Hexic HD - Xbox 360 Arcade

[spagmasterswift]

Well here is what went down for me tonight - was getting on very well with the 4x4 grid and felt pretty relaxed and in control of the board.

See..pretty Star Flowers all over the place!!1



Then something went wrong as I was creating the last column and I lost 3 flowers, freaked out I started making Black Pearls.

2 in fact...



Started to make me some more flowers and thought I had the BIG CHEESE in sight, but I'd strayed from the grid system and an invinsible bomb arrived to end my fun.

BANG!!1



Maybe tomorrow...

[Paulos G]

Looking good Spags. I see your score is creeping up too.

[spagmasterswift]

I may need to take a break from this for a bit - my HeXic WiDow is missing me and isn't it IKARUGA WEDNESDAY??!!1

[Chunky]

My attempt yesterday went pear shaped in the end due to me wanting to go home and rushing it, and accidentally getting 3 starred colours together which removed all tiles of that colour from the board. As you can imagine, there wasn't too much left of my master grid after that

Good work thouggh spags, but i urge you to try the master grid as well, its amazing when its done

[spagmasterswift]

Its a cruel mistress at times innit!?

Can you break down for me how it works once you have a grid in place and start creating Black Pearls? Do you use part of the flower stars that make up the grid to create them or is there some other way to do it - I presume you have to rebuild the grid after each black pearl, yers? Where is te best place to stash the Pearls, bottom left hand corner? Your secrets, tell me themz!

Gonna try for a master grid over the weekend - if I don't manage it then my holiday to Thailand is getting cancelled >_<

[Chunky]

Ok here's some pics and some tips.

1st Pic
When i got my pooh-bah i didn't complete the master grid as i don't think it's neccessary to use the top right of the screen. Here is a pic of how i had it set up. Remember, start by getting the one in the bottom left, then progress along the bottom using the technique i showed yesterday to split stars. Once you have the 5 along the bottom, move onto the 2nd row, again starting at the left.

2nd Pic
Create your stars around the star at the top left of the screen. Once you've done this, the new star should drop to where the centre star was, leaving you in the position as in the picture. This technique will mean that you get no unneccessary combos when creating your star. Create a load of spare stars and store them at the bottom of the screen as in the pic.

[Chunky]

3rd Pic
You will then need 5 more stars to move into the position shown. Start with the one at the top, then the one on the right, then the 2 at the bottom. once the one on the top left is in place, you can rotate the 3 highlighted pieces to create 2 Black Pearls in one hit

4th Pic
This is what you'll be left with once the Pearls have joined the fun. Use the isolated star top right to rotate the first black pearl into the grid, and store it around the bottom left star - this should be where you're aiming to create your pooh-bah. The use the star-splitting technique to recreate your grid. By creating 2 pearls in one hit you only need recreate this process 3 times.

[spagmasterswift]

Easy

[Paulos G]

Genius! Now I just need a spare few hours...

[Chunky]

Some general tips.

- Takes regular breaks so as not to lose your patience. Don't expect to get through this in half an hour, it won't happen. My first pooh-bah took over 3 hours so make sure you have a big window to play it in.

- If you ever make a mess up and lose some of your grid, DON'T turn it off. Put down the controller, go get a drink, watch 10 minutes of TV or something. Then regather yourself and recreate your grid.

- When the game starts you need to look hard at it and immediately go for stars. Don't make combos unneccessarily, you need to be solely focused on getting stars. You will make combos of course, by try to minimise them, by the time you get a couple of stars in your second row, the ONLY combos you should be making will be for stars. Remember - the more combos you make, the more quickly you advance levels and the more chance of getting to the bombs.

- Bombs can be a nightmare but you can make it easier on yourself. When deciding which colour to use to create the next star, try and use a colour of which there are at lest 8 that you can get to. This way, when you create your star you will leave 2 on the board to help defend against bombs. Remember bombs only drop in when you create a star so you know where they will be, and you know you'll be able to move them to anywhere on the board easily, so don't panic, think about your moves when the bombs arrive.

- If you haven't had a bomb in a while and you're on the verge of creating 2 black pearls, wait. Create a few more silver stars, try and move them somewhere safe (although be careful, too many can be dangerous), and when the bomb arrives, defuse it, then create your pearls. The grid will be damaged when the pearls create, and leave a big area where bombs can drop without you being able to do anything about it. I've seen videos of people getting a pooh-bah on level 1, in under 20 minutes, so if you're careful the bombs should give you no problem.

Ok i think thats all, any more questions fire away. If you don't get it before your trip to Thailand, send me your Xbox before you go

[k0pp0]

'kin 'ell.

[Chunky]

Can't believe you guys got me addicted to this again

Started a game last night, probably about 2 hours in now but have survived 5 c*ck-ups and managed to rebuild each time (hence the random spare star in the bottom corner!). Getting close now though

[spagmasterswift]

LOL!1 I'm probably gonna be hooked on Ikaruga now for a while..

[Chunky]

Right, IE crashed at lunchtime when i had 7 black pearls on the board (yes i was being greedy and going for a double pooh-bah). Won't be playing that again for a while !!!

[spagmasterswift]

Harsh man, but that will teach you to show off