What is the hold piece in Tetris?

Hold is the closest thing Tetris has to a rewind. Used well, it turns an awkward piece into an opportunity you take on your own terms.

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: The hold piece is a slot where you can stash the falling tetromino for later. Press hold and the current piece moves aside while the next one drops in its place; press it again and you can swap the held piece back. You can only swap once per piece, so hold is a planning tool rather than a way to endlessly reshuffle.

Parking a piece for later

When the piece you get is not the piece you want, tap hold to set it aside and receive the next one instead. The classic use is banking an I piece until your Tetris well is ready, so you never waste the bar on a flat clear. Hold effectively gives you a second option every single turn.

The one-swap rule

You may only swap a given piece into or out of hold once before it locks, which stops you from cycling forever to fish for a shape. That limit keeps hold strategic. It pairs naturally with the next queue, since seeing what is coming tells you whether holding now is worth it.

Using hold well

Good players hold proactively, not just to escape trouble. Bank the piece your current plan does not need yet, and pull it back the moment it fits. Note that the retro Classic mode has no hold slot at all, which is part of what makes it feel so unforgiving.

Try the hold slot

People also ask

What is the next queue in Tetris?

The next queue is the preview strip, usually to the right of the well, that shows which pieces are coming. Modern guideline Tetris reveals several pieces ahead, so you can plan a whole sequence of placements rather than react to one piece at a time. The more of the queue you use, the smoother your stacking becomes.

How do you play Tetris?

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.

What is Marathon mode in Tetris?

Marathon is the classic endless mode of Tetris. You clear lines to advance a level every ten lines, and each level makes the pieces fall faster. The goal is the highest score you can post before the accelerating gravity finally overwhelms you and the stack tops out. It is the mode most people picture when they think of Tetris.