Block Puzzle Race With Friends in Sarhny (صارحني)

Block puzzles are the quiet kind of addictive: an 8×8 grid, a tray of shapes, and the small satisfaction of a full row vanishing. They are also a lonely genre. You play against your own best score, and the only person who sees it is you. Sarhny Blocks, the puzzle in the Arena of Sarhny (صارحني), keeps the familiar solo game and adds a second mode built for two people: a race in which both players get the same pieces, so the faster and smarter stacker wins, not the luckier one. This guide explains the scoring exactly as the app counts it, how combo chains work, what happens when you get stuck, and how the friend challenge plays out on one phone, against the computer or online.

The basics: three pieces, one board

The board is an 8×8 grid. Three pieces wait in the tray below it. You drag a piece onto the board, or tap it and then tap the spot where you want it, and it stays exactly where you put it: pieces never rotate, so the shape you are dealt is the shape you place. When a row or a column fills completely, it clears. Rows and columns count the same, and one piece can complete several lines at once.

Once all three pieces in the tray are used, three new ones arrive. The game ends the moment none of the pieces left in your tray fits anywhere on the board, and the app tells you so with a short “No more room”. A piece that cannot fit right now is dimmed in the tray, which is your early warning that space is running out.

The pieces are classic polyominoes in every orientation: straight bars from one to five cells long, a 2×2 square, a 3×3 square, a 2×3 rectangle, small and large corners, and L, J, T, S and Z shapes. The dealer has one kind rule: on a crowded board it redraws so that at least one piece in a fresh tray fits, as long as any piece in the set could fit at all.

How scoring works

Every cell you place is worth one point, so a 3×3 square earns nine points the moment it lands. The bigger numbers come from clearing lines, and the reward climbs with each extra line in the same move:

• 1 line: 10 points
• 2 lines: 30 points
• 3 lines: 60 points
• 4 lines: 100 points
• and so on: 5 lines would earn 150

That line score is then multiplied by your current combo streak. If a move empties the entire board, you also get a clean-sweep bonus of 300 points, which is multiplied by the streak too, and the screen celebrates with “Clean sweep!”.

A quick example shows why this matters. Clearing two lines on a streak of 1 earns 30. Clearing the same two lines on a streak of 4 earns 120. The pieces and the board are identical; the difference is entirely in how you set the move up.

Combo chains and the two-move grace

Your streak grows by one with every move that clears at least one line. It does not break the instant you place a piece without a clear: the game allows up to two placements in a row without clearing anything. A third placement without a clear resets the streak.

That grace window is the heart of good play. You can spend one or two moves building toward a big multi-line clear without losing your multiplier, but you need to count. Before placing a piece that clears nothing, ask yourself whether your next move can clear a line. If it cannot, you are about to lose the chain.

Long chains also change the look of the board. Each time your streak reaches a multiple of three, the tiles switch to a new style, in this order: Jelly, Crystal, Royal, Neon, Candy and Marble. It is purely cosmetic, but it is a handy visual signal that your chain is alive.

Second chances and your best score

When you get stuck in a solo game, you can take a “Second chance” by watching a short ad. Your board, score and streak stay exactly as they were, and the stuck tray is swapped for three easy pieces chosen to fit your board in the order they are dealt: single blocks, short bars, a small corner or a 2×2 square. You can do this up to four times in one game; after that, the next dead end goes straight to the results screen.

Your best score is shown on the game screen, and beating it brings up “New best!”. If you leave in the middle of a game, you can come back to it with “Continue”. Blocks also has a leaderboard in the app's game stats, where Blocks players are ranked by their best score. You can share any final score with a friend straight from the results screen, which is a natural way to start the next section.

Challenge a friend: a race with identical pieces

“Challenge a friend” turns the puzzle into a race. Both players start on their own empty board, and both engines are seeded the same way, so you are dealt the same pieces in the same order. The sequences can drift apart later, when a crowded board triggers a redraw or a player gets a fresh board, but the start of every race is a level field. The first player to reach the target score wins on the spot.

You choose the target before you start: 500, 1000 (the default), 2000, or a custom number from 100 to 9999.

Getting stuck is a setback, not a defeat

In a race, running out of room does not end the round. Your board greys out for a moment, you lose 10% of the target (rounded to tens, never less than 50 points, and your score never drops below zero), and you get a fresh, empty board to keep racing on. On a 1000-point race that costs 100 points. This rule keeps comebacks possible: one bad deal does not hand the round to your opponent, but jamming on purpose to get an empty board does not pay either, because you lose points and time.

Before the reset, a human player can take a second chance instead: three easy pieces that fit, with the board and score kept, up to four times per player per round. On a shared phone, the other board freezes while one player watches the ad, so nobody gains ground during the break.

Four ways to race

• A friend next to me: two players on one phone. Player 1 sits across from you, and the top board is turned to face them. Enter two different names and the app keeps a running win tally for that pair.
• Vs computer: pick Easy, Medium, Hard or Auto. Auto starts at medium and adapts to your results, stepping up after you win two in a row and easing off after two losses in a row. The computer never watches ads; when it gets stuck it takes the reset.
• Online: a quick match against a real opponent, each on their own phone with the same pieces. The quick-match target is 1000 points, and play never pauses for ads.
• Invite a friend: create a challenge code with the target you want and share it, or pick someone from your friends list in the app. The code is valid for 30 minutes. Your friend opens Blocks, taps “I have a code” and enters it.

In an online race, leaving early hands the win to your opponent, and the app asks you to confirm before you go.

The twist: the winner asks

Like the other games in the Arena, Blocks ends with a conversation instead of just a number. After an online race, the winner can send the loser one honest question, and the loser can send back one answer. On a shared phone, the result screen suggests the same idea: the winner gets to ask the loser one honest question, out loud. If you need inspiration, our list of honest questions to ask friends works well here, and the funny questions page is good for a lighter round.

The same winner-asks idea runs through Tic-Tac-Toe with a twist and the other games, which is what makes a quick puzzle race feel like part of an ongoing friendship rather than a solo grind.

Strategy tips for higher scores

• Keep room for the awkward shapes. The 3×3 square and the five-cell bar are the pieces that end games without warning. Keep at least one 3×3 gap and one long open row or column whenever you can.
• Fill edges and corners first. Pieces placed against the walls leave the centre open, and the centre is where large pieces have room to fit.
• Aim for two lines at once. Two lines in one move score 30, while two single clears score 20. The gap widens with three and four lines, and the streak multiplies all of it.
• Count your grace moves. Two non-clearing placements are allowed; the third breaks the chain. Plan the order of your three pieces before you place the first one.
• Play the whole tray in your head. Since a new tray arrives only when all three pieces are used, place the hardest piece while you still have room for it.
• In a race, speed matters too. The first to the target wins, so a decent move now can beat a perfect move ten seconds later. Against the computer, its lower levels think slowly, which gives you time to plan.

Where to start

Open the Arena in the app, choose Blocks, and play a few solo games to learn the rhythm of the combo chain. When you have a score worth defending, switch to “Challenge a friend”. You can read the short rules summary on the Sarhny Blocks page, then send a challenge code to someone who thinks they are faster than you.