We’ve gotten into writing guides in a big way this year, and while we can offer up some good advice from a player’s perspective, it’s really awesome to get tips straight from the people who made the game and knows all of its nuances from the inside out. Like the Temple Run 2 developer tips, some of these might seem obvious to veteran players, but, if you’ve already beaten the game three times over do you really need tips?

Either way, here’s ten tips for Infinity Blade III ($6.99), straight from Chair. Personally, I found the hints on how to swipe to be particularly useful, and I’ve played the game a ton:

• Conserve motion on your swipes, you don’t need to draw a line across the screen for it to pick up what you’re doing – Swiping further than you need to moves your fingers away from your dodge and block buttons.
• Center blocking or dodging can be canceled into other defensive moves, so if you start defending center, and realize it’s the wrong defense in time, you can switch to the correct side defense.
• With heavy weapons, wait to start your combo. If you do two hits and a slash, that usually ends your attack window. You can get in up to 3 more hits if you alternate directions instead of starting the combo right away.
• Don’t be too greedy! Sometimes the Titan will block you on that last hit you try to squeeze into your combo. Avoiding this can help you in two ways: 1. The Titan will wait longer to attack giving you more time to prepare your defense. 2. Because the Titan is waiting longer to attack, your magic meter can also fill more between each Titan attack sequence.

• If you get a gem you don’t want, fuse it! A fused gem might turn out to be something more useful, and if not, it is worth more than the value of the gems put into it. Selling fused gems can be a good way to make money.
• The forge is a great value! Upgrading items at the forge is often a better value than buying new ones. For example, upgrading a level 1 weapon to level 2 is usually cheaper than buying a new level 2 weapon.
• Start collecting elemental defense gems as soon as you can. Only 2 out of 8 are available each Awakening. If you miss one, it might not be available for a while, and you will need them when the Titans start using elemental attacks!
• Bonus combos that end with the same direction they start with can overlap, so the last hit of one bonus combo counts as the first hit of your second. The right bonus combo can make it possible to fit in 2 or 3 bonus hits in a row!
• Don’t use magic or super attacks on the fight before you face one of the Deathless. That way you’ll have a full super move and magic meter ready to go from the start of your fight with the big Titans!
• Save up all your “Chips” for a Large key or a Rare prize wheel, you can get some really great gear from those to help you take down those tough Titans!

Also, if you’ve got any of your own tips, feel free to leave ’em in the comments. Additionally, if you want to get caught up on the Infinity Blade series storyline, check out our plot guide. Oh, and in case you missed it, we’ve got a five star review of the game as well.