawn at random from the shapes that still fit alongside the ones before it, and nothing in the deal looks at your score, your high score or how long you’ve played. Where you put the pieces is up to you, though, and a piece in the wrong place can take the room another one needed.
Clearing rows and columns
Fill all eight squares of a row or a column and it clears: its blocks disappear and the space is free again. Rows and columns clear together, so one piece can clear a row and a column, or several of each, at the same time.
Scoring and combos
These are the numbers the game itself uses. You’ll find the same rules in the game, under Settings → How scoring works.
Points
You get 10 points for each square a placed piece covers. Completing rows or columns in one move adds:
| Lines in one move | Points |
|---|---|
| 1 line | 100 × combo |
| 2 lines | 200 × combo |
| 3 lines | 600 × combo |
| 4 lines | 1,200 × combo |
The rule behind the table goes on for bigger clears: from two lines up, a move earns 100 × lines × (lines − 1) × combo, so 5 lines earn 2,000 × combo. Emptying the whole board adds 3,000 points.
Combo
Every move that completes a line raises the combo by 1. It ends if none of the next 3 moves completes one. The dots on the COMBO pill under your score show the moves left. Your first clear counts at combo 1, and the combo multiplies the points of each clear: one line is worth 100 at combo 1 and 500 at combo 5.
An example: with your combo at 2, you place a piece of 4 squares that completes 2 lines. The combo goes up to 3, and the move scores 4 × 10 + 200 × 3 = 640 points.
Stars
A finished game earns 1 star, plus 1 per 2,500 points (up to 5), plus 2 for beating your own high score from earlier games (not in the Daily, which is one game a day). A won challenge pays its number in stars instead (challenge 6 pays 6), up to 20, unless the usual stars come to more. You can earn up to 60 stars a day in all, and winning the Daily adds 100 on top. A game restarted before it ends earns none.
When the game ends
The game ends when none of the pieces you have left fits anywhere on the board, and it tells you: “No moves left”.
In Classic and Challenge you then get one continue per game. “Continue?” keeps your board and score and gives you new pieces that fit; “No thanks” ends the game. Ads are coming to the web game, and then a continue can come with a short ad; No thanks never plays one. The Daily has no continue: it ends the first time no piece fits, the same for everyone.
In Challenge, reaching the target ends the game at once, with a win.
Three ways to play
Classic
The open-ended game: play for as long as your pieces fit. A finished game of 2,500 points or more moves you up one level. The level is a badge: Classic never gets harder, and your level never goes down. Classic has two leaderboards, this week and all time, each with every player’s top score. A new week starts on Monday at midnight in San Francisco.
Challenge
A ladder of numbered games, each with a target score. Challenge 1 starts on an empty board with a target of 1,500 points. Each challenge after it starts with more blocks already on the board or asks for more points, and challenges 6, 10 and 15 each bring in new shapes. Reach the target and you’ve won: on to the next challenge. Run out of moves first and you can try the same challenge again. The Challenge leaderboard lists the highest challenge each player has won.
The Daily
One game a day, with the same start for everyone and one leaderboard. The top score when the day ends wins 100 stars. More about the Daily.
Stars and looks
Stars only buy looks, never an advantage, and they come only from playing, never with money. Block Knock! has 17 looks all year: Glass, Velvet Dusk and Midnight Arcade are free from the start, and the others open with stars, from 50 for Aurora to 1,180 for Paper & Ink. You can change your look any time in Settings → Theme.
Tips
None of these guarantees a score, but each follows from the rules.
- Look at all three pieces before you place one. They always fit in at least one order, but not always in every order.
- Mind the big pieces. They usually have fewer places to go than small ones. Place a big piece first, or keep its space free, and it won’t be the one left without room.
- Watch what lights up. While you drag, the lines the piece would complete light up.
- Keep the combo going. After a clear you have 3 moves to clear again, and the higher the combo, the more each line is worth.
- Clear several lines at once. Three lines with one piece are worth 600 × combo, against 100 × combo for one.
- Avoid single holes. Only a few shapes, such as the single square, fit a square that’s closed in on all four sides.
- Empty the board when you can. It adds 3,000 points.
Questions
Can I turn a piece?
No. Many shapes come in several turned and mirrored versions, and each version is a piece of its own, so you place a piece as it comes.
Can I get pieces that don’t fit?
Not when they’re dealt. Each piece fits the board when it’s dealt, and the three can always be placed in some order. A piece can still stop fitting once you’ve placed the others: that’s how a game ends. Our automated tests deal more than 10,000 hands, and a separate solver confirms that every one of them can be placed in full.
Does the game get harder the longer I play?
Not in Classic or the Daily: the deal never looks at your score, your high score or how long you’ve played. Challenge gets harder in the open, with fuller boards, higher targets and new shapes.
What if I close the game in the middle?
Your game is saved in your browser after every move. Open the game again in the same browser on the same device and carry on. A Daily still has to be finished before its day ends.
Is there an undo?
No. A piece stays where you put it, so look before you let go.
In your browser. No sign-up.