About Stacker 3D
Stacker 3D is a free 3D tower stacking game, played in the browser on desktop, phone and tablet. The harbour city of Port Meridian has forty-eight empty plots and a city council in a hurry, and you are its new crane operator. The council hands you commissions one plot at a time: a timber chandlery on the quay, a brick clock tower in Old Town, a glass spire on the river. Each one is a tower you stack floor by floor, and when you top it out it joins the skyline for good.
If you know the arcade stacking game, the drop will feel familiar: a floor slides back and forth, you drop it, and anything hanging over the edge is cut away. Our retro version, Stacker, is that classic in 2D, a single-screen endless climb with a pixel look. Stacker 3D keeps the one-tap drop and adds what only 3D and a campaign can: floors slide in along one axis and then the other, so you read each drop in depth, the sliced overhang tumbles into the street, and three perfect drops in a row grow your floor back. Every tower you finish is rebuilt in the city exactly as you stacked it, trimmed floors and all, and when the last tower is done the whole coast lights up, window by window.
The campaign has 48 commissions across six districts, from Harbour Quay at dawn to Skyline Heights at night. Each district adds its own twist, such as wind, fragile glass or rush-hour fuses, and ends with a landmark tower like the Harbour Light or the Clock Tower. The credits you earn buy crane upgrades in the Workshop, and the last commission is the Sky Spire, 120 floors up through the clouds. For a quick break there is Free Stack, the endless mode. Looking for more timing games? Browse our arcade games.
How to Play Stacker 3D
- Drop the floor: press Space, Enter or the down arrow on a keyboard, click the stage with a mouse, or tap anywhere on the stage on a phone or tablet. The floor stops exactly where it is when you drop it.
- Two axes: one floor slides in along one side of the tower and the next along the other side, so you line up a different edge every time. The camera looks at the tower from a corner so you can judge both, and a bright line marks the edges of the floor below.
- Trims: any part of the floor that hangs over the floor below is sliced off and falls into the street, and the next floor is only as big as what is left. Miss the tower completely and the whole floor falls, which ends the commission unless a Safety Net catches it.
- Perfects and grow-back: drop a floor close enough to the one below and it snaps exactly into place with a white ring around its top edge. From the third perfect in a row, every perfect grows the floor back a little, up to the full size of the plot.
- Combo and scoring: every floor scores points, and a perfect scores a bonus multiplied by your combo, up to five times. Each perfect also plays the next note of a rising scale. Topping out adds a bonus, and harder materials such as glass, steel and marble score and pay more.
- Stars: each commission awards up to three: one for topping out, one for reaching its target number of perfect drops, and one for a clean roof, where your top floor is still a large share of the plot. Your total stars, out of 144, set your rank from Apprentice to Master Builder.
- Safety Net: a Workshop item that catches a floor you missed completely, once or twice per commission depending on its tier, so the same floor slides again instead of ending the run.
- Time Brake: hold B, or hold the brake button, to slow the current floor to half speed until you drop it. Brakes cost credits, you carry up to three, and each one lasts a single floor.
- District modifiers: in Old Town, wind drift makes the floor sway sideways as well, so it can be cut on both sides; in the Market Quarter, uneven speed makes the floor fastest over the middle of the tower; in Riverside, fragile glass loses an extra sliver from the cut edge on any drop that is not perfect; and in the Exchange District, rush hour gives every floor a short fuse that drops it when it runs out. Skyline Heights mixes all three.
- The Workshop: spend the credits from every results card on Steady Hands (the first floors of a commission slide slower), Plumb Line (a wider perfect window and a laser guide), Rebar (sooner and bigger grow-back), Safety Net, Time Brakes and crane paint. Every upgrade you buy is fitted onto your crane.
- Free Stack: the classic endless mode on a plot at the edge of the harbour. The material changes every 15 floors, the speed keeps rising, and your score is the number of floors you stack.
- City Score: the sum of your best score on every commission. It rises when you top out a new commission or beat an old best, and it is the main leaderboard.
Tips
- Watch the edge, not the middle. Line up the leading edge of the moving floor with the bright edge line of the floor below, and drop the moment they meet.
- Protect your combo. Three perfects in a row turn on grow-back, so on a narrow tower it is worth slowing down and setting up a run of perfects to win back the width you have lost.
- Read the wind. In Old Town the windsock in the corner and the blowing leaves show when a gust is on. Drop when the sway brings the floor back over the tower, or wait for the gust to pass.
- Pick your material on open briefs. Landmarks and some commissions let you choose. Timber slides slower and forgives more, while marble pays far better but slides faster and needs a more exact drop.
- Stuck on a commission? After two failures the commission card shows where your last runs ended, after three it suggests the Workshop item that helps most, and after four it offers Easy Crane, a slower crane whose scores count a little less, and every star is still possible.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the grow-back work in Stacker 3D?
Drop a floor close enough to the one below and it counts as a perfect: it snaps exactly into place and a white ring flashes around its top edge. From the third perfect in a row, every perfect grows the floor back a little on its narrower side, up to the full size of the plot. The Rebar upgrade in the Workshop makes each grow step bigger and, from its second tier, starts grow-back after two perfects instead of three.
What does wind drift do in Old Town?
While a gust is blowing, the moving floor also sways sideways on the other axis, and a windsock in the corner and blowing leaves show it. Because the floor can be off on both sides at once, the drop is judged on both axes: the overhang on each side is cut away and falls separately, and a perfect needs both sides lined up. The safest moment to drop is when the sway carries the floor back over the tower, or between gusts.
What is fragile glass in Riverside?
Riverside towers are glass curtain walls. Any drop on a glass floor that is not a perfect costs an extra sliver of floor from the cut edge, as the edge pane shatters into glints. Perfect drops lose nothing, so glass towers reward precision more than any other material, and glass also has a slightly tighter perfect window. In return it scores and pays more than timber, brick or concrete.
What is rush hour in the Exchange District?
In the Exchange District every floor carries a fuse, shown as a bar under the floor counter, that runs down from a little over two seconds. If you have not dropped the floor when it runs out, the floor drops wherever it is. You can still drop early at any time, so the trick is to take the first good alignment instead of waiting for a better one. Skyline Heights mixes rush hour with wind drift and uneven speed.
What is uneven speed in the Market Quarter?
In the Market Quarter the floor no longer slides at a steady speed. It eases in and out, slowing down near the ends of its slide and moving fastest as it passes over the middle of the tower, which is exactly where you want to drop it. Learning to time the drop on that fast middle stretch is the skill this district teaches.
How do City Score and the two leaderboards work?
Your City Score is the sum of your best score on every commission, and it is the default leaderboard. It only rises when you top out a new commission or beat an old best, so replaying one easy tower cannot farm it, and the results card offers the leaderboard when your City Score goes up. Free Stack has its own leaderboard, ranked by the number of floors you stack in one endless run.
What does each Workshop item do?
Steady Hands makes the first floors of every commission slide slower. Plumb Line widens the perfect window and adds a laser guide at the leading edge. Rebar makes grow-back grow more and, from its second tier, start sooner. Safety Net catches a floor you missed completely, once or twice per commission, so it slides again. Time Brakes are bought one at a time, you carry up to three, and holding the brake slows one floor to half speed. Crane paints are just for looks. Steady Hands and Time Brakes are available from the start, the rest unlock as you open new districts, and every upgrade you buy is fitted onto your crane.
Does Stacker 3D save my progress?
Yes. It saves your credits, the best score, stars and the exact shape of every tower you have built, your Workshop items, Time Brakes, crane paints and your Free Stack best, at every results card and purchase and when you leave the page, all in your browser. Continue on the title screen picks up where you left off and rebuilds your whole skyline. A tower in progress is never saved, so leaving mid-commission abandons it, and New Game asks before it replaces your city.
How do I play Stacker 3D on a phone or tablet?
Tap anywhere on the stage to drop the floor. The Time Brake button and the pause button sit in the top corners, away from the tower, and you hold the brake button to slow the floor. In the city view, drag to look around and tap a plot to open its commission. The game uses lighter graphics settings on phones and tablets so it runs smoothly.
What is the difference between Stacker and Stacker 3D?
Stacker is our retro version: a 2D, single-screen endless stacker with a pixel look, where the goal is simply to climb as high as you can. Stacker 3D is the 3D reboot. Floors slide in on two axes and are read in depth, perfect drops grow your floor back, and a campaign of 48 commissions across six districts builds a skyline out of your own towers, with a Workshop of crane upgrades and an ending. Free Stack in Stacker 3D keeps the endless climb for quick sessions. Both games stay on the site.
