How to play Dropwell
Dropwell is a falling-block puzzle with the clock taken out. Thirty pieces, each four squares in one of seven shapes, drop one at a time into a well eight columns wide and twelve rows deep. Nothing falls until you say so: you turn the piece, choose its column and press Drop, and it falls straight down until it rests. Fill a whole row and it clears. Placing all thirty pieces is the win, and the rows you clear are your score. The Daily gives everyone the same thirty pieces in the same order; Practice deals a fresh sequence whenever you like.
How to play
- You always see the piece in hand and the two coming next.
- Turn the piece and choose a column: tap a column to move the piece there, or use Left, Right and Rotate. A line of text always says where the piece would land.
- Press Drop. The piece falls straight down until it rests on the floor or on other pieces, and it cannot be moved after that.
- Fill a whole row and it clears; everything above it moves down. One drop can clear up to four rows, worth 1, 3, 5 or 8 points.
- There is no timer. Nothing moves until you say so, and a piece is only offered in the columns where it fits.
- The round ends when all thirty pieces are placed, or when a piece cannot fit inside the well. Placing all thirty is the win; the points are your score.
Tips & strategy
- Survive first. Thirty pieces make 120 squares and the well holds only 96, so you must clear at least three rows just to place them all, and placing them all is what wins.
- Keep the surface flat. A piece falls straight down and never slides under an overhang, so a gap you cover stays covered until the rows above it clear.
- Clearing rows together pays more: four rows in one drop score 8, twice what four separate rows score. Only the Bar, standing, can clear four at once.
- Use the preview. With the next two pieces in view, place this one where the next will fit, and leave a one-column gap only when a Bar is in the preview.
- When the stack gets high, take the safe single row rather than building toward four. An overflow ends the round with pieces still unplaced.
- Read the landing line before every drop. It names the rows the piece will rest on, so you can check it will land where you meant.
Accessibility
Dropwell has no timer and nothing moves until you press Drop. Before every drop a line of text says the piece, how it is turned, the columns it covers and the rows it would land on, and each drop is announced with any rows it cleared. The well is a single keyboard stop (the arrow keys move, Up rotates and Space drops), and Left, Rotate, Right and Drop are ordinary buttons as well. "The well in words" reads every row, top first. The seven shapes differ by pattern as well as colour and are named in words: Bar, Square, Tee, Skew left and right, Hook left and right.