Hold piece is a feature of most newer Tetris games starting with The New Tetris. The top left of the tetrion has a window called the hold space that displays a tetromino. At any time starting when a tetromino enters the playfield until it locks, the player can press the Hold button on the controller to move the active tetromino into the hold space and move the tetromino that was in the hold space to the top of the playfield. A tetromino moved into the hold space is unavailable for switching out until the tetromino that was moved out of the hold space locks.

What should you do with this O tetromino?

Press the Hold button

Drop Z

O becomes available after Z locks

Hold piece was introduced as part of the development of Square Tetris mode (introduced in The New Tetris; also appears in Tetris Worlds), making it easier for the player to assemble squares. Its inclusion in standard Tetris is controversial, as some critics have claimed that it makes the game too easy.[1] [2] [3][4]

Variants

Initial state of the hold box

In The New Tetris, the players start with a random piece in their hold box. In guideline games however, the hold box is initially empty, and the first use of the hold causes the next piece to appear immediately.

Orientation

Most games rotate tetrominoes back to the starting orientation when moving them to the hold space. Tetris Worlds, on the other hand, does not (at least on GBA).

Hold in Radica games

In Fliptop Tetris by Radica, the piece preview doubles as the hold space.

Initial hold

Initial hold from TGM3.

Arika's first TGM series games did not include hold piece. Tetris The Grand Master 3 Terror-Instinct, on the other hand, was released during The Tetris Company's campaign to apply the Tetris Guideline to new games. Both modes of TGM3 (Classic and World) include a feature called "initial hold system" or IHS, which allows the player to press and hold the Hold button during entry delay, and the tetromino will be swapped as soon as it enters the matrix, just as with IRS.

Lockjaw interprets a slightly different form of initial hold. At any time when no tetromino is falling (such as entry delay or line clear delay), the Hold button switches the hold piece with the next piece to come out.

Skip

Shadow mode in both Tetris Party games feature "Skip" instead of hold. It is activated like the hold, but the piece is simply skipped and not stored for later use. The number of skip use is limited; the player is given 10 skips in early levels, but later levels allow more. Unlike the hold, skip can be used twice or more in the row without locking a piece.

Tetris Blitz

In Tetris Blitz, hold can be used twice or more in the row without locking the piece in between, effectively allowing the players to cancel the hold. The game also allows the players to buy the second hold box via real money.