Guide to Tetris Battle on Facebook: Tips, tricks, hints, cheats and strategies

Tetris Battle is a very popular new competition version of the world's most classic puzzle game of all time, taking all of the essential gameplay elements of the classic Soviet puzzle game (and of course, the Game Boy smash hit from the late '80s) and adds in the necessary multiplayer modes and social elements that you would expect on Facebook.

There are multiple modes of gameplay in the game. The first is the 2 player battle, which is more or less the "main play mode", where you battle to see who can knock off more lines, throw more blocks into each other's screens, and knock each other out of the game.

The second is the 4 player sprint, which is fairly self-descriptive, as 4 players race to 40 lines cleared.

The third is the 6 player battle, which is basically a 6-player version of the  two player mode, where six players battle for supremacy, trying to knock each other out and trying to clear the most overall lines.

The fourth and final play mode is the Old Navy Challenge, which is a single-player time attack mode to see how quickly you can knock out 40 lines.

For tips on all four modes of play, as well as the game in general, read on...

The second-player mode is arguably the most fun mode of play, as it's simply 2 players trying to knock each other out of the game. There are a few keys to the game. 

The main key is speed. You want to try to use the space-bar "instant drop" as often as possible, at least when you know where your brick is going. The faster you are, the more lines you will have the potential to knock out.

The second key is COMBINATION LINES. A single line won't count for anything it's part of a line combo, in which case a 2 line combo counts for 1 line of brick in the opposing player's screen, a 3-line combo counts for 2, and a 4-liner counts for 4 lines. When you string together combinations of cleared lines, they will count for even more lines of brick, which can very quickly flood your opponent's screen.

In this mode, you should completely ignore single-liners, because for the most part, they are worthless. You should try for 4-liners as often as possible, because they will very rapidly flood your opposition's screen, rack up your cleared-lines total, and guarantee you an easy win.

In the four player sprint and in the Old Navy Challenge, speed is key. It doesn't matter whether you knock off one line or 4 lines at a time, because if you knock off lines faster than the other guy, you will win. In this case, you should place your piece and hit the space bar as QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE to speed the game along.

In the six-player mode, each individual line counts (whether for 1 or 4), but whether or not you sned any blocks into any of the other players' sides is similar to the two player mode; if you only knock off one line, you won't send any brick blocks into the other players' screens, but if you knock off combos of 2 or more, or if you string together chains of lines, you will send bricks into their screens and make it possible to knock them out.

In order to clear off extra lines, take advantage of bricks that your opponent sends your way. Drop a piece right onto the glowing nuclear "bomb" brick, and you will clear out that whole line, and it will count the same as a line, and if you have a stack of 2 or more nuclear "bomb" bricks on top of each other, you can drop a piece right on the top one, and it will knock out both of the lines. Theoretically, it's possible to knock out 5 or even 6 lines at a time.

That's all for now! More tips? Post as comments!