How to Tetris

How to Read My Books

My Tetris guidebooks have many illustrations to show vital steps, signifying changes in a Tetris field over time.

Understanding the book’s pictorial format helps to clarify doubts regarding their meanings.

1) The 3 Essential Tetris Dimensions

    My books cover the most essential foundational skills. Tetris has three key principles: flow, form, and balance.

    Flow involves efficiently and optimally using every incoming piece without forcing the impossible. The essential synonym is flexibility.

    Form involves choosing the most optimal setups given the rigidities of Tetris. There are limited ways to stack blocks together cleanly. Good Tetris gameplay comes from knowing what structures are possible and impossible and then choosing the best ones available. The key synonym is versatility given constraints.

    Balance involves choosing the most optimal options to adapt to the situation instead of forcing an outcome. Its essential synonym is adaptation.

    An ideal Tetris player will have mastery of all three. This would be it if you had to remember just three things from my Tetris books.

    The end of most chapters involving strategic concepts will include a table that summarizes the chapter’s key points by these three principles.

    2) Color Schemes and Legend

    I use several colored blocks in my books’ illustrations:

    The color schemes are:

    1. Blue: J pieces or leftover blocks originally from J pieces after line clears.
    2. Orange: L pieces or leftover blocks originally from L pieces after line clears.
    3. Cyan: I pieces or leftover blocks originally from I pieces after line clears.
    4. Yellow: O pieces or leftover blocks originally from O pieces after line clears.
    5. Green: S pieces or leftover blocks originally from S pieces after line clears.
    6. Red: Z pieces or leftover blocks originally from Z pieces after line clears.
    7. Purple: T pieces or leftover blocks originally from T pieces after line clears.
    8. Black: Unfilled or empty blocks.
    9. Gray: Garbage blocks. However, I sometimes use them to describe miscellaneous shapes if I don’t show specifically how some parts of a field are made from the 7 minos.
    10. Lavender: Upstacked blocks. They are typically above the garbage line (gray blocks). I use these if I don’t show specifically how some parts of a field are made from the 7 minos.
    11. Light Pink: A color I added to highlight something crucial for greater clarity.

    Apart from the above, there are also brighter variants of most of each of the above:

    1. Light blue: Shows that a blue block is being line cleared.
    2. Light orange: Shows that an orange block is being line cleared.
    3. Light cyan: Shows that a cyan block is being line cleared.
    4. Light yellow: Shows that a yellow block is being line cleared.
    5. Light green: Shows that a green block is being line cleared.
    6. Light red: Shows that a red block is being line cleared.
    7. Light purple: Shows that a purple block is being line cleared.
    8. Light gray: Shows that a gray block is being line cleared.
    9. Light lavender: Shows that a lavender block is being line cleared.

    3) Diagrams

    Each diagram comprises Tetris fields (10×20 playfields). I vary their heights to save space. However, they are typically 10, 15, and 20-blocks tall.

    At the bottom of most diagrams, there will be a gray, highlighted table explaining the picture.

    There are many ways to read the diagrams. There are also many variations of how I present them:

    i) Step Diagrams

      Step diagrams are enumerated to show that there’s a temporal sequence of a specific series of steps:

      Diagram Set 2-24
      12
      Starting field.One places S and O to make a T-spin.

      A gray bridge between the two steps connects them causally. Here, step 1 is the left diagram. After putting an S and O piece, it progresses to step 2 in the right diagram. The rest is self-explanatory. Gray blocks represent a generic shape. Yellows correspond to O pieces. Green corresponds to S pieces.

      In this book’s terminology, I will sometimes refer to a specific block as being in column 2 and row 3. This means the block is in the second column from the left and the third row from the bottom.

      Here is a more complex sequence:

      Diagram Set 2-24
      12
      Starting field.The player makes an overhang with L and Z.
      3
      He then uses S as a base to make a T-spin double.

      This is a 3-step sequence. The gray blocks represent garbage lines. The lavender blocks represent generic, non-garbage, upstacked blocks. I would then sometimes put colored, specific mino blocks on top of the lavender and gray blocks.

      ii) Non-step Diagrams

        Non-step diagrams are non-causally linked diagrams, such as:

        Diagram Set 2-24
        AB
        CD
        These are four ways to make side 4-wide.

        The 4 examples above are not causally linked by steps. They are independent of each other. The words in the gray box are a description of the diagram set.

        I will sometimes label the fields as Alt. A or Alt. B. This means alternative choices to an original sequence.

        iii) Circles and Symbols

          Some diagrams have commentaries, circles, and sometimes arrows:

          Diagram Set 2-24
          12
          3

          This sequence of 3 steps has a red circle in step 2. I sometimes do this to highlight specific parts of a field.

          Occasionally, some pictures have ticks and crosses to show if they are recommended choices (ticks) and unrecommended ones (crosses):