Not too long ago in terms of the Columns games on SR.C, I had a 15:55 speedrun of History Mode (items allowed) (which I think of as Story Mode, special attacks allowed) approved in 2nd place, about 12 seconds behind the WR, and I have some insights that could help competitors with me going forward for this game:

1. What the special attacks are and how to use them

In case you didn't know how to use the special attacks (the ones that use the 1-5 meter in the center), you use it by holding UP on the D-pad (or as assigned to represent such) and while holding it, press the button you normally use to rotate your pieces into a row (the B button, which, by the way, is allowed in all categories to my knowledge, even though I don't (at least not intentionally) do that in my run, because such rotation serves more to confuse than help me, given that the other Columns games are played without this ability at all.

You can also hold UP and use the A button (the one you normally use to shuffle your pieces around in your column like normal) to change between "menu options" with a given amount of special attack that you have. This is particularly useful if you go over your intended attack strength (and effect) which you were going to use, to use your attack like you had wanted to do it. So, for instance, you could drop a level 4 to a level 3 by UP + A once, then UP + B to use the level 3 attack to force your opponent's pieces to drop fast. In this case, it will leave you with a level 1 attack on the meter.

So the special attacks themselves are:

1. You send a set of stone blocks to your opponent, which cannot be cleared by normal means and cannot be rotated into a row. They can, however, be broken by another automatic "crush" attack you send (that attack which raises the opponent's floor) and sometimes you might be lucky enough to get one such set of stone blocks of yours broken by your opponent getting such an automatic "crush" attack (which there is no choice in when to use in this game - it's just automatic like with either the witch in Columns III or the "Beginner" control method in Stack Columns.) Also, a "magic gem" placed with a square down on top of one of these "stone blocks" will clear every stone block on the board, allowing great relief from several of these attacks!

2. You temporarily cause your opponent not to be able to shuffle their gems around in their column or rotate theirs into a row. This can become quite a problem for the faster CPU opponents in this game as they (usually) won't slow down in the face of it and can get their gems piled up from it! Against Surhand, I've found it best to use that attack (in the category where it's permitted) at the above described two levels. However, against the other four enemies, I've generally found it better to use it at the following level:

3. Your opponent temporarily has all their pieces fall very fast, albeit with a fair amount of "lock delay" which still makes it playable, kind of like a very high level of the "Endless" mode of this game (and the other Columns games that have it!) This one usually finishes the first four opponents for me after I've put what I call "good old fashioned crush bar" on them like from Columns III and Stack Columns - they just can't handle it at all at this point, allowing me to win rounds faster!

4. Your own "crush bar" drops by three bars, like with the default use of the "magic gem" in Columns III or Stack Columns. It strikes me as a weak defense for how much you have to build up to get it (200 gems, or 50 gems per level, at least according to the manual) and I think if you do get up level 4, it's actually better to hold up and use the A button (the one you normally use to shuffle your pieces like normal) to drop it to level 3 (or 2 or possibly 1 at Surhand) to go to the next "menu option" that you have available at least.

5. This level attack will give you a "magic gem", though I don't really like this level either, because of the 250 gems it requires to get there, just to get something that is, unlike in Columns III or Stack Columns, purely defensive. None of its uses actually hurt your opponent - and, in fact, all three of them can only clear gems for you, and neither lower your "crush bar" nor raise your opponent's!

I had to split this into two posts because of what is apparently a 4,096 character limit for each post, so here's the rest of this right now:

2. What does "crush damage" / raises your opponent's floor

You may know already that creating chain reactions (clearing a set of gems that causes another to fall into place by gravity and clear as well) causes this "crush" attack to become available in Columns III and Stack Columns. But Super Columns does work a little differently, such that clearing four gems in a row in a single clear will also do one "bar" of such "crush" damage, 5 in a row will do two, and multiples also count such as two 3-gem clears in a single iteration doing one.

So this means combining chains with 4- and 5-gem line clears, as well as multiple line clears, will ultimately raise your opponent's floor the most and help you beat opponents quicker to help you get a faster time at this game!

With the "no items" category, I'm taking it to mean that the "special attacks" I described in my (longer) main pointer #1 are not allowed, so the knowledge I have for this #2 point would really be mainly how to get a faster time for this "no items" category.

One other thing I'm going to say about this is that gems clearing take quite a bit more time than just placing pieces without clears, which makes single 3 gem clears less favorable (since they take some time and do no damage) in comparison to building up something I mentioned above to actually do some of this "crush" damage from clearing it.

If you really want an intriguing method I wouldn't have thought of before, just go check out the current WR for the "History Mode" category for this game that allows the use of "items"!

History Mode in 15:43 by Acmlm - Super Columns - Speedrun

It basically mostly just rapidly laid down pieces to fill the board with a hole left in the 4th column from the left, but still managed to beat my time by 12 seconds by getting lots of chains and other "crush damaging" clears once pieces were dropped into that remaining open column!

Though if I were to try that last kind of strat, I would probably leave my 3rd column open instead so I can just rapidly drop pieces in and not have to move those to prevent myself from topping out (that is, of course, unless that column gets filled up!)

I really hope this information helps and that I can get some actual forum discussion going for this game! Feel free to ask me any questions about how the game works or what I have written here about the Super Columns game, particularly for speedrun purposes in any category.