Glossary of terms

These are terms of art that are used when discussing Petal Crash play.

48/64

A known bug where the AI may occasionally grow twice in a row with at least 48 blocks on its board, overgrowing itself in the process

accepting

Allowing garbage to fall

ahead on bar

Also known as plus

The state of having pushed the battle bar into the opponent's side

bare chain

A linear chain composed only of clears of 2 petals at a time

battle barring

Also known as barring

Intentionally playing to win via the battle bar, rather than overgrowth

behind on bar

Also known as minus

The state of having the battle bar pushed into your side

blocking

Preventing garbage from falling by clearing, without necessarily countering

blueprint chain

A chain which is planned far in advance rather than built on the fly, generally referring to a large opening chain built around the outside of the board

bouquet

A large cluster of one color of petals

bracing

A block placed to keep other blocks from moving out of position during a chain

bulky chain

Also known as fancy chain, power chain

A chain with a large number of petals compared to its length

checkerboarding

When the board is full of petals but few or no adjacent petals are of the same color, which generally occurs when growing many times in succession

corner cases

The set of rules for determining the direction a petal moves when pushed from several directions simultaneously

counterpressure

The ability to continue sending garbage while digging through your own garbage

CPM

Clears per minute

cut

Unintentional clears that interrupt a chain in the middle, or when petals are pushed by early links of a chain into a position that interrupts later links, making the chain shorter

cyclicity

A property of chains wherein the full chain can be set off from any constituent link

DAS

Delayed auto-shift, via which the cursor quickly repeats inputs that are held down for a brief period (only applicable on keyboard or controller)

digging

Focusing on clearing garbage

double push

Pushing a petal away from, and then back towards, a petal of the same color that it was previously touching in order to clear it

fuse

An extension added to a warhead, making a single long, bulky chain

GPM

Garbage sent per minute

head

The beginning of a chain, generally where one finds the intended trigger

linear chain

A chain with no branches

link

One clear involved in a chain

lock-out

A board state from which overgrowth is inevitable, even if there are valid moves available

material

Usable petals

organic chain

A chain, usually a sprout or V-split, assembled mostly or completely by spawners—as such it is non-compact and easily interrupted by future spawners, at which point it becomes checkerboarding

overgrowth

A board state where all spaces are filled with either petals or garbage, so there are no valid moves, causing the player to lose the game

PPC

Points per clear

rescue

Winning a game from a deeply unfavorable state, such as a 2-stock deficit with lots of garbage on the board

rendezvous chain

Also known as traveling chain

A chain wherein at least one link is formed by several petals in motion whose trajectories intersect

reversibility

A property of chains where both ends of the chain can function as the head

RUDL

A mnemonic for the same-distance priority order (right, up, down, left), pronounced either "roodle" or "ruddle"

skull

An easter egg AI difficulty where the AI plays as fast and as smart as possible, accessible in Versus Mode by pressing right 5 times while the maximum challenge level is selected

skull chain

A chain which contains a lot of hard-to-see links, generally because they traverse across the board several times or involve complicated tempo savers, named for the AI difficulty which generally produces a lot of them

staggered spawners

A state where the player has several sets of garbage spawners which are set to spawn in at different times, making it difficult to grow

synced spawners

A state where the next set of petal spawners and the next set of garbage spawners will come in at the same time, such that the next grow may fill in more spaces than intended, potentially leading to accidental self-overgrowth

tank & send

Accepting garbage that could have been countered in order to ensure your opponent receives garbage as well

tail

The last group(s) to be cleared within a chain

trigger

The group of petals intended to set off a chain

warhead

A short, but very bulky chain, which can become destructive when extended