The Four Game Modes

Marathon, versus CPU, split-screen and online duels, and what each is actually for.

Four modes, reachable from the title screen. START goes straight into marathon; the rest are behind Other game modes.

Marathon

The solo run. Gravity tightens every ten lines and continues until you top out. Your best score is stored on your device.

This is the mode for learning, for practising a technique, and for the ordinary five-minute game. Everything else assumes you are comfortable here.

Versus CPU

A duel against a computer opponent at rookie, pro or nightmare.

Rookie blunders often, which makes it a good place to practise attacking without being punished for a messy board.

Pro stacks well and takes advantage of greed.

Nightmare does not make mistakes. Beating it requires out-attacking it rather than out-stacking it, which is a genuinely useful skill to be forced into.

Local versus

Two players, one keyboard, split screen. Player one uses the WASD cluster; player two uses the arrow keys. Bindings are by physical key position, so they stay put on non-QWERTY layouts.

Needs a keyboard, so it is flagged as unavailable on touch-only devices.

Online

Create a room and share the five-character code, or type in someone else's. The two browsers connect directly to each other.

There is also a same device option in the lobby, which lets two tabs on one machine duel with no server involved at all. Useful for testing, and for two people at one computer with two keyboards.

What is shared across modes

All four use the same rules engine, the same scoring, and the same settings. In the versus modes both players draw from an identical seeded sequence, so the match tests what you do with the pieces rather than who received better ones.

Read next

• Why Play TETERIFree, instant, offline-capable, and it asks nothing of you before you can start. A straight account of what it offers.
• Every Control in TETERIThe complete list for keyboard, touch and gamepad, including the ones that are not obvious.
• Playing on a PhoneTwo layouts, two control schemes, and the specific problems that had to be solved to make touch work properly.
• Playing Offline and Installing ItA service worker caches the whole game, so it runs with no connection and can be added to your home screen.
• Surviving High GravityAbove level twelve the piece is at the bottom before you have read it. What changes is where the thinking happens.
• Cancelling: Why Attacking Is How You DefendYour outgoing attack eats incoming garbage before any of it lands. There is no defensive option.