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Combo Benefits
Combos can give you Quake time, which is really important, but they also help you win in other ways. In a Standard match, the larger your combo, the more your donut meter fills up when you get a MadStone. Also, you can't lose a standard match while you are in a combo. This lets you start a combo right before you are about to lose, and even if your opponent fills the donut, you may be able to come back to win the game if you get a large combo going. Finally, combos are the only way to get the large scores needed to win the score battles. Here's a quick summary:

-Combos give you Quake Time when they end.
-Larger combos fill your clear bar with Quake time faster (during the combo).
-Larger combos fill your donut meter faster in a standard and score match
-You can't lose a standard match during a combo.

Cascades Keep Combos Going
If it wasn't for cascades, combos would be almost impossible. You'd have to move as fast as the computer on Savant Mode if you wanted to get any Quake time.

Move From Column to Column
The key to long combos is to get multiple cascades going at once. While one column of blocks is falling, move to another column, and start another cascade. Keep alternating columns as long as possible, starting cascades. If you're fast, and good at predicting how cascades will turn out, you can get some very long combos without even Quaking.

Planning and Executing a Combo

Here's an example of how to plan a combo and then see it through, step by step. Please enjoy these screenshots, it was really tough to take them while playing!

As the playfield looks right now, the cursor is on a solid block just below a MadStone that's near the pool. In planning out our next moves, we have to predict how the cascades will alter the play field as the combo is executing. With a little bit of practice, you'll be able to quickly recognize that you can earn all of these MadStones with 5 strikes. To choose the order of the strikes, I just picked the closest one each time. The order of the strikes is represented by the yellow numbers:

Notice how with each block we break, we change columns so that we can start working on an area that isn't falling. This reduces our down time, letting us work more efficiently. After a couple seconds, the field has progressed to this point:

It's kind of hard to tell in the picture, but the small MadStone in the middle just landed on the cracked ice block, which is about to break. We can tell from the glowing MadStones that the combo is still active. Right now, we're heading up to make strikes 4 and 5. Currently, there aren't really any other MadStones on screen, so it's tough to decide what move to make next. Let's just wait a second and see what happens as we head up to make strikes 4 and 5:

We just collected the two MadStones in the bottom center, and the ones on the right (below the cursor) are on their way down. By this time we can see that there are two more MadStones in the center. Once the falling 2x1 just above the pool hits the ground (in about 1/4 second), The MadStone in the third column will be stationary and we can strike at 6 and 7 to continue this combo. Jumping to there:

We'll have an 8x combo once the MadStone below the cursor hits the ground. But let's say we wanted to keep going. Next I'd strike at 8 for the big MadStone. Because the big MadStone is pretty high up, we'll have quite a bit of time before it hits the pool. In this time, we can wait for the wide block (the block labeled 9,10) to settle on the solid 1x1 on the bottom row (cracking it).

By making strikes 9 and 10, the MadStone in column 4 will be ready to fall. By then, colums 3-6 will all be falling, leaving us with only columns 1 and 2 to work with. Then I'd strike at 11 and 12, which will allow the 2x1 above strike 12 to fall all the way to the ground, destroying 7 blocks and giving us lots of precious time to plan our next move.

Phew! It probably got a little bit tough to follow on the last screenshot there. I just wanted to illustrate the thought process behind alternating columns and timing cascades. Now let's see.. since the beginning screenshot, we've made 12 strikes. For that, we've got a 12x combo that's still running and broken a bunch of blocks, bringing more MadStones into play. Breaking all these blocks manually, without any cascades, would have taken around 40 strikes, costing a ton of Quake time. It also would have taken a lot longer, so much longer that maintaining the combo that whole time would have been nearly impossible. The moral of the story: cascades are your combo's best friend.

Tricky Cascades
The best cascade isn't always the simplest one. So far we've dealt mostly with cascades that start by breaking a block right below a MadStone or a wide block. Sometimes, there are situations where the best cascade is more complicated than that:

It may not look like it at first glance, but striking at the cursor in this screenshot will earn the center MadStone, break 6 blocks, crack 2 more blocks, and (if we were in a combo at the time) give us several seconds to plan our next move. Not bad for 1 strike! It may be tempting just to strike below the center MadStone to earn it, but that would be quite a bit less productive.

Actually, you could even break one higher than the cursor and do just a little bit better, but those two blocks up there are tough to see.

Combo Tips

Score, Quake Time Equations
As promised, here are some numbers on combos, scoring, and Quake Time.

-A 3x combo gives you 2 seconds of possible Quake Time (in the clear bar).
-Each MadStone after 3x adds 1 more second to the clear bar.
-Each strike takes away 1/5th second from the clear bar.
-Striking doesn't affect the Quake Time you have already earned (the colored bar).
-Finishing a combo gives you (150 * n^2) points (n = combo size).

5 or Less Strikes Per MadStone
Since a strike removes 0.2 seconds for your clear bar and a MadStone adds 1.0 second, you're only gaining Quake Time if it takes you less than 5 strikes to collect each MadStone. Using cascades wisely will reduce the number of strikes you need to use, as will Quakes. In general, you only want to use more than 5 strikes per MadStone if you really need to keep a combo going and there isn't any other way.

Exponential Score Growth
The points you earn from a combo is calculated by squaring your combo size and multiplying it by 150. This means that a single 20x combo is worth twice as much as two 10x combos. Fewer big combos, not many small ones, will get you the most points.