Chess pieces and obstacles

Activating a piece

An untriggered Chess Piece survives its first line clear and tries to capture a valid target, moving to that cell. If there are several valid targets, it chooses among them. If none exist, the piece is removed. A previously triggered piece can subsequently be cleared according to its state.

This means a clear involving Chess Pieces may not immediately make every block above it fall. Captures also change later landing positions.

Capture patterns

Piece	Main targeting rule
Pawn	Diagonally forward cells
Knight / Horse	Jump targets; the Xiangqi Horse also checks for a blocked leg
Bishop / Elephant	The Bishop slides diagonally; the Xiangqi Elephant jumps diagonally and can be blocked at the midpoint
Rook / Chariot	Horizontal and vertical lines
Queen	Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines
Cannon	Captures along a straight line over one intervening block
Advisor	Adjacent diagonal cells

These are board mechanics, not complete games of chess or Xiangqi. Do not assume check, checkmate, or standard chessboard region rules apply.

Pieces capture non-chess solid blocks, not one another. Rooks, Chariots, Queens, Bishops, and Cannons search no more than three rows vertically away. Purely horizontal searches may continue to an edge or obstruction. Pawns target the two diagonals toward the top of the screen.

Other obstacles

Obsidian and Gold Blocks normally need two clears and are immovable and blast-resistant. Gold also resists skill transformations. Cursed Blocks stop their own row from clearing; clearing other rows weakens a selected curse.

Pollution occupies a cell but contributes 0 base clear damage. Mines have separate hidden, flagged, and revealed states; see Challenges.