Era, Puyo Puyo is kicking my ass (2025)

👋 hello Era, I need your help.

Out of pure impulse I bought Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 on Steam. (It's 65% off!) And why not? Tetris is fucking great. Been playing that stuff since the GameBoy days. Though far from being a T-spinning grand master, I'd like to think I'm at least above average.

Puyo Puyo, however, I'm absolute garbage at. Now, this isn't my first rodeo with Puyo Puyo. Starting with Kirby's Ghost Trap (Kirby's Avalance) I've touched the games occasionally over the years. But I've never really improved at all since. At best I can sort-of-almost-maybe consistently setup 3-chains. Anything better than that is just pure luck. And the moment something goes slightly different than expected (bad input, garbage puyos drop, etc), the brain just freezes and it's incapable of making any strategic moves. Unlike with Tetris, improvising just straight up becomes impossible. I'm not even certain I'll manage to beat the first world in Adventure mode. And don't even get me started on what happens when I try Fusion mode!

So please help me become better at Puyo Puyo, Era! Got any tips? Is there a mode - or another Puyo game - with a training mode or something where you can endlessly practice without fighting against a CPU or a clock? Something to practice setting-up chains at a leisure pace? Help me become at least 'average' at this. And also tell us what you did to reach your Puyo Puyo god status.

PS: Despite totally sucking at it I'm still enjoying the game very much :)

Kirby's Avalanche was also my first Puyo game. I sucked at it then and I suck at it now. I sucked throughout the entirety of my Puyo Puyo Tetris 1 playthrough, but still beat it out of sheer force of will. Tetris? Easy money. Puyo? I go broke.

The best I can tell you is repeat those trials that show you all the different moves you can make. PPT2 is the only one that has trials like that, which is something I desperately needed in the first game as they should be extremely helpful, but I haven't been practicing nor have I played through PPT2, so I couldn't tell you. Haha!

Chains baby, chains

It's a tough game to get good in. The tutorials help a lot though.

30 years later and I can still only regularly do like 4 chains maximum.

I recommend playing with people around your skill level if you can find some. Just like a fighting game it is generally the best way to learn.

TeenageFBI said:

Tetris and Tetris Attack I can handle. I've never been able to wrap my head around Puyo Puyo's weird systems.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I don't think Puyo is more complex than Tetris or Panel de Pon, specially not system-wise. I think the biggest difference and what most people have a hard time with is how "scripted" competitive gameplay is compared to those other 2. In Tetris good competitive play amounts to: "be fast, build flat, set up wells to combo" and the actual building is up to you. In PP you need a very solid opener pattern so you really can't deviate from the script. Not that there's no improvisation involved, but the foundation of good play is getting those patterns down pat and then the improv comes when garbage comes, or when you need to extend the head or tail of your combo. It's very similar to those Tetris "full clear openers" which require you to memorize where pieces have to go exactly to get them.

Yeah, I've only ever been mediocre to kinda decent at best. I can set up chains but it takes me awhile to do so and they're definitely not efficient. I look up tutorials online and see the methods people use to play competitively and I just can't wrap my head around it. I just need to accept that I can't memorize strategies for quick in the moment games like that.

Also since everyone is mentioning their first Puyo experience, shouts out to Doctor Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine.

TeenageFBI said:

Tetris and Tetris Attack I can handle. I've never been able to wrap my head around Puyo Puyo's weird systems.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I'm not good at Tetris Attack/Panel de Pon/Puzzle League either. Another puzzle series where I brute force my wins. Tetris is the only puzzle game I'm good at. I was competent at Dr. Mario Online Rx, I thought, but I've forgotten it all now, or maybe I was never good.

Intentionally fill the right two or three columns as fast as you can and then start working at clearing. Most times combos will start dropping on their own. Helped me clear the beat all opponents in endless mode in judgement and that was like 30 clears.

As a fan of Puyo who believes Pajitnov was right about it being the only puzzler worthy to crossover with Tetris, its learning curve is pure pain. It requires fighter-level practice to get good at.

Have you gone through all the tutorials? The standalone practice puzzles which are essential for practicing common setups.

For further practice without pressure, I recommend Puyosim or Rensim on mobile or PC. Heck, find a way to play the Nazo Puyo games on SFC.

Fireblend said:

I don't think Puyo is more complex than Tetris or Panel de Pon, specially not system-wise.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

I'm just talking basics here.Tetris is easy, fill the entire row and it disappears. Tetris Attack is easy too, match three blocks horizontally or vertically.

Puyo Puyo's thing where you can get a match with shapes that aren't lines breaks my head. Then there's gravity.

I'm sure I'd figure it out with more practice. I just didn't take to it as quickly as other similar games is all.

Not sure how that puyonexus site slipped by unnoticed for me. Thanks for that - seems like exactly the resources I need.

Don Fluffles said:

For further practice without pressure, I recommend Puyosim or Rensim on mobile or PC. Heck, find a way to play the Nazo Puyo games on SFC.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Cheers, will look into these.

Mg. said:

Not sure how that puyonexus site slipped by unnoticed for me. Thanks for that - seems like exactly the resources I need.

Cheers, will look into these.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Here. I've done a simple example. Take a look, maybe will help

TeenageFBI said:

Tetris and Tetris Attack I can handle. I've never been able to wrap my head around Puyo Puyo's weird systems.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Yup that is me. I can beat the hard stuff on both Tetris and Panel De Pon, but Puyo? Hah! it's like I am new to games.

TeenageFBI said:

Puyo Puyo's thing where you can get a match with shapes that aren't lines breaks my head. Then there's gravity.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Some thought processes I use are:
1. Think of the matches of 4 Puyo as Tetromino shapes.
2. Pay attention to the height of the Puyo and garbage stacks so you can predict how far they fall
3. Look at the Puyo coming next and practice predicting where you'll want to place them.
4. In more casual, lower ranked matches, focus instead on timing when to set off your chain so you can trigger offset to counter incoming garbage.

Shameless self plug

But the videos were based off the Puyo Nexus guide someone posted earlier, so probably just read those instead lol