Editing Gameplay/Stacking Mechanics

This page covers the core battle rules of ''God of Stackers'': how attacks, defense, garbage, combos and phases work.

== The board ==

The board is 10 columns wide. Pieces spawn above the visible field. If a piece can no longer spawn in a legal position, you '''top out''' and lose the match.

* Pieces use '''SRS''' rotation with standard wall kicks.
* Versus modes use a '''7-bag''' randomizer: every set of seven pieces contains one of each tetromino.
* You can see the next 5 pieces and hold one piece.

== Attack and defense ==

Every line clear does two things, in order:

# '''Cancel''' garbage waiting in your incoming meter.
# '''Attack''' with whatever lines were not spent cancelling. That attack is sent to your opponent as garbage.

Each character has a '''damage table''' that sets how efficient each kind of clear is for attack and for defense. For example, a quad (4-line clear) with an attack value of 1.0 sends 4 lines at Phase 1. With a defense value of 1.0, the same quad cancels 4 incoming lines.

Characters are very different here. Some are built around T-Spins, others around quads or combos. You can view each character's full table in the character menu. See [[Gameplay/Character System|Character System]] for a summary.

=== T-Spins ===

Only T-pieces get spin bonuses. A T-Spin counts when the T-piece cannot move left, right, up or down after its last rotation. T-Spin Singles, Doubles and Triples each have their own attack and defense values in the damage table.

=== Perfect Clears ===

Clearing the whole board is a Perfect Clear. Some characters get bonus attack and defense on a Perfect Clear.

=== Passthrough ===

Some clears are marked as '''passthrough'''. A passthrough clear does not cancel anything. Its full attack goes straight to the opponent and your incoming garbage stays where it is. Examples are Taki's quads and Evangeline's T-Spin Triples.

== Garbage ==

Incoming attacks first wait in the '''garbage meter''' beside your board. Each character has a '''garbage delay''': how long garbage waits in the meter before it can land. Once the delay has passed, garbage is added to your board when you place a piece without clearing a line. At most 10 lines can be added in one placement.

You can't hold garbage back forever. If garbage has been sitting in your meter for too long, all of it is forced onto your board at once. Your board flashes a warning shortly before this happens.

=== Garbage types ===

; Normal
: Full rows with a single hole in the same column.
; Messy
: Full rows with the hole in a different column on each row.
; Corruption
: Single blocks dropped onto the top of your columns instead of full rows. Some abilities and clears send this kind of garbage.

Clearing rows that contain garbage is called '''downstacking'''.

== Combo and Burst ==

'''Combo''' builds when you clear lines that contain garbage. Each consecutive garbage clear adds '''Burst''' according to the character's combo table, shown in the Burst meter.

When you place a piece without clearing a line, the combo ends and your stored Burst is released. Burst first cancels garbage in your meter, and any left over is sent to your opponent as attack.

Characters with '''Color Combo''' (Yuuko) can also build combo from clears that have no garbage in them.

== Phases ==

Every match starts at '''Phase 1'''. Your phase rises as the match goes on, up to a maximum of Phase 5 (Phase 6 for [[Ayano Hasegawa|Ayano]]). Higher phases:

* raise your attack and defense multipliers,
* shorten the garbage delay on your board,
* unlock abilities that need a minimum phase (most Ultimates unlock at Phase 3).

Base multipliers by phase (shown in each character's stats panel):

{| class="wikitable"
! Phase !! Attack multiplier !! Defense multiplier !! Garbage delay
|-
| 1 || 1.0× || 1.0× || 100%
|-
| 2 || 1.25× || 1.1× || 90%
|-
| 3 || 1.25× || 1.25× || 80%
|-
| 4 || 1.75× || 1.4× || 65%
|-
| 5 || 2.5× || 1.55× || 50%
|-
| 6 || 3.0× || 1.7× || 50%
|}

Because damage grows so much in later phases, the end of a match tends to be much more explosive than the start.

== See also ==

* [[Gameplay/Character System]]
* [[Gameplay/Loadout System]]

[[Category:Gameplay]]