A lot of these 'hard packs' aren't even that difficult. Most of them have alternate solutions that lend to using up to 30 less paths than the max, and the single colored boards are just an issue of finding the shortest route. Shaving and rearranging is all those maps are
Black stick figure head on the auto-steal ability, 1/5 for racism.
..........and please realize that's just a joke. Quite an enjoyable (Albeit addicting) game, 5/5 actually rated.
Jim is good at rotating because of his light weight. This is also his biggest problem- on some maps with lots of curves, he gets sent airborne constantly. The result is being slowed down so much that you can't use your boosts very well. When this happens, 8-ball is slightly higher weight with almost as good rotation.
It is good to know that the corpse is poisoned. Because that plagued corpse can still spread the poison if another enemy is near it- it wasn't just put there for show
Regarding end of map loot- The values listed aren't based on the number listed at any given enemy. Rather, those listed values are a combination of their initial chance to drop their own item on defeat and the treasure tiles you collect. The end-of-adventure rewards are based ONLY on the treasure tiles you collect- ACROSS ALL FIGHTS. There is no stat listed that displays this, you simply need to remember it. Example- I fight my way to the end of a four map adventure. The treasure value listed is 50, but I collected 25 treasures in each fight, for a total of 100 treasures. This will result in collection of all four listed end-of-adventure treasures, but the endboss only has a 50% chance to drop an addition treasure of his own. You can tell when you get these additional treasures by the animation of the words "LOOT GAINED!" that come up across the battlefield after defeating an enemy.
3) The game gets too hard around lvl20? Not really. The difficulty does -sharply- increase starting at level 20, but that's just because nothing before there is even a remote challenge. If you're finding this problem, go back to level 19 or earlier and farm gold for character upgrades, and not just shop upgrades. Collecting a gear set would probably help as well- and the items you get back from your father for clearing your debt are also incredibly useful, even if they aren't considered valuable by gold. There's not a time deadline on the game, it'll wait for you to be strong enough. 4) Seriously, this game doesn't have a 20 page manual. Undefined summed it up pretty good in the instructions- "scroll your mouse so that the pointer hovers over something, then click the left button. (It’s next to the right one)". That, common sense, and reading the tooltips is about all you need to 'learn' the game.
A number of frequent issues addressed: 1) If you don't know what Harness fire/Blocking/another item does, put it on, scroll over the symbol, and you'll be told what it does. Note that not all the tooltips are perfectly accurate, but you don't need a glossary this way as its right in the game. I have mentioned various bugs in an earlier statement. 2) The food achievement- Eating food does nothing by itself. The only location to eat food is the potion symbol by the equipment screen. BY eating two pieces of food (Ideally, the cheapest ones) you get the in game achievement that grants 10 max health. It would be GREAT to in the future incorporate eating food in battle as a health restore, but at the moment this is not present in the current version. For future simple questions such as this one, in this or any other game, *Search the forums!* There are at least a dozen threads on the topic, most of which have been redirected to one thread that answers it.
As for what the game is a cross between, its not a cross between Recettear, Bejeweled, or any of those. The two games you are looking for are- "Arkandian Legends", the game creator's series which there are many more on this site, and "Puzzle Quest". Puzzle Quest was the pioneer of the Bejeweled combat system, where both opponents share the bejeweled field. Overall, its a beautiful merger of two great games, and I would love to see a second using this style. Biggest disappointment with the game? I beat it too quickly xD. Still going back to buyout the shop- because I can.
There is a large amount of errors in the game, either by tooltip or functionality, impossible to know which without knowing the intention of creation. Such things as:
-Armor reduces damage from spells, not just Physical Attacks as listed by tooltip
-The various 'Storm' spells (Fire, Ice, Energy, Poison) also deal 1 damage to the opponent for each gem they clear. This is not listed on spell description.
-The shop augmentations for gems matched (+10% income to Fire/Energy/Cold/Fire/Rage/Gold) also grant an increase in gems collected from spells that gather them. This is not listed in description.
-Damage increases from gear also affect spell damage, not just weapon damage as listed on the Tooltip.
These are the errors I noticed that I can remember off the top of my head, might be more.
Biggest grievance I can claim is not being able to link my FB and Kong accts =/ Played on FB, and can't pull over to Kong. On my FB account, clearing Nexus is a breeze, but on Kong I have to reassemble my uber-deck, and of course, wait on energy
There's two obnoxious things that combine together to be incredibly irritating. While waiting for the slowness, if by any chance you accidentally right click, paths get drawn all over the board, usually blocking off at least one cup
Spartan: The berserk overdrive does more damage the closer you are to something. This is why its really nasty on the Odin because you can hug your target and cause them to take massive damage.
What I'D like to know is how to get the top two achievements/what they are? (The in game ones, that are the only two in the row)
Encountered an interesting glitch where Enforced Silence remained on the field for the entire match- Convenient, when you're the only one with creatures out.
Indeed, to those comparing it to magic, its rather similar in many ways. To those who think magic is better: its had many years to evolve, and hosts many thousands over the cards that this one does. Expect it to be better, but I like some of the system changes. I find the choice between drawing and getting more 'mana' to be an interesting one. With more cards and a better balance, it could be interesting. PS- I've found use with purple, if not mono colored. In tandem with other colors its useful.
I have to say, "Loops of Zen" is a rather apropriate title- the game is a fun thing to do a few rounds with when you're trying to relax. Its got the same simple yet fun appeal of games like Minesweeper
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