Versus Specific Advice
tip
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How do I play vs? What is good vs? What is efficiency? How do I get better?
Basic guideline rules
To be able to play any game well, you must first understand the rules. In 1v1 tetris, players send garbage to each other.
The amount of garbage depends on the type of attack.
| Type of attack | Guideline games (PPT, Jstris, TOP) | Tetriomegalul |
|---|---|---|
| Single, Double Triple | Lines cleared - 1 | Same |
| Tetris | 4 (+1 with b2b) | Same but there's back to back chaining for some reason |
| T-Spin | 2 x lines cleared(+1 with b2b) | Same but there's back to back chaining for some reason |
| Combo | 0,0,1,1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,4,5 (stacks with other attacks) | Uses unnecessarily complicated combo table |
| Perfect Clear | 8-10 (depends on the game and rules) | 10 and stacks with other attacks |
What we can takeaway from this is that singles send nothing, and short combos also barely send anything. :::Note The values for tetrio are roughly the same. Tetrio has more inflated attack values, but you can do this calculation yourself. :::
How to play efficiently
Attacking
Knowing how you can maximize your clears is important to playing efficiently.
| Type of attack | Attack / Line | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Single, Double, Triple | 0, 0.5, 0.67 | As you can see singles literally do nothing |
| Tetris | 1 or 1.25 with b2b | Significantly better than above |
| T-Spin (single, double, triple) | 2 , or (3,2.5,2.33 ) with b2b | An improvement again |
| Combo | Full calculations here | Interesting breakpoints: Anything under 5 combo is worse than a triple. Aim for 7+ combo for good efficiency |
| Perfect Clear | 10/??? | Not reliable to execute in vs. |
note
Technically b2b TSS is the most efficient but you are limited in the number of T pieces you have, so it is impossible to clear all lines with TSS , so if possible clearing a TSD or TST will give you more value for that piece.
Defending
note
Defend = Attack + Lines cleared, since in most games you can use attack to cancel incoming garbage.
This is still an oversimplification, as stated in the other note.
| Type of attack | Defend / Line | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Single, Double, Triple | 1, 1.5, 1.67 | |
| Tetris | 4 or 4.5 with b2b | Significantly better than above |
| T-Spin (single, double, triple) | 3 , or (4, 3.5, 3.33 ) with b2b | Notably worse than tetrises actually |
| Combo | Full calculations here | Interesting breakpoints: Anything under 4 combo is worse than a triple. High combo is best efficiency |
Conclusion
Only combo when you have at least a 6 combo.
Your priority should be maintaining b2b with t-spins and tetrises when possible.
Breaking back to back to get another T-Spin double is not that bad actually, same with skimming to get a Tetris when defending.
Openers
important
Learning openers is not as important as learning how to play the mid game.
An opener is just a transition from an empty board to mid game, don't focus on them too much until you are competent at mid game. You should never rely on openers to win games.
Beginners can opt for a simple tetris as their opener.
Openers are also dependent on the game.
tip
The most important opener to learn is TKI. https://four.lol/openers/tki
What openers should I learn?
If you are unable complete a 40 line Tetris-only sprint in under 1:15 minutes (jstris/fast games) or 1:30 minutes Puyo Puyo Tetris (slow game) should focus on practicing that first.
Here is a list of openers by importance (four wide is omitted in this section, to learn more read the section on four wide) :
note
this section will probably be split up by game later. TKI 3 and MKO will be best regardless of game, however
warning
This section is not as good as i would like it to be. I will probably update this with the openers you should use, in order of priority. TKI still best opener tho
| Opener | Why |
|---|---|
| TKI 3 | - Hands down the best overall opener in the game. - Most flexible opener (Lots of TSD opportunities, TSD PC, TSD TSD PC, LST stacking). - Keeps the stack low at all times, basically risk free. - Basically can always do it with an early I piece. - Easy to learn the basics, but has a lot of depth. - Good in any game. |
| MKO | - Not as popular as many of the newer "memorization openers" but still really good. - Very flexible opener (can choose to do fast PC, TSDs, converts into 6-3 as well) - Ends up with more of a stack than TKI - Works when you have early LJ. - Easy to learn basics, but has a lot of depth. - Good in any game. |
| Hachi-spin | - Hachi good. - Fairly flexible (TSS TST PC, TSS TST LST stacking, TSS TST imperial cross) - Ends up with a good stack - only requires early OL or OJ - Easy to learn basics, but has several follow ups. - Good in PPT and other official games, decent in jstris, not that great for tetr.io |
| Albatross | - A more popular opener in recent times. - Not very flexible, but fairly consistent (simple TSD TST TSD, or potential TSD PC) - You'll basically always have a relatively low stack - Needs early OL or OJ - Easy to learn, not much depth, most people end up just mechanically memorizing it. - Good in PPT and other official games, decent in jstris, not that great for tetr.io |
| Mr. T-spin | - Not that popular but really good still ok guys plz use it instead of pco - Not really any set follow ups, freestyle after TST. - Stack is pretty low and good, except for weird looking L/J used for overhang - Needs early OZ or OS - Has a weird shape that might be easy to forget, but overall it is not that complicated - Good in PPT and other official games, decent in jstris, not that great for tetr.io |
| Pelican | - Pretty unpopular opener as well but still pretty good - Follow ups do exist. (TSD TST C-SPIN PC, TSD STSD, TSD TST TSD) - Stack is ok - Needs early JS or LZ - Good in PPT and other official games, decent in jstris, not that great for tetr.io |
| DT cannon (Horizontal SZ base*) | - Super popular, a little overrated. DO NOT USE VERTICAL DT or any other base - Follow ups are decent (DTS4W, DT C-Spin, DT Kaidan PC, DT shachiku train... etc) - Stack is actually not that great (before the follow ups, which means you have to commit) - Needs early L and J - Good in PPT because it has low KPP to set up, using vertical dt or any other base nullifies this benefit. Ok on on faster games like jstris etc, but wouldn't recommend really. |
| C-Spin | - Vintage opener, not really used by new players anymore - Kind of tricky to stack honestly, has some follow ups (TST TSD or TST TSS PC) - Leaves you with clean and low field. - Needs early LZ or JS and helps to have early I for the popular method. There are other bases as well that work on different bags. - Ok in all games |
| 6-3 stacking | - Honestly it's pretty good lol - It's just stacking, basically as flexible as it gets. - You lose on a bit of efficiency due to not being able to send anything in the first bag however. Doesn't really depend on anything. - Is ok in all games. |
| BAD OPENERS | Anything below this point is bad do not learn unless you want to I'm just text on your computer monitor |
| BT Cannon | - Common "memorization opener" - You will never be able to get the PC loop against a player with fingers - Big noob trap, people often just memorize BT and try and win with the opener. If you're opponent is even close to equal skill you will lose. - If you want to use a crutch pick c4w |
| Humming bird | - Lol - If you're gonna learn an opener, learn one that sends garbage |
| PCO | - Read the section on "Should I learn perfect clear opener?" - If you are reading this, you are not good enough to use it. |
| Wolf moon cannon | - It's not good |
| godspin | lol |
| Anything else | Anything else not mentioned here is also probably not worth using. |
*SZ base DT cannon 
Is the opener I made good?
Short answer: no
Long answer: Depends on a few factors, but most good openers have already been discovered.
- If your opener uses a T piece in stack it is already bad.
- If your opener has a very low success chance it is bad.
- If your opener does not send at least 9 with the first 2 t pieces its most likely bad.
What setups should I learn?
If you are unable complete a 40 line Tetris-only sprint in under 1:15 minutes (jstris/fast games) or 1:30 minutes Puyo Puyo Tetris (slow game) should focus on practicing that first.
Once you can do that consistently, learn basic t-spins, check out garbo's tspin guide (the first part)
More advanced techniques (or "setups") would be t-spin forecasting, floating tspins and donated tspins. (expand later) https://four.lol/mid-game/donation https://four.lol/methods/stmb
PCO? Perfect Clear Opener? Should I learn perfect clears?
Short answer: no
Long answer: PCO is a popular opener but is a very common noob trap. Lots of people use PCO because it is easy to setup, not because they can reliably execute it.
- In reality PCO is not a good opener because it gives your opponent too much clean garbage, that they will just send back to you.
- PCO requires you to memorize a lot of solutions to be used effectively. That effort could be better spent learning a better opener instead.
- Lots of people will use it without knowing all the solutions and fail the opener very often. (How embarrassing)
Four wide, 4-wide, 4w, 4-w c4w s4w whatever lol
This section is a little complicated due to the state of the community and official games.
To win in any official Tetris game, center 4 wide is the most overpowered strategy by far.
Non-official games have nerfed 4 wide in different ways.
Generally 4 wide is frowned upon in the community, even though its usually not banned. People often care about being more "honorable" or only care about winning on their own terms.
That said, any good official guideline player should probably at least learn side 4wide, and probably center 4 wide so that they can counter anyone using 4 wide.
4 Wide is a big noob trap since it is so broken and easy to get wins against inexperienced players.
Generally people that only use 4w rely on it as a crutch to win the game before mid game. If they encounter someone who can match their 4w and bring them into mid game they don't stand a chance.
How to counter center 4 wide?
One of the big problems with this community the lack of motivation to win. People often care about ""honor"" more than winning. As a result, a lot of common advice towards countering 4 wide is just incorrect.
The only true counter to center 4 wide, is center 4 wide, for obvious reasons.
Other than that there are no GOOD counters to center 4 wide.
Here are a list of common "GOOD" counters that are actually not that good: (they will not go even with center 4w consistently. Keep in mind that c4w works literally 99% of the time, so a strategy that only works 60% of the time is not good enough):
| Strat | Why it is not that good |
|---|---|
| Side 4 wide | This strategy will only work if you can stack faster than your opponent. If your opponent is the same speed as you, it becomes a game of who can reach the top without dying, which C4w always wins, because center well allows you to receive up to 18 lines of garbage without dying. |
| 3 perfect clears | This strategy is insanely difficult to pull of fast enough, not to mention most players are not even able get 3 perfect clears consistently. 2 perfect clears can work if you are much faster than your opponent, but usually it will just cut their combo short. Also even 2 perfect clears is really hard to pull of every single game. |
| TKI PC / Hachi PC / any t-spin pc | This strategy is more consistent to execute than only perfect clears, but requires you to have the right bag to start out with, which will limit the number of times you even get to use this. The other issue is it only can only send up to 20, which is only barely enough to kill c4w. (Note you will not always get maximum damage due to the fact that you have to take incomplete t-spins to get the perfect clear) |
| Giving up/disconnecting | Lose the battle, but win the war. :) |
| BT cannon/ any loop | While reliable, unless you are extremely fast, this wont never be enough to kill. |
Most people tend to pick, and even recommend 🙀, sub-optimal strategies to counter c4w and then "out play during the mid game". And while that is all fine and good, the real issue is all of these strategies will never put you even, always behind. (Obviously if the opponent messes up then its different, but if your opponent suicides you win so there's no point to even say this ok?). Also "being better than your opponent" is not a valid strategy.
Powerstacking
Powerstacking is basically the culmination of the problem with modern tetris games.
Powerstacking is a type of stacking that allows the faster player to leverage the speed difference between them and their opponent.
The general idea of powerstacking, is just simply abusing combo by creating a large combo well over your current well.
Stacking is usually the easiest for most people (just compare their vs pps to sprint pps) so this allows you to build up a significant attack without much thinking.
The most common form of powerstacking looks something like this:
Other forms of powerstacking include mid game 4w as well.