Cloud Mania is a dropping puzzle rather than a swapping one. One cloud is always ready at the side of the panel and the next two are shown beside it, so you can plan two moves ahead. Tap any column and the cloud falls to the lowest free place in it. Three or more identical clouds in a row, in a column or along either diagonal clear at once, and everything resting above them drops into the gap, which often sets off a second and third clear from the same drop.
Diagonal lines are what make the board interesting. A cloud that looks useless in its own column is often the piece that completes a diagonal two columns away, so it is worth studying the shape of the stack before every tap. The scoring pays much more for a chain than for three separate clears, and the multiplier keeps rising for as long as the cascade continues.
Every sky sets a score goal and a number of drops. Clear the goal and the next sky opens with a higher goal and fewer drops. Two tools help when the queue turns against you. Skip throws away the waiting cloud and pulls the next one forward, and storm removes every cloud of the waiting kind from the board in one flash. Filling a column to the very top ends the sky, so keeping the stack low is as important as scoring.
The flight log records your career totals, eight awards mark long term goals, and the ranking screen sets your best sky against a field of rivals.
Everything works offline. There are no accounts, no purchases of any kind and no advertising. The settings screen contains a single control which erases every saved score and award.
Drop clouds into columns and line three up across, down or diagonally.