The Bejeweled 2 Analysis

[EseTorsido]

After dozens of trial runs, I now know why I'm playing poorly on Bejeweled 2. I looked through Jacob's videos and discovered something he didn't mention publicly: patterns.

Not the normal pair-three-to-remove, it's the patterns where they can create a cascade effect, clearing more gems for more points, and patterns where they can set up a Power Gem (king.com) and Hyper Cube (worldwinner.com).

I'll discuss worldwinner.com first. Every time I have this pattern:

**x**

OR:

*
*
X
*
*

I know a Hyper Cube is possible. But I get so frustrated into creating one due to random gems blocking my way, it becomes impossible to focus. I end up settling for the weakest combo available, or making a Power Gem. Power Gems aren't as strong in the point department for the Worldwinner version. The only way I can make a decent score is if I know the patterns that will lead me into creating a Hyper Cube.

But here's another situation: what if you don't need a Hyper Cube? Cascade combos are as essential as Hypers, but they don't give much points. However, they do clear many troublesome blocks and pitfalls, if you can manage it.

For instance, say you create a Hyper Cube. Since it's a wild card, it doesn't matter what type of gem you used to create one. The gem you see the most on the board is the blue diamond, and you want to get rid of it. For that to work, the blue diamond needs to be above, below or adjacent to the Hyper Cube. However, the blue diamond is away from your distance, and you have very little moves to make. Imagine, if you will, a no-more moves scenario with as many blue gems scattered about. The only move you can make is the Hyper Cube. Any gem you try to swap will render you moveless. However, if you give up creating a Hyper Cube and initiate a cascade instead, you'll at least clear a path to reach the next level, or enable more moves to work the board.

So what's the better move: go for the Hyper Cube, a cascade effect, or a Power Gem?

With king.com, the gem's roles are reversed, as Power Gems can build more points than a Hyper Cube.

Here's a little thing I picked up while I was there: when you have as many Power Gems on the board available, the game will align the gems in a specific pattern so that you can initiate a Big Bang Effect where you can possibly destroy almost every single gem on the board, or create more Power Gems without interfering. When more gems are dropped, the ability to combine four into one Power Gem not only gets "easier" to manage, but tricky to protect. You hope the combination you create won't set off the explosion too early, render you moveless, or destroy only a part of the gems in the board. There should be enough Power Gems grouped next to each other, covering no more than 10% of the board to get the most possible points. In Jacbo's videos for king.com, he managed to make the Big Bang, even with the gems reassigned whenever a new level is reached. Where in the board is the best place to make a Big Bang? Take into consideration the Power Gem's explosion range.

The question remains:

1. How can I make a Hyper Cube properly without having to give up a Hyper Cube setup?
2. How can I protect my Power Gems so that I can detonate them at the proper level (Level 3 or higher)?

[Jacob]

1. How can I make a Hyper Cube properly without having to give up a Hyper Cube setup?

Swap gems that're around the hyper cube setup in hopes of finding a lead into a hyper cube. If there's no gems around the setup to swap around, ditch the setup and give up on it. Don't stall the gameboard for 20 seconds in trying to get a successful hyper cube...especially on King.com. Keep your score moving by making cascades, along with creating & deonating power gems.

2. I'll speak on behalf of King.com's version of Bejeweled 2, as that's a version of the game that I'm pretty good at.

I'll actually blow up my power gems if I have 5+ more of them bunched together, regardless of what level it is...I'll even do it on level 1. Consider the "bunching up" of power gems to be a stroke of luck for you. Any time you can collect 5+ power gems together and there's no other power gems to collect on the board, feel free to blow them up. Once you play Bejeweled fast and have a perfect eye for spotting power gem setups, you'll be able to re-collect power gems and do another big gathering of them. Don't stall the board by trying to "protect" your power gems if there's barely any moves left. I'm comfortable with giving up 1-2 power gems just to get the board moving, or to move on to the next level.

If your power gems are situated at the bottom of the board, protecting them is easy since you have the whole top half of the board to play with. If they're taking up the center portion of the board, you'll either need to get the game moving using the sides of the board or figure out a way to bunch up your gems close for a big explosion.

My personal motto with Bejeweled is to keep the game going. The worst thing that can happen is having a board where you're making single swap after single swap. You need to be actively kicking butt!

[Renaldo Moon]

I can only speak on behalf of WW's Bejeweled, since King.com doesn't allow Missourians to play for cash, but what Jacob said carries over pretty well.

Momentum is the key. I've had 13K+ scores on Worldwinner with 0 hyper cubes, and I've had 7K scores with 7 hyper cubes. It's essential to keep combos flying left and right (And hopefully cascading)-- this is what builds a consistent game. Hypergems should be a parameter that you need to train yourself in seeing so that you can identify possible hyper setups far in advance and verifying their feasibility without slowing or ever stopping.

I strongly suggest that players interested in strengthening *that* aspect of their game do so through a little activity in warm-up games:

1.) Start a warm-up game
2.) Make hyper-cubes

In this activity, every move you make should work towards a hyper-cube in some way or another. It doesn't matter if you end the game with 1000 points, it's practice. This will really acquaint you with easily identifying hypercube setups and working with them quickly and efficiently so you can quickly verify if it will or won't work and get on with your game.

Ideally, practice this until you get faster and faster with it, until your game is smooth-paced. At this point, you can integrate these elements into the consistent play-style I mentioned earlier.

Another note is that different types of tournaments demand a different play style too. If you're playing in a (Worldwinner) progressive, you don't need to worry about consistency since it's your highest score that matters. Getting 9-11K every time won't mean anything if you need 13K. In this case, you'd probably want to bring more emphasis to hypers, since they can really boost your score in the higher rounds (without stumbling, speed is still essential.)

Consequently, in a 3-player $2.50 game, there are less opportunities for people to play for a good score. Likely, it'll be 3 separate people each playing once, meaning you want to vie for strong, consistent scores instead of amazing, inconsistent scores. This way, you know you'll have a pretty good chance of winning with just the one entry, since that might be all you're allotted.

Hope this helps at all.

[EseTorsido]

Thanks for the tips, Renaldo and Jacob.

Another thing I noticed, but I can't really be sure of. Sometimes when I make a regular three-to-remove swap, there will automatically be an explosion at another part of the board. The kicker: the switch you make doesn't have a Power Gem on it, and is not part of a cascade.