What to learn first? A learning path for beginners

A falling-block puzzle has a lot to learn: T-spins, perfect-clear stacking, the DT cannon and more. But every one of these techniques rests on “stacking cleanly without making holes”, and if you skip ahead, you end up taking the long way round. This page sets out what a beginner should learn, and in what order, in six stages. For each stage you will find the lessons to read, how to practise and when to move on.

The path at a glance

1. Get used to the controls: put each piece where you aim, without hesitating.
2. Stack without making holes: keep the surface flat and make no holes.
3. Clear lines with Quads: leave one well open and clear four lines at once with an I.
4. Use the next preview and hold: look at the pieces coming up and choose the order you place them in.
5. Learn T-spins: spin a T piece in to score big.
6. Move on to perfect-clear stacking and setups: learn set shapes and land them on purpose.

Stages 1 to 4 are the fundamentals; 5 and 6 are more advanced. You can practise all four fundamental stages in Basic Practice alone. The list of lessons also puts the lessons on the fundamentals in this order.

1. Get used to the controls

Your first goal is to be able to “put each piece where you aim, without hesitating”. You do not need to worry about speed yet.

• Read: “Basic controls: moving, rotating and dropping” and “The seven piece shapes and where they fit”
• Practice: use Free play in Basic Practice, and look at the ghost piece (the marker that shows where the piece will land) before every hard drop.
• Move on when: you can place almost every piece with a hard drop, without using soft drop.

2. Stack without making holes

The quickest way to improve is to avoid making holes. Just one hole means that row cannot be cleared for a while. Before you learn to clear lines, learn to stack without making holes.

• Read: “Flat stacking and managing steps” and “Six common beginner habits and how to fix them”
• Practice: aim for “ten pieces placed, zero holes” rather than for line clears.
• Move on when: you can place 20 pieces in a row without making a single hole.

3. Clear lines with Quads

Once you can stack without holes, learn how to clear lines. The first clear to learn is the Quad: leave one well open at the edge and clear four lines at once with an I.

• Read: “Stacking for Quads: leave one well open and clear with an I” and “What is 7-bag? How piece order works”
• Practice: in Basic Practice, play “40 lines (timed)” to the end, clearing mainly with Quads. Exactly ten Quads finish the 40 lines.
• Move on when: you can finish the 40 lines while making almost no holes.

4. Use the next preview and hold

Up to now you have only thought about “where to put the current piece”. At this stage, you also take into account the pieces you can see coming in the next preview when you place.

• Read: “How to use Hold” and “Look-ahead and elimination: reading the queue”
• Practice: get into the habit of looking at the first piece in the next preview before you place. If a piece has nowhere good to go, put it off with hold.
• Move on when: you hesitate less before placing, and your 40-line time starts to come down.

5. Learn T-spins

Once your Quads are consistent, move on to T-spins. A T-spin double scores 1200 points for two lines, more than the 800 of a Quad. In return, you have to build a shape that the T piece can spin into.

• Read: “Wall-kick rotation basics”, “Line clears and scoring” and “T-spin basics: the T-spin double”
• Practice: in Setup Drills, use “T-spin double” to learn the shape of the slot and how to put the T in.
• Move on when: you can land a T-spin double in the drill without looking at “Next move”.

6. Move on to perfect-clear stacking and setups

From here on, you learn set shapes and go for them. You can start with whichever you like. For perfect-clear stacking, we suggest starting with “Perfect Clear basics”; for opening setups, start with “TKI stacking: a T-spin double from the first seven pieces”. Perfect Clear Mode and Setup Drills let you practise the same shapes again and again.

Speed comes last

At every stage, accuracy comes first and speed comes later. In the end, going slowly without making holes does more for both your times and your scores than rushing and making holes. Once you no longer hesitate over your placements, speed follows naturally.