How do you play Tetris?

Tetris is one of the easiest games in the world to start and one of the hardest to master. The core loop takes about thirty seconds to learn: guide a falling shape, fill a row, watch it vanish.

Below you will find the short version first, then a fuller walkthrough with clear Tetris examples, a few closely related questions, and a link to try it yourself. Everything here is free to play right in your browser.

The short answer: In Tetris, one of seven four-block pieces falls from the top of a ten-wide well. You rotate it and move it left or right so it fits snugly with the blocks below, then let it lock into place. Fill an entire horizontal row with no gaps and it clears, and the game ends only if your stack piles up past the top.

The falling pieces

Every game of Marathon Tetris sends pieces down a well that is ten cells wide and twenty tall. You have three tools for each piece: move it sideways, rotate it, and drop it. Your job is to slot each shape against the ones already stacked so that the surface stays as flat and gap-free as possible.

Clearing lines

When you completely fill a horizontal row from wall to wall, that row disappears and everything above it slides down. Clearing rows is the entire point of the game, because it is the only way to keep your stack from growing. Filling four rows in a single move is the coveted Tetris that scores the most.

Speeding up and topping out

Gravity pulls pieces down faster as you progress, so what felt slow at the start becomes frantic later on. If your blocks stack all the way to the ceiling and a new piece has no room to spawn, you top out and the game is over. For the illustrated version of every rule, visit the rules hub.

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People also ask

What is the goal of Tetris?

The goal of Tetris is to clear as many horizontal lines as you can while keeping your stack from reaching the top of the well. You do that by fitting falling pieces together so rows fill completely and vanish. Different modes reframe the aim: survive as long as possible, score the most, or clear a line target the fastest.

What are the Tetris pieces called?

The seven Tetris pieces are named after the letters of the alphabet they look like: I, O, T, S, Z, J and L. The I is the long bar, the O is the square, and the rest are bends and elbows. Modern guideline Tetris gives each piece a fixed color so you can recognize it instantly.

What is a Tetris clear?

A Tetris, capital T, is the move where you clear four rows in a single drop. You do it by keeping one column empty, stacking the other nine rows nine cells wide, and then dropping a vertical I piece into the gap. It is the highest-scoring standard clear in the game, which is why the whole game is named after it.