Hello, I have a Tringo Addiction!
I posted before about a game called slingo. Well how about if you crossed tetris and bingo? What would it be called and how would it play? There is a game called Tringo inside Second Life. This game isn’t just a simple game like bingo. It’s a complex game of strategy and fun. Probably the most popular game in second life. So popular that the game has been made for the gameboy! I don’t know how fun it would be on the gameboy. It definitely is fun when you play it with lot of other people in second life.
First you click on the Tringo board to get your individual card. Then everyone puts money in the pot. On your card you will see a 5×5 square board. On the right of the square you see you’re score at the top and at the bottom right you see another smaller square. Don’t worry about the freeze button. It’s used only at the end of a game when you can’t find any move to make but don’t want to lose your points. The object of the game is to fill in tetris style blocks in the large grid. Instead of filling up a row you need to fill up a 2×2, 2×3, 3×2 or 3×3 square with the blocks. Everyone gets the same amount of blocks and the same blocks in every round. So the strategy is trying to fit the blocks in such a way to fill up blocks. Once you fill up a pattern it will disappear from your card and you receive points for it.
A 2×2 pattern will give you 5 points. A 2×3 and 3×2 pattern will give you 15 points. A 3X3 pattern will give you 30 points. So it would be better for you to fill in a 3X3 pattern with the blocks. If you don’t place a piece in a round before the timer runs out it will cost you 7 points! Each round lasts 10 seconds! So be fast! In each round you are able to use a block piece that is shown on your card on the bottom right. There are 35 pieces and there are 35 rounds. When you see a piece in the smaller square you will also see a red dot in the middle. That dot represents where you should click with your mouse on the big square. If you look at the main Tringo board you will see how much money is in the pot and the top 5 players in the game. On the right of the scoreboard is another smaller square which is the same square that’s on your board. You can also see how many turns there are left and the timer countdown between each round. There is another board on the left side of the scoreboard which I will explain below. It’s good to watch a game being played first before you try but sometimes just clicking all over your board and seeing what happens can also make you learn faster.
I would consider myself an above average player. Some games I can win easily and other games it’s a challenge to be the top 5 on the scoreboard. The biggest advice I can give you is play the game as much as possible. You will start seeing ways of putting pieces together to get the highest points. Also you can start seeing ways of getting out of traps. It’s very easy to place all the pieces and then have no other move for couple of rounds. This is what you want to avoid as much as possible! I found sometimes when you know a piece will get you in trouble it might be better to not place it. losing 7 points might be better than losing an opportunity to get 15 or 30 points in the next round. This is where the board to the left of the scoreboard will come in handy. This board shows all the pieces available and marks the pieces already played. This comes in handy near the end of the game when you can start placing your pieces in such a way to make room for the upcoming pieces. This is one way expert players can get such high numbers.
Before I finish I’d like to mention something called speed Tringo. This is not a drug reference but another way of playing Tringo. The speed of each round is lowered to 5 seconds. This is very challenging and have little time to think of future moves. Speed Tringo is played at BZ Island. Some lag free places to play is SOUTHI, Briggadoon Island or wish Isle. You can also find Tringo played all day at Icedragons Playpen but with lag which doesn’t do well with Tringo.
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