Blackstart Block Puzzle

What is Blackstart?

Blackstart is a block puzzle played on the 8x8 lattice of a dead relay anchor. A black start is the real procedure for bringing an electrical grid back with no outside power: you energise one node, and that node energises the next. Here the grid is a corridor of twelve unmanned anchors that went dark when something crossed it, and you run the fabricator that walks the line. Three salvaged modules arrive at a time and you seat them by hand. No rotation, no clock, no gravity: the pressure comes from the space you have left.

How to play

• Drag a module from the tray onto the lattice. It keeps the shape it arrived in; modules never rotate.
• A full row or column is a closed circuit. It discharges into the anchor's core and empties itself, which is the only way you ever get space back.
• Closing a row and a column together is an arc. The socket where they cross is emptied once and paid twice, and four circuits at once shakes the whole lattice.
• Keep the multiplier by closing at least one circuit in every set of three modules. A set spent without one drops you back to the start of the ladder.
• The run ends when nothing left on the tray can be seated anywhere. That is the overload.

The lattice

1. Twelve anchors. Each one synchronises at a slightly higher charge than the last, lights, and hands the current on. Relight all twelve and the corridor is a line again: that is a win, not just a high score.
2. Slag. From the fifth anchor on, every handoff welds one socket shut. It leaves only through a circuit that crosses it.
3. The fabricator degrades. Early on it refuses to deliver a set of three that cannot all be seated. Deep in the corridor it has fewer rejections left, and by the last anchor it delivers what it drew.
4. Damaged hardware waits in the Dark Corridor: cracked sockets that repair when current runs through them, frozen modules that need two discharges, seized breakers, and artifact housings bolted into the lattice.

Strategy tips

1. Place the awkward module first. The order of the three is the whole game. Seat the 3x3 and the long lines while there is still a clean field for them.
2. Keep one open column. A single clear column is an escape hatch for anything the fabricator hands you next.
3. Build the cross. Setting up a row and a column to close on the same module is worth far more than two clears one after the other.
4. Do not break the streak for one extra point. The multiplier is worth more than any single placement.
5. Watch the charge, not the clock. There is no timer. When the anchor is one circuit from synchronising, spend a set setting up rather than scraping.

FAQ

Is Blackstart free?

Yes. Every game on Play is free, with no download and no install.

Does the daily corridor give everyone the same lattice?

Yes. The daily run opens on the same welded lattice for every player, from a seed nobody can see in advance, so the board is identical and only the play differs.

What counts as a good score?

Relighting seven or eight anchors is a solid run. Above thirty thousand points you are playing well, and finishing all twelve anchors is rare enough to be worth telling someone about.

How does the Dark Corridor work?

It is a campaign of thirty six authored missions in three chapters, each with its own damaged lattice, its own objective and a fixed budget of module sets. Missions unlock in order and are scored on their own leaderboard.