How to play

The basics

The tile grid fills with four elements, rising from below. Your job is to keep it under control by clearing tiles, and the best way to do that is with chains. Here’s how it all fits together.

• Every move is a swap. Two tiles side by side trade places. On a touch screen or with a mouse, drag a tile left or right; keep dragging, and it travels across several columns, swapping as it goes. You can swap a tile into an empty gap, and you can even catch a tile while it’s falling.
• Line up three or more tiles of the same element, across or down, and they flash and clear. Whatever was resting on them falls into the space.
• Combos: clear 4 or more tiles at once and it’s a combo, worth double. Two lines made by the same swap count together.
• Chains are the heart of the game. When tiles fall after a clear and land in a new line of their own, that’s a chain, and one chain can set off another, and another. You can keep one going by hand, too: slide a tile in under tiles that are still falling, and the line it makes counts as part of the chain. Nothing scores like a long chain.
• The stack keeps rising, a row at a time, and speeds up the longer you play. When you want more tiles to work with, hold Raise to bring rows up faster.
• Chains buy you time. Every chain stops the stack from rising for a moment. A longer chain stops it longer, and the closer the stack is to the top, the longer the pause.
• Keep it below the top. When the stack gets close, the top edge glows warm and the music picks up the pace. If a tile reaches the very top and stays there for 1 second, the round is over.
• Stuck? Leave the tile grid alone for three seconds, and two tiles start to sparkle and lean toward each other. Swap them, and something clears. The sparkle goes out the moment you touch anything, so it never gets in your way.

Controls

Play however you like: touch, mouse, keyboard or a controller. On a phone or tablet you drag tiles directly, as the first preview shows. With a keyboard or a controller, you move a cursor that covers two tiles side by side, and swap them, as in the second.

Hold a direction and the cursor keeps going: quickly on the tile grid, and more slowly in menus so you don’t overshoot. The game pauses, and goes quiet, whenever you leave its window, and if you have it open in two windows, your controller only plays the one you’re in. Music starts off; turn it on with the music button at the top right, and the game remembers your choice.

Scoring

Every clear scores. How much depends on three things: how many tiles you clear, whether it’s part of a chain, and how fast the stack is moving.

• Every tile you clear is worth points, and a combo (four or more at once) doubles the lot.
• Chains multiply as they grow: the first link scores double, the second four times as much, the third six times, and so on. A long chain beats almost anything else you can do.
• Speed counts, too. The faster the stack is rising, the more every clear is worth, up to three times as much. In Endless the stack speeds up as you go, so the longer you last, the more each clear earns.
• In Endless and Time Attack you can save your best to the high scores, under your player name (you’ll need a free account). Every score is checked before it goes up: the site replays your round itself and keeps the score it really reached, so the high scores stay fair.

Modes

There are a few ways to play, from a guided path through the academy to a race against the clock.

The Path

The academy’s own path. First you declare your element (a short quiz helps you choose), then you work through ten levels, each with its own goal, and sit an exam with your element’s teacher: they play the very same tiles on their own tile grid beside yours, their clears push your stack up, and yours push theirs. Pass, and you choose which element to take on next, with a word from your teacher on each. Ten more levels and that element’s exam, and so on until all four are beaten; then ten advanced levels, Light’s final exam, and what comes after it. Beat the elements, and something new begins to happen. Lose an exam, and that teacher goes a little easier on you the next time.

Endless

Easy, Normal or Hard. Keep the stack down for as long as you can while it speeds up around you. Your best score can go on the high scores.

Time Attack

Two minutes or three. Score all you can before the clock runs out: it’s the place for big, bold chains. Your best score can go on the high scores.

Watch a demo

Sit back and watch the academy play a round, as in the preview here. Tap, click or press anything to stop it.

Multiplayer

Multiplayer puts you up against another student. It opens for students with an account who support development: pay what you like, from $5, once (see the supporter terms). You play under your player name, which everyone can see.

• A random student: whoever’s free, live. If nobody is, a computer student steps in so you’re never left waiting.
• A computer student: practice any time, at any difficulty from 1 (gentle) to 10 (relentless).
• A friend, live: open a lobby and send its link or five-letter code, or join a friend’s lobby with theirs.

You both play the same tiles, side by side, and the first to top out loses. Before you start, choose how rough the match gets:

• Push your opponent: your chains and big combos raise their stack, so every good move puts them under pressure.
• Garbage blocks: your chains and big combos drop stone slabs onto their tile grid instead. A chain drops a slab as wide as the grid, a row taller for each link (up to three). A slab cracks when a clear happens right beside it, and breaks back into tiles.
• Reactions: if you’ve unlocked them, they can join the match too.

Next to your opponent’s name: means a live student, a computer student. You’ll hear their moves too, quietly, as if from the next room.

Challenges

A challenge is a round you play now and send to friends, who take it on whenever suits them. It’s the same round for everyone: the same tiles, rising in the same order.

• Send one: in Multiplayer, choose Challenge a friend, pick a round (any Endless or Time Attack, with reactions on or off if you’ve unlocked them), play it, and send the link. Sending comes with multiplayer.
• Take one: anyone with an account can. Your challenger’s round replays beside yours as you play, with their score to beat at the top. There are no pushes: it’s a straight race. Your result goes on the challenge’s own leaderboard (you get one saved result per challenge).
• Watch: the challenge page replays the challenger’s round, and yours beside it once you’ve played. Your round stays private to you and the challenger, unless you choose to let others watch it.
• Recorded challenges: rounds that challengers chose to share with everyone. Watch them for ideas, or take them on yourself.
• Challenges stay open for 30 days. After that they’re gone, replays and all.

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