Hi everyone ! It has been about 8 year since I've hanged out in this place and I'm still not a Death Master. How about changing that before I reach year 10 ? From the record thread, I need to shave of more than 30 seconds to break the torikan (3:54:10) So here's three typical game where I'm not failing completely before level 200, and where I'm playing more or less casually (not trying to blow any records, it just happens to be good games). (btw, those can be viewed at 60fps if you use Chrome) Things I know how I'm lacking and I know how to do it better: Section stop: Far too often I have lost precious seconds to the level stop. I need to prepare myself to make a line when I'm reaching level X95 or so. Things I know how I have to do better and I have no idea what I should do about it: Finesse: I play on keyboard (far more convenient for me), and I think I tend to double tap a lot. But I'm not sure if I have any other choice than to double tap when I do it. And I'm not sure either if all my moves are efficient enough. Way too many singles: when trying to repair my stack and/or digging through garbage, more often than not I find myself making single instead of going for double or triple. IIRC it's not that of a big deal past lvl 100, but still it bugs me. That leads to: Efficient stack repair and/or keeping the stack clean: Sometime it takes ages to get back to a clean stack. Looking at some other recording of more experienced players, they either correct their mistake very quickly, or decide to build over their hole or go full YOLO and somehow brute force their way through the torikan with some sort of voodoo witchcraft. I have no idea what should be my stance on that. Locking: it seems to me that everyone and their mother locks faster than me, particularly in the early levels. Is my self-analysis correct ? Anything to add/help me with ? (I also welcome any commentary on my runs) Should go back playing Binding of Isaac instead (26 achievement left!) ?
Forget about avoiding singles to save time, it is totally irrelevant in death mode since the time you lose during clear animation is negligible past lvl 100 (and even before that, you don't lose much time). The real purpose of clean stacking is 1) to keep things simple to understand (with a clean stack the vast majority of decisions are obvious) and 2): to die less; the more consistent you are the less you die, the more likely you are to reach 500 and beat that torikan (from what I've seen your stacking is already quite good by the way). Your only (!) real issue is your overall speed. You need a way better manlock timing and a better DAS. For manlock training you may try to practice 300/400 (e.g with cheat code or tex) and manlock agressively every piece at that speed (you will die a lot at first). Also play 500 a lot to get used to pressure and faster game rythm. DASing better is about anticipation: you have to watch your next piece very carefully and plan its placement while you're operating the current piece. When it appears it must dash towards its planned location. Here's another tip to practice DAS/double tap avoidance: Play whole sessions and try to avoid double tapping entirely. I mean NEVER double tap. Either 1 tap left/right or DAS. Once again you will die a lot but you will develop strategies in order to avoid double tap.
Also try to get gold st medals in 0-100,100- 200 and 200-300 sections (the first one will be by far the hardest)
I pretty much agree with COL, except maybe for the double tap thing. I think it's fine to double tap sometimes if you're sticking to keyboard (unless there's better finese for the move), because you can easily get away with it. Here are some pointers on video #3: @19: Gotta clear the single, if you set it up like that @21: This is a situation where it saves time to just keep it simple: Throw that J to the right. @22: Rule #1 of overhangs: Already have a plan to fix them when you set them up. The T needed to go in col. 4/5. 1/2 would've also not been bad, but this third overhang is grossly negligent. @29: I prefer 2/3. This overhang is a bit tricky to solve without leaving a hole. @33: Unnecessarily complicated. One idea would be 2/3, since the hole in column 2 is not that bad, another would be 5/6 which looks scary, but you're not high enough to top out. @34: Your placement is fine here, but I'd like to point out that the only hole-free solution to the bottom overhang is J in 2/3, then L in 2/3 and I in col. 1. Onto the actual game: @23: Unneccesary, skim the single. @29: You're playing with fire. 180 rotation, DAS right, DAS left. The hole in column 8 is easy to deal with, your overhang is anything but. @30: Clear the single, it frees your tetris hole and you can just let the garbage line wander to the bottom and play with one row less. @43: Column 1 is better, since it's begging for the I piece. @53: Could have kicked the I piece into columns 6-9, then slide the following L underneath the T -> no center holes @179: Nice rotation finesse, but DAS right, tap left would have been more efficient @265: Throw it to the right and put the T on top. It's a quicker way to deal with the garbage lines IMO. @331: 9/10 for the double to uncover the holes. @469: There's a way to clear the single: IRS CCW, DAS right, CW somehwere in between, DAS left (step reset is your friend), CCW to kick it in. I know it's tricky to see and 400 is fast, just putting it out there Overall good game. My general advice would be to keep your games much, much simpler to close in on the torikan. It's like COL said: A simple stack gives you quicker and easier placements. Don't get me wrong, you get style points for all the overhangs, but the problem is that you often don't seem to have a plan to fix them later. Then you have to kinda improvise a solution which best case scenario just loses you a bunch of time, but worst case leads you to overextend and requires a miracle to survive. Often there are simpler placements that may result in a hole, but are ultimately easy (and fast!) to fix. You also always want to fix an overhang as soon as you can, unless you have a good reason not to.
I'd like to second what Steadshot said and give you a little piece of advice concerning stacking flat: If you want to make a hole that's fine, just don't make one that's close to the middle (col. 1-2, 9-10 are good, 3 or 8 are the limit, 4-7 is a real problem) and then focus on fixing it if you're at ~30% of the whole stack. You might reevaluate your whole stacking this way, and that takes a bit of time but in my opinion this is a very good training about recognizing a few good shapes and thinking of several tetraminoes that can do the trick : The ideal one, and the not-so-ideal ones. For example (hypothetically), a t-spin setup on the right is a problem, you would like a t block but it's not coming right now, then the L block still is a good solution because it will close the hole that's closest to the center, even without clearing a line. (Subsequently from the hole thing that means that if you don't have a clue where to put the block, you should just put it on the side where it can go: You don't make center holes this way)
I didn't mean that complete double tapping avoiding was the way you should play tgm all the time, it is only a training idea. The purpose of it is to learn finesse quickly by forcing the player to use it. Anyone double tap of course. When I was trying to beat the torikan I relied on multiple tap too much (it actually wastes time), and used that training regimen for a while, (at least to get totally used with that DAS left-one fixing right tap-manlock which occurs so often).
Your stacking is good (if not better than mine), but I think what stood out most was the pace of manual locking. The first section is easy to clear in 45 seconds or faster., and you should absolutely be getting some sort of ST medal every time you play 0-100. Double tapping is "safe" up to level 200. The one maneuver that is to be avoided after that is the I piece double tap left, rotate, and DAS left unless you reset lock delay after the rotation.
So to sums things up: Keep the stack clean and simpler than it is now Fill the overhangs as soon as possible Really really avoid holes in the center Manlock more and better DAS better I think I got already more bronze/silver ST with the "keep things simple" mindset. I might keep training like that for a while and then start the 400-500 manlock training.
