The main goal of Tetris is to drop Tetriminos into the playfield and clear lines to gain points. A line or row is cleared when all 10 columns in the row are filled. One of the most common strategies for doing this is called 9-0 stacking, better known as a side Tetris well/rightwell, which is when you leave a one-column stack on either the left or right side of the stack, leaving opportunities for clearing Tetrises. This is a great place to start if you want to improve your score.

Stacking cleanly refers to flat stacking for a clean and accommodating stack with few or no bumps. And the best way to see that in action is what's known as the 9-0 stack. When building this, the number one thing to keep in mind is that one of the side columns needs to be empty. As long as you can maintain this, you are 9-0 stacking. Traditionally, this is done on the right, but a 9-0 still works perfectly fine if the hole is on the left instead.


Stacking cleanly, however, can be a bit more tricky. The main thing to think about is how pieces connect together. Ultimately, learning to stack cleanly doesn’t really have any shortcuts, as it’s something that’s entirely based on intuition. The only way to get better at stacking cleanly is to play more Tetris.

Once you’ve gotten the hang of stacking cleanly, you can try to start to offset the Tetris well towards the center. The name “9-0” stacking refers to the width of the stacks on each side of the Tetris well; in 9-0’s case, nine columns to the left, zero to the right.

Rather than relying on a single well all the way off to the side, many players prefer to deal with smaller sections of the field at a time. A common form of freestyle stacking is 6-3, where a three-wide stack is on the right-hand side. This can be quickly made using the L, O, and J-pieces, as seen below.


This stacking is more popular due to its ease of use and ability to form T-Spin setups at the very top of a flat 6-3 stack.

While any form of freestyle stacking (8-1, 7-2, or 5-4 stacking as well) can give you advanced setups (don't worry, we'll explain that soon), it can be a bit more counterintuitive or leave you relying too much on a certain piece to work. You can try any of these options and see what works best for you, as long as you maintain a constant stack width on each side of the Tetris well. Eventually though, you will always make a mistake, and that leads us to...

By now you’ve learned how to build stacks, now it’s time to discuss the opposite; clearing them. You might be wondering, “Clearing lines is simple; why would I need to learn how to do that?” The thing is, there will be situations where you make a mistake while upstacking, and your stack will become messy. In these kinds of scenarios, clearing the lines to get back to your normal stack will be easier said than done. That’s where more complicated downstacking comes in handy.


The best thing to keep in mind for downstacking is how each Tetrimino clears lines; not just how many lines they clear, but also what’ll be left behind after you perform a line clear. If you're struggling with getting a grip on this concept, try Purify Mode (see the Effects Mode guide for more).

As for kicking a piece, Modern Tetris games follow a specific rotation system, the Super Rotation System (commonly referred to as SRS). This system dictates how the piece rotation behaves in the matrix. Pieces typically rotate around a given center point; however, there’ll be situations where a piece can’t use that center point to rotate. This is where the kicking mechanic comes in. What kicks do is change the center of rotation of the piece, allowing the piece to still rotate, albeit a bit differently. There's plenty of ways to use this, but one stands far above the rest, and it's known as a T-Spin.

A T-spin is a type of tuck/spin using the T piece. In guideline versions of Tetris, a spin is considered a T-spin if three “corners” are filled. You can tell when you hear a clunk sound when you rotate.

The first thing to look for when it comes to setting up a T-spin is a T-shaped hole in your stack. If you have one of those, you can create an easy T-spin setup by simply creating a small overhang.

This image shows what boxes are checked to determine if the placed T is a T-spin. If at least 3 of the 4 red boxes are filled by other Tetriminos when the T piece is placed, it is considered a T-spin. Check out two examples below. One's a T-Spin Double, which clears two lines with a T-Spin, and the other is an advanced strategy known as a T-Spin Triple. See if you can figure out how the setup works!



Although not rewarded by the game in the same way T-Spins are, you can use spins with other pieces to fix your stack more efficiently. L/J are really flexible, but for S/Z, you need to keep the orientation of the piece in mind. Spinning L/J or S/Z to clear a double can lead to a perfect clear



When you see somewhere where your piece may fit, don’t be afraid to try to fit it there; chances are you can spin it in the hole if you try enough! Tetris Effect also has some modes to let you practice the most useful spins (All Clear mode for example)

In the end, learning stacking is best done through practice. Even top players will misdrop, but knowing how to get out of those situations is the key to keeping a run alive.

Want to learn even more? Check out the official Tetris Effect community server over at https://discord.gg/YWBBN6XCKX for advice and discussions!




Special Thanks to the following users for their help building the Community Guide:

sschr15, Commando, Your local Furry, Oshisaure, Davotigger, Yoshimi, PolicyChanges, Bijatron, Ferox, Kirby703, Eclipse, Adventium_, andrew4043, Safyire, Creative Name, bittobaito