How to Beat Bloxorz: Rolling Rules, Switches, Bridges and Split Blocks Explained

Bloxorz looks like a game about not falling off. It is really a game about counting. Once you understand how the block moves and what each special tile does, most of the 33 levels turn from trial and error into a short calculation. This guide covers every mechanic in the game, in the order the game introduces them, and ends with the method we use to plan a level before touching an arrow key.

The block and the three ways it can lie

The block is 1×1×2: a tile wide, a tile deep and two tiles tall. On the floor it is always in one of three states:

• Standing, covering one tile. This is the only state that can drop into the hole, and the only state that breaks an orange tile.
• Lying along the rows, covering two tiles side by side.
• Lying along the columns, covering two tiles one above the other.

Every arrow press tips the block one step in that direction. A standing block falls flat and covers two tiles; a lying block either stands up (if you push along its length) or rolls sideways one tile (if you push across it). That difference is the whole game.

Counting moves: the parity rule

Push a lying block along its length and it stands up two tiles away. Push it across and it moves one tile. So a block always covers a two-tile stretch along one axis and moves in ones along the other. If the hole is an odd number of tiles away in a straight line, no number of pushes along that line will land you standing on it: you must turn the block to the other axis at least once and change its footprint. Before any long roll, count tiles from where you will stand up, not from where you are.

Orange tiles

The orange tiles are thin. A block lying flat across one is fine, because its weight is spread over two tiles. A block standing on one breaks through and falls. Whenever a route crosses orange, plan to arrive on your side and leave on your side, and put the stand-up move on grey. Levels with a wide orange field usually want you to roll along its length in the lying state and only stand once you are clear.

Soft switches: the round ones

A round switch triggers on any contact. Standing on it, lying across it, rolling over it in passing: all count. Soft switches are easy to hit and just as easy to hit by accident, which matters because some of them toggle. Cross one twice and you may have closed the bridge you opened.

Hard switches: the X-shaped ones

An X switch only reacts to the block standing on it. Rolling over it lying flat does nothing. Hard switches are the game's way of forcing a particular footprint at a particular spot, so a level with an X in an awkward corner is telling you the route must stand up there. Count back from the X the same way you would count back from the hole.

Bridges and what a switch actually does

A switch controls one or more bridges: sections of floor that appear or vanish. Three behaviours exist, and the game does not label them:

• Open only. The bridge appears and stays.
• Close only. The bridge disappears and stays gone.
• Toggle. Each trigger flips the bridge's state.

The first time you touch a switch, watch the whole board, not just the tiles next to you: the bridge it controls can be on the far side of the level. If a bridge that was open is now closed, you have found a toggle and need to route around the switch on the way back.

Teleporters and split blocks

A teleport tile, when the block stands on it, splits the block into two 1×1 cubes and places them at two different points. From then on you control one cube at a time and swap with the space bar. The cubes are single tiles, so they move one square per press in any direction, cannot break orange tiles and cannot press hard switches. Roll the two cubes together so they touch along a face and they snap back into a full block, which can then finish the level. Plan which cube has the harder journey and park the other one somewhere it cannot fall while you work.

A planning method that solves most levels

1. Find the hole and work backwards. The block must stand on the hole, so it must lie on one of the two tiles next to it the move before. Mark those.
2. Find every switch and guess what it does. A bridge with no visible switch nearby belongs to a switch somewhere else. Assume any round switch you cannot avoid is a toggle.
3. Route the standing moments. Hard switches and the hole need the block upright. Orange fields need it flat. Everything else is free.
4. Count parity on each straight. If a straight is an odd length, find where you will roll sideways one tile to fix it.
5. Roll it, and when it fails, restart at once. Falling off resets the level and costs nothing but the move counter. A slow, careful attempt after a fall is faster than a rescue.

Common mistakes

• Standing up on the edge tile of a platform to save a move. The block falls if any part hangs over the void, and a standing block on an edge is exactly a full tile on the edge.
• Crossing a soft switch on the return trip and closing your own bridge.
• Splitting the block, then moving the cubes apart to explore. They have to meet again, and every step apart is two steps to fix.
• Forgetting to write down the passcode. Every level shows one top-right; the full list is here if you lost yours.

Frequently asked questions

How many levels does Bloxorz have?

Thirty-three. The last ten combine switches, orange tiles and split blocks in the same stage.

What is the hardest level of Bloxorz?

Opinions vary, but the late split-block stages get the most complaints, because the two cubes have to be brought back together across switches that only a full block can use.

Can the block be rotated in place?

No. Every input is a roll. To turn the block's footprint to the other axis you must stand it up and lay it down again.

Is there an undo?

No. A wrong move has to be rolled back with more moves, or the level restarted from the menu. Falling off restarts it automatically.