Oh, bummer. EBF5 is already rated so highly that it finally pushed EBF4 off the front page. A sad day. Can we get those other sad excuses for games off there so the real champs can reign supreme?
Best tips for completing the game: build up as many bonus abilties as possible and save them for the Fire levels. Slice Bombs to remove placement restrictions and Jokers to bypass them will be your absolute best friends, because every level at that point has at least 4 slices to absolutely lockdown your placement options for each segment. I gave up after the game said on two separate playthroughs that I'd need to put eight Sol tiles in a row and promptly filled my hand with only Stellas and Terras.
As others have said, the grid is far too tiny for this type of game. Any turn spent healing or guarding is honestly a wasted turn, since the point is to win as fast as possible; a turn not killing an enemy is a wasted turn. The art is splotchy, even on the highest quality, and not in a "oh, comic book style" way. There were good ideas here, but some bad implementation.
Some tips for gritting through this mess: Buy the bonus penguin ability up to level 3 as soon as possible, since that tier 3 penguin can carry several levels on its own. Bombs are for killing shooters and enemies that have your penguins stuck on obstacles; penguins like to target the nearest uncloaked enemy after their current one dies, and do not give up until the new target dies, teleports, or cloaks. Get all of your penguins at least the first tier of gear so that you don't just see an infinite string of "Miss" from failed kills. P will pause if you need to stop collecting cash, move your mouse to the ability bar, and unpause to use the group heal.
When making a stealth-based game, maybe make sure that some guards actually have AI more complex than "wander around and randomly do 180 turns to spot the recently killed VIP"? In runs of almost any level, you're at the mercy of the guards' random pathing decisions on whether you're even allowed to complete it within 30 seconds or not.
I just want to point out that we're almost up to five straight years of EBF4 sitting on the front page of Kongregate. That is quite the testament, Matt. I'm proud to have seen you come this far.
Your hit only counts after your character finishes pulling a weapon back from the swing animation. Most enemies deal their damage just after the start of their attack animations. Flying enemies have a tiny box for being hit, but have a large, constant damage aura that absolutely annihilates your health bar until well into the game. You must hit something that moves quickly multiple times in the air with a delayed attack while it constantly damages you at a rate sufficient to kill your character within one and a half second. This is the patched version. Good job, Elvengames. Let me know if you ever release a bullet hell shooter.
I am disappointed that the spells are tied to weapons. I would have preferred Tsunami on the daggers and Avalanche on the staves due to how the various hitboxes (don't) work.
This game would be so much easier and better if you could tell individual turrets what you want them to prioritize. I'm so tired of my forward flak cannons turning backwards to shoot at one tiny ship at the edge of their rear range, instead of annihiliating the incoming meteors like they were designed to.
Additionally, as others have said, it would be nice if we could pause to read text, or if it were otherwise more accessible.
A tip for combo and score hunters: the Lure is the third reward on the top row, and it makes setting up combo kills much easier. A lot of the smaller enemies will target it and completely ignore you while it's spraying, leaving you with several opportunities to swat them all while they're distracted. Also, unlike things like the grenade, box turret, and saw drone, you get full kill and combo credit since you're still using your sword to put down the enemies. I suggest trying it out if you're having difficulty getting the multikill medals or just want the fodder enemies to leave you alone for a moment.
To everyone complaining about the lack of instructions: The game description over there on the right has a link to the game's wiki that gives instructions and details every single thing... about this badly balanced game.
Short, simple. and relaxing. The music fits well.
I would recommend adding a "lock piece in place" ability to pieces that you have already properly positioned but do not want to accidentally move when dealing with connected pieces.
Why bother with the defense stat or active stat buffing skills when you can end every battle on your first turn with a single critical sharp bite? Only bosses have the HP necessary to survive one, and even then you can just chomp away with normal bites after that. Just dump all of your stats into Attack, and maybe a few points into Stamina just in case your opponent actually somehow survives your first turn. I do not have the patience to see if more stratgey is required in later levels, but I don't have much hope. This IS a "Kreds-to-win" game, after all.
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