The key to this game, when outmatched, is utilizing the up/down/right/left mechanic to move your pirate and the monsters away from each other. Any match you make can shift the tiles in one of two directions. For example, if you want to match the rocks in the top left corner of your picture, you can either move the top left rock to the right or you can move the gold next to it to the left. One choice is significantly worse, in this case -- moving the gold left will move your pirate one space closer to the enemies. In general, you want to put your pirate in one corner and all the baddies in a group in the opposite corner. Then you always make matches "toward" the corners that are occupied. So the baddies never move closer to you, and you never move closer to them. When possible, make matches "behind" you or the baddies to shove everybody even further into the corners. Occasionally, unexpected matches will move characters out of the corners, but if you are a little careful it can usually be undone quickly.
Why, in the second half of the game, do you start getting islands without song fragments? Its kind of annoying...the game actually seems a bit too long, my enthusiasm is starting to lag.
I ran into that problem, just before the snow islands I believe. I then stopped getting Sea Shanties after that point, but I wasn't sure if that was a game bug or on purpose :/
I have this same issue. I haven't hit a shanty in a stretch as long as when I was getting shanties :/ I went through the entire snow area without shanties, which doesn't seem right.
Have you/the team run into Cloud issues on the same machine itself? As in...sometimes when I load the game, it has conflicts between iCloud and the local save. But I don't play on any other devices, nor have I restarted the game or anything exotic. Just my first playthrough, it has iCloud issues.
same here... asks me sometimes if I want to replace the iCloud save with my local one. As I only have one iDevice, this is kinda surprising
This mechanic, which makes good sense and works most of the time for me (probably user error/sloppiness when it doesn't) has made the game grindy and less interesting for me. I'm finding I am back to Dungeon Raid, which also uses a different matching mechanic and is not strictly a match 3. EDIT: Played a few games of Dungeon Raid and found I was ready for another dose of Scalywags ;-) NO REGRETS on the purchase
Start back at the first island at level 1. Gain XP at double rate until you each the level that you died at. Keep all skills, gold, and items (ship parts, ships, cargo, clothes, weapons, etc.)
Agree 100%. The only time I deviate from this strategy at all is boss fights, where I immediately do junk->gold and gold->power, so if the boss happens to be a golem I can just go kill it immediately and not grind for an hour.
Clear Entire Island Is anyone having trouble with the clear the entire island achievements? I often clear the entire island (I go to every location) yet it still doesn't go towards my count. Am I missing something?
I just had a game where the entire island i was on was closed except for the pointing finger mission, that was the only available mission remaining. I beat it and then it popped up an achievement for passing an island without clearing it. I thought that made no sense. I had completed other regular missions on that island before that point, but when I completed it there was only the final finger mission available.
so this game is easy not to die right? you just buy that escape skill and never die? is there a reason I should not use this and why it's not cheap?
I discovered my new favorite power gaining skill combo: clear a lot of junk, try to keep power and gold on the board as long as possible. now use skill "gold to power". your board is now packed with power items, but they are not triggered, even if there are 5 or more pieces in a row. now do not match anything, but use the skill "power to special power" (unlocked at lvl15 or something). that converts every power item to a power item with a skull in it. this also triggers all matches. BOOM! all power items are destroyed and I normally gain something between 50 and 150 power at once. with all gold and power gone, there are only few different items left on the board, so you get a lot of easy matches to cooldown the 2 skils before killing off all enemys in one go.
I'm fairly sure the Escape option kicks you out of the level and the level is uncometed. That is, you cannot progress with it. It's a last resort and I will likely not equip it.
I'm level 22 and dont think I have any such skill. Common to gold, gold to swords, collect swords, I have those 3 (and many others of course, but not pertinent).
Odd, because I'm also 22 and have it - though didn't know that's what it did, thanks moeTi! - try scrolling all the way down? I think the game pushes new skills that you don't buy straight to the bottom of the list, so it might have just gotten lost. The little icon for it is purple/blue with lightning bolts. I've been playing less of the game because I've gotten frustrated - only with fivejane's post did I actually figure out how movement works, and though I mostly hold my own, in higher levels I'm getting punched around. I might try dying on purpose and starting with easier levels to get movement down. Also, I've been playing long enough that I've completed a lot of the quests - and they don't seem to recycle at all, even after dying - and have materials for most of the ships (though getting the ghost items is taking time), so I've gotten to the point where I'm not actually trying for anything in particular except for not dying (which is getting increasingly harder) and getting to the next island. (As opposed to not dying, getting to the next island, doing a specific location(s) for quest items, holding my breath each time the wheel spins to see what I get, seeing what new skills I can unlock and what ships I can build.) I guessed I played so much - and I played a /lot/ - that I kind of blew through the major content of the game. I still really like the game, but think I'm going to take a break soon and put it aside for a little bit until more is added/my interest is renewed.
