Transitions 1: The Second Floor
Introduction to Floors
Stairs is really easy to learn, but if you don’t know how to transition, the most you’ll be getting is a ~5-chain. To make chains bigger than 5, you’ll need to make a Transition. But what exactly is a Transition? Well, first you need to understand the concept of floors.
In order to make big chains, you’ll have to chain in layers, or floors. Basically, you have one chain on the first floor and another chain on top of that chain. A Transition refers to the Puyo that connect your top chain to the bottom chain at the wall.
The Stairs Transition
The Stairs transition can actually be one of the more complicated ones to learn. But I think that once you get this down, everything else is a snap to learn. So let’s get started. First, let’s look at a chain that doesn’t have a transition yet.
To set off this chain, we'd need a Red-Green piece to put in Column 1.
But what if... we used the Blocking Method on top of the reds?
Now all you have to do is keep extending off the yellows!
Building the Stairs Transition
Of course, Transitioning is easier said than done. Your Transition is actually one of the weakest points in your chain because it requires a lot of Puyo of certain colors, of certain amounts, in a certain order. The rule of thumb is to wait until the game gives you most the pieces you need all at once (pay attention to the NEXT Window!). However, if you need the transition done right away, there are two things you can do: (1) build the transition in the wall column before you build the surrounding columns, or (2) waste a few Puyo to make it easier. (Waste Puyo?? Blasphemy!! Well, it’s not as bad as it sounds.)
Option 1: Build the Wall Column First
Let’s say you have this...
...but the game gives you really bad colors.
Sure, you have a transition. But now you can’t even access it. Instead, you should wait until you get pieces that allow you to build the wall-column really high and then start extending.
Option 2: Waste a Few Puyo
Essentially, the problem presented in the above section was about overcoming the height differences between columns. If you really aren’t getting the pieces you want, you can ”waste” a few Puyo to prop up your transition so that it’s higher than the other columns.
Color Conflicts
Color conflicts occur when certain groups of Puyo pop other groups when you don’t want them to. The Stairs transition has one major color conflict that you need to watch out for:
At first glance, that really looked like it was gonna work, huh? When you make the Stairs transition, you have to pay special attention to the colors you choose for the first floor. Column 1 and Column 3 can NOT be the same color!
Other Tips
Since the Stairs Transition requires you to overcome a large height difference, the Stairs Pattern is very weak unless you do the Transition right away. Thus, most Stairs users start working on their transition right at the start of the match. But there's also another reason for this. Have you noticed that the first two pieces that the game gives you never contain the fourth color? Many players suggest that you build your transition right at the start of a match because it's easier to build a transition with three colors instead of four.
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