Guide
Lab Capsule: clearing viruses, building chains and earning three stars
A falling-capsule puzzle in an 8×16 bottle. How matches and chains work, what changes across the 18 levels, and exactly what each star asks of you.
Lab Capsule is a falling-block puzzle set in a lab bottle 8 cells wide and 16 tall. Red, yellow and blue viruses sit fixed in the bottle, and two-colored capsules drop in from the neck at the top. Your job is to clear every virus. You can play it in your browser.
Controls
On a keyboard, move with ← and →, rotate with ↑, Z or X, hold ↓ for a faster fall, and press Space or Enter to drop the capsule straight down. On a phone, the on-screen buttons do the same: move, rotate (↻), soft drop (▼) and hard drop (⇊). Holding a move button keeps sliding the capsule. The preview shows the colors of the next capsule, so you can plan one move ahead.
How clearing works
Four or more cells of the same color in a row or a column disappear. Viruses and capsule halves count together, so three yellow halves stacked on a yellow virus clear all four. Diagonals do not count.
Viruses never move. Capsule halves do: when one half of a capsule is cleared, the other half is left on its own and falls until it lands on something. A capsule that is still whole falls only if there is room under both halves.
Chains
When a falling half lands and makes a new line of four, that is a chain. Each extra step in the same chain multiplies the points: ×1, ×1.75, ×2.5, and so on. A cleared virus is worth 100 points and a cleared capsule half 25, before the multiplier. Faster levels pay a little more on top.
The easiest chain to set up: rest a capsule half of one color on top of a column you are about to clear, with three cells of that color waiting further down. When the column clears, the half drops in and finishes the second line.
Stages and levels
There are three stages on the lab shelf, and each level unlocks when you clear the one before it. The first level of a new stage opens after the last level of the previous stage.
| Stage | Levels | Viruses | |---|---|---| | Easy Flu | 5 | 4 to 12 | | Fever | 6 | 8 to 18 | | Outbreak | 7 | 12 to 24 |
Each stage starts at a higher fall speed, and every level is a little faster than the one before. The top four rows always start empty, so there is room to turn a capsule after it enters.
Losing
You lose when a new capsule cannot enter the neck: the game first tries it lying flat, then upright, and if both are blocked the bottle is lost. The neck is the two middle columns at the top, so keep those columns low and build up at the sides instead.
Stars
Clearing a level always gives at least one star, and only your best result for each level is kept.
- Two stars: either finish in under 90 seconds, or make a chain of at least 2.
- Three stars: a chain of at least 3, a finish under 60 seconds, and nothing left in the bottle above the sixth row from the bottom.
So three stars is about a quick, tidy clear with one strong chain, not about a high score.
Quick tips
- Match on the virus's own color. A half of the wrong color on top of a virus buries it.
- When you cannot use a capsule, lay it flat along the side walls, away from the neck.
- Hard drop only when the column below is clear; otherwise steer first, then drop.
More on the Lab Capsule page, or play now.
