Tips on beating a 4-star expert daily challenge

Been wanting to post this since end of last month. Just got myself to do it today. It seems the Facebook page is terribly deserted (last activity was several months ago) so I think its best to share my thoughts here.

Last month on Feb 23 there was a 4-star mix & match challenge. I had tried more than 200-300 times to beat it, but constantly ended on disappointment. Most of the time when I reached the last (13th) level there was 10 seconds or so left so it's just impossible
to clear it. I was about to give up (as I believed 95% of other players had already long ago).

Then came Feb 28 evening. All other 83 out of 84 challenges of the month had been cleared with ease, just this tough nut left. With about 30 mins to midnight, thought I'd give it one last try. So placed my multi-touch tablet on a high bench, and stretched
my shoulder muscles (as I knew they would be sore afterwards).

Then it's 25 mins of intensive shoulder/arm/elbow/wrist/finger movements. Incredibly, during the who-knows-how-many-th game (depending on progress I could restart the game after anytime from 10 seconds to 3 minutes), finally I was smelling success. Most
of the levels were cleared without much trouble, including the dreaded 9th.

But I knew it didn't mean much. The most critical was always the final one. Even if you play so well to go into it with 20-25 seconds on the clock, if you allow your mind to lapse and screw it up, then all will be in vain (as it has happened multiple times
before).

Finally reached the final level. I was so focused I didn't even had time to glimpse the clock, but must had over 20 seconds left. Fingers were tapping like crazy, but still missing a touch here or there. Then came the dreaded 10-second countdown with more
than half of the board left. Hearts pounding towards the throat (I always wonder has any player suffered from heart attack playing this stupid game?), but the finish line was in sight. Finally, with a hectic series of lightning quick taps, all clear! The clock
showed 2 seconds left. At least it wasn't 1 or 0 second, both of which I had done before.

So this was how I beat the (almost) unbeatable challenge, which I think only 5% or less of all players could do (and curse the developer for only allowing us 6 whole days to tackle it!). I will share some tips and thoughts in the replies below!

:)

 

July 23 Lightning Tiles Daily Challenge

Hello all,

I am having an extremely difficult time trying to complete the July 23 Lightning Tiles Daily Challenge. It is rated Medium/2 stars, but I've solved Expert/4 star challenges with less trouble than this one! Is anyone else struggling with this one? Any tips?

Thanks in advance!

 

My feedback

Hi

I agree with others that there should at least be 2 or 3 expert challenge per day in the Daily Challenge. It could be nice if you introduce a new star after Gold Star, already after 20 days of challenges the Gold Star is home. A suggestion will be a Expert
Star.

Another suggestion is to be able to go back in calendar and complete a Daily Challenge for the selected month.

 

The following tips are generally about the Feb 23 4-star mix & match challenge (which will be recycled in a couple month's time). I can't say it's THE toughest one out of the whole "bank" of daily challenges (there're also a few 3/4-star tap tower challenges
that's extremely diabolic, plus some other evil mix & match challenges requiring us to solve 14+ levels in 3-4 mins). But I have to say if one can beat this one even once, one should be confident in beating 99.9% of any challenge with a few tries at most.

Anyway, here are my tips for this challenge to solve 13 levels in 3:30, should it ever appear again:

1. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS: which is the most important key point. This game is utmost unforgiving, in that if you fall behind, there is very tiny chance to catch up. Simple division gives you an average of 16 seconds for each level. But you know some of them
take way longer (e.g. the huge 9th with 100+ tiles stack up), especially the ones at the end, so you need to kill off the easy levels in much shorter time, sometimes as few as 10 seconds.

For this particular game, you need to clear the first 3 levels no later than the 2:50 mark (i.e. 40 seconds), the next 5 levels by the 1:40 (i.e. 70 seconds), leaving you 100 seconds to deal with the last 5 levels. If at any time you see you're behind, don't
bother to continue, just hit the bottom right corner icon and reset the game. Often when it shuffles 3 times in the same level, you know it's time to reset.

This is a physical challenge, and you need to conserve your time, muscle, and most importantly, nerve. Can't afford wasting these on lost causes. Remember, it takes just one success to beat the game, and there's absolutely no shame in quitting early on certain
fails.

 

2. TAP IT THE FAST WAY: I know some people play this game using mice & keyboard. That's usually good enough for other modes and challenges, but not this one (well perhaps a hardcore online gamer with years of mouse-pointing skills can pull it off, but certainly
not the average player).

Do it with a multi-touch (e.g. 10-point) touchscreen device. AND USE BOTH HANDS. That way you can kill a pair of matching tiles in one tap. I suppose one can do it with 2 fingers in one hand but personally I find it most comfortable using 2 middle fingers.
Of course, the ideal way is to use 4 or even 6 fingers to kill off 2/3 pairs with a single tap, but it's probably only possible at the end stage of each level, certainly not at the very start.

Also, placement of your device and stature are important. Personally I use a 10" tablet, so I don't know what it's like to use say, a touchscreen monitor to do this, but I think it would be quite comfortable to play, especially if you adjust your sitting
distance for your arm lengths.

Anyway, as previously mentioned I place my tablet on a high bench about 15 degrees inclined towards myself, at a height where my elbows are folding at right angles (sort of like a praying mantis). I personally find this the most comfortable stature to give
me endurance for long intensive tapping.

Of course, everyone has different preferences. Just find your most comfortable configuration and tap away!

 

3. FINISH FAST: near the end of each level, you typically have 4-5 distinct pairs left in easy-to-see locations. In the relaxation mode or other easier challenges this is probably time to sit back, relax and coast. BUT NOT HERE. Either kill them in 1-2 taps
using multiple fingers, or do it pair by pair in extremely quick succession. We are talking a period of 1-2 seconds here, tops. Trust me, you'll notice the general improvement in your speed if you can grow the habit of killing the last 5 pairs or so in each
level within 2 seconds consistently.

4. START FAST: during the start of a level, often we will spend a few seconds inspecting the layout, picking the best pairs to kill (e.g. those involving edges of long rows). BUT NOT HERE. Especially the ones with lots of tiles. Just kill off any pair you
can spot at a glance, even those single tiles at the corner (in other modes we'd reserve them till later stages). That's because the system will shuffle for you constantly, even if you're stuck for 2 seconds. So there's no point to keep the layout "nice &
clean". Anyway if you kill off enough pairs at the start the board will be cleaned up very quickly. And this also applies to the time right after a shuffle.

 

5. NO ROTATION: well this may be debatable, but I personally don't find any justification to rotate the board in this mode, again because the system will shuffle the board if you don't kill a pair in 2 seconds. Say you're stuck from the current angle. So
if you rotate, perhaps you will find a pair immediately and continue your chain. But often you'll need a second or two to spot a pair, and the system might just shuffle before you kill them, rendering the whole action a waste. And usually you're stuck from
the current angle because your layout is messy, in which case a shuffle is often a better fix from that situation.

Saying that, there is actually an exceptional situation where you HAVE to rotate the board: if you're left with 2 tiles, and they are perfectly overlapping one another from the current angle. But I don't think this happens very often, and even if the overlapping
is slightly off one can usually kill them easily by tapping at the correct corner of tiles.

 

6. SOMETIMES GENOCIDE IS GOOD: if possible, always try to kill multiple pairs of the same tile as much as possible. Once a type of tiles is completely extinct, it cannot confuse you anymore. And a board with fewer types of tiles is always much easier to
solve than a board with a lot of different tiles!

7. LEARN THE TILES: perhaps this point is more important for challenges like tap tower. Often you see free tiles hiding behind other tiles, just showing a small corner. If you know your tiles you can often determine its value just from this corner, and kill
them quickly.

Also, some types of tiles are very confusing by nature, like the pink squares & diamonds, the series of blue patterns, etc. Knowing the tiles well can help you avoid mixing them up. In this game, taping a wrong pair will result in immediate shuffling, which
in certain situations might make you want to pull out all your hair!

 

8. KEEP YOUR NERVE: well this is easier said than done. Like I said in tip #1 if you feel the current game is too hopeless (e.g. multiple shuffles in quick succession, stuck for 5-10 seconds after a certain shuffle), don't hesitate to reset.

However, time and time again you will find yourself in the middle of a good run and have cleared the first 9-10 levels in a 200+ long combo chain. It's important to keep a level head and avoid spotting too long for the next pair to keep the chain going,
or hastily tapping a pair of similar but unmatched tiles.

You don't need a 400 long chain to beat the game (would be cool to achieve this though). Even if the system shuffles and breaks the chain, don't get too dejected because you're still in a great position. Just quickly kill a few pairs to get out of the current
level and start another long chain!

Similarly, once you reach the last level with around 20 seconds left you'll feel the huge pressure to not choke it away. But the last level is not something you can kill off in 10 seconds. You need to be patient and peel pairs off one by one. In a sense
this is like holding the ball at the end of a basketball game when your team is down by 1. Being "clutch" is definitely not throwing the first shot available, but to patiently create opportunities within the allowed time frame so as to have the best shot for
a buzzer beating game winner!

And finally, there's the annoying & distracting 10-second countdown, which can throw you off at the very last. Well if you can't train your nerve to deal with it effectively, one way to do it is to mute your system or wear a headphone to block it out! Needless
to say it is probably unwise to watch the clock during the final level, as it can cause you unnecessary stress and distraction. Just focus on beating the game or let the system surprise you by announcing "time up"!

So here are the 8 tips I can think of for now. And hopefully they can also be applicable to other very touch mix & match challenges. Some are even helpful for the harder tap tower challenges. If there are other serious and keen Taptiles players reading this,
you are welcome to share your tips and thoughts about the game here too!

 

Good luck for today's (April 23) 4-star mix & match puzzle. Hopefully the tips above can help you guys conquer it! ;-)