Tetris Attack/Combos

Combos are what it's called when more than 3 panels are matched at one time. These can be in one color group, two groups, or in some cases, even more groups. The important thing is that they happen at the exact same time. You will be notified of having achieved a combo by your character making a sound and a red box appearing with the number of panels matched inside it.

Combos are the easiest way to do things such as stop the screen in a one-player mode, or put a garbage block on your opponent in a vs. mode. They also get you bonus points when there is a score. For general playing, before making a match, always take a moment to look and see if there is a way to make it a combo. 4’s and 5’s aligned vertically are usually really easy to spot and set up, and just that little extra goes a long way if you can consistently find them.

Panel switch combos
These are the easiest combos to make, because all you have to do is switch 2 panels. You can make anywhere from a 4 combo to a 14 combo this way.

1 set of panels
Note that plain gray panels seen in some screenshots are simply part of the game’s demonstration, and can represent any non-matching panels.

Panel drop combos
These combos are caused by either dropping the final piece into the combo, or by removing a panel that then causes others to fall and make a combo.

Other combos
Another way to get a combo, and one which often happens accidentally, is by matching multiple vertical sets when the next row gets added to the bottom of the screen. If you want, you can purposely cause these to occur. As you start to see the next row, change the panels around so that additional matches will be made.

A similar method is by using Garbage blocks. As your garbage blocks are changing into panels, the bottom ones change first, and so you can use the time it takes for higher blocks to change to organize your panels underneath so that when the converted garbage blocks finally fall, multiple matches are made.

You can also sometimes make combos within a chain.

In creating a skill chain, you can create unusually large combos with even just one set of blocks, such as the pictured 8 and 9 combos. Even larger are possible, though frequently take a lot of setup time.