Tetris 2(NES) FAQ by Andrew Schultz schultz.andrew@sbcglobal.net
Version 1.0.0 copyright 2006

Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting 
much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and 
I just wanted to save a memory of a great game and the odd solutions any way 
I could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if 
you'd like to post it on your site.

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            OUTLINE

  1. INTRODUCTION

  2. GENERAL

    2-1. CONTROLS

    2-2. POINTS

    2-3. INTERLUDES

  3. CHEATS AND STRATEGIES

  4. VERSIONS

  5. CREDITS

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  1. INTRODUCTION

Tetris 2 features falling 4-blocks like the original Tetris only with a few 
differences. First, no boxes! (Yay.) Second, you have Y- and extended L-
shaped pieces you can break off to sneak smaller sub-pieces in. And matches 
are decided not by filling a whole row but by getting a column/row of 3 of 
the same color. You have solid blocks to start out with, much like Dr Mario, 
but instead of clearing everything out you only need to clear out the bottom 
three solid blocks--one of each color, green, yellow and red, to get to the 
next level. After which a whole new bunch of solid bricks appears.

You also can make all non-solid blocks of one color vanish with a 6-pair, or 
if you clear the bottom solid block, all the other solids go. You can also 
break up a piece that's landed. Gravity works but as pieces fall, they are 
attached until a sub-square of the piece becomes part of a row/column.

Most of the fun of Tetris 2 is when you can drill down to let a single block 
move around the bottom to facilitate a match. Or figuring how to do this 
elegantly.

This game doesn't have much of a walkthrough--you can start at level 30 and 
work your way up to level 90--but it has plenty of nuances and even some cut 
scenes. Given that the emphasis is more on intricate solutions than survival, 
the game is a bit less mechanical. But the last few levels are similar and 
will probably kick your butt the first ten times.

In this FAQ solids refer to what's there at the start and softs refer to what 
you drop.

  2. GENERAL

    2-1. CONTROLS

A = clockwise rotate
B = counterclockwise rotate

Rotation works as follows: you will rotate around a center piece unless there 
is no clear obvious one. If in doubt quickly rotate and un-rotate to see 
where the center is. This means different things for

 b
yy
r

Which y does it rotate around?

OR with a 4-long, where does it fall? For broken-up pieces it is pretty 
obvious where they need to rotate around.

There are noncontiguous pieces where if part of one lands, you can move the 
other part(s) around. These noncontiguous pieces are helpful for filling in 
gaps.

Down speeds things up and you can go left/right too.
Select=pause

Low speed=3
Medium=6
High=9
Speed increases for each minute you cannot solve around. I've been able to 
navigate on 14 speed, but that was at a lower level. Usually, you want to get 
going quickly and make a hole far down.

    2-2. POINTS

You can get a bonus of up to 1000*(level #) if you get things finished 
quickly. I used 4 pieces on level 3 and got 3000 and managed 11000 on 9 with 
some good luck. Still you get more points on average for just grinding it out 
and you need a little luck to get the bonus.

As for single matches: 10 for each non-star, 20 for each star. Sum up the 
total of all rows and columns formed. So if you have a row of 2 stars and 2 
building pieces, that means you get 60 points.

Then you get more for each column/row in a chain. In fact the point total 
doubles. Let's look at 2 ways to do things.

G
GRY
vvv
GR
GR

The above would net 70 points for squares, but you would get a multiplier of 
2. So it would be 140 total. Any chain reactions after would get the 
multiplier doubled again.
  G
  GYY
  v
 R
 R
GG
 RR

Here you would get 40 points for the first fall(green) + 30*2 for the red.

You do not get any points after you knock out the last solid block to solve a 
level.

    2-3. INTERLUDES

Level 10: distant star goes DL down the screen. Crashes and explodes.

Level 20: glowing ball drops in the noon desert. Person takes ball and 
carries it off the screen.

Level 30: person carries ball from right of center to center. Then it 
levitates and vanishes off the top of the screen.

Level 40: ball spins to center of galaxy, squares latch on to it and it glows 
and bursts. The screen says "TETRIS 2".

Level 50: dark view of mountains. Flash in the night sky. Meteor shower 
eventually fades away.

Level 60: glowing ball drops in the noon desert. Dinosaur notes it and head-
butts it left off the screen.

Level 70: dinosaur continues to head-butt it. It levitates. Dinosaur gawks 
and tries to babble.

Level 80: same as 40.

Level 90: You see the crash, then the game ends.

    2-4. LEVEL SPECIFICATIONS

Each level has 3 solid blocks on the bottom and only 3 for you to zap to go 
to the next level. Each row on the level can have no more than 5 solids.

From level 1 to level 10, you have (2x+4) pieces up to row (x+2). This means 
two solid blocks per row on average--in fact, one row will have fewer than 
two. But from then on it gets trickier.

From level 11 to level 30, you still have (2x+4) pieces. The # of rows 
increases every 5 levels, up to 18 at level 70. However, after 30 the # of 
pieces increases by 2 at 5x/5x+2, until 40. Then it increasesat 5x, up to a 
maximum of 80 at 80.

What this means is that levels start out sparse enough to be able to drop 
stuff to the bottom and you should be able to drop 2 of 1 color down pretty 
regularly until level 11, when you don't get any more rows, but you start 
getting more solids.

    2-5. SHAPE BREAKDOWNS

Shapes appear based first randomly based on shape than on all possible 
shape/color combos. It seems they are mostly tri-colored, with the exception 
being occasional L's and 4-longs. The color with 2 squares has them linked.

First, let's go with the discontinuous ones.

. .
 .
 .

There are 12 different such pieces...you can have

r y r r
 b   y
 b   b

Or any other color permutation.

This can be very handy indeed if you need to slip something into a corner 
somewhere. If you need to drop 2 blocks down a chute, place the stem on its 
side so one can follow another. A trick you can play is to move one square 
left while the other doesn't i.e.

rgr
y y
 g

Above, you can move the bottom guy left/right but not the top. Even at high 
speeds you can also ush a 1-square left and right pretty far, so you could 
move a green down the chute here. Mqaybe even a red to follow. Remember to 
take your time moving it down, and you can pitch the other bits. It's that 
valuable-though sometimes you can find a nice purpose for a single square in 
any case. Sometimes you can use both of them to make separate matches.

  ggrryy
     G R Y

 ..
.
.

Not quite as useful, you have to let one of these drop before placing the 
other one. Still you have a 1x2 you can place and while you may need to 
rotate it, it can also get rid of something at/near the bottom immediately.

Note this also rotates around the square between the diagonal ends--so it is 
easy to see where it rotates, but you can sometimes forget if you are not 
careful.

. . .
      .

This rotates about the edge of a square but it's easy to remember as the 
rotations can't go off-kilter by a square. The rotations are intuitive 
enough.

.x.. .... .x.. ....
.x.. .xxx ..x. ...x
.x.. x... ..x. xxx.
..x. .... ..x. ....

While it's tough to leave the 3-wide hanging around, it's nice to have a 
single box to manipulate.

Now, let's go to the continuous ones. They are the same shapes as in Tetris, 
but the box, which nobody likes anyway, is gone.

. . . .

This is a pain to wedge in somewhere or rotate(hard to visualize, 
asymmetrical) but it is very nice monochrome if you have a 2-up columnm as it 
will delete all soft blocks of that color. If it is monochrome then you have 
a free go.

Sometimes it's more advisable to place this over the edge of a pit than drop 
it in somewhere i.e.

y
y
g
r
v

r
r

This greates a yyg where there was a r--too much to work at. But if you place 
the R on the edge and chop off the g or yy later, you are home free.

. . .
    .

(and mirror image)

A somewhat nasty piece because you can't control where the 2 colors are. 
However often you can leave it hanging over an edge for later. Let's say you 
have:
 y
 g
rg

r r
 g

Now you can't get a green match, but place this piece down and the next red 
will get a green match too.
Of course you can also plug it into a side hole i.e.

   y 
r  g
 <rg
r

  .
. . .

Another piece where going for an immediate match may not be so good i.e.
  r
y r g

y . g

The above is better than a rotation where the y's/g's don't match up. 
Remember that you can rotate something around pretty quickly too if need be. 
You can also plug this into a side hole i.e.

r  y
 <rr
r  g

Also note:
  g        g
r g y != y g r

This probably doesn't make a difference outside of tight quarters, but in 
them, aligning the r/y correctly may cost precious space.

This is also a handy piece to place then rotate i.e.

r g
  |
  g-r
  |
r y g

...and rotate twice!

..
 ..

(and mirror image)

This one is a bit tricky. You can place it over a hole but not like this 
unless you have a way out and the payback is good, as it takes two pieces:

yg
 gr

y r

  3. STRATEGIES

--the classic Tetris rule of planning one square in advance waiting for an 
item to fall works here, especially since score isn't based on speed.
--it's harder to do a hasty match that blocks out another potential one than 
to juggle a couple of pieces and do it right. There will be obvious moves, 
and there will be matches that block the second one. Go with the former and 
learn what is the latter(blocking passages down w/o a way through) and break 
it up.
--carving a path to the bottom is your #1 priority. Once you do, you can 
often slip two pairs of single squares in there if need be--or a 1x2.
--note that if you lose and choose to continue, you have the same starting 
layout again too. This really helps with strategy, and I think it's fair 
because there's always a match to make and you may just need the right 
pieces--and unlike many other Tetris variants you have a chance of trying 
several different ways to work out a puzzle.
--It's more likely you'll pick off a bottom solid from the side on later 
levels, but in case you do get a way down, be sure you don't plug it up. In 
fact if there are 3-4 different colored pieces above, don't try to work down 
except with obvious blocks(i.e. monochrome).
--Later levels may look intimidating with all those solids and while no three 
in a row match there will be several adjacent pairs you can break open for 
later use.
--Remember that even if a path is open at the bottom, you may struggle with 
the top. Don't worry. The right pieces do come along. Take time just treading 
water--practice that.
--On the early levels don't even worry about the top gems unless they're 
blocking what's below--and even if they are, look for a way around them. 
You'll need more creative ways on later levels, so practice early.
--On later levels, the bonus really is up to luck. With the right piece combo 
you can break to the bottom quickly.
--note that if you keep getting a 3-match with each piece that falls, you 
tack on one soft block, which eventually kills things.
--4-matches are a wash, and if you can't make one, go for a 3-match with a 2-
match for future reference.
--if you have no good matches with this piece, see if you can plan a good 
double with the next.
--you can generally have confidence that any piece you leave above a long way 
down can be dropped later. Make sure if you balance a piece over the edge, 
you are able to quickly chop off the part that isn't over the edge, and you 
can make it fall.
--remember to keep track of matches you don't want to make i.e. you don't 
want to match the greens below but the reds.

g
g-r
  y
G y

Remember that it is more important to keep continuity than to get a separate 
match, i.e.

ry
yr

Is much tougher to break up than 

rr
yy

Matching can often wait a couple turns, but the mess above(ry/yr) will take 
several.

--It's worth misplacing a brick to get a solo square or two down into the 
bottom, or to make a path there.
--always have somewhere cool to place a single box--you never know when it 
might pop up.
--never sit back and admire your handiwork when you get a chain-match, 
whether or not you expected it. Concentrate on the next match to make.
--you can go for a chain reaction to knock out two bottom solids i.e.
 y
YR <rr and now you need a y
--in general vertical matches are good-luck ones and horizontal are good-
planning ones.
--try to leave 1 of each color exposed and of course if a monochrome 4 
appears in the next, try to make a pair it can land on to eliminate all of 
one color. This is almost always a great deal even if you are near knocking 
out a bottom solid.
--sometimes you can use what's above for a cheap match at the bottom i.e.

R
 < only need one red unit here.
R
--If you have 2 solids at the bottom next to each other, try to match one so 
that there isn't the wrong color next to it. This may take a few extra moves, 
but as above it'll save more later.
--Dirty emulator tricks: save states of course, but you can also have this 
FAQ open in another window and mouse-click it while playing to make a move--
and even read a few tips.

--cheat values: 0x340 = level.

End of FAQ Proper

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  4. VERSIONS

1.0.0 sent to GameFAQs 10/08/2006 complete, not much t9o do really

  5. CREDITS

Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should, 
too, because they get some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer, 
falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War 
Doc, AdamL and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet-
banned message board incarnation.
Thanks to the NES Completion Project folks for all their work, too. Helps 
keep me inspired.