Garbage sent per line clear
A reference for garbage to help me send garbage more efficiently in Tetris guideline games. Sourced from Tetris fandom wiki.
| Name | Garbage sent | Back-to-Back? |
| Single | 0 | |
| Double | 1 | |
| Triple | 2 | |
| Tetris | 4 | ✅ |
| T-spin single | 2 | ✅ |
| T-spin double | 4 | ✅ |
| T-spin triple | 6 | ✅ |
| Perfect Clear | 10 |
Things to remember:
- Tetris and T-spins are considered "difficult" line clears that award back-to-back bonuses, which send 1 extra line per back-to-back
- Skimming lines (clearing singles) sends no garbage
- Fill out your T-spins so you send a double instead of a single
If you have any other tips related to sending garbage efficiently in Tetris, feel free to drop it in the comments.
Garbage bonus in Tetris Effect: Connected Zone battles
When clearing lines in Zone attacks, a bonus is applied, allowing you to send more garbage. Here's an abridged reference. The more full your zone meter is before starting zone (indicated as a percentage below), the more attack power you will have. The multiple values in a cell mean that the garbage is sent in a number of chunks.
| Name | Lines | 75% | 100% |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2 | 3 | 3 | |
| 3 | 4 | 4 | |
| Tetris | 4 | 6 | 6 |
| 5 | 7 | 7 | |
| 6 | 7 | 9 | |
| 7 | 8 | 11 | |
| Octoris | 8 | 9 | 12 |
| 9 | 10 | 13 | |
| 10 | 10, 2 | 15 | |
| 11 | 10, 3 | 15, 1 | |
| Dodecatris | 12 | 10, 4 | 15, 3 |
| 13 | 10, 5 | 15, 4 | |
| 14 | 10, 6 | 15, 6 | |
| 15 | 10, 8 | 15, 7 | |
| Decahexatris | 16 | 10, 9 | 15, 9 |
| 17 | 10, 10 | 15, 10 | |
| Perfectris | 18 | 11, 10 | 15, 12 |
| 19 | 12, 10 | 15, 13 | |
| Ultimatris | 20 | 14, 14 | 17, 17 |
| Kirbtris | 21 | 16, 16, 4 | 18, 18, 10 |
| Impossibilitris | 22 | 18, 18, 10 | 20, 20, 12, 20 |
| Infinitris | 23 | 20, 20, 20 | 20, 20, 20, 20 |
| Electris | 24+ | ? | ? |
Information sourced from the Tetris wiki where you can find values for less-filled zone meters.
Combo garbage
In Tetris Effect: Connected, combos are not rewarded as highly as other Tetris games. According to this reference, Tetris Effect: Connected rewards the least for combos while Tetris 99 rewards the most.
Even within TE:C, when Zone is enabled, the combo rewards are smaller, which is very reasonable considering a bonus is already awarded depending on the number of total lines cleared in zone.
Below is a reference for garbage awarded for combos in TE:C, during regular play as well as when zone is enabled. Source is here.
| Combo | Regular | Zone enabled |
| 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | 2 | 2 |
| 5 | 2 | 2 |
| 6 | 2 | 2 |
| 7 | 3 | 2 |
| 8 | 3 | 2 |
| 9 | 3 | 2 |
| 10 | 3 | 3 |
| 11 | 3 | 3 |
| 12 | 3 | 3 |
| 13 | 4 | 3 |
| 30 | 26 |
TE:C rewards combos less than other Tetris games. A lesser combo bonus means that mechanics like 4-widing and 3-widing have less power in TE:C compared to other games like Tetris 99. From what I've seen, 4-widing is not frequently used in TE:C and when it is, it appears to mostly be used as a defence mechanism to nerf a strong zone rather than to attack. Since you do not receive garbage from your opponent until you stop clearing lines, keeping a combo going delays the garbage (while you counter it). In Tetris 99, however, combos are more highly rewarded so 4-widing is a useful mechanic as an attack strategy, so it's more popular in Tetris 99.
Further Reading
- A thread about 4-widing and the combo bonus: reddit.com/r/Tetris99/comments/gblgg4/why_i..
- A thread about stalling to avoid garbage (in games that support it, e.g. Tetris 99): reddit.com/r/Tetris/comments/dnxy1z/why_do_..
- Combos (known as REN in Japanese): tetris.wiki/Combo