MalletSpace - Tactics

Here are a few points to consider when learning to play:

Look at all the ways a certain square can be hit, and how that affects the squares around it. Also look for in what situations a square can only be hit in one way. Try to figure out easily recognisable patterns which tell you immediately how to attack something, especially on the edges and corners.
When there is a choice of two (or more) ways to go, look at what hits must follow each, particularly if any of the following hits are common to the two paths. If so, they can safely be hit now, and doing so may reveal something useful to you.
If you're having trouble finishing the bigger boards, ignore the time and see what you can figure out. Guessing usually has a pretty poor success rate, and many of the hard boards can be solved without any guessing if you do a bit (or a lot) of thinking. Some of my early hard times reached 999, but from these I learned tricks about when certain hits are right and when they aren't which helped greatly in future attempts.
Remember that although rubbers can be hit any number of times, essentially they are hiding a number behind them, and hitting them too often may often make a board unsolvable. In some boards, particularly the first one, it is often possible to count how many times a rubber must be pressed, and then use that number in solving the surrounding area.

Here are a few points to consider when trying to improve your times:

Keep one hand on the space bar for undo. Most of my best times had several undo's in them. Quickly being able to undo when you misclick can be essential, and often a quick click and undo to see what the board will look like after a specific hit can save a lot of thinking time when you're stuck.
For rotating mallets, try to hit as many in an area as you can on each rotation before moving on. Especially with the 4x rotations, the time to rotate between each click can slow you down a lot.