Basic rules

To play any Puyo Puyo game you must manipulate the falling Puyo and form groups of the same colors.

Manipulating Puyo

You can move the Puyo left or right within the board (which is usually 6x12 squares in size) by pressing the left or right buttons. You can make it fall faster by holding the down button. You can also rotate the group clockwise or anticlockwise by pressing an action button.

There are currently four types of groups you may receive, though in all games before Puyo Puyo Fever only the first type is available. The types are:

• I-block - two Puyo starting vertically rotate around the lower one. They may be of the same or different color.
• L-block - three Puyo in an L-shape rotate around the one in the corner. They may either all be of the same color, or there will be a vertical same-color pair and a single Puyo in a different color on the lower-right.
• II-block - four Puyo in a square rotate around the center. The left two Puyo are the same color as each other and so are the right two Puyo. The two sides will never be the same color as each other.
• O-block - four Puyo in a square do not rotate and are all the same color. You can change the color by attempting to rotate the Puyo.

Win and loss conditions

When a square marked with a red X or a number is filled with a Puyo, you lose; when all other players have lost, you win. In games before Puyo Puyo Fever, there are no red Xs or numbers, but the game acts as if there was a red X in the square on the first row, third column. The marked position, with a few exceptions, tends to be the spawn point of the Puyo, and the size of the largest possible Puyo groups.

Chains

When you form a group of four or more cardinally connected same-color Puyo, they will explode, and any Puyo above will fall down. If in the process another group is formed, this also explodes and so on until there are no more groups left. An n-chain refers to a series of n such explosions. Chains score more and produce more garbage as you make them longer and bigger. The scores are calculated using an algorithm along with chain powers.

Garbage

When you make chains you will produce garbage, which is sent to the opponent. Upon certain conditions (depending on the game) it will then fall on their board. Garbage Puyo cannot be cleared by being grouped but instead they will be cleared if an ordinary group is cleared next to them. Making big chains and sending garbage to the opponent is the key to defeating your opponent.

Garbage generation is calculated based on score, which, in turn, is calculated with powers.