Nuisance queue

A waiting area for Garbage Puyos sent by your opponent. These appear in various sizes and shapes relative to the number of Garbage Puyos waiting to rain down any moment.

—Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 Gameplay Manual

Garbage queues in a four-player battle.

The Nuisance Queue, or Garbage Block Preview for Tetris, is an area located above a character's playing field that shows how many Garbage Puyos are waiting to fall. All games in the Puyo Puyo series use symbols instead of numbers to warn the player of incoming Garbage Puyos.

General

Most Puyo Puyo games use a similar set of symbols to indicate to players for any pending garbage. In newer games, their appearances can be changed by selecting a different Puyo skin. The nuisance queue can show up to six symbols before using another symbol that represents a larger amount of garbage.

Standard

From Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary onward, the games consistently use the following garbage symbols:

Symbol		No.	Notes
	Small	1	Single units of garbage may no longer be displayed if the player receives too much Garbage Puyos.
	Large	6	On a regular playing field, this equates to one row of Garbage Puyos.
	Rock	30	This is the maximum number of Garbage Puyos that can fall at once; this equates to five rows of Garbage Puyos. Games that use the Puyo Puyo rule cap the garbage symbols at this icon.
	Star	180	If a player receives two star symbols in their nuisance queue, the game will display them as one moon symbol. This pattern is observed up to the penultimate garbage symbol.
	Moon	360
	Crown	720	This is the penultimate indicator of garbage. Puyo Puyo Fever and Puyo Puyo Fever 2 caps the garbage symbol at this icon.
	Comet	1440	First appeared in Puyo Puyo Sun. Starting Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary, this icon represents the greatest number of Garbage Puyos. All succeeding games cap the garbage symbol at this icon.

Other symbols

Symbol		No.	Notes
	Mushroom	200	Puyo Puyo Tsu uses this icon as a representative for 200 Garbage Puyos before being replaced with the star symbol.
	Star (Tsu)	300	Puyo Puyo Tsu uses this icon as a representative for 300 Garbage Puyos before being replaced with the crown symbol.
	Crown (Tsu)	420	Puyo Puyo Tsu uses this icon as a representative for 420 Garbage Puyos and caps the garbage symbol at this icon.
	Comet (Sun)	720	Puyo Puyo Sun uses this icon as a representative for 720 Garbage Puyos before being replaced with the Saturn symbol.
	Saturn (Sun)	1440	Puyo Puyo Sun uses this icon as a representative for 1440 Garbage Puyos and caps the garbage symbol at this icon.

Fever queue

Main article: Fever (rule)

Entering Fever mode renders the main garbage queue inactive, visually depicted by it darkening and getting "pushed" in the background. All garbage received during Fever will be displayed in a second queue, and will fall if not neutralized. Garbage Puyos in the main queue can still be neutralized if the second queue is empty.

If the player receives nuisance in the second queue but then releases a chain in order to offset, then they will have to neutralise the second queue first, then they would be able to offset their first queue, and thus would send it to one of the two queues for the other player(s), depending if the other player(s) is/are in Fever mode or not, as usual.

Once Fever mode ends, any remaining garbage from the second queue will be added to the main one as the player returns to their original playing field.

Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 / 2

Unlike other Tetris games, Puyo Puyo Tetris and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 also use symbols to warn Tetris players of incoming garbage lines. A maximum of seven garbage lines (one large and small Garbage Puyo symbol) can rise at once if a Tetris player fails to offset garbage or clear a line.

Puyo Puyo~n

Puyo Puyo~n uses nearly the same garbage symbols as its predecessors along with other symbols that denote very high quantities of Garbage Puyos. Sending massive quantities of garbage is possible with the use of Point Puyos or the very small playing field in the Endless Puyo Puyo mode exclusive to the Dreamcast version.

Symbol		No.	Notes
	Small	1
	Large	6	Equal to six Garbage Puyos; this equates to 1 row on the regular field.
	Rock	30	Equal to 5 rows (30 nuisance Puyo), which is the maximum that can fall at once.
	Star	90	Created by 3 Rock Puyos.
	Moon	180	Created by two Star Puyos.
	Comet	360	Created from two Moon Puyos.
	Saturn	720	Created from two Comet Puyos. The Saturn Puyo also appears in Sun.
	Club	1000	Equal to one Saturn Puyo, one Moon Puyo, one Star Puyo, one Large Puyo and four Small Puyos combined.
	Diamond	5000	Created from 5 Club Puyos.
	Heart	20000	Created from 4 Diamond Puyos.
	Spade	100000	Created from 5 Heart Puyos.
	Crown	500000	Created from 5 Spade Puyos.
	Mushroom	2 million	Created from 4 Crown Puyos.
	Sun	10 million	Created from 5 Mushroom Puyos.
	Top Hat	50 million	Created from 5 Sun Puyos.
	Ball	200 million	Created from 4 Top Hat Puyos.
	Tent	1 billion	Created from 5 Ball Puyos.
	GD-ROM	5 billion	Created from 5 Tent Puyos.
	Blue Swirl	10 billion	Created from 2 GD-ROM Puyos.
	Green Swirl	50 billion	Created from 5 Blue Swirl Puyos.
	Yellow Swirl	100 billion	Created from 2 Green Swirl Puyos.
	Purple Swirl	500 billion	Created from 5 Yellow Swirl Puyos.

Trivia

• In Puyo Puyo Fever and its sequel, the garbage queue "bars" were visible.
• The nuisance queue "update" animation slightly varies depending on the game.
  • In the Compile-era games, the icons slide away from the center.
  • In the Fever series, the icons slide away from the left.
  • Starting Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary, the icons now slide towards then away from the center.
• In Puyo Puyo Sun, the Saturn Garbage Puyo occupies a larger space than other symbols - a maximum of four can be displayed at once.
• Formerly, in Compile-era Puyo Puyo games, there could be more than 6 symbols displayed at once. In Puyo Puyo Tsu (Mega Drive version), it is presumed that up to 9 symbols can be displayed at once, especially to warn players 29 nuisance Puyo and similar.