Lesson 14: Death m

Death mode overview

Death mode starts at speeds similar to the ending of master mode. During the run from Lv.1 to 900 the delays shorten every section.

The torikan moment in death mode is at LV.500 if you reach it with more than 03:25:00 on the clock.
You will need to finish up to Lv.999 for the Gm rank.

IRS in death mode

Starting from LV.300 the ARE becomes extremely short which means you'll have to time your IRS input well. If the current block has not yet locked, you could easily rotate it by accident. You should release the rotate button as soon as you have rotated, but keep youself ready to hit it again as soon as the block locks. In this example: You shift the O to the left and wait for it to lock and then hold A. Rotate the L again while shifting to the left and then hold A. You shift the S to the right against the obstruction and rotate against it. This leaves room to IRS the I into position.

Manual locking, compromises and skimming

To get to Lv.500 before 03:25:00, you should get to Lv.300 in about 2 minutes. Manual locking changes in Lv.300 since the ARE is too short to effectively do so. Therefore you should play as fast as possible in early death mode. As seen in Lesson 11 manual locking is a great way to save time. In death you goal is not to clear only tetrisses, but to keep 2 columns open to the right so that you have many possibilities. You should also aim to form the stack in a rightwards sloping slope.

While it is in your best interests to keep a hole free terrain, these are cases where doing so would impede movement. In these cases we leave some easy to fixe holes so thet or possibilities of movement are still the same.

IRS after manual locking

To be able to get a good time and a nice rhythm in your game, you have to be able to use IRS after you manual lock a piece into play. However, the ARE will become exteremly short nearing the end of death mode. Lv.300 will feel slow compared to later levels, where if you hesitate even a little bit, the block will lock. What matters is to stack blocks on the left and clear lines on the right. Do keep an eye out for dangerous situations though. And do not try to be foolish and wait as long as possible to clear lines.