How does the leveling system on tetris work?

Tetris games have a long history of incorporating a level mechanics in the game design. It varies not only by version, but also game mode at times.

There are two variations seen in guideline games.

Fixed-goal marathon: The player must clear 10 lines to increase their level. In the case where a player starts at a later level (usually the option is given to start from 1 to 15), they must clear the amount of lines it would require if they started at level 1. E.g., If the player starts at level 5, they must clear 50 lines to advance to level 6. The game usually then ends at 150 lines, or is optionally endless with a level cap of 15 to 30 depending the game.

The level might control, not only the score multiplier, but also the speed of the game.

Variable-goal marathon: This variation is not seen anymore. Some games were variable only, and some games allowed you to chose between variable and fixed-goal.

The base formula is linesRequired = level * 5. Later games changed this to be goalPointsRequired = level * 5, where goalPointsRequired is based on the type of line clear and not the amount of lines. Goal points vary slightly from regular points. The formula for goal points is goalPoints = floor(baseLineClearPoints / 100) A Tetris for example normally awards the player 800 x level points, and 8 goal points. Goal points don't roll over when the level changes, but regular score does. This can be abused to bleed extra points. This mode typically ends once the player reaches 600 goal points.