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Pattern Blocks is a free online pattern block puzzle for kids. Each level is a picture outline — a fish, a star, a house, a cat, a butterfly — and you fill it with the familiar coloured shapes: the yellow hexagon, red trapezoid, blue rhombus, green triangle and orange square. Drag a block onto the picture or tap where it goes, turn it to fit, and it snaps into place. The first four pictures show the lines to follow; after that you get only the shape. Every picture can be filled many ways, and three stars go to the fewest blocks possible, worked out exactly by a solver. Twelve pictures, hints, no download, works on phones and tablets.
How to play Pattern Blocks
- Each level is a picture outline on a cream card. The tray below or beside it holds the blocks: the yellow hexagon, red trapezoid, blue rhombus, green triangle and, on pictures with square parts, the orange square.
- Pick a block by tapping it in the tray. Tap it again, or press the ↻ button, to turn it a sixth of a turn; the tray always shows which way round it is.
- Tap the picture where the block should go and it snaps into the nearest place it fits that way round — or drag it from the tray and drop it on the picture. If it does not fit there, the card shakes and nothing is put down.
- Tap a block on the picture to take it back out, or drag it to a new place. Undo takes back the last move and Clear empties the card.
- The picture is finished when every space is covered. Three stars for the fewest blocks it can be done in, two stars for a filling about as good as an unplanned one, one star for any finish.
- The first four pictures show dashed lines to follow, and following them earns three stars. From picture 5 there are no lines, and on some pictures the tray is limited — no hexagons, only two hexagons, or no triangles at all.
- Hint picks and turns a block for you and shows where it goes as part of a fewest-blocks filling; if the tray can no longer finish the picture, it shows which block to take out.
- On a keyboard, number keys 1 to 5 pick a block, R turns it, the arrow keys move a cursor over the picture, Enter puts the block down, Delete takes one out, U undoes and H gives a hint.
Tips
- Start with the biggest block that fits. One hexagon covers as much as six triangles, so filling with hexagons first usually means fewer blocks.
- Look for the pointed corners of the picture first. A sharp corner can only take a triangle or the tip of a rhombus or trapezoid, so filling the corners early stops you leaving awkward single gaps.
- Two triangles make a rhombus, three make a trapezoid, and two trapezoids make a hexagon. If you see a row of small blocks, check whether one bigger block would cover the same space.
- Squares only go in the square parts of a picture, and the triangle-grid blocks never go there, so count the squares as fixed and work on the rest.
- On the Tree, with no triangles at all, every corner has to be the end of a bigger block. If you end up with one lonely gap, take out the blocks around it and try them the other way round.
FAQ
Is Pattern Blocks free to play?
Yes. It runs in the browser with no download, no account and nothing to buy. All twelve pictures are included and unlock one after another as you finish them.
What are pattern blocks?
Pattern blocks are a set of flat coloured shapes used in classrooms for maths and art: a yellow hexagon, red trapezoid, blue rhombus, green triangle, orange square and a thin tan rhombus. All the sides are the same length, so the shapes fit together, and children fill picture outlines with them to learn about shapes, fractions and symmetry.
Why is the thin tan rhombus missing?
The thin rhombus has 30° corners, which do not line up with the triangle grid the other blocks share, so it could only ever sit in a picture made specially for it. This game uses the five shapes that snap together exactly and leaves it out rather than letting it fit loosely.
What age is Pattern Blocks for?
The guided pictures at the start suit children from about four or five, who can match a block to a dashed shape. The silhouettes and the three-star target suit older children and grown-ups, because finding the fewest blocks takes real planning.
How do the stars work?
Three stars means you used the fewest blocks the picture can be filled with, which the game works out exactly. Two stars allows up to the median of a computer player that fills the picture with random blocks in random spots, over 41 tries. Any finish earns one star.
Can a picture be filled more than one way?
Yes, almost always — any filling that covers every space without overlap finishes the picture. Only the number of blocks matters for the stars, so a different arrangement with the same number of blocks scores the same.
Can I get stuck?
On eleven of the twelve pictures, no: the tray never runs out of triangles (or squares), and one of them fills any space that is left. Only the Tree, which has no triangles at all, lets you block yourself in by leaving a single gap. Hint then shows a block to take out.
Does Pattern Blocks work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. Tap a block in the tray, then tap the picture, or drag the block straight onto it. The picture grows to fill a phone held upright, with the tray underneath.