Quadra FAQ

The aim of the game is to achieve the most points. The number of points given out depends on a number of factors including:

1. Number of lines cleared with your last block
2. How many recursions were needed until everything settled into place
3. Level number you have reached

How do you clear lines you ask? Well, assume a setup like below consisting of 4 straight pieces:



Now the player drops a J piece into the position shown:



This will cause the whole 2nd line to vanish:



The rest of the J block will now fall down:



See how the rest of the J block fell down 2 rows? That is because it was free to do so. In Tetris, the remaining section of the J block would only fall down 1 row.

Here is the coding from the game itself:

switch(depth) {
    case 1: score_add = 250; break;
    case 2: score_add = 500; break;
    case 3: score_add = 1000; break;
    case 4: score_add = 2000; break;
    default: score_add = 200 * depth * depth; break;
}
int complexity_points=1000*(complexity-1);
if(game->net_version()>=23)
    complexity_points=200*(complexity-1)*(complexity-1);
score_add += complexity_points;
if(send_for_clean && game->net_version()>=23) {
    int clean_points;
    if(depth<=4)
        clean_points=depth*1250;
    else
        clean_points=depth*depth*500;
    score_add += clean_points;
}
score_add += (score_add/10)*level;
stats[SCORE].add(score_add);

Depth is the number of lines you just cleared. Complexity is the number of recursions it took before everything fell into place. net_version is the version of the game you are playing, which is different than the Quadra version. In single player, net_version will be 23 or higher for the latest version. send_for_clean indicates that a clean canvas was achieved.

So if you can follow that good! If not here is a list of scores for level 1 going up to a depth of 10 with all different complexity levels:

Depth	Complexity	Score	Score with Clean
D	C	S	S+C
1	1	275	1650
2	1	550	3300
2	2	770	3520
3	1	1100	5225
3	2	1320	5445
3	3	1980	6105
4	1	2200	7700
4	2	2420	7920
4	3	3080	8580
4	4	4180	9680
5	1	5500	19250
5	2	5720	19470
5	3	6380	20130
5	4	7480	21230
5	5	9020	22770
6	1	7920	27720
6	2	8140	27940
6	3	8800	28600
6	4	9900	29700
6	5	11440	31240
6	6	13420	33220
7	1	10780	37730
7	2	11000	37950
7	3	11660	38610
7	4	12760	39710
7	5	14300	41250
7	6	16280	43230
7	7	18700	45650
8	1	14080	49280
8	2	14300	49500
8	3	14960	50160
8	4	16060	51260
8	5	17600	52800
8	6	19580	54780
8	7	22000	57200
8	8	24860	60060
9	1	17820	62370
9	2	18040	62590
9	3	18700	63250
9	4	19800	64350
9	5	21340	65890
9	6	23320	67870
9	7	25740	70290
9	8	28600	73150
9	9	31900	76450
10	1	22000	77000
10	2	22220	77220
10	3	22880	77880
10	4	23980	78980
10	5	25520	80520
10	6	27500	82500
10	7	29920	84920
10	8	32780	87780
10	9	36080	91080
10	10	39820	94820

The best way to learn how to play single player games well is to watch the world top score replays. See the replay section for how to do this. But I will demonstrate how to clear 11 lines at once.

You could build up the blocks like so:



Now a Square piece is added which completes a line:



The line is cleared and the stacked straight pieces fall into the hole:



Now another 10 lines are completed, making a total of 11 lines completed by dropping just 1 piece in! This leaves:



Doing this kind of move is usually called a "Build Up", as you build up all the blocks then remove heaps of them at once.

As a beginner, you should try to do build ups on the early levels, and then concentrate on staying alive once you get to the higher levels. But once you get more experienced you should find that you will be able to do big build ups on higher levels where the blocks fall faster. Learning how to use the left rotate and the right rotate buttons is also very important and will help you place the blocks in the right positions on the faster levels.