Ever since it broke through to a worldwide audience via the iconic Game Boy version, Tetris has never really gone away in the ensuing thirty years. Still, there are periods when the classic puzzle game seems to be experiencing a renaissance, and this is one of those times— first, with last year's Tetris Effect for PlayStation 4, and now, with the battle royale-inspired Switch exclusive Tetris 99.
While rumors abound of eventual new modes being added some day, as it stands, Tetris 99— which is available now for the low, low price of zero dollars for Switch Online subscribers— contains only its main mode, pitting 99 players against each other in a last-man-standing version of the timeless game. On the surface, Tetris 99 feels mostly like simple, classic Tetris except with 98 other people playing against you, but there is a lot more going in with the game than a lot of players realize. Simply playing it as a standard game of Tetris might help you avoid elimination among the first ten or twenty players, but the key to consistently strong standings and ultimately finishing as the last player standing requires digging a little deeper and figuring out the higher-level tricks to being among the best Tetris 99 players.
First off, if for some reason you have a Switch and haven't downloaded Tetris 99, go do it now. And if you aren't a Switch Online subscriber, go ahead and sign up for a year— Tetris 99 alone is worth the cost,🌳 trust us on that. All that's left to do is check out these tips and you'll be clearing the field like a boss.
20 Manual𝓀ly Target Individual Opponents
One of the most remarkable things about Tetris 99 is that the game's servers can not only handle 99 games of Tetris happening simultaneously, but it shows all 99 of them on everyone's screen, with your grid 🍌in the middle and everyone else's playing out in rea♉l time on either side. But all of those fields aren't just on display so the developers can show off— you are able to specifically choose who you want to attack at any time.
While playing in TV mode, the left Joy-Con analog stick can be used to move a target around the other fields and let you choose✨ which player will be on 🌊the receiving end of any garbage blocks you send out. In tablet mode, you can simply touch someone's field to put them in your crosshairs.
19 🎉 Perform A 10-Line Attack
This should go without saying, especially to players who are already familiar with previous Tetris game battle modes, but the more lines you clear at once the more powerful your attack. The classic Tetris— clearing four lines at once— is obviously one of the more powerful attacks, and the number of garbage blocks they produce goes up with subsequent consecutive Tetrises. But the most powerful single attack, not considering combos or badge lev🐲el or any of that, is something that is, not surprisingly, very difficult to pull off.
Should you mana🏅ge a Full Clear— which means completely clearing your grid at any point— instantly results in a whopping ten lines of garbage blocks to an unsuspecting opponent. It doesn't happen often, but boy is it worth the trouble if you can do it.
18 H🐼one Your Skills On A Lower-Stakes Version
Like a lot of online-only games, it's kind of all-or-nothing with Tetris 99. The only way to play the game is to jump in and play it with 98 other players— as of now, there are no offline modes or any ways to really practice at all other than simply playing regular maꦉtches♔.
However, there many, many different versions of Tetris available, and as long as it's not a version with any particularly quirky rule sets, just about any will do as far as playing them simply to hone your basic Tetris skills. That said, if you'd like to practice in a setting that is somewhat similar to Tetris 99, the free, official, browser-based Tetris Friends is a good option, as it even has a mode called Free-For-All that is similar to Tetris 99 but on a much smaller scale.
17 ﷽ Increase Your Attack Power
The basic premise of battle-based Tetris is usually something along the lines of "clear lines to send garbage blocks to the other player(s)," with doubles, triples, and Tetrises obviously resulting in greater attacks. Tetris 99 is no different, with bigger moves and hꦛigher combos dealing bigger amounts of꧅ potential damage to opponents.
But Tetris 99 also has a new system in place in this regard: badges. As you play, you earn badges, up to four total, and this has a direct impact on how powerful your attacks are. One badge increases your attack power by 25%, two increases it by 50%, and so on until you've literally doubled your strength with four badges. You c𒉰an see how many badges you have and the current state of your attack multiplayer in the lower right of your play area.
16 Steal Other Players' Badges ❀
So now you know how badges work, but what is the quickest way to get more? It's not through normal play, though that'll get you there eventually— it's by KOing players with badges, which steals them from the knocked out player and gives them to you. In other words, finishing off a player with four badges gives you four badges, just like that.
In fact, you can even specifically target the players who are currently winning the badge game during a match by switching your attack method to "badges" (flicking right on the right stick). This focuses your attacks on whatever player currently has the most badges, which gives you the potential to take their place should you deliver their final blow. Just be careful— that'll make you become🔯 the prime✃ target for other potential badge-stealers.
15 🌊 Know How Soon An Attack Is Coming
This particular version of Tetris is entirely based a⛦round꧟ battling— there isn't even a score displayed anywhere. All that matters is surviving for the longest, which means withstanding the attacks of as many as 98 other players. Luckily, the game at least clues you in on how soon an impending attack is going to hit and how much time you have to do things to reduce their impact.
The bar to the immediate left of your grid tells you how many attacks are coming your way, how powerful they are, and most importantly, when 🌼they are coming. Grey blocks are a ways off, yellow are a bit closer, and molten l🤪ava red means brace yourself. Also, it's worth noting that the further along a match is, the shorter the time it takes for attacks to reach opponents.
14 Perform Combos ൲
While Tetris isn't typically as combo-based as other puzzle games, that isn't to say they aren't possible and haven't become a facet of the franchise as it has gone on. Because of the nature of most forms of Tetris, you can't really "combo" in the traditional way as there aren't the cascading pieces of games like Dr. Mario or Tetris Attack. Instead, the primary method of comboing in Tetris 99 is to clear one more lines with each subsequent dropped pieces without a non-clear drop in betwe𓆉en.
In fact, combos can be an effective strategy for building up powerful attacks when you're in a position where you don't have the luxury of waiting for a Tetris, such as𒆙 having a cluttered or almost-full grid. Plus, combos mean you are rapidly clearing lines, which is just a good idea in general.
13 Randomize Attacks To Avoid Makin🌠g Enemies
When you first start playing Tetris 99, it seems like attacks are just wildly flying around the screen and there's no way to really know who is attacking or being attacked. This makes it seem as though the rage and revenge that comes with other online multiplayer games isn't there— but that's not the case. In fact, it's possible to get yourself enemies early on in a match and get eliminated quick❀ly as a result.
If you want to fly under the radar in the early part of a match, keep your attack style on random. This ensures that you aren't focusing o𒅌n any one player, which runs the risk of making an enemy out of them if they turn on the "attackers" attack style and decide to come back at you. Keep that target off your back.
12 Pick Off Weak Players ෴Early 🦹
Tetris 99 isn't a𝄹 game for sympathy. It's every player for themselves, and everyone is only looking out for themselves. There is absolutely no shame in doing whatever it takes to narrow the playing field as quickly as possible, even if that means kicking the struggling players while they are down.
Setting your attack style to "KOs" by flicking up on the right stick causes your attacks to find whichever players are the closest to going out, and sends them your garbage in order to hopefully knock them out for good. It's not the most honorable way to play, but again, Tetris 99 isn't about making frien🐬ds. KOs is also the best attack style to choose for people who just want to pick one style and stick with it and never have to worry about changing it at all.
11 ꦍ Know When Other Players Are About To Go Out
While we're on the subject of opponents who are on their last legs, there is actually a way to know who is in danger of losing at any given time. For those that really want to prey on the weak, you can evꩵen manually target said players if you want to go that 🍬route.
Players whose grids are close to filling up have their grid backgrounds shown in bright red to the other players, indicating that they are just a few mistakes or garbage lines from being out. Those that don't want to bother with manual targeting might not actually do anything about this information, but it's still helpful to be able to glance around and see just how many players might be exiting a match s🧔oon just for your own piece of mind.