I’m no champion player, but I know a thing or two about getting high-scores. I’d like to impart a bit of my method or wisdom on playing this classic puzzle game. Perhaps you already play well and don’t need this mini-how-to, maybe you could even teach me a thing or two. In any case it’s short and might contain some good advice.

Winning at Tetris is not unlike hitchhiking across the galaxy, well… OK, it’s nothing like it, in fact, it’s quite the opposite, however, the core advice for galaxy trekking is the same for Tetris; “Don’t Panic”.

Panic is the enemy. When you get a tall stack a mere five or less lines from the top of the board you can pull it out and get back on track with a lower stack, but the key is to stay calm, don’t get flustered by the speed of the dropping pieces or the shape, all the shapes are workable. Once you get past the idea that z’s and s’s are certain death, you’ll be able to accomplish higher scores than even I.

Keep your stack low. Try to not go above ten lines high, there really isn’t any reason to go higher unless you’ve screwed up or panicked.

Learn how to think about your next pieces placement as you’re placing the current piece.

On the higher, faster level’s keep your stack even lower, you can achieve a much higher score by playing a single line game from level 30 on, the speed is so high at this point if you try to maintain a stack for Tetris-ing, you’ll surely fail around one million or so points, which is not very high in the scheme of things.

On the lower, slower levels try to keep your stack open in the middle as opposed to the sides, it’s much easier to align a stick into the middle then trying to get it down the side.

If you happen to get a piece that won’t fit in the stack—and this happens all the time—drop it somewhere that’ll cause the smallest hole then work on cleaning that hole out before trying to continue your stack.

That’s about all the wisdom I can spew on this particular subject, I would love feedback from other high-score players, and see if I can’t learn a new trick or two.