I'd like to get better at Push mode. I know some of you guys are pretty good and I've heard people say that the level 5 CPU stinks, yet I don't beat him consistently. Aside from not plugging the hold and hitting triples with J and L, what other strats should I work on? I find myself particularly confused when the "stack" is at a very minimal amount.
i can pretty consistently beat level 5 cpu with the following strategy that i read somewhere, however i have had limited success pulling it off on wifi, and probably a lot of opponents wondering, "what the hell...." the first two pieces are important, the first to lay over the lower start block and the second to lay over the upper one to get 'control' of the well. after that, i throw a bunch of garbage down, to make maybe 4-6 lines total, including the area between the start blocks. and i mean messy garbage, that would take a little while to clear, as that is what the cpu will eventually need to do to minimize the stack, which seems to be its underlying goal. i find that the cpu is good at figuring out which column you are going to be making lines in, and can dig to it pretty fast rendering most tetris attempts useless. so this technique gives you the time to build a tetris while using the garbage lines as a buffer. usually 2-4 tetrises is all it takes to get the cpu flustered and then most anything will finish them off. overall, not a great strategy, but more of an exploit to limit the cpu's ability to get to your I-hole. i can win about 75% of games this way, especially given a good starting scenario. it's sort of hard to describe in writing what i mean, but does this help at all?
Yeah, I could do with some push tips. I enjoy playing it, and I'm not bad because I'm good at the Tetris side, but I'm totally screwed at how to play when a 2-4 block hole opens up down one side. All I can do is shove pieces down the hole and wait for my opponent to make the first move.
There are two techniques I know of for dealing with holes wider than one block. For a double wide hole, you want to leave a shelf one block wide and then build up next to it at least two blocks tall, then quickly drop and S-L or Z-J combo (depending on which side it's on.) Code: xxxxxxx zxxxxxxx jjzxxxxxxx xxxxxxx zzxxxxxxx jzzxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx zxxxxxxxx jzxxxxxxxx For a triple wide hole, you want the same kind of initial set up, but you're going to want to wait for a pair of Js or a pair of Ls, again depending which side you're working on. Code: xxxxxx lxxxxxx llllxxxxxx xxxxxx lllxxxxxx llllxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx xxxxxxx For a hole that's four-or-more blocks wide, you're either going to have to wait out your opponent or just go for it.
Right off the bat I usually move the piece I have one space to the right and then drop it. It's especially good if it's an S, because then 3 of the opponent's top row spaces are taken up, as well as one of yours.
