Tetris DS Catch strategy?

Can anyone give some tips on a good strategy for Catch mode? I can't even get to 2 million. The pieces start falling too fast and my core looks like crap.


What's the best way to get a high score? Try to get really big cores before detonating? Try to kill lots of metroids? Thanks!

[Sully]

Here's some advice:


-Start at level 15. I find anything higher to be just too fast.

-Don't feel the need to catch every piece. If something doesn't fit, just let it go past.

-Try to build two large areas, avoiding 4x4 on both for as long as possible. Once you activate one, join them together by filling in any gaps between them, creating a very large detonation area

-Uness you're going to "die," never detonate early. Add as much size as you can during the detonation countdown.


I'm not sure exactly how scoring works, particularly with metroids. I always just did my best to have the largest area upon detonation. My top score is just over 12 million (avg 300k per detonation), but I think a great run will net 20 million (500k per detonation). The biggest problem is that one misplaced piece can totally screw up your game.

my max level is only 13 x_x

[Billmaan]

-Start at level 15. I find anything higher to be just too fast.Sorry, but I have to disagree with this. Level 20 felt "too fast" to me for quite a while, but if you really want a high score you need to get used to it. It just takes time. Eventually it'll be manageable.



I don't recall the scoring details exactly, but it's something like this:

- detonation score is 100 * (det. area)^2 * level

- each piece you hit with the explosion is worth 100 * level

- each metroid you hit with the explosion is worth 1000 * level


I agree that 20 million is well within the realm of possibility.

[Bander87]

This may be for another topic, but has anyone experience a bug in catch mode where you have no center piece?


I have experienced this once and couldn't catch anything.

[tepples]

As I understand catch's falling algorithm, it's supposed to put the center piece back after gravity happens.

[Sully]

-Start at level 15. I find anything higher to be just too fast.Sorry, but I have to disagree with this. Level 20 felt "too fast" to me for quite a while, but if you really want a high score you need to get used to it. It just takes time. Eventually it'll be manageable.


I don't recall the scoring details exactly, but it's something like this:
- detonation score is 100 * (det. area)^2 * level
- each piece you hit with the explosion is worth 100 * level
- each metroid you hit with the explosion is worth 1000 * level

I agree that 20 million is well within the realm of possibility.


I've played a bunch of Catch and I score a lot higher on level 15. I've had detonations worth 800k+ before on level 15. Maybe I just need to practice on level 20 more, but I doubt I'll ever be able to build surface areas as big as I do on level 15. As for newer Catch players, I think jumping right into level 20 is foolish. You've got to get a good grip on the gameplay before playing at that speed. Heck, I consider myself to be pretty good and I can't score for shit on level 20.


As for scoring, Metroids can add 20k max? Hardly worth detonating early. It's clearly all about detonation area.