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[1]
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 | Number of Garbage Puyos | Notes |
|---|---|---|
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1 | Single units of garbage may no longer be displayed if the player receives too much Garbage Puyos. |
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6 | On a regular playing field, this equates to one row of Garbage Puyos. |
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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. |
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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. |
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360 | |
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720 | This is the penultimate indicator of garbage. Puyo Puyo Fever and Puyo Puyo Fever 2 caps the garbage symbol at this icon. |
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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 | Number of Garbage Puyos | Notes |
|---|---|---|
 |
200 | Puyo Puyo Tsu uses this icon as a representative for 200 Garbage Puyos before being replaced with the star symbol. |
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300 | Puyo Puyo Tsu uses this icon as a representative for 300 Garbage Puyos before being replaced with the crown symbol. |
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420 | Puyo Puyo Tsu uses this icon as a representative for 420 Garbage Puyos and caps the garbage symbol at this icon. |
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720 | Puyo Puyo Sun uses this icon as a representative for 720 Garbage Puyos before being replaced with the Saturn symbol. |
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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 and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2
Unlike other Tetris games, Puyo Puyo Tetris and Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 also uses symbols instead of 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.
A small Garbage Puyo symbol. It is equal to one Garbage Puyo.
A large Garbage Puyo equals six Garbage Puyos; this equates to 1 row on the regular field.
A red nuisance puyo, the rock puyo, equals 5 rows (30 nuisance puyo), which is the maximum that can fall at once.
A star puyo symbol, created by 3 rock puyo. For those that didn't calculate, it is equal to 90 Garbage Puyos. Note that this is less than in other games, where it represents either 180 or 300 puyo, and similar goes for the next 3 symbols.
A moon puyo symbol created by two star puyo. It is equal to 180 Garbage Puyos.
A comet puyo, created from two moon puyo. It is equal to 360 Garbage Puyos.
A Saturn puyo, created from two comet puyo. It is equal to 720 Garbage Puyos. The Saturn puyo also appears in Sun.
A club (card type) puyo. It is equal to 1000 Garbage Puyos, or the same as one Saturn Puyo, one moon Puyo, one star Puyo, one large Puyo and four small Puyo combined.
A diamond (card type) puyo, created from 5 club puyo. It is equal to 5000 Garbage Puyos.
A heart (card type) puyo, created from 4 diamond puyo. It is equal to 20000 Garbage Puyos.
A spade (card type) puyo, created from 5 heart puyo. It is equal to 100000 Garbage Puyos.
A crown puyo, created from 5 spade puyo. It is equal to 500000 Garbage Puyos.
A mushroom puyo, created from 4 crown puyo. It is equal to 2 million Garbage Puyos.
A sun puyo, created from 5 mushroom puyo. It is equal to 10 million Garbage Puyos.
A top hat puyo, created from 5 sun puyo. It is equal to 50 million Garbage Puyos.
A ball puyo, created from 4 top hat puyo. It is equal to 200 million Garbage Puyos.
A tent puyo, created from 5 ball puyo. It is equal to 1 billion Garbage Puyos.
A GD-ROM puyo, created from 5 tent puyo. It is equal to 5 billion Garbage Puyos.
A blue swirl (Dreamcast logo) puyo, created from 2 GD-ROM puyo. It is equal to 10 billion Garbage Puyos.
A green swirl puyo, created from 5 blue swirl puyo. It is equal to 50 billion Garbage Puyos.
A yellow swirl puyo, created from 2 green swirl puyo. It is equal to 100 billion Garbage Puyos.
A purple swirl puyo, created from 5 yellow swirl puyo. It is equal to 500 billion Garbage Puyos.
A red swirl puyo, created from 2 purple swirl puyo. It is equal to 1 trillion Garbage Puyos.
Information about nuisance queue in Puyo Puyo~n here[3]
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.