Bloom Blocks

What is Bloom Blocks?

It's the kind of block puzzle a lot of people play on the bus: no falling pieces, no timer, just a grid and three shapes at a time. You place blocks wherever they fit, and any row or column that fills up all the way clears. The game ends when none of your blocks fit anywhere.

Our version adds a garden. Cleared lines leave flowers behind, flowers give pollen, pollen earns you rotations, and every 500 points the season changes from Spring to Summer, Autumn and Winter. It's free, there's no download, and it plays in your browser on a phone, tablet or computer.

How to play

• You get three blocks at a time in the tray below the garden. Drag one onto the bed and let go to place it.
• Blocks can't overlap each other or the edge. They also can't be turned unless you spend a Rotate.
• Fill all 8 squares in a row or a column and that line clears. Rows and columns can clear at the same time.
• When you've placed all three, you get three new ones.
• If none of your remaining blocks fit anywhere, the garden is full and the game is over.

The shapes range from a single square and short bars up to a long five-bar, a big 3×3 square and a five-square corner. Early in a game you'll see more small pieces. As your score climbs, the big ones turn up more often.

Flowers and pollen

Every line you clear plants flowers on some of the freed squares (two per line, three per line on a Bloom Burst). A flower lasts for five placements and then wilts. Clearing more lines while flowers are growing gives them extra life.

Place a block on top of a flower and you collect its pollen, worth 15 points each. Every 6 pollen earns you a Rotate. You start each game with one. Tap the Rotate button, then tap a block in your tray to turn it a quarter turn. If you get stuck but a rotated block would fit, the game will remind you to use it.

Scoring

You get 1 point for each square you place, and line clears pay much more, especially several at once:

Combos and Bloom Bursts

Clear lines again within three placements of your last clear and your combo goes up. Each step adds half again to your line points, up to triple at combo 5. Every fourth combo (x4, x8, x12 and so on) sets off a Bloom Burst: 150 bonus points and a bigger crop of flowers. Go more than three placements without a clear and the combo resets.

Clear every square in the garden and you get a 300 point bonus for the clean bed.

Controls (phone and computer)

On touch screens and with a mouse, drag blocks from the tray to the garden. On a keyboard:

Modes, leaderboards and unlocks

Classic is an endless game with a fresh random garden every time. Your best score is saved and posted to the Classic leaderboard.

The Daily Garden is the same game for everyone that day. Everyone starts from the same garden, with a small symmetrical pattern of stones already sitting in the bed, and the same opening blocks. Play it each day to build a streak and see how you stack up on the daily board.

Garden beds

Lifetime lines cleared unlock new looks for your blocks and bed:

Flower album

There are 16 flowers to find, four for each season. You discover a season's flowers by clearing lines during that season, at 1, 8, 20 and 40 lifetime clears. Spring starts with Pink Puff and Butter Cup. The rarest of the winter set is the glowing Star Bloom. Once found, a flower can grow in your garden.

Block puzzle game tips

These work in Bloom Blocks and in most grid block puzzles.

• Always leave room for a 3×3. The big square is the piece that ends most games. Before every placement, check that there's still an open 3×3 somewhere on the board. If there isn't, make one your next priority.
• Look at all three blocks first. You can place them in any order. Ask which order clears a line soonest, and which piece will be hardest to fit once the others are down. Place the awkward one first while there's space.
• Build along edges and corners. Stack blocks against the walls and keep the middle open. A clean, flat edge is easy to fill. A scattered middle leaves single holes that only the 1-square block can fix.
• Avoid lone holes. One empty square surrounded by filled ones is almost dead space. Try to keep empty areas in long strips or wide rectangles.
• Set up two lines at once. Leave a row and a column both one piece short where they cross. One block in the right spot clears both, which pays 50 instead of 20 and keeps your combo alive.
• Keep the combo going. You have three placements between clears. If you can see two clears coming, place the filler block in between rather than finishing both lines at the same time too early.
• Farm pollen on purpose. When you have a free choice, drop a block onto flowers. Fifteen points a flower is nice, but the real prize is a Rotate every six, which can save a game later.
• Don't waste your Rotate. Keep at least one in reserve for the moment a long bar or a corner piece won't fit the way it came.

In the mood for a slower puzzle? Try Mosaic Logic, a picture logic puzzle, or Trinket Trio, a triple tile match game.

Questions