Hi my name is Mamko and I’m currently ranked third in the marathon rankings with a score of 712500. And I’m making this guide for all you people who want to get the 50 point achievement “Marathon diamond” and/or want to get a high marathon ranking online (and kick j_core off his first place 
).
The goal of the marathon mode is to score as much points as possible in 150 lines.
So how do you score points? Don’t worry I’ve made a point list.
Basic point list:
@ all levels
Fast dropping: 1 point per line (Do this with the “down” key)
Hard dropping: 2 points per line (Do this with the “up” key)
@ Level 1
Clearing 1 line: 100 points
Clearing 2 lines: 300 points
Clearing 3 lines: 500 points
Clearing 4 lines: 800 points (Also called tetris)
Tetris Back2back: 1200 points (Doing a tetris twice without clearing any other lines)
On level 2 points for clearing lines will be multiplied by 2, on level 15 it will be multiplied by 15. Hence the level 15 point list is:
@ level 15
Clearing 1 line: 1500 points
Clearing 2 lines: 4500 points
Clearing 3 lines: 7500 points
Clearing 4 lines: 12000 points (Also called tetris)
Tetris Back2back: 18000 points (Doing a tetris twice without clearing any other lines)
Marathon Diamond
When you look at the scoring point lists I hope you can conclude from them that to achieve “Marathon diamond” you have to do a lot of back2back tetris on level 15.
You have 150 lines so if you won’t do a tetris at all your maximum score on level 15 will be
50*7500 = 375000 (50 times clearing 3 lines makes 150 lines).
So practice back2back tetris!
The marathon will display the message “game over” if you cleared 150 lines or higher. So it is possible to clear 152 lines with b2b tetris @ level 15 giving you 152:4 = 38 times tetris.
This will result in 1 normal tetris and 37 tetris b2b scores.
Ill do the math for you
: 1*12000 + 37*18000 = 678000 points
Familiar? Could be because this is the score three people have ranked top 10 with, check it online on your mobile.
Even though 678000 points sound nice it’s not the maximum score with b2b tetris for marathon mode, the perfect score would be a 153 lines total: first clear one line and then make 38 b2b tetris.
Resulting in: 1*1500 + 1*12000 + 37*18000 =679500
Personally I would recommend some hard drops before u place the last b2b tetris to really maximize your score.
So what about marathon diamond?
Ok I’m sorry, I know what you’re thinking, you already knew that you had to do a lot of b2b tetris for “marathon diamond”. But you now want to know how to do it!
The easiest way to achieve “marathon diamond” is indeed to do 28 b2b tetris on level 15 but it still isn’t easy!
So here are some tips for scoring b2b tetris and playing on level 15 in general.
Tip 1: Think faster!
Practice on level 15 get used to the pace of the game. Making b2b tetris on level 1 is nothing compared to its level 15 equivalent.
Tip 2: One big block
The best way to make b2b tetris is to make one big block with a width of 9 blocks leaving exactly one long trench for your light blue tetris piece to fit in.
Like this:
Tip 3: Know your blocks!
Look at the incoming tetris pieces and know which piece is on hold. You can put one tetris piece on hold (top left corner) to do this press the "zero" key. Gives the game the extra depth, makes it a lot more skill-based and diminishes the factor luck. Master it and abuse it! (My main tetris piece on hold is the light blue one)
Tip 4: Juggling?
Is the game going to fast, you don’t yet know where to put that next piece? Don’t worry, just juggle! When a tetris piece falls on another piece it won’t be stuck in place immediately, you still have a split second to move it (otherwise the game would be unplayable). You can abuse this split second by moving the piece from left to right juggling it without it being stuck in place, giving you time to think and watch at the tetris pieces that are coming and the piece that’s on hold. Pressing the "centre" button rapidly works too but is less reliable.
Tip 5: Play flat
Playing as flat as possible is necessary for the reliable making of b2b tetris. If you don’t play as flat as possible trenches will appear in your game, making you dependant on a particular piece to fill up the trench. The only way to fill up a 2 block deep trench is by using a orange/dark blue tetris piece (the L-shaped ones) or a light blue Tetris piece. Filling up a 3 block deep trench or higher can only be done with the light blue Tetris piece, and that's also the only piece u can score a b2b Tetris with so just make sure u don’t create too many deep trenches. A few trenches here and there shouldn’t be a problem with proper use of the “on hold” button. But too many trenches will just wreck up your game, forcing you to make a mistake in your “one big block” mentioned in tip 2. So the easiest way to maintain the “one big block” is by playing as flat as possible without a big dependency on particular Tetris pieces.
Here a showcase to make it easier to understand.
The trenches in this game can only be filled with the Tetris pieces that are falling down. Any other Tetris piece would just worsen the state of the showcase game.
Tip 6: Advanced spinning?
Making mistakes is almost impossible to avoid. With 150 lines to clear in marathon mode you will probably make a few mistakes, don’t worry don’t restart immediately maybe there is still hope to maintain b2b Tetris scoring or your “one big block”. A mistake in your Tetris game will create holes in your “one big block” and with these holes you can’t optimize your b2b Tetris scoring. But some holes can be filled with the advanced spinning techniques of the following 4 pieces. To us these techniques just have setup similar to the following showcases and let your Tetris piece drop to the bottom in the same way. Just before the Tetris piece is dropped stuck in place press the “centre button” once so the piece will fit perfectly into your “mistake”.
Red Tetris piece advanced spin
Green Tetris piece advanced spin
Orange Tetris piece advanced spin
Blue Tetris piece advanced spin
Neglecting mistakes
This is simply done by starting a new “one big block” above your mistakes so you won't break your b2b Tetris scoring. This makes the game harder to play though so use it with caution and preferably at the last moment possible.
On picture says a thousand words:
Tip 8: Practice!
With these tips anyone can achieve at least “marathon diamond” and maybe even a top 10 ranking. The only thing I can’t help you with is that you probably have to practice a lot and level your skill. These tips are ordered by priority but I think tip 2 is probably the most important if you want to score b2b Tetris.
Beyond “Marathon diamond”: Achieve a top ranking
So you want to get a nice ranking but with the basic tetris point list your maximum score is 678000 (1*12000 + 37*18000 = 678000). In the rankings you can clearly see though that even a score of 1 million points is possible. That’s because I didn’t mention the advanced spinning technique with the purple T-shaped piece called: “T-spinning”.
This is how to do it:
Make a setup similar to this one and spin the T-shaped purple piece until it fits perfectly in the setup.
This technique gives points even if you don’t clear a line with it.
Advanced point list:
@ Level 1
T-spin 400 points
1 line T-spin 800 points
2 line T-spin 1200 points
2 line T-spin Back2back 1800 points
On level 2 points for clearing lines will be multiplied by 2, on level 15 it will be multiplied by 15. Hence the level 15 point list is:
@ level 15
T-spin 6000 points
1 line T-spin 12000 points
2 line T-spin 21000 points
2 line T-spin Back2back 27000 points
T-spins giving points without clearing lines can be a huge boost for your highscore once you mastered this technique. It’s even necessary if want to get a high ranking online.
Because a b2b tetris can be mixed with b2b 2 line T-spins the optimal way to score the most b2b 2 line T-spins in marathon is to do a sequence of 4 b2b 2 line T-spins followed by a b2b tetris and repeat this sequence until the 150 lines are cleared.
It really is pain in the **bleep** to do and it’s indeed the most advanced technique in the game but if you can do this consequently you can get a retarded highscore. There is only one way I know to do this sequence but it’s really hard to explain, so that’s why I will give you this YouTube link.
Beware! I nearly **bleep**ted my pants seeing this for the first time, the guy doing this is very skilled. This is playing tetris @ its highest skill level, enjoy and good luck practicing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHqjOidDKRA&feature=related
Some theory crafting. The maximum score for Marathon with T-spinning is doing this sequence (4 b2b 2 line T-spins followed by a b2b Tetris) 11 times followed by 9 b2b 2 line T-spins. Giving you the following score: 21000 + 43*27000 + 11*18000 + 9*27000 = 1623000
That’s a maximum of about 1.6 million points without even considering hard dropping and regular T-spinning. So achieving the number one ranking with this technique is certainly possible.
The end
That was my guide I hope it helped you or will help you and that everything was clear and understandable. If you have any questions or did I made a mistake, post it! So I can reply to you or edit my guide. This is my first guide ever so please be gentle with the flaming 
And to the grammar police I'm Dutch so there could be some mistakes with the language too
Mamko 
