How to Play Suika Game

The goal in one sentence

Drop fruits into a box so that identical fruits touch and merge into bigger ones, and keep going for as long as you can without letting the pile reach the top. The biggest fruit you can grow is the watermelon, which gives the game its name: suika is the Japanese word for watermelon.

There are no levels to unlock and no timer. A game lasts exactly as long as you can keep the box under control, and your result is the score you collect along the way.

The box and the fruits

The playing field is a tall box open at the top. A fruit waits above the box. You choose where it falls by moving it left or right, then let it go. Fruits are round and obey simple physics: they fall, bounce slightly, roll off each other and settle into gaps. This is the main difference from games like Tetris, where pieces lock into a grid. In Suika Game a fruit rarely ends up exactly where you aimed, and the whole pile can shift when something below it moves.

The game uses a chain of eleven fruits, from the tiny cherry to the watermelon:

1. Cherry
2. Strawberry
3. Grapes
4. Dekopon
5. Persimmon
6. Apple
7. Pear
8. Peach
9. Pineapple
10. Melon
11. Watermelon

Each fruit is bigger than the one before it. The watermelon is roughly eight times as wide as a cherry, so a single watermelon takes up a large part of the box. Our fruit guide describes every step of the chain in detail.

Which fruits you get

You never choose the next fruit, and you can only ever drop the five smallest ones: cherry, strawberry, grapes, dekopon and persimmon. Everything from the apple upward must be built by merging.

In this version the first six drops of every game are always the same: cherry, cherry, strawberry, grapes, grapes, dekopon. This gives you an easy start in which the first merges happen almost by themselves. From the seventh drop on, each new fruit is picked at random from the five droppable fruits, with the same chance for each. A new fruit appears about half a second after the previous one is released.

Merging

When two fruits of the same kind touch, they disappear and a single fruit of the next size appears at the spot where they met. Two cherries make a strawberry, two strawberries make grapes, and so on up the chain. Two melons make a watermelon, which is celebrated with a short animation and a large score bonus.

The new fruit is bigger than either of the two that formed it, so it pushes its neighbours aside. If it lands next to a fruit of its own kind, they merge too. These chain reactions, sometimes called combos or cascades, are the most satisfying part of the game and the key to high scores. Careful players arrange fruits so that one merge naturally leads to the next.

Only identical fruits merge. A cherry touching grapes does nothing, and two different fruits of similar size simply sit next to each other. In this version two watermelons do not merge with each other, so the watermelon really is the end of the chain.

Controls

With a mouse

Press the mouse button anywhere over the box. The waiting fruit moves to the horizontal position of the pointer. Keep the button pressed and move the mouse to adjust the position, then release the button to drop the fruit. Dropping happens on release, not on press, so you can correct your aim before you commit.

On a touch screen

The same logic applies to phones and tablets. Touch the screen and the fruit jumps to your finger. Slide your finger left or right to fine-tune the position, then lift it to drop. Because your finger covers part of the screen, it often helps to touch a little below the fruit rather than directly on it. See playing on phone, tablet and PC for more tips on small screens.

Scoring

You earn points every time two fruits merge. Bigger merges are worth more: in this version a merge gives as many points as the position of the merged fruit in the chain, from 1 point for two cherries up to 10 points for two melons. Completing a watermelon adds a bonus of 100 points on top. When the game ends, every fruit still in the box is cleared and adds a few final points as well. The scoring guide has the full table.

Your current score is shown during the game. Your best score is saved in your browser on your own device, so it is still there the next time you open the site in the same browser.

How the game ends

There is a line near the top of the box. As the pile gets close to it, a warning line appears so you know you are running out of room. If the fruits stack up past the top boundary, the game is over. All remaining fruits are cleared, the final score is added up, and a game-over screen shows your result with a button to start again.

Because fruits keep moving after they land, a game can also end a moment after your last drop, when a merge or a rolling fruit pushes the pile upward. Watch the box until it settles before you relax.

A first game, step by step

1. Open the game on the home page and wait for it to load. The box appears with the first cherry waiting above it.
2. Drop the first fruits in one corner. The opening cherries, strawberry and grapes merge easily if you keep them close together.
3. Keep similar fruits together. Try to place each new fruit next to a fruit of the same kind, or next to a fruit one size bigger, so that it can grow into it.
4. Avoid burying small fruits. A cherry trapped under a large fruit is hard to reach and wastes space for the rest of the game.
5. Watch the line at the top. When the warning appears, look for the merge that frees the most space and aim for it.
6. Restart and try again. Each game is short, and every attempt teaches you how the fruits roll.

Common beginner mistakes

Dropping fruits at random. Early in the game almost anything works, which teaches bad habits. Pick a plan from the first drop, for example building from the left corner to the right.

Filling the centre first. A tall pile in the middle leaves two narrow gaps on the sides where large fruits do not fit. Keep the surface of the pile reasonably flat.

Ignoring the next drop. Before you release a fruit, think about where the following fruit could go. You do not know exactly what comes next, but it will always be one of the five smallest fruits.

Chasing every merge. Sometimes the best move is to drop a fruit in a safe spot and wait, instead of forcing a merge that buries something important. Our strategy guide covers these situations in depth.

Is this the official game?

No. The original Suika Game was made by the Japanese company Aladdin X and is sold on Nintendo Switch, smartphones and other platforms. suikagame.gg offers a free fan-made browser version of the same idea. The rules are the same in spirit, but details such as the scoring, the fruit physics and what happens to two watermelons differ. If you want to learn more about the original, read the history of Suika Game.