Combos: Clearing With Consecutive Pieces

Every piece in a row that clears something extends the chain, and the bonus grows the longer it runs.

A combo counts consecutive pieces that each clear at least one line. Place a piece that clears nothing and the counter resets to zero.

The scoring

Each link adds 50 times the combo length times your level. The first clear starts the chain at zero and adds nothing; the second is worth 50 times 1 times level, the third 50 times 2 times level, and so on.

In versus, combos also add garbage: nothing for the first few links, then an increasing number of extra rows as the chain extends. A long combo is one of the most dangerous things you can do to an opponent.

Combos versus big clears

There are two ways to convert a stack into points, and they pull in opposite directions.

Big clears want a tall, flat nine-column stack with one well open, waiting for a long piece. High value per clear, long gaps between clears.

Combos want a low, uneven stack with several rows almost complete, so nearly every piece finishes something. Low value per clear, but continuous.

You cannot do both at once. The stack shape each requires is incompatible with the other.

Building for combos

The standard approach is a staircase: keep the surface descending steadily across the well with each row one cell short of complete. Then almost any piece you place completes something, and the chain sustains itself.

It is fragile. One awkward piece that fits nowhere breaks the chain and often leaves a mess, because a combo stack has no spare room by design.

When combos are the right call

In solo play they are usually the weaker option. Four-row clears with back-to-back beat a long combo on points.

In versus they are frequently the stronger one. Combo garbage arrives continuously, giving your opponent no quiet moment to place a piece that clears nothing and let their queued garbage land. A four-row clear is one large hit they can cancel with a single big clear of their own. Nine consecutive small hits are far harder to answer.

TETERI shows the current combo in a badge beside your well, and the count resets visibly the moment the chain breaks.

Read next

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• The Super Rotation System, ExplainedFour defined states per piece and a table of fallback offsets, which is what lets a piece spin into a gap it should not fit.
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• Lock Delay: The Half-Second That Saves Your RunA landed piece does not lock immediately, and nudging it restarts the clock, up to a limit.
• Keeping Inside a Sixteen-Millisecond BudgetSixty frames a second means 16.7ms for everything. Here is where it goes and how it was measured.
• Who Invented Tetris?Alexey Pajitnov wrote the original in 1984 at a Soviet research institute, on a computer that could not draw graphics.