Best Bejeweled Strategies

[Howard]

Hi!

I\'m going to compile a short doc with some of the best ways to play Bejeweled!

So - how do you play Bejeweled ? What gets you the best scores ?

Regards,

Howard.

[xcool]

Hi!

I\'ve been searching the net for Bejeweled strategy but couldn\'t find any. I was amazed by people getting those 5 million+ high scores. How they do that?

After quite some time, I learnt of a strategy which got me to my highest score currently at 193090.

My strategy would be to keep at least one move available right at the bottom most of the play area. Then, I\'ll go about making moves at the top 4 rows. If I run out of moves, I\'ll go for the 5 and lower rows, until I run out of other moves, which is to go for the one I kept at the bottom. I\'ll cross my fingers then to ensure that when I make this move, I don\'t see the dreaded Game Over.

Regards.

[Terryfic]

I do exactly the same as the previous message (leaving one match at the bottom & working the middle top), with these additional tips. Take the ones right at the top because you\'ll likely mess them up anyway, and often they lead cascading matches. Try to make 4- and 5-jewel matches as much as possible. Resist completing a vertical match until a horizontal match comes along to kick it in.

[xcool]

Darth Vader: I sense something, presence I\'ve not felt since...

Well, off with the intro. At long last, I see a reply to this thread.

I agree with Terryfic. However, I try to go for the vertical ones and not the other way round. The vertical ones has the potential to cause more chain reaction. I managed to break my high score of 190K 2 days ago, just by following this very same strategy.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

WOW,
that is a massing, how in the world are they getting or any of you getting 1million+ scores? my high score is 70k something, that is just crazy, how in the world... i mean, jeez...i am so confused, i have tryed tonz of things, played this game for hours and yet...man, that is just crazy, i cant believe they got 1million+, and even 190k, what you had, how did you get that, i tryed that strategy, but it didnt work out to well. anyways, someone respond and help me to become better at bejewled.

[mk]

I agree. My best is 60K+, and I\'ve played this game a fair amount. The strategies you mention (play top rows while saving some at bottom) do not seem to work at all for me. Indeed they go directly against that which has worked best for me -- playing almost exclusively from the bottom rows unless there is nothing there. Bottom rows are where the points are, because of chain reactions, which is really where ALL the points are. Does anyone know specifics of how the *2, *3, etc. notations at the bottom right are? I assume your points are doubled, etc. after major chain reactions -- I\'ve never noticed it above *3. I just don\'t see how 1,000,000 is legitimately possible in this game -- the Palm Pilot version. Unless there is a major secret here that I am missing, I believe those scores are fake.

[Hiroshi]

I believe those scores are fake. You are (maybe) right. Sorry, but I can submit over 5 million to web score board.:P I already mentioned for cause (or how to create) of these cheated score to Astraware a coule month ago. So, I hope adding prevent facility in the near future. Because, I\'d like to fairly score battle on web score board.:)

[JozipF]

Howdy,

My way of getting a high score in Bejeweled is to work as close to the top as possible trying to only go left to right instead of up & down. I try to leave moves left-to-right on the bottom (middle mostly) only working up & down if I have to & mostly on the extreme left side or right side. It seems that I work up & down mostly on the left side. I have noticed that if you swap gems of only one group say the orange ones & then only the red & so on you will get allot of gems in the groups that you are not using. It has worked for me so far. I have no idea how people have a score of 1Mil.+ but my top score is 417,470 in easy & 93,710 in timed. Good Luck!

[DBZ-GOKU-]

does anyone have any ideas on how to help me get a higher score?

[Pritch]

does anyone have any ideas on how to help me get a higher score?Yeah...read the above :P - this thread is all about people describing their strategies for getting higher scores. :D

My slowest, methodical, but safest method, in the Easy game is starting at the top, while ensuring that there is the guaranteed move at the bottom, and keeping a check on the remaining moves indicator - when that gets below three, there is the chance that you could make a wrong choice and die soon ;) (three is about the threshold where you can still save a risky situation).

In timed mode, always start at the bottom for the high scoring cascades, but ALWAYS look for the next move as soon as you make a move - don\'t watch for a pretty cascade and then start thinking - you have no time for that ;) If you can\'t see the next move at the bottom within ~1 second of making a move, make a move at the top / go for the help (in the Palm game, you don\'t lose points for doing this :P ), just don\'t waste time!

[DBZ-GOKU-]

thx,

i usually do the moves towards the top, but sometimes when i see one at the bottom i will do one, but the idea to check the \'howmany moves are left\' was a good idea, it help bring my score up, thx agian.

[mk]

My post about working from the bottom (as opposed to the top) was for the timed game. I think the other strategy for easy makes perfect sense -- indeed, i can see almost infinite scores on easy level. But for timed, more than a few hundred thousand seems impossible. And yes, unless someone disagrees, the best place to work from is the bottom.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

i would have to disagree with you on that working from the bottom. i always run out of moves faster when ever i work from the bottom, and then i lose. when i work form the top, i am able to get more moves and get higher scores. anyways, thanks for the advice, i bet it works for some people, like you.

[mk]

DBZ

1. I disagree that any strategy will work best for some people, but not others. There is almost certainly one best strategy, and the entire purpose of this thread seems to be to find it.

2. Everything you say in your post seems to indicate you are talking about the non-timed game. Again, I agree that working from the top makes sense for the non-timed game. But for the timed game, the opposite appears to be true, because cascades (chain reactions) are more important than having available moves (in fact, running out of moves in the timed game is a good thing).

Does anyone have any insight on the timed game?

My observations: It is best to work from the bottom. Vertical or horizontal doesn\'t matter much (after all, the first chain reaction match will likely be the opposite anyway). The max possible score is likely a few hundred thousand, and perhaps even that is too high. Any score higher than that must be fake. I top out at around 70,000, and I can\'t imagine anyone getting that much higher.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

yes, i do agree with you that, but iu have to admitt, i do not play timed very much, only when i am doing good in the non-timed games. but, anyeays, i do agree with you on that.

[JozipF]

Howdy,

I have been reading people say that high scores must be fake, I can not achieve MIL+ scores myself but I think that if some one is not able to reach a high score then it is there own fault.

People saying that scores higher than say... 70,000 in timed or 100,000 in easy is the most must not have worked out there playing style enough. My timed high is 156,710 or if you like my code is 3AGPO7WC69YGK8GPJR & my place on the high score table is 522 as of 27 Jul, 02 3:52.29 HRS.

I agree that the bottom is the best place to play from in \"TIMED\" & only \"TIMED\". For me the top is the best in \"EASY\".

I am not trying to pick on any one but I felt that it needed to be said that if some one can not play as well as one would like, then they need to keep trying. My high score was achieved after 3 months of playing the game.

[mk]

Jozip: do you have any other strategy suggestions for timed other than playing from the bottom? I\'ve only been able to achieve 70,000 after a few months of play, and can\'t figure out why much more than that seems extraordinarily difficult.

[JozipF]

mk,

I have found that if you remove gems going from group to group (Diamonds then Rubies & so on & so forth) that the game will generate gems of the groups that you are not clearing. If I need more red gems then I do not touch any that I could & most of the time it will give them to me. Remember that you have to work fast, not an easy thing but I try to stay in the bottom 3 (three) rows only. If I have to move the I try to stay twords the middle. If you play allot I hope that you havee a screen protector on your PDA, I some times press hard on my screen when it gets all crazy & rushed.

I am runnig Bejeweled 1.51 on my Palm m515 with the Game settings full & fast & Tweak settings spread & w/countdown clicks on. I keep the Economy mode off to try to stop the distractions. The game runs very fast on my model so it is easy to be fluid with the moves.

If you get stuck just do any move you can, it might be the last. Good Luck!!!

P. S. Please let me know if it helps.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

thx for the tips every one, i have already tried some and they helped, i am going to try yours now, jozipf.

[DBZ-GOKU-]

thx for the tips every one, i have already tried some and they helped, i am going to try yours now, jozipf.

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by BlackDiamond)
It seems to me that there are in fact NO strategys for this game, only the ones that we hope would work and cross our fingers, and by fluke get it right.:-P

After carefully dissasembling the game it appears that the game knows where the best moves are, and can calculate whether your trying to get the best moves, and can even make it harder for you. One thing the game does not recodnise though, is if you deliberately RUIN possibly good moves, and its only way to make it harder for you is by giving you more good moves.

One other thing I noticed was that, if you are using only one colour of jem, it gives you another colour of jem, The colours of jem it gives you if you use other jems are coded.
For instance, use the yellow jem once, it gives a blue, use a yellow again it gives a green, and so on.

If anyone happens to of studied this and got firm evidence that this works, then post it!

Happy Jeweling!

[Howard]

People find this hard to believe, but there really is no intelligence behind the gem selection system! It doesn\'t try to give you more of one colour than another, or anything else! The line of code which produces it is:
game.gemarray[col][row]=AWRandNum(7);
Meaning... Pick a random number from 0 to 6, and that\'s the type of gem to put in that position.

There are people who *swear* that the game doesn\'t like them since they registered, and I\'ve even had complaints that the game gives better gems on their friends Palm... I think it boils down to the fact that people like to draw patterns from things which are in reality just random! (I\'m sure that the human mind just cannot completely accept the concepts of \"Random\" or \"Infinite\", and so there\'s always a subconscious rebellion against them :) )

I\'m listening with much interest to the ideas put forward here for the best strategies!

I would argue that the best strategy for either mode is the one which results in the highest points score - which may not be the same as the one which gives the longest game (in terms of time or number of moves).
For that reason, I recommend working close to the bottom, and varying between horizontal and vertical matches, and alternating between left, right, and middle.
Always go for rows of 4 or 5, and especially ones which will produce cascades.
The trick with Timed mode is to get the bonuses as quickly as possible, so that you get enough multipliers. You get more \'bonus\' juice for lines of 4 and 5 and for cascades, so that\'s what to aim for when you can :)

Keep \'em coming!

Howard.

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by BlackDiamond)
Really? thats interesting, because using a technique where I ignore the colour of Jem there is least of, I have high scored over 1 million.

You must be talking about some kind of different version, either that or your on drugs.:)

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by BlackDiamond)
One more point I must add, is that a computer has no grasp of \"random\" or \"infinate\", when faced with such decisions, a computer usually assumes there is some sort of calculation missing, or some logic processor that is still uninstalled. The result of this is an error message, and a crashed computer. So to produce numbers or values at \"random\", we need to use some sort of processor, that loops everything it does, in such a long loop, that it appears random. You may notice something appearing the same as it did a few moments before, but you would have to have a vary good memory for this.

for example:
6
1
2
4
3
5
1
2
4
3
5
1
3
5
6
3
2
5
3
2
1

After all that would you be able to remember where you started? of course not. Along with having a similar rule for the starting jems, its near impossible to work out, thus the jewel-flood strategy is the only real strategy with any success rating above 50%, I managed to get 12744 points by the 6th level!

Hope this proves the point, and by the way, I am a PC user, so it might be slightly different to a palm.

[Howard]

Well, a quick estimate would be that you\'d have to play for a couple of weeks solid before seeing even one screen worth of gems that was the same as the first :)

The random number generator uses the number of clock ticks since it was switched on to use as a \'seed\' for its random numbers - which are anywhere between 0 and 32000 (I think!).
I reset this seed every time you make a match, so it is even less predictable! (There are 16 million clock ticks each second, so its pretty unlikely to tap the screen at exactly the same time each time...)

----

What do you mean by the \'Jewel Flood\' strategy ?


What about this for a strategy:
(*) Given that the runs of gems that fall down are randomly determined and unpredictable
All other things being equal (i.e. no obvious runs of four or fice to make)

Is it better to try to make matches using
a) The colour which has *most* present on screen, or
b) The colour with the least present on screen ?


I think that going for \'b\' will result in higher points:
My reasoning here is that if you make the match of three, you will have even *less* of that colour on the screen. When more gems cascade in, the frequency of the other gems is higher, so making it more likely that gems of those other colours coming in would make make more likely cascades or larger matches.

I suppose the other side to this is that you could well make it a little more likely that you\'ll result in a \"no moves\" position, although I\'m not convinced of that.

Maybe the best way to find out would be for me to re-activate the \'demo\' mode, but give it intelligence to try out some of these strategies millions of times, and then see what the average score achieved is :)

Anyone got an gut feelings or even extra reasoning to back up or disagree with this ? I\'m not exactly convinced myself ;)

Howard

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by PopCapGames)
Hi there.

Wow, were all real impressed here at PopCap, there are some real good strategys and ideas that we never even dreamed about when making the game. It was clear from the beggining it would be a hit.

I would just like to say that BlackDiamond is probably the most correct here, although we would prefer if you didnt deconstruct our programs ;). The technique we discovered most helpful was to leave a hole colour untouched each level, resulting in large cascades. At the start of each level, find the colour of which there are least, and just dont use that colour throughout that whole level and watch as they mount up!

As for the issue of \"random\" and \"infinate\", well all I can say to mr.had up there is that he should not mock the human brains capacity for the knowledge and understanding of \"random\" and \"infinate\", as it is the most complex arrangement of matter that we know of. And yes, once again BlackDiamond is correct, but only in one sence, and that is that the game uses your computers thinking capacity to generate a continues \"loop\" of random numbers. The more powerful your computer is, the more random the game gets.

Thanks, and happy gaming.

The PopCap crew.

[JozipF]

Howdy,

I forgot to mention that one thing that works for me since the bottom is best in \"TIMED\" & the top is best in \"EASY\" that one thing that I do is to (this might sound silly but) I turn my Palm upside down so that although in the game I am playing from the top I am able to stay at the (now) bottom of the screen. It helps me to get used to playing fast from the bottom in \"TIMED\" games. It takes a little while getting used to the pieces going up instead of down but it seems to work well.

One thing about the chain reactions in the \"TIMED\" mode is yeah they help, but they can also hurt, that is to say that although they give you more points I find myself having to look around more often for the moves after a big one. Some times I do not have enough time to find one & lose. I am not saying that they should be avoided but that they should not be the only thing to work for.

Your score will be more the longer you can stay & play.

[Terryfic]

>the guaranteed move at the bottom, and keeping a
>check on the remaining moves indicator - when that
>gets below three, there is the chance that you could

Remaining moves indicator? Where is this? I\'m running on Palm OS (on Handspring Prism), Bejeweled v 160

>go for the help (in the Palm game, you don\'t lose
>points for doing this ), just don\'t waste time!

Again, go for help? What does this mean? I have Help turned on, and only get the flashing jewel indicators as help (which don\'t always flash by the way)

[Hiroshi]

Remaining moves indicator? Where is this? I\'m running on Palm OS (on Handspring Prism), Bejeweled v 160You can see with type \'R\' on graffity area.

[Terryfic]

Thanks Hiroshi!

I just looked in the download from the update and found an html file with the hidden key shortcuts. Should\'ve checked there first I suppose...

[Hiroshi]

Thanks Hiroshi!You are welcome.:) Yup, You can see many hidden command in html document. as you know.:)

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by jrock)
Strategies already discussed, learned via trial/error have worked well for me (work at the top, save at least one move at the bottom, work opposite from that saved move); I\'m ambivalent about horizontal vs. vertical, and agree with changing the focus (don\'t just concentrate on one gem) When I\'d achieved a 190K game and posted it, I was #400! WOW! My question is: what is the talk about indicator showing \'how many moves left\'??? I have Ver 1.51, is there a newer one?

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by jrock)
Through trial and error I discovered the same advice as posted above (play the top rows with one -or more- moves reserved on the bottom) and achieved a 190K score; which when it was posted I discovered I was something like #400! I cannot make the previously discussed \'cheat\' work on my game version, but hope it\'s cured in future releases. I agree with the note of not concentrating on a single gem or you\'ll be dismayed by the selections that appear; and also have found that neither vertical nor horizontal moves are necessarily \"better\"; they are all valuable (or wrong) at different times. One option that I\'d like to see added in the future is an \"oops\" or do-over (take back the last move)...which I also presume that by using the capability would negate any \'official\' high score.
(Handspring Visor Delux, Palm OS v.3.1H3, Bej v.1.51)

[chojan]

First an answer to something posted earlier:

Had -- You were suggesting that one should look at what gems had been least present and figuring that the chance would be higher for these to appear. This is incorrect. True random number generators have no self-correlation. In other words, looking at the past will give you no indication of the future. A good example of this is the lottery system: Imagine you had been selecting number 29 for years, and it still hadn\'t come up in a draw. Does that make it more likely to show up soon? NO!

Unfortunately, computers do not have true random number generators. Instead, they have to generate a psuedo random sequence. Once a seed value is selected, the sequence following that is fixed! Assuming that a large enough polynomial is used to generate the sequence, you would never recognize the sequence (it would be longer than the number of gems used in the game!) If they used a small polynomial, then, yes, it would be possible to identify the sequence after, say, 255 gems!

HOWEVER, this only holds true if the seed value is never reset. In Bejeweled, the seed value is reloaded after each jewel selection (I assume). Therefore, there may be a slight sequence to the jewels that fall on a new line above, but you are only getting half a dozen jewels at a time in any one sequence. And, when the seed is reset, you are almost guaranteed to never have the same seed value again. Since they are using the real-time clock, you could not possibly have the manual dexterity or insight to time your click at the specific time to generate the same seed value. Try using a stopwatch that has seconds along with 6 digits of accuracy after a single second. Press start and then stop and try to get all six digits to be the same. Practically impossible!

So, in summary, you should never be able to predict what frequency or sequence the next gems take on!

And yes, I used to develop video games for a living :)

[chojan]

I must preface this by saying that I am no expert, but in the two weeks that I have played it, my high score in TIMED mode is 179,010 (Calvin).

These are the things that I have found to be most useful:

-I prefer horizontal matches because this allows me to keep memory of the patterns that lie above without ruining them.
-Taking jewels from the bottom allows for the highest chain reaction counts.
-As soon as I start to move towards selecting a jewel, I immediately scout around looking for other jewels. Don\'t even think about watching the animation!
-As the jewels fall, scout around elsewhere, then look at the dropping jewels to get an idea how they might line up.
-If I can\'t see any combinations immediately, I blur my eyes to remove detail and try to identify colours. There are only 3 possible arrangements to look for (I call them branch, gap and triangle).
-Try as hard as possible to get as many bonuses as possible at the start of the game, as the benefits will be integrated across your entire game. I usually get the second bonus after 4x consistently, but I currently have a hard time getting much past that :)
-For speed, drag the jewels, don\'t click them.
-Don\'t ever look at any one jewel for more than a second, sometimes the glints don\'t seem to help and you get stuck.
-Don\'t ever look at the timer or bonus multiplier, as they will no doubt distract you needlessly.
-I try to find combinations from side to side or top to bottom. This way the falling jewels don\'t disrupt the area you have already planned out to target next.
-Scrape repeatedly across the jewels while you are waiting for the jewels to stop falling. This way you will get the action started as soon as is possible.
-If I know that there are several possible jewel combinations, I always go for the highest set first, so that the lesser combinations might get bigger after some reordering.
-I always try to avoid using combinations at the top of the screen because they give the least warning.
-Screen protector is vital for this game.
-RELAX RELAX RELAX!!!

It is amazing how your eyes and mind improve at recognizing patterns. When I first started playing, I would sometimes sit for what seemed like a minute scanning everywhere. Now, it is fun to watch how fast we can go.

I can only hope that the high score list online is real, as this is certainly a big (and clever) motivation for playing this game. I am quite sure that I should be able to get about 250,000 at some point, but if the multipliers don\'t go above 4x, then I don\'t see how the million-plus scores are possible! I hope that there is no cheating involved!

Have fun!

[NEILEO]

Helpful hint....

Swing your arms in circles so that ther is no one around people looking in wonder are messing your consintration.


People are courious of things they haven't seen before!!!!

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by 2bcrazy)
Wow. You people are awesome. I just got this crazy thing 2 weeks ago and it's taken me this long just to get to 8,000 on the timed version. I'm going to read your suggestions over and over until some of it makes sense!! I may go crazy trying just to get past 10,000! Any other suggestions are MORE than welcome...
Thanks!

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by JROCK)
I've been playing Bejeweled for over a year now and just recently have graduated from a Handspring Delux to a Sony Clie'; and the Bejeweled game is different! Already noted this phenom when I got the game for a PC, saw it again when I downloaded it for my phone; ...but really expected it to be the same on a handheld...surprise, surprise. Still, in whatever form, it is a super-duper game. THANKS

[BigGoodBig]

PRACTICE

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by cabral)
There is one strategy for TIMED game that wasn´t approached here:
To play the game with more than one person simultaneosly.
If you have two minds and two pens touching the palm screen at the same time, you will make combinations faster and earn more time and points.
I've been playing this game for just 1 day and my girlfriend and I made 70K at timed game at our 5th attempt.

Other helpfull tip is: read these foruns (hehehe).

Coletive solutions are allways better.



Felipe Alvares Cabral de Barros
Florianopolis
Santa Catarina
Brasil

[BoG]

I also Like to keep at least 1-2 moves at the bottom of the screen as I play, so I never get stuck. I also like to try and play a few moves ahead, like In chess. I try to keep moves open 1-2 rows from the top open so that if that right jewel falls down I rack up the combos. the last thing I do is look for at least three moves (besides my two spare ones on the bottom) before I make an actual move, so I can pick the best possible move that helps me rack up the most points.

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by Kallam)
I have had my Bejeweled game for 6 days (and never played it before) so I am somewhat of a novice, but to state the obvious-scan the screen. You will sometimes have more than one move to choose from and it helps to visualize how the jewels will fall that you can see. This is only for the Easy untimed game I guess. I did make a score of 100470 that way (and no I don't play continuously I try to limit myself to two fifteen minute periods a day-but it is addicting!)

[Citsade]

I really never imagined Bejewelled requiring any real tactic since I figured the gem drop was random. But the 'work from the top' idea is great for easy mode (my high is 125,000 or so).

I also have to try the 'leave one whole gem untouched' in timed mode, which is what I play the most. I have been playing Bejewelled for 8 months now and my Timed high is 390,000 and I didnt use any tactic other than speed and always looking for the next move (I dont have the hints turned on and will very rarely hit the Hint button since it takes So much time away).

[kgish]

My strategy is simple yet quite effective.

I just scan the board completely randomly and slide the first jewels I spot at the top of my head and without thinking very much at all.

After hours of mesmerizing play, I hit a pretty high score once in awhile.

Highest so far (using easy): 88110.

[TheoParke]

I started playing with making sure there was always a move in the bottom two rows .. and I immediately broke into the 100,000 mark. This DEFINITELY works. :) Other strageties, YMMV.

[JozipF]

Howdy,

Had, on 04 June, 2002 at 1716 HRS. you started this thread stating that you were going to make a doc of the best Bejeweled strategies that we the users had. It has been some time now. Where is this doc? Just curious.

}><((('>

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by harrb)
This might seem impossible but I kid you not. I got a high score of 393,240 on the advanced mode of Bejeweled. I got 4,210 matches and 1008 cascades. It took me hours to get to that score, and a couple pause breaks to recharge my cell phone. But once I hit 100,000 points, I felt unbeatable and kept pushin. Finally my eyes started playin tricks on me at 3 am and I slipt behind and my time ran out.

I had a couple strategies, but they weren't set in stone. I didn't do that top to bottom ****. Sometimes, i would get a match on the right side, and while it was cascading I would scope the left side for a match to cut back on time. Other times I would just stick to the same area and work it real hard. After playing for a while, your eyes will easily pick out matches and where you can get cascades. The best hint you can use though is this... after you get a bonus, get as many matches as quickly as possible to get another bonus, etc... You get more points for bonuses than for matches or cascades. The key is, don't think, just do, you have a better chance at simply matching gems, rather than thinking about which way to move the gem in order to get a cascade.

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by GeekInKY)
One tip I can't believe hasn't turned up before: keep that stylus moving!

While I'm scanning, I'm constantly dragging the stylus around the screen. I don't hesitate when I see a valid move, but I'd guess I get as many sets from frantic dragging without my knowledge.

I also work from the bottom. The reason for this is that the cascades are *many* times more valuable than matches...even matches of 4, 5, or even 7 gems. (Yes, I've had two 7 gem matches!) Try it out in slow play...you'll see that one simple cascade gets you hundreds of points, while a 5 gem match gets you something like 50 (?) points.

Working from the bottom gives you far more opportunities for cascades, as there is more "friction" when the gems fall. Friction yields cascades.

Also, I don't look at the left and right areas until the center section is dried up. This is because when you drop a line that includes the leftmost or rightmost column, you've lost almost half your potential for cascades.

So, I more-or-less scan the field in three "zones":

3 3 3
3 2 3
2 1 2

I start scanning in zone 1. When it dries up, I go to zone 2. When it dries up, I take a quick peek at 1, then jump to 3. When I'm slumming in zone 3, I prefer vertical matches, as they "punch down" to the better areas. In that case, I always scan lower, trying to work my way back down to easy street.

Also, even when things are going well in zone 3, I'll leave a good thing to scan back through the bottom. You'll often find a pleasant surprise down there after you've been working it hard up top for a while.



The results? I've got four high scores between 80,000 and 95,000 and one monster game of 142,000. Not to mention a few headaches. I've gotten to where I can't play more than 10 minutes at a time or my eyes go fuzzy.

I gotta delete that game...too darned addictive.

-geek

[David]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd post a link to a tool called Jeweler that we've seen mentioned on a news site today:

http://usuarios.lycos.es/sanclemente/jwIndex.php

It's a little Java application for Palm OS which takes a screenshot that's come from Bejeweled and displays on-screen all the possible matches available on that screen.

Not endorsed by us, we haven't tried it, but we thought it sounded quite cool! :)

David

[kgish]

Now you've taken all the fun out of the creative guesswork!

[Howard]

Now you've taken all the fun out of the creative guesswork!

Ah, not really :)

Knowing where all of the matches on screen are doesn't really change the strategies you use to play the game!

(In fact, in the easy game since there is no time penalty, you could just write 'h' over and over to see the various move options)

Howard.

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by jasolo)
Thanks for making mention of my program Jeweler.

At the moment, Jeweler doesn't display any info about cascades, but I expect to include this in next versions. So that info will be better than writing 'h' on Bejeweled. Of course, the new random gems can distort the predicted cascades, so fun is guaranteed.

I would like to display also the score for each move, but I haven't found any doc about the score of the cascades and after analyzing the game, I only obtain ambiguous scores.

[hades]

You're making life to difficult if you're always looking for any given tactic in the timed game IMHO. It's not about scoring as quickly as possible, it's about never running out of time. If you don't run out of time, you can keep scoring. I've had plenty of games where I haven't run out of time for hours (use pause every now and again: no-one can sit there for 8 hours straight!)

[larry1470]

Hi!

I've been searching the net for Bejeweled strategy but couldn't find any. I was amazed by people getting those 5 million+ high scores. How they do that?

After quite some time, I learnt of a strategy which got me to my highest score currently at 193090.

My strategy would be to keep at least one move available right at the bottom most of the play area. Then, I'll go about making moves at the top 4 rows. If I run out of moves, I'll go for the 5 and lower rows, until I run out of other moves, which is to go for the one I kept at the bottom. I'll cross my fingers then to ensure that when I make this move, I don't see the dreaded Game Over.

Regards.

I am assuming you are referring to Action mode. Previously my high was 163,000. That's before I tweaked my config.xml file. I couldn't get past level 4. Now I just let the timer run out and my high score is over 7 million. It's cheating I know but I wanted to get to hyper mode. It got a bit boring. If you have as little staying power as I edit your config.xml file in notepad and set the timer to a very low speed. I put back the original file and I'm back to normal now.
L8r
Larry

[larry1470]

Thanks Hiroshi!

I just looked in the download from the update and found an html file with the hidden key shortcuts. Should've checked there first I suppose...

I just checked and I don't have any html files in the download or game folders except for the readme html and that tells you nothing. I also can't find how to see how many moves are left.
Helppppppppppppppp.
Thank you
Larry

[larry1470]

Remaining moves indicator? Where is this? I'm running on Palm OS (on Handspring Prism), Bejeweled v 160You can see with type 'R' on graffity area.


Where is the graffiti area?
Larry

[Cheryl]

The graffiti area is located at near the bottom part of Palm device screens. It's been awhile since I owned a POS device, but as I recall it is the area where you would enter text using a stylus.

[Tramp'NaMini]

The first 10 levels are simple... just do whatever, I blow up as much stuff as possible to get through them.

The higher levels need more care. I mostly work from the top down, and try to AVOID 4s. They tend to blow up at the wrong time and ruin stuff. I try to save as many Magic Orbs (5 in a row) as I can, to bail me out when I get jammed. They also get in the way sometimes, but they are worth it eventually.

Sometimes its a better gamble to pull the bottom out to set up something better... thats hard to define how & when, but the main thing ALWAYS is to set up at least 1 next move, every time I make a move.

Where a vertical move OR a horizontal move can be made, I usually drop them vertically. I don't believe in 100% random... they work better when dropping vertical, unless of course the horizontal drop sets up more moves.

Lastly.... and again about random... it's NOT 100% random, and argue me if you want, but it is also tied in with the music. It's more playable when the music is going fast, and the most playable part is during that part that sounds like cowboys or something.

Call me a dumb bich if you want, but I did learn a lot of programming in school. 17 languages to be exact. 100% RANDOM does not exist.

Oh ya... I forgot... more points, I meen like 4s & 5s, arent about squat in the end. All they do is get you to the next level faster. Sometimes you get a overflow of points into the next level, but in the end, too many explosives will just get you blown up faster..... Umm..... ya treat it like ya would treat me...
sometimes rough & sometimes sweet;)

Ghost

Level: 52
High Score: 3,886,026