How to play Cubo: pick, rotate, position, place
Cubo has four controls and one rule: every cell of the box has to end up filled, with no piece overlapping another. Here is what each control does.
Free on iPhone.
The four controls
- Tap a piece in the trayThe tray sits along the bottom edge. Tapping a piece makes it the active one and puts a preview of it on the board straight away. When a board starts, the first piece is already selected, so there is never a dead first tap.
- Tap Rotate until the shape fitsRotate steps to the next distinct orientation of the piece. A polycube has at most 24 of them, and Cubo removes the duplicates that a symmetric piece would otherwise produce, so a square block does not make you press Rotate two dozen times for nothing. A swipe across the board does the same thing.
- Use the arrows to move the previewThe left and right arrows walk through the positions where the current orientation fits. They skip everything illegal, so you are only ever choosing between real placements. A tap on the board area steps forward by one, the same as the right arrow.
- Tap PlaceThe preview turns into a solid piece and the tray dims that shape. When the last cell is filled the round ends, the Solved banner appears, and your time and score are recorded.
Reading the board
- The translucent wireframe box is the volume you have to fill. Its size depends on the difficulty you picked on the home screen.
- The glowing preview piece shows exactly which cells the next Place will occupy.
- Pieces you have already placed stay solid and coloured, so the remaining gap is always the dark space.
- The camera is fixed. Cubo frames the box from one angle and keeps it there, so a swipe is free to mean rotate the piece rather than turn the scene.
The one line hint
Above the controls there is a single line of guidance that follows the state you are in. It reads Pick a piece below when nothing is selected, Rotate until the piece fits the grid when the current orientation has nowhere to go, and the control names once a placement is ready. If you are stuck, that line tells you which button to reach for.
First launch
The first time you open Cubo you get three tips: fill the volume, rotate and place, and pick Speed or Relaxed. They appear once and then stay out of the way.
Where to go next
- How the clock and the score work if you want a faster solve.
- What Relaxed mode removes if you would rather have no clock at all.
- How the daily board and streak are decided.
Questions about the controls
Why is the Place button greyed out?
Place is only active when the piece in its current orientation actually fits somewhere in the space that is left. If it is off, tap Rotate to turn the piece into another orientation and the button comes back as soon as a legal spot exists.
Can I place a piece in the wrong spot?
Not in a way that breaks the board. The arrows only walk through positions where the current orientation fits without overlapping a placed piece or leaving the box, so an illegal placement is not offered in the first place.
Can I undo a placement?
There is no undo button. The restart arrow at the top right rebuilds the board from scratch, which is the way back if a round goes wrong.
How do I know which pieces are still left?
The tray runs along the bottom of the screen. A piece that has been placed is dimmed, and the piece you are working with has a bright outline.
Try it on your own board
Easy is a four by four board split into four pieces, which is the fastest way to see the whole loop once.