Alchemy-holics Anonymous

[Xiantayne]

Anyone else completely addicted to Alchemy? I can't seem to put it down even thought I rarely get past level 5.

Does anyone have any tips on how to reach the higher levels? What do you do to maintain a playable board at any time?

[bnystrom]

Alchemy-aholics meeting will now come to order....

If it's any indication, my wife now has stolen and totally run down the battery on my Prism 4 times in the past week just so she can play Alchemy. I never thought that a game would come along that she would pass up playing Bejeweled for, but here it is. Problem is, she has gotten smug about it and now rubs her high scores in my face all the time. Not sure if I can even make the Top 5 list with her playing.

She is addicted, so I would say that Alchemy is a winner!!

[ArchiveGuest]

(This post was originally by csj)
Yes, Alchemy is totallllly addicting. Totally. Right now I'm up to level 18, but since I don't know how you are playing, I'm not sure of what kind of hints to give you.

Try to keep your layout simple at first -- don't put your self in a situation where you need to match 2 or 3 colors/runes too often. In the lower levels, it's *usually* better to throw out tiles than to put ones on the board that will complicate it.

csj

[Xiantayne]

I tend to keep four quadrants of colours going. A different colour is placed around the initial block and the colours move either down or to the right (depending on their position around the block).

This way, there is only one line of runes to match with two colours at any time (where the quadrants meet). The rest of the quadrants are simply a single colour.

The trouble with this method comes in when more and more colours are added and you end up getting a run of a colour that you don't want and then you're screwed.

[DECx]

I try to avoid encircling an empty square with more than two different colour/runes since too many of these on a board will lead too many disposed tiles.

DECx

[Xiantayne]

I agree with this with the exception of the initial block. I find you need to place 4 different colours around it in order to have more flexibility as the board progresses.

[nilepoc]

My first moves center around getting the same color horizontally and then two different colors vertically, but the same symbol if I can, then build from there. I don't worry about quadrants, but I do focus on getting lines of runes that are not adjacent. I don't worry about crossing them, but do try not to get the lines running paralell in non-touching colums or rows.

My problem tends to be that I get so focused on getting rid of rows that I forget the goal is to convert the field to gold, and end up playing much longer on a level than I should have to.

Well I hope that isn't too confusing.

Craig