This page details a complete list of game modes that have been featured in the Puyo Puyo series.
Puyo Puyo
Introduced: Puyo Puyo
The original game mode, your objective is to defeat the opponent in a battle by filling their grid (especially the 3rd column) up to the top with garbage. Form chains to send garbage to your opponent and beat them.
Tsu
Introduced: Puyo Puyo Tsu
Widely considered the current standard match rule, the rules are similar to Puyo Puyo, but with an added mechanic called offsetting/neutralizing (相殺, sousai). This is done by making a larger chain and sending garbage back to your opponent, or countering the opponent's garbage sent. Tsu also adds two mechanics: All Clear (全消し, zenkeshi), done by clearing all puyo in a field in a single chain, granting you 30 or 5 lines of garbage puyos to be sent over to the opponent's field in your next chain, and margin time, the time period that indicates how long it takes before the target points starts to decrease, added with the intention of preventing matches from lasting too long. Margin time states how long it will take before the target points start to decrease, having the effect of each chain sending more Garbage Puyos. At its most extreme level, it can allow a player to send at least 40 Garbage Puyos from just a 1 chain.
Tsu also allows players to see two upcoming puyo pairs instead of one in the original mode.
Henka
Also known as "Special Rule", henka is an optional rule first introduced in Puyo Puyo Tsu that turns regular nuisance puyo into "hard puyo", a nuisance that can't be cleared as easy but used for advantage of chains when cleared, and "point puyo" which increases the score and sends more nuisance to the opponent.
In Yo~n and Minna de Puyo Puyo, certain stages start with the field occupied with garbage, hard or point puyos.
Sun
Introduced: Puyo Puyo SUN
The rules are the same as Tsu, but with an added mechanic called Sun Puyos. Sun Puyos act like garbage puyos, taking up a spot and cannot be cleared when many are lined in a row. However, Sun Puyos can help send more garbage over to the opponent when cleared together. Sun Puyos can be obtained by offsetting/countering/neutralizing or performing All Clears. Also, the "All Clear" rule is removed and when the board is all clear, a Sun Puyo will be put in a random column.
Skills
Introduced: Puyo Puyo~n
Skills, or super attacks allow players to help overcome handicaps. These include clearing garbage puyo or temporarily blocking garbage puyo. In order to use a super attack, a player must have a certain level of SP and then sacrifice their current pair of Puyos. Each super attack has a different SP charge rate and starting SP value, with charge rate further varying based on the number of previous uses of the super attack. To charge SP, the players must both make a chain, which rises in increments.
Fever
Introduced: Puyo Puyo Fever
Another one of the popular game modes, Fever rule introduces the concept of continuous offsetting, where making a chain of any length prevents queued Garbage Puyos from falling and adds one point on the player's Fever gauge. This allows the player to place another piece on the playing field. A player can continuously offset with each of their upcoming pieces. If a player places a piece without triggering a chain, the queued Garbage Puyos will drop.
The continuous offsetting mechanic is a contrast to other classic modes where offsetting can only be done once; After making a chain of any length, any remaining Garbage Puyos will drop on the player's playing field.
Fever gauge
The Fever gauge is a seven-point meter located near a player's playing field. Whenever a player offsets incoming Garbage Puyos, they fill one space in their Fever gauge. Once the Fever meter is filled, Fever mode begins.
Fever mode
Fever mode starts once the player completely fills up their Fever gauge. When the player enters Fever mode, the music and the background image of their board changes to a more dynamic background. During Fever, preset chains ranging from three to 15 in length are dropped into the player's field one by one. Successfully clearing a chain rewards the player with a bigger chain while failing to do so gives them an equal-sized or shorter chain, depending on how efficient the chain is cleared:
- If the player does a successful chain, the player will receive a chain one chain longer than they cleared. This applies even when a chain is extended. For instance, if a player extends an eight-chain to a nine-chain and clears it successfully, they will be given a ten-chain. Achieving an all clear rewards the player with a chain two chains longer than what they cleared.
- The player will receive an equal-sized or shorter chain depending on how short they are from achieving the required chain clear length. If the player falls short of one chain, the player will receive an identically-sized chain. Falling short of two chains will make the player receive a chain one chain less than what they cleared, and falling short of three or more chains will make the player receive a chain two chains less than what they cleared.
When the player enters fever mode, the player's current nuisance tray is pushed into the background and the player receives a second nuisance tray. Garbage Puyos from the original nuisance tray will not fall onto the player's field while they are in Fever, although they can clear any Garbage Puyos in their nuisance tray. When time runs out, the player is returned to their normal field and any nuisance in their fever nuisance tray is added to their nuisance tray.
Performing an All Clear will drop a preset 4 chain onto the field and 5 seconds will be added to the players fever time. When in fever, the player will receive a 5 second fever time bonus (if time has yet to run out) along with 2 chain bonus onto their next chain. If the player all clears into fever, they will receive a 5 second fever time bonus along with a 2 chain bonus on the first fever mode chain they will receive.
Each character has their set of fever dropsets. These may contain Big Puyo Color Seeds, Swirls and L/J-shaped sets.
Excavation
Introduced: Puyo Puyo~n (not named), Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary
A random assortment of puyos drop to the field, along with a star at the bottom surrounded by Hard Puyos. As the name implies, the objective of this mode is to reach the star before your opponent does by clearing puyos all the way to the star. When a player clears their star, the rules change slightly. Offsetting is disabled for the rest of match, and the opponent is sent an endless amount of Garbage Puyos, which simply shows up as 6 Comet Puyos in their nuisance tray.
Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary includes an excavation variant known as Mini Excavation, played with smaller-sized puyos.
Bomber
Introduced: Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary
This mode uses the offsetting rules used in Fever, but the general gameplay is based on Tsu. However instead of Garbage Puyos, players drop bombs onto the opponent's field. Bombs countdown by each interval, 4 by default. Once the timer hits 0, all surrounding Puyos will transform into Hard Puyos that requires the player to clear twice. However, bombs can be removed by creating chains adjacent to the bomb, similar to a Garbage Puyo.
There are two types of bombs in the player's cache, small bombs and big bombs. Small bombs won't drop onto the opponent's field, instead they serve as material to create big bombs. Once a big bomb is created from chaining, it will drop onto the opponent's field. 6 small bombs will create a big bomb, while any leftovers will be counted as small bombs. If the cache is filled with big bombs, small bombs won't be shown nor will the cache change.
Spinner
Introduced: Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary (Spinner), Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary (Cross Spinner)
The game at first appears to be a hybrid of Tsu and Fever rules. Like Tsu, the player does not utilize dropsets, however offsetting and the deadzone is based on Fever rules. The key mechanic of this mode is the titular spinner. Every 10 seconds (default; can alter between 2 to 20 seconds), the entire board will rotate for every player, flipping all Puyo over. It keeps repeating at a consistent rate until the last player stands. If the player manages to create a chain because of the flip, each chain will receive a power bonus.
Because of the constant spinning of this mode, character-specific backgrounds do not appear by default in Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary. However they appear normally for Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary and Puyo Puyo Chronicle.
Cross Spinner
Puyo Puyo 20th anniversary includes a variant known as Cross Spinner. Cross Spinner flips each vertical half of the player's board, the left side clockwise and the right side counterclockwise. If the player manages to create a chain because of the flip, the chain will receive a bonus boost in power. However before the flip, all chains will be interrupted and won't activate until every player finishes their move.
Searchlight
Introduced: Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary
This mode uses identical rules to Fever, the main difference is the fields are darkened. The only way to see the field is a swaying spotlight providing visuals, while the Puyo dropping are lightened up to make it easy to keep track of. The speed of the swaying light can be adjusted with settings.
This mode would later reappear as an obstacle in Party mode in Puyo Puyo Tetris.
Endless Fever
Introduced: Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary
When the match starts, both players are instantly sent into Fever mode. The initial chain length and amount of Nuisance Puyo the player starts with varies on the difficulty the player has chosen before the start of the match (in story mode, the player always starts out with a 5 chain and 510 Nuisance Puyo (1 moon and 5 rocks) in their nuisance tray.) The goal is to clear all the Nuisance Puyo in your nuisance tray before your opponent does.
Like in Fever mode, preset chains, which range from 3 to 15 in length, are dropped onto the field, one by one. If the player successfully clears the chain, they will be rewarded with a bigger chain. If the player fails to correctly clear the chain, they will receive a smaller or equal chain.
Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary includes a variant known as Mini Puyo Fever, played with smaller-sized puyos.
Underwater
Introduced: Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary
The board is somewhat inverted in this mode. Instead of dropping Puyos to the bottom, they are dipped into water. The buoyancy of the Puyos causes the properties to be changed, for example Puyos will push any other Puyos in the way down, and depending on how it's rotated will either push a single column twice down or push two columns down once. Because of the difficulty of creating chains, the properties of Garbage Puyos are different, only dropping when a proper row is created. Any leftovers won't be dropped unless it creates another row of Puyos. Said Garbage Puyos are dropped from the top and will push everything down. If the player's Puyos touches the bottom, they are knocked out.
Because of the water properties, the game is generally much slower then a normal Puyo Puyo match. No character-specific backgrounds are used either.
Ice Blocks
Introduced: Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary
Ice Block rules uses a combination of Tsu and Fever rule traits. However, what separates Ice Block from other gameplay rules is the eponymous Ice Blocks. Instead of sending Nuisance Puyo, players send frozen-over color Puyo to their opponents. The ice fractures over the course of three "turns," after which the Puyo can be used as normal. An ice block will immediately break if it is adjacent to a cleared set of Puyo.
Ice Blocks drop using a preset, character-specific color pattern. These 5x6 patterns can be viewed on the character select screen.
Mission Puyo
Introduced: Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary
Also known as Nazo Puyo (なぞぷよ), this mode does not feature direct combat, but rather, both players aim to complete certain tasks given. The player who completes all the tasks first wins the level.
Not to be confused with the Nazo Puyo series.
Mega Puyo
Introduced: Puyo Puyo! 15th Anniversary
The player utilizes a special type of giant Puyo in this game. As a side effect, the board is effectively smaller, with a size of 3 x 7 instead of 6 x 13 like with normal Puyo Puyo. To compensate, connecting three Puyo counts as a chain instead of four or more like normally. Offsetting is based on Fever rules, however no dropsets are utilized.
Transformation (Daihenshin)
Introduced: Puyo Puyo 7
The main game mechanic of Puyo Puyo 7, Transformation is a unique adaptation of Fever mode. The gameplay rules are very similar to Fever, except that a transformation gauge is in place of the Fever gauge. The transformation gauge is filled by either offsetting Garbage Puyos (compared to the Fever Gauge), or by eliminating Garbage Puyos from your board. The transformation time, which is how long one can be in either transformation form, starts at 15 seconds, and can be increased to 99 seconds by simply clearing Puyos. When the transformation gauge is filled completely, the player goes into a transformation and the character and board transform, depending on the options chosen at the beginning of the round. When the time runs out, the player returns to their field, with their transformation gauge and time reset, and their last piece before entering if they went into Mega Puyo Rush. While in either transformation, Garbage Puyos do not fall until the player exits the transformation. If the player performs an All Clear, the are awarded with a 5-second bonus for Transformation and a preset 4 chain. It also introduces Quick Drop, where a Puyo can instantaneously be dropped by pressing up, though no points are awarded for quick dropping. Of course, one can still press down to make the Puyos fall faster, rather than instantly.
The player is given a choice in choosing a Mega (でか, deka) or Mini (ちび, chibi) transformation form before the match starts. If the player chooses Mega, the character transforms into an adult and the board transforms into Mega Puyo mode. If the player chooses Mini, the character transforms into a child and the board transforms into Mini Puyo Fever mode. Regardless of which mode chosen, both modes function the same as Fever rules, countering and generating garbage to the opponent.
Gust
Introduced: Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary
In this mode, a windmill in the background starts spinning either clockwise or counterclockwise, slowly getting faster. After 10 seconds, the wind will blow so hard that all Puyo will either shift to the left or right. This effect lasts for roughly 10 seconds, then stops and repeats the cycle.
If the windmill spins clockwise all Puyo will be shifted to the right, while if the windmill spins counterclockwise all the Puyo shift to the left. During the harsh wind blowing, the foreground will have various objects such as flowers and cows blowing by, and every player's board will bend either to the left or right as if getting buffeted by the wind.
Slot Machine
Introduced: Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary
The main gimmick is the titular slot machine. Every 30 puyos cleared (default), the slot machine is activated and changes the match with a random effect, either benefiting the player, hindering the enemy, or hindering both players. However on the last 10 puyos the timer pauses, being only able to move by offsetting. Offsetting in addition to it's normal properties also speeds up the timer, by reducing it by 4 seconds per offset. Which player offsets last will gain control of the slot, gaining any of its benefits.
Foursight
Introduced: Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary
The gameplay is similar to Tsu, except that players can see four upcoming puyo pairs instead of the usual two.
Blocks
Introduced: Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary
The gameplay is similar to Tsu, but the board is filled with blocks that cannot be cleared by any means. Each match randomly generates these blocks into various patterns, for example one match may begin with half the board blocked off but another one may begin with the blocks arranged to be stairs. This means that players are constantly changing their strategy in order to compensate for the changing block patterns.
Active
Introduced: Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary
The gameplay is similar to Tsu, but chains now behave differently. Normally during a chain the player loses all control until the chain is complete, but in Active mode players can still control their pieces during the middle of a chain animation, making it possible to extend chains that would otherwise be impossible. Anything added on top of a chain will count towards the chain length, with a roughly 1 second frame window to extend a chain.
Quartet
Introduced: Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary
Loosely based on Fever, instead of using Fever dropsets, Puyo always fall in fours.
Pair Puyo
Introduced: Puyo Puyo!! 20th Anniversary
A game mode where players in pairs battle against one another.
Fusion
Introduced: Puyo Puyo Tetris
Known as PuyoTet Mix in Japanese, this game mode has both puyo and tetrominoes falling into the field at the same time. Puyo and Tetris clearing rules still apply, with Active mode enabled, and clearing both simultaneously contributes to a mixed chain.
Tetrimino will take priority over Puyo, meaning they will crush any Puyo below them and "swap" them by dropping from the top. How the Tetrimino falls on top of them influences the speed; a hard (quick) drop will clear them immediately while soft (manually) dropping them will crush each of them one row at a time. It's possible to place more Tetromino on top of a crushing Tetromino: doing so at the right time can result in a Tetris Plus (clearing 5 or more lines at a time), and is one of the only ways to get one of them. Garbage is based on Nuisance Puyo from the Puyo Puyo side, but feature several key differences. First is that Nuisance Puyo don't immediately drop, instead they drop in the third interval if no chains have been set off. Secondly they disappear if crushed by a Tetromino either by hard dropping or soft dropping. Unlike a normal Puyo, the garbage does not "swap" by falling from the top.
To aid with dropping Puyo or Tetrimino, the respective piece type will be highlighted on the board, and like Tetris it's possible to hold pieces for later usage. Regardless of the difficulty, 4 Puyo colors are always used. Chain voices progress in the order of (Chain 1 - Chain 2 - Chain 3 - Chain 4 - All Spells in order), though Tetris (Pluses), counters, and "lucky chains" (chains from after Puyo fall back on the field after being crushed) interrupt this sequence and moves to the next.
Swap
Introduced: Puyo Puyo Tetris
In this mode, players alternate between Puyo Puyo and Tetris modes in a given time interval.
Party
Introduced: Puyo Puyo Tetris
The general gameplay is similar to standard Puyo Puyo or Tetris, however the key difference is that instead of simply knocking out your opponent you're tasked with getting the highest score within a time limit. Knocking out your opponent instead causes their board to reset and makes the player gain +3000 points. Like the Fever rule, dropsets are used for Puyo, offsetting will prevent garbage from being inflicted and All Clear provides the player with a preset board if playing Puyo.
During the match players are capable of obtaining powers from a special item block distributed randomly on the board, providing benefits to the one that cleared it or hindrances to the opponent. Clearing one requires one to create a chain adjacent to it, and once cleared it will be replaced with a new block. A positive effect causes a player's board to glow blue, while a negative effect causes a player's board to glow red.
Big Bang
Introduced: Puyo Puyo Tetris
A Fever-based mode, every player is either in a Fever state if playing Puyo Puyo or Lucky Attack if playing Tetris at the start of the game. Both Puyo Puyo and Tetris players are given preset boards and the objective is to clear as many boards as possible. Puyo Puyo gives preset boards that act like the ones from Fever, except they are organized in a way to make getting All Clears easier. Tetris players are also given preset boards, however their boards involves using a specific type of Tetrimino in order to clear out the board in a specific way, with higher levels adding more Tetrimino types into the mix. Regardless, if the player completes the board correctly the next chain length will slightly increase, but if the player clears the board incorrectly the chain length decreases.
At the top center of the screen is a timer that counts down by 60 seconds, and during this time every player is tasked with creating as many chains as possible. Once the timer is over, both players stop playing Fever/Lucky Attack, but pausing until a player makes their last move. All the power from chains then gets absorbed in a black hole, and then explodes with the titular Big Bang. The game then calculates the power of every player, and whoever has the strongest power will inflict damage onto the other players. Damaged players will have their health bar depleted, and their board will have a broken glass effect that gets worse with more damage. Once the health of an opponent is completely drained, their board shatters and they are knocked out. The game repeats these rounds until the last player stands.
Cosmetically during the Big Bang, characters will attack using their final chain animation, for example Arle's Bayoen, but her voice line would be that of Big Bang (Heaven's Ray).