Monday, December 31, 2012

Sky Dragon Dungeon #3 - Sky Dragon of Wood

Happy New Years! I apologize for the late updates my friends! I was out of town for a vacation :)

If you have not familiarize yourself with Sky Dragon Dungeons, please go back to #1 or #2 posts, for they will provide you some basic information about how to encounter certain levels.


Data: (ATK, TURN, HP, DEF)
----------
Adept Level (Stamina: 15)
Lil Green Dragon 917, 3, NA, NA
Emerald Carbuncle 797, 2, NA, NA
Goblin 1199, 4, NA, NA
Earth Fighter 895, 3, NA, NA
Tavy Devil 502, 1, NA, NA

Boss:
Wood Skydragon Horai 3864, 3, NA, 276

As far as Adept Level goes, all you need is a non-water team with a Siren/Alraune/Archangel Leader and a x2 Leader :)
----------
Expert Level (Stamina: 25)
(ATK, TURN, HP, DEF)

Emerald Carbuncle 1486, 2, NA, 70
Goblin 2236, 4, NA, 70
Earth Knight 2376, 2, NA, 135
Tavy Devil 1270, 1, NA, 560
Mystic Stone Knight (rare) 3070, 3, NA, 450
Lil Green Dragon (rare) NA

Minibosses:
Flowerdragon Brachys (Round 5) 4246, 5, NA, 180
Dryad x2 (Round 9) 990, 2, 13200, 80
Mandrake (Round 9) 1950, 2, 56640, 100

Boss:
Wood Skydragon Horai (Round 10) 10555, 3, 716343, 644

Expert Level can be tough, since Horai hits really hard. Highly recommend Graviton Earth Dragon/Flare Drall/Fortoytops and a Siren/Alraune/Archangel as leaders. Subs can be anything.
----------
Master Level (Stamina: 50)

Earth Knight 4028, 2, 19904, 216
Tavy Devil 2804, 1, 15193, 1120
Mystic Stone Knight 5206, 3, NA, 720

Minibosses:
Flowerdragon Brachys (Round 5) 9375, 5, 237322, 360
Mandrake x2 (Round 9) 4312, 2, 125080, NA

Boss:
Wood Skydragon Horai (Round 10) 15570, 3, 1056900, 920

Not only does Horai hit hard in here, but other also deals high damage; so Graviton Earth Dragon (his useful skill to deal high damage) and a Siren (max skill recommended) are recommended, with Fire Subs (one Echidna recommended) - killing the minions. Make sure your HP is at least 8000, in three turns you will not recover in time so you will have to use Siren's skill to help out with the Heart Gems.

If you do have a Amaterasu friend leader though, that will give you a lot of advantage since she heals x5 of her RCU per turn. Do your math, and make sure you can recover 7700 HP in 3 turns.

Don't forget the Master Level rules still apply. Kill with one left, charge up skills - blah blah blah you get the idea :)
----------

Charge up your skills with one monster left!
Round 5 is always the best time to recharge your skills.
And if you are careful with the Mandrakes,
you will have skills left when facing Sky Dragon.
W00T!

Friday, December 21, 2012

Master Level Strategy Analysis

Another promise to my facebook group - to talk about the Master Level strategy again. A lot of players do know how it kind of works, but never really got the hang of it. So here we are:

Master Level dungeons takes 50 stamina with 10 rounds. Basically the differences between Expert and Master are the damage and defense of the monsters. And the majority of spawns are Devils, which attacks per turn. So we need a really good strategy for encountering Master Level dungeons.

Rule #1: Fully Charge Up Your Monster's Skills
If you guys haven't noticed, the first round of (almost) all dungeons starts with only 2 monsters. This is always the chance to kill one down first and slowly eliminate irrelevant gems to get your monsters' skills charged up. That being said, you will always want to keep your HP at max.

Rule #2a: Sweeping
Every, but not all, special dungeons have a midpoint miniboss - usually at Round 5. If your team are strong enough, Round 2-4 can usually be "swept" by using up the skills slowly charged from Round 1. This approach could be risky when you reach Round 3-4.

Rule #2b: Repetitive Charging Skills
If you do not have confidence sweeping Round 2-4, all you have to do is to kill all monsters but one left using some of the skills. Then recharge the used skills.

Rule #3: Midpoint Miniboss
Miniboss is usually weak. This is always a good place to recharge up the skills if you haven't.

Rule #4: Round 9 Miniboss
Never try to sweep Round 9. Again, if there's two Liliths, kill one, and go back to Rule #2b.

Rule #5: Saving Gems
Using up too much attack gems can be troublesome, ending up not able to do anything except making big combos with no damage. So while you are charging up skills, you can move your gems to the bottom area of the screen at spots/patterns where they will not be eliminated easily, like the following two examples (please ignore the top half, the dungeon is irrelevant to this topic)

Saving Wood Gems - irregular pattern
Corner patterns

And if you follow these rules or strategies with the correct team leader and subs, you should be able to tackle any Master Level Dungeons :)

(Future Event) Ragnarok Collaboration - Poring Tower

As promised to my Facebook group Puzzle & Dragons Global, since I will be out of town for around 9 days for Christmas, I will be posting a future event - a guide to the Ragnarok Online Collaboration PAD Dungeon - Poring Tower, just in case this tower actually comes on Christmas.

So what is so important and popular about this tower? There are three major points:

#1 - Rare Same Skill Monsters
You can pretty much only find Berzerker's, Highlander's, and Valkyrie's skill in porings in the whole game. Meaning that this is the ONLY chance (unless re-cycles) to level up their skills. Each of these porings also gives 15000 exp to same attributes!

Marine has the same skill as Berzerker
Poporing has the same skill as Highlander
Drop has the same skill as Valkyrie

Poring has the same skill as Dark and Light Machine Golem
Ghostring has the same skill as Lilith
However, Poring is too rare to be fed to Machine Golems... so I would prefer saving them up to evolve Mastering.

#2 Common Same Skill Monsters
If you haven't skill-leveled up your Vampire Lord, Siren, Titan or Fairlio yet, then this is a really good chance to max them out. This dungeon (Adept / Expert) drops the evolved version of the slimes (Big Flamie, Big Bubblie, Big Shynee and Big Baddie)

#3 The RO Miniboss - Mastering!
The one and only monster that has HP x2 for Physical Type Monsters. To get him, you will need to evolve from Poring - from using one of each of the porings, meaning you will need to hunt down TWO of the Porings (boss drop), and one of Marine, Poporing, Drop and Ghostring. The drop rate of Expert is also extremely low. 

MASTERING!
General Tips:
1. If you are purely aiming for skill up, then go with Expert. If you are aiming for getting Mastering though, I would highly recommend Master Level.
2. If you encounter a group or a few porings, always kill them in this order: Drop, Poporing, Ghostring, Marine. Drop attacks every turn (4520 per turn) and is really dangerous. Then Poporing come second because he hits 6020 per 5 turns with only 5 HP but high defense.

SOOOOOOOOOOO... Let's check out the data: (ATK, TURN, HP, DEF)

----------

Adept Level (Stamina/Round: 15/5)

Big Flamie 690, 3, NA, 50
Big Bubblie 720, 3, NA, 50
Big Woodsie 780, 3, NA, 50
Big Shynee 810, 3, NA, 50
Big Baddie 900, 3, NA, 50

Miniboss (Round 3: random any ONE of the following)
Marine 3770, 3, 10063, 13
Poporing 6020, 5, 15, 130000
Drop 4520, 1, 1063, 1300
Ghostring 2999, 2, 20063, 1300

Boss (Round 5)
Poring 770, 1, NA, 130

For Adept Level, there will only be one random encounter of any one of the porings in Round 3 (appears with one of the big slimes). The only one you have to watch out for, if you are low level, would be ghostring and poporing, since they will do some high damage if you do not kill them in time. Note that Poporing only has 5 HP but 130000 defense.

----------

Expert Level (Stamina/Round: 25/10)

Big Flamie 690, 3, NA, 50
Big Bubblie 720, 3, NA, 50
Marine 3770, 3, 10063, 13
Big Woodsie 780, 3, NA, 50
Poporing 6020, 5, 15, 130000
Big Shynee 810, 3, NA, 50
Drop 4520, 1, 1063, 1300
Big Baddie 900, 3, NA, 50
Ghostring 2999, 2, 20063, 1300

Boss (Round 10)
Mastering 6201, 3, 485936, 0

For Expert Level, Round 1-9 will have any random chance of encountering some/all porings. At boss, Mastering has quite a lot of HP, and if you are not careful you will get killed. Recommended team will be x4 Dark with one Siren and one Echidna as subs.

----------

Master Level (Stamina/Round: 50/10)

Pyro Demon 5460, 2, 46650, 2200
Frost Demon 5490, 2, 48150, 2200
Marine 3770, 3, 10063, 13
Tavy Demon 5670, 2, 49650, 2200
Poporing 6020, 5, 15, 130000
Harpie Demon 5550, 2, 51550
Drop 4520, 1, 1063, 1300
Bloody Demon 5580, 2, 52650, 2200
Ghostring 2999, 2, 20063, 1300

Boss (Round 10)
Mastering 11570, 3, 906597, 0

For Master Level, this is when things really flip around. Instead of big slimes, they are now all Demons (remember the high defense demons in Hera? YES they are exactly the same ones). Recommended strategy would be:

1. Meteor Volcano Dragon AND Megalodran/Fortoytops/Angelion/Crown Joker Leader with Vampire Lord, Chaos Devil Dragon, Gatekeeper of Rainbow, Siren as subs. The problem with this team is that if you encounter a different attribute Demon not the same as your damage reducer, then you will have to kill him ASAP.
2. Meteor Volcano Dragon OR Megalodran Leader with Vampire Lord as the other Leader, then Chaos Devil Dragon, Gatekeeper of Rainbow, Siren/Echidna as sub. This team uses a Dark x2 to try to kill Demons and Porings with one left so that you can charge skills. However, it will still be really hard to sweep any demons, you will have to keep using skills every round to keep the demons killed.
3. Valkyrie Team with Orochi (The Hera Team) - play it like how you would play Hera Dungeon (See Goddess of Darkness post). Use two Sirens and two Echidna, or with one Lilith (for Poporing)

I usually do with #2 or #3 strategy; but any will work fine as long as you are comfortable with your team's skills. Make sure you calculate how much you can recover from 50% reduction damage. Siren / Megalodran Max Skill is recommended.

----------

You can say I'm annoying, repetitive or you name it, but I still have to remind you guys to remember the Master Level basics. Remember, there's no Miniboss check point in Poring Tower. So you will have to play really careful and, be a good boy, charge up skills every round with one monster left. Play patiently. And Mastering should be defeatable and obtainable! Don't forget! To get Mastering, you need to hunt down TWO Porings, because he evolves from a Poring, which needs another Poring to be part of the ingredient.

If you haven't join our Facebook Group, please do so at www.facebook.com/groups/padglobal/

I hope you guys a Merry Christmas and Happy New Years. Enjoy the beautiful great holidays; whether with PAD or not; and I will update this blog after I come back and will see you guys again in facebook / blog in New Years 2013!

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Sky Dragon Dungeon #2 - Sky Dragon of Water

Sorry guys. Had been busy with work lately :(

Are you guys ready for Christmas? I don't know what I can gift but per Facebook group (www.facebook.com/groups/padglobal/ if you haven't checked it out), my lovely members would like me to post the upcoming Poring Tower. So please look forward in the next upcoming days, for I will post a strategy guide to the famous MMORPG Ragnarok Online collaboration Poring Tower!

Back on topic. Sky Dragon of Water.


If you haven't gotten familiar with the set of Sky Dragon dungeons, they are special events that has no Heart Gems throughout the whole dungeon unless gem changing skills are used. So the basics of the basics would be to have a 5-star regen healer (Siren, Archangel, Alraune or Amaterasu) as leader. If you do not have a 5-star healer, a heart gem changer as sub also might work with a damage reduction leader at lower levels.


 Let's look at the data: (ATK, TURN, HP, DEF)

----------
Adept Level (Stamina: 15) 

Lil' Blue Dragon 834, 3, NA, 20
Sapphire Carbuncle 774, 2, NA, 42
Marine Goblin 1139, 4, NA, 42
Aqua Fighter 819, 3, NA, 70
Frost Devil 494, 1, NA, 280

Boss:
Blue Skydragon Nirai Kanai (Round 10) 2189, 2, NA 276

----------

Expert level (Stamina: 25)

Sapphire Carbuncle 1444,2, NA, 70
Marine Goblin 2125, 4, NA, 70
Aqua Knight 2319, 2, NA, 135
Frost Devil 1248, 1, NA, 560
Mystic Ice Knight ~4000, 3, NA, NA
Lil' Blue Dragon NA, 3, NA, 40

Minibosses:
Icedragon Plesios (Round 5) 3445, 4, NA, 180
Mermaid x2 (Round 9) 900, 2, NA, 80
Siren (Round 9) 1877, 2, NA, 96

Boss:
Blue Skydragon Nirai Kanai (Round 10) 5978, 2, 614696, 644

----------

Master Level (Stamina: 50)
Aqua Knight 3934, 2, 19317, 216
Frost Devil 2756, 1, 15077, 1120
Mystic Ice Knight 5135, 3, NA, 720

Minibosses:

Icedragon Plesios (Round 5) 7608, 4, 225544, 360
Siren x2 (Round 9) 4146, 2, 115190, 192

Boss:
Blue Skydragon Nirai Kanai (Round 10) 8820, 2, 906900, 920

----------

For Adept or Expert, you don't necessarily need any wood subs. For Master Level, Siren will not recover more than how much boss damages. So you must use Siren's skill frequently to get yourself some heart gems. Make sure combos are not done with Fire Gems because Siren will need them! The following are good recommendations for encountering Master Level.




Remember, the Master Level basics never changes. Damage reduction and healer. Charge up skills and gems round-by-round.

Charge up most of your skills in the first few rounds...
In case of danger, your skills will come in handy.
Round 5 Miniboss is always a good place to recharge your skills
Again, save up some gems and charge up skill before...
... encountering the Sky Dragon! Nirai Kanai!

Saturday, December 15, 2012

Hera Descended - Goddess of Darkness

And as of 12/15/2012 10AM PST, Hera Descended event has approached the first time. And there's only one difficulty. This is not like a normal dungeon where you can just go all in with your best Dark Team and try sweeping. Because you cannot sweep them.

In general, Hera Descended is a dungeon that encounters 4 rounds of really strong minions and 6 rounds of 1-on-1 God bosses, as follows:

----------
Round 1~4 (ATK, TURN, HP, DEF)
Mystic Flame Knight 6480, 3 76350, 900
Pyro Devil 3480, 1, 19050, 1400
Pyro Demon 5460, 2, 46650, 2200
Mystic Ice Knight 6540, 3, 76350, 900
Frost Devil  2400, 1, 19200, 1400
Frost Demon 5490, 2, 48150, 2200
Mystic Stone Knight 6630, 3, 76350, 900
Tavy Devil 2430, 1, 19350, 1400
Tavy Demon 5670, 2, 49650, 2200
Mystic Light Knight 6660, 3, 76350, 900
Harpie Devil 2520, 1, 19650, 1400
Harpie Demon 5550, 2, 51150, 2200
Mystic Dark Knight 6720, 3, 76350, 900
Blood Devil 3400 1, 19800, 1400
Blood Demon 5580, 2, ~19500, 2200

Minibosses:
Venus (Round 5) 5647, 1, 429489, 1200
Minerva (Round 6) 14117, 3, 515044, 1200
Ceres (Round 7) 10780, 2, 515044, 1200
Neptune (Round 8) 18480, 4, 44489, 72000
Hades (Round 9) 82133, 6, 600600, 1200

Boss:
Hera (Round 10) 12354, 1, 2569319, 372

Looking at the data itself (the red bold numbers), doesn't it look impossible? Well, that's why this guide is here! I will talk about two to three possible strategies. Please understand that these strategies are not 100% guarantee to beat the dungeon. Master-level skills like charging skills per round and saving up gems are a must-know to help you advance further and beat this dungeon.
----------
General Strategy: Learn to Calculate Which Monsters Attack in the Same Turn

Remember: Knights 3 Demon 2 and Devil 1. If you see a Devil, you will have to always kill it first.

Example 1: Demon 2 Devil 1 - next turn they will both attack in the same turn. Kill Devil first.

Example 2: Knight 3 Demon 2 - after the Demon attack twice, they will both attack the same turn (within 4 turns). Kill Demon first.

Example 3: Demon 2 Demon 1 - sometimes monsters spawn with an attack turn not the same as their cool down turn. In this special case, you don't have to worry because these two demons will always attack alternatively.
----------
Strategy #1: Valkyrie Team
Great Valkyrie (Leader)
Siren the Enchantress (max skill preferred)
Echidna (5 star preferred)
Another Siren the Enchantress (if your first one is not max skilled) / Echidna (if your one Siren is max skilled)
Any Healer (Another Siren or Echidna preferred)
Lilith (4 or 5-star both fine)
Viper Orochi

Valkyrie Team is to make use of the medium-high damage on minions; its high recovery and a resolver (Viper Orochi preferred) to survive most of the hits from bosses.

Round 1: Two monsters. Whatever they are, they cannot attack the same turn. you MUST kill one first and leave the other to apply Resolve. You might be able to take one hit. Afterwards you will have to heal up to a certain amount of HP (50% for Orochi, and 70% for Ogre). But no matter what, you want to avoid any monsters that attack the same turn. Make sure you charge up skills before killing that only one.

Round 2-4: Gets tricky. Mostly 4 monsters. Again, you MUST kill the monsters that attack the same turn. If you cannot, always do combos that can kill until one left. Last resort, you will always have Echidna or Orochi to delay their turns.

Round 5: Venus attack per turn. You MUST heal every turn. So make sure you have a strategic way of saving up some Heart Gems. And did I mention your Siren has to be max skilled?

Round 6-7 Minerva and Ceres are straightforward. Just attack and heal.

Round 8 Neptune has 72000 DEF. You have to use Lilith. Just keep healing. Don't bother with dealing damage. It will take around 10 minutes until the poison gets into his brain.

Round 9 Hades. Attack and Heal.

Round 10: similar to Venus' strategy but way harder because of her HP. You MUST heal every turn. And again this time, it will take more than 20 minutes to battle her. Make sure you save up Heart Gems again.

If you are careful enough, you should be able to beat Hera with no magic stones used :)
----------
Strategy #2: Classic Zombie Team
Siren / Amaterasu
Harpie Demon (max level)
Harpie Demon (max level) (and yes, two of them)
Verche / Echidna
Lilith (4 or 5-star both fine)
Viper Orochi

The low HP of Harpie Demon allows you to not heal manually and focus on attacking. Make sure your 50% of HP does not exceed how much your Healer recovers. For example, my Siren heals 1600 per turn. So including my friend's Viper Orochi, your total HP must not exceed 3200. Otherwise you will have to manual heal and that defeats the whole purpose of the Zombie Team.


Round 1: Two monsters. Whatever they are, they cannot attack the same turn. you MUST kill one first and leave the other to apply Resolve. This team most likely will get you killed if you encountered two Demons but not Devils. There are tons of luck involved. Combo combo combo with light and try to kill one of them. The rest depends on luck. Make sure you charge up skills before killing that only one.

Round 2-4: Gets tricky. Mostly 4 monsters. Again, you MUST kill the monsters that attack the same turn. UseHarpie Demon's skill to help out with some damages and kill the monsters with the same attack turns.

Round 5-10: Since you have a zombie team, there's no way you can die from these stages. The only stage you have to watch out is stage 8, which you have to use poison to kill Neptune.

If you have to use 1~3 stones to pass, do it. Make sure you guarantee yourself that you can pass it with those stones you used up on though. It is better than using 5 stones for a duplicate rare egg. 3 Stones for a Hera? Why not?
----------
And the long story begins...
No matter what, attack Devils or Demons first.
Leave one and charge up skill...
In this situation, two Demons will attack alternatively. But...
The knight will eventually attack in the same turn!
I choose you! Echidna!
Same idea. Looks like the Knight will attack in the same turn as Frost Demon.
I choose you! Orochi!
This is the most challenging one.
As long as you sweep the devils. The knights in this case will never attack in the same turnn.
And don't forget to charge up all your skills!!!
Round 5: Venus! Keep your hearts filled! She attacks every turn!
Round 6: Ceres! Attack and Heal!
Round 7: Minerva! Attack and Heal!
Round 8: Neptune! Nothing else can damage him except for poison...
Round 9: Hades! With Orochi, you are nothing! Go back to where you belong!
And... the boss...
Goddess of Darkness: Hera
The hardest part is always keeping your Heart Gems filled.
If you don't, its pretty much game over...
And the final blow... Great Valkyrie vs Hera!
Surrender! And Capture! Gold Egg+! w00tw00t!
----------
Plan:
Weekend - Weekend Dungeon, getting some coins. I'm expecting some new events... gotta prep up.
Monday - Saving up some Pengdras. Going for Technical Dungeon!

Monday, December 10, 2012

Sky Dragon Dungeons #1 - Sky Dragon of Flame

If you have not yet gotten either a Siren, Alraune or an Archangel, then it is about time you should think about spending some big time farming for one. Because Sky Dragon Dungeons has approached. This set of Dungeons do not have any Heart Gems. In other words, the only way to heal yourself up is to use the above mentioned healers as leaders or a gem changer to give yourself some Heart Gems.


As mentioned, the general strategy of challenging any of the Sky Dragon Dungeons would stay the same. For Adept, you will need a Healer as a leader. For Expert and Master, you will need a Healer AND a 50% Damage Reducer as leaders (Siren max skill as leader is highly recommended to give yourself some Heart Gems if needed.

Other than the mentioned above, Legendary Dragon strategies also apply - kill all but one left and charge up your skills every round. The following is the data for Sky Dragon of Flame.

The following chart will follow the sequence of [NAME, ATK, TURN, HP, DEF]
----------
Sky Dragon of Flame - Adept (Stamina: 15)
Tyran -
Lil' Red Dragon 708, 3, NA, 20
Ruby Carbuncle 752, 2, NA, 42
Samurai Goblin NA, 4, NA, 42
Flame Fighter 773, 3, NA, 100
Flame Devil 490, 1, NA, NA

Boss:
El Dorado 1072, 1, NA, NA
----------
Sky Dragon of Flame - Expert (Stamina: 25)
Ruby Carbuncle NA, 2, NA, NA
Samurai Goblin NA, 4, NA, NA
Flame Knight ~2000, 2, NA, 135
Flame Devil 1237, 1, NA, NA
Mystic Fire Knight (rare) NA, 3, NA, 900

Minibosses:
Firedragon Tyrannos (Round 5) 3125, 3, NA, 180
Naga x2 (Round 9) 810, 2, NA, 80
Echidna (Round 9) 1791, 2, NA, 96

Boss:
El Dorado 2928, 1, 513010, NA
----------
Sky Dragon of Flame - Master (Stamina: 50)
Flame Knight 3335, 2, 16164, NA
Flame Devil 2359, 1, 12914, NA
Mystic Fire Knight (rare) 4392, 3, NA, 630


Minibosses:
Firedragon Tyrannos (Round 5) 5958, 3, 184524, 450
Echidna x2 (Round 9) 3416, 2, 97804, 240

Boss:
El Dorado 4320, 1, 756900, NA
----------

Expert / Master Strategy:
As mentioned and observed above, there is pretty much no way to sweep the boss in 1~2 rounds (of course unless your have a high end powerful team with x6.25) So the only strategy would be:

Muspelheim / Meteor Volcano Dragon / Megalodran (Leader)
Water Subs (highly recommend Crystal Aurora Dragon)
Alraune / Siren the Enchanter / Archangel (recommend Siren the Enchanter)

Pay sharp attention to your HP if you play Master Level. With the important fact that Siren's skill will not recover back to Max HP in time every turn, around 6000 HP or higher is recommended to give yourself some turns to use Siren's skill for some Heart Gems.

And again, the charging skill strategy applies in here. You do not want to end up facing 4-5 devils at the same turn without any skills to backup yourself.

And finally, some pictures :)

It has become a Master Level tradition to leave one Devil for skill charging!
Using the Siren strategy, you will never die with one Devil left.
Same applies to Firedragon Tyrannos.
Know when you should spend your Massive Attack.
And of course, the worst case scenario would be to use skills.
In this case my Crystal Aurora Dragon's Blizzard Ball
(I think Frost Blast is a better name... what the hell is a ball anyways...)
Even two Echidna's cannot overcome Siren's power!
And finally - El Dorado! Remember to get some Heart Gems
because Siren itself cannot recover fast enough!
And BAM! The beautiful El Dorado!
Shouldn't be too challenging if you follow the strategy :) Good luck!
----------
Plan:
Today - Sky Dragon of Flame; hunt some Mystic Fire Knight's in Master
Tuesday - Gatekeepers and maybe Ruby Dungeon.
Wednesday - Mystic Masks! Time to get some for storage

Friday, December 7, 2012

Skill #2: The Drag and Drop

Probably one of the most important skill that you need to master is the Drag and Drop.

Skill #2a: The Drag (Master Difficulty: Simple)
As the name of this skill implies, it is to "drag" the gems to desired spots. This skill is mostly used when the gems you desire to eliminate are far apart. The motion goes in small circles, but after every completed circle, you shift your finger one space farther, and so on as shown:

For this example, let us demonstrate with the green gems at the bottom row. 
Starting with  moving left from right of the green gem.
Move your finger and loop around again. Left being the same direction towards the gem.
Repeat the above step again.
And done! (Bad picture... there's suppose to be three greens there...)
Here's a link to a nice demonstration that I made and uploaded to show you how the drag can work nicely.

http://youtu.be/djM0yjNXYaE

This video is purely focused on the Green Gems, but if time permits, the Drag can do a lot more on the other gems. (Such as the Light Gems above, credit to Chester Hung for mentioning)

Skill #2b: The Drop (Master Difficulty: Intermediate)
When gems are in bad positions or separated axially (meaning being separated by a different color vertically or horizontally), sometimes you can make use of this skill. The Drop is to eliminate the color of the gems that are separating the gems desired to allow the "top piece" and the "bottom piece" align. The following will show how it works:

Take a glance at where the "separated" gems are.
Use the color gems that can get eliminated between them.
If possible, don't only go with one combo for a Drop.
Every combo you make for one Drop gives you an extra combo!  (4 in total here)
Again, here's a short demonstration that I made and uploaded. Take a look :)

http://youtu.be/pPRnSqr-As8

And if you have been practicing these skills including the Skill #1 Roundabout! Let's see if you can combine them and use them together! See the video below!

http://youtu.be/X-EC6v3Z2Nc