"if you do things right" + "with some knowledge about the game mechanics and patterns", then yes, every play is at least winnable (dragon kill). But I would even dare to say, that with "complete knowledge of all game mechanics and patterns" + "doing things right", then it is also always possible to clear the whole board, which gives you max score and the Clear Board stamp/achievement.
How? I've been unable to complete the board despite playing seemingly perfectly (ie not wasting any hearts by leveling up or using a scroll without using them all up first) but always run out of hearts shortly after killing the dragon.
Is there some mechanic I'm missing? Does using heart scrolls somehow affect how many hearts you end up with?
You got that one right! Holding off using heart scrolls as much as possible gives you extra hearts (health) to work with. If you are going for a board clear (highest score), this insight is key.
It also helps a lot knowing as many mob patterns/mechanics. Only P2 and P3 mobs do not have a specific pattern to them, even P1 and P5, while not really having a pattern, are part of a "mob mechanic" - carefully observing the "death screen" reveals most of these patterns (some "activated" mob mechanics, need to be found out by actually using them, but most are easy to grasp when used a few times).
Hmm. I wonder if the Minotaur changing facing direction indicates anything mechanically or if it is purely a theming/aesthetic choice.
Feedback: It might be advisable to put a photosensitive epilepsy warning on the game page, as the flashing colors as the game loaded gave me a brief headache.
Wonderful game. I keep playing it despite "completing" it, which is rare.
The minotaurs are always guarding a chest, in one of the 3 vertical spots behind them... And chests are always guarded by a minotaur! (View the kill screen).
When the chest is opened, they turn around to face the opened chest.
This information can be useful in circumstances. For example, if you find a minotaur, then you know that somewhere behind them is a chest. Many times you can safely figure it out and take a (safely) calculated gamble. It can also be useful from the other direction if you open a chest and see a "7" then you know there's a minotaur and a rat, for example.
I've been enjoying the game, but this seems like something that should really be taught in the game somewhere. I've got pretty bad eyesight, and I didn't even realize that some monsters change facing
I'm sorry to hear about your eyesight, but figuring out patterns on your own is pretty much the main gist of this game (for me at least). This is the main "puzzle" aspect. If they were just explained it would ruin that.
I'm super glad there's a debug trick, now I have answers to questions that would have been super hard to figure out the slow way. Case in point: Killing the Rat King does NOT count as a dead rat against the stamp AND I finally understand the deal with the knome, but you can figure that one out yourself
The creator addressed this with the big update. V1 wasn't phone compatiable, it didn't even scale to the screen, BUT this updated version is at least playable on mobile. They said that to make it 100% functional it would need to be an app, and still no word on if They are or will be working on one, I hope They do, this game is great and They deserve a little add revenue.
suggestion: make a harder mode for more experienced players. one that relies more heavily on board patterns. cause at the moment one doesn't actually have to know the patterns to win a board (I think)
You should try beating the game without using heart scrolls until the last possible moment, which is only once you reach 11 hearts. It's really difficult.
yeah actually I take back what I said earlier - I've been trying for a long time now to get all 3 stamps in one run, this is hard enough... I don't know how I got the rats stamp earlier. must have been luck. thanks for the suggestion with the hearts.
More detailed instructions for dumb people like me:
Think of your hearts as energy to spend, and not a health gauge. Spend as much of it as possible before levelling up or using a heal-scroll.
One of the spaces next to the dragon has an egg (power 0, exp 3).
Check what directions the Minotaurs (power of 6) are facing when revealed:
Minotaurs are always facing away from treasure, one of the three squares behind them contains a treasure chest.
Gazers (power 5) obscure the squares around them up to 2 orthogonal spaces away (1 diagonal); those squares will show as ? until you kill the gazer. Revealing a couple of ? squares should let you guess where the gazer is hiding.
The slash you see when destroying a gazer is not the gazer destroying enemies around it, just the obscuring effect wearing off.
If you figure out a square is an 11, that's a mimic, they don't drop anything special when killed so by the time you're strong enough to fight them, it might not be worth it unless you're trying to clear the whole board.
Romeo and Juliet (power 9 each) always drop a healing scroll when defeated.
When you have 10 hearts you can fight the mine master, hiding in one of the corners, beating them will reveal a mine-defusing scroll which, when collected, will defuse all mines on the board, letting you collect them as treasure.
Don't forget to pick up the mine-defusing scroll before picking up mines.
The blue cat (power 5) will drop a "reveal rats" scroll when defeated. useful when you just need to spend 1 heart
The crystal ball scroll can be useless if it reveals a spot near a corner, edge, or an area you've mostly uncovered by yourself. Don't rely on it to save a bad run.
If you see multiples of 8, there's probably a slime wizard nearby. That guy is surrounded by purple slimes with a power of 8 each. The slime wizard has a power of 1 and drops a scroll of detect slimes, so if you know where the power 8 purple slimes are, you can jump over them to attack the slime wizard directly (power of 1).
The game will not stop you from clicking a heal scroll if your health is full, so don't double-click treasure chests expecting exp unless you know you need to waste it to reveal the number underneath.
this is a nice list of the hidden rules, so thanks for that, but I agree with the other poster that it should be behind a spoiler tag. It's a puzzle game, so many people who want to figure it out for themselves will end up reading some of your comment and feel robbed of the chance.
Shift + D for debug mode, it reveals the full board. Good for testing things, but also sucks out the fun of the game if used seriously. Use this knowledge wisely.
I really like the addition of the stamps. Playing for all three compatible stamps at the same time is a very different game which requires a different strategy, and a lot more deduction, so if anyone is missing that element, I recommend playing in this mode. I seldom make use of all the additional pieces of monster information when I'm clearing the board, but they're much more important in a stamp game.
Super fun game, thanks for making it! I am really enjoying the current version (1.1.18). For me the balance is in a very good place (in the sense that it feels quite consistent to full clear if I don't make silly mistakes, but there are still challenging problems to solve).
I would really enjoy a "countdown" setting (so that the numbers on empty tiles show "total adjacent power - sum of adj. visible monsters - sum of adj. user markings"), just to ease the burden of the arithmetic.
feels less like a minesweeper and more like dungeon crawler compared to v1.0 have to kill creatures much more often now instead of having to deduce them
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you got me to try.....under 2 minutes is def possible
Awesome game! Is every play winable if you do things right?
"if you do things right" + "with some knowledge about the game mechanics and patterns", then yes, every play is at least winnable (dragon kill).
But I would even dare to say, that with "complete knowledge of all game mechanics and patterns" + "doing things right", then it is also always possible to clear the whole board, which gives you max score and the Clear Board stamp/achievement.
How? I've been unable to complete the board despite playing seemingly perfectly (ie not wasting any hearts by leveling up or using a scroll without using them all up first) but always run out of hearts shortly after killing the dragon.
Is there some mechanic I'm missing? Does using heart scrolls somehow affect how many hearts you end up with?
Pretty baffled as to what I'm doing wrong
nvm figured it out, you need to hold off using hearts as much as possible as it's a waste only getting 6 or 7 early on when you could get 13 later
You got that one right! Holding off using heart scrolls as much as possible gives you extra hearts (health) to work with. If you are going for a board clear (highest score), this insight is key.
It also helps a lot knowing as many mob patterns/mechanics. Only P2 and P3 mobs do not have a specific pattern to them, even P1 and P5, while not really having a pattern, are part of a "mob mechanic" - carefully observing the "death screen" reveals most of these patterns (some "activated" mob mechanics, need to be found out by actually using them, but most are easy to grasp when used a few times).
Hmm. I wonder if the Minotaur changing facing direction indicates anything mechanically or if it is purely a theming/aesthetic choice.
Feedback: It might be advisable to put a photosensitive epilepsy warning on the game page, as the flashing colors as the game loaded gave me a brief headache.
Wonderful game. I keep playing it despite "completing" it, which is rare.
The minotaurs are always guarding a chest, in one of the 3 vertical spots behind them... And chests are always guarded by a minotaur! (View the kill screen).
When the chest is opened, they turn around to face the opened chest.
This information can be useful in circumstances. For example, if you find a minotaur, then you know that somewhere behind them is a chest. Many times you can safely figure it out and take a (safely) calculated gamble. It can also be useful from the other direction if you open a chest and see a "7" then you know there's a minotaur and a rat, for example.
I've been enjoying the game, but this seems like something that should really be taught in the game somewhere. I've got pretty bad eyesight, and I didn't even realize that some monsters change facing
I'm sorry to hear about your eyesight, but figuring out patterns on your own is pretty much the main gist of this game (for me at least). This is the main "puzzle" aspect. If they were just explained it would ruin that.
Incredible game, took me a few days but I managed to get all the achievements!
I'm super glad there's a debug trick, now I have answers to questions that would have been super hard to figure out the slow way. Case in point: Killing the Rat King does NOT count as a dead rat against the stamp AND I finally understand the deal with the knome, but you can figure that one out yourself
Fantastic game. Is there a way to effectively play this on iOS (ie, add number labels, not just tap to reveal?)
The creator addressed this with the big update. V1 wasn't phone compatiable, it didn't even scale to the screen, BUT this updated version is at least playable on mobile. They said that to make it 100% functional it would need to be an app, and still no word on if They are or will be working on one, I hope They do, this game is great and They deserve a little add revenue.
Great game! Finally got my first win!
yeaaah
suggestion: make a harder mode for more experienced players. one that relies more heavily on board patterns. cause at the moment one doesn't actually have to know the patterns to win a board (I think)
You should try beating the game without using heart scrolls until the last possible moment, which is only once you reach 11 hearts.
It's really difficult.
yeah actually I take back what I said earlier - I've been trying for a long time now to get all 3 stamps in one run, this is hard enough... I don't know how I got the rats stamp earlier. must have been luck. thanks for the suggestion with the hearts.
got all my stamps <3
next challenge: get the three pacificist stamps in a single run
This game is so good it's insane that it's free.
I love it
This was excellent - took me a minute to realize it was a puzzle and not an adventure game, but after that I really got into it.
Really amazing game. The more I play it, the more impressed I am by the level of detail put into it. Thank you for making it run on mobile!
very difficult!
Pretty fun version of Minesweeper.
Great game, well balanced. got my first max score <3
Simple and elegant game! It was a little bit hard to understand, but after, it became super interesting!
Play this game with the "We are Magonia" as background music is majestic.
Thanks a lot for the game!
Thank you for this game and thank you for the web version, I played this in the office haha
¡Viva Jorge!
Is this the fastest?
this has to have been done in debug mode
since we're doing debug runs
wow!
Is this the maximum?
Absolutely loved the game. So elegant and simple, yet is the best minesweeper inheritor I've seen.
The gnome really adds to a luck factor, especially if you run for the max score. So I'll consider myself lucky, I guess :)
My chance to boast!
Suffice to say, brilliant game! I saw no shame in dying repeatedly and studying the board to get a grip of what was going on.
3 logros Me costó
consumed my entire morning, very well done
More detailed instructions for dumb people like me:
Think of your hearts as energy to spend, and not a health gauge. Spend as much of it as possible before levelling up or using a heal-scroll.
One of the spaces next to the dragon has an egg (power 0, exp 3).
Check what directions the Minotaurs (power of 6) are facing when revealed:
Minotaurs are always facing away from treasure, one of the three squares behind them contains a treasure chest.
Gazers (power 5) obscure the squares around them up to 2 orthogonal spaces away (1 diagonal); those squares will show as ? until you kill the gazer. Revealing a couple of ? squares should let you guess where the gazer is hiding.
The slash you see when destroying a gazer is not the gazer destroying enemies around it, just the obscuring effect wearing off.
If you figure out a square is an 11, that's a mimic, they don't drop anything special when killed so by the time you're strong enough to fight them, it might not be worth it unless you're trying to clear the whole board.
Romeo and Juliet (power 9 each) always drop a healing scroll when defeated.
When you have 10 hearts you can fight the mine master, hiding in one of the corners, beating them will reveal a mine-defusing scroll which, when collected, will defuse all mines on the board, letting you collect them as treasure.
Don't forget to pick up the mine-defusing scroll before picking up mines.
The blue cat (power 5) will drop a "reveal rats" scroll when defeated. useful when you just need to spend 1 heart
The crystal ball scroll can be useless if it reveals a spot near a corner, edge, or an area you've mostly uncovered by yourself. Don't rely on it to save a bad run.
If you see multiples of 8, there's probably a slime wizard nearby. That guy is surrounded by purple slimes with a power of 8 each. The slime wizard has a power of 1 and drops a scroll of detect slimes, so if you know where the power 8 purple slimes are, you can jump over them to attack the slime wizard directly (power of 1).
The game will not stop you from clicking a heal scroll if your health is full, so don't double-click treasure chests expecting exp unless you know you need to waste it to reveal the number underneath.
So others don’t spoil the puzzle for themselves, you can wrap text inside tags like so:
<details>
<summary> Spoiler Section </summary>
Spoiler Content
</details>
Spoiler Section
Spoiler Content
this is a nice list of the hidden rules, so thanks for that, but I agree with the other poster that it should be behind a spoiler tag. It's a puzzle game, so many people who want to figure it out for themselves will end up reading some of your comment and feel robbed of the chance.
How dare you make me do math and enjoy it?
*lich
:,) tragic
Shift + D for debug mode, it reveals the full board. Good for testing things, but also sucks out the fun of the game if used seriously. Use this knowledge wisely.
Great game! I find it quite difficult, but really enjoyable.
I really like the addition of the stamps. Playing for all three compatible stamps at the same time is a very different game which requires a different strategy, and a lot more deduction, so if anyone is missing that element, I recommend playing in this mode. I seldom make use of all the additional pieces of monster information when I'm clearing the board, but they're much more important in a stamp game.
3 compatible stamps, as in the three that are possible to get together
Dangerously addictive.
Super fun game, thanks for making it! I am really enjoying the current version (1.1.18). For me the balance is in a very good place (in the sense that it feels quite consistent to full clear if I don't make silly mistakes, but there are still challenging problems to solve).
I would really enjoy a "countdown" setting (so that the numbers on empty tiles show "total adjacent power - sum of adj. visible monsters - sum of adj. user markings"), just to ease the burden of the arithmetic.
took me a bit to get the handle of the rules, but i finally beat one game! that was so fun, i definitely want to try doing pacifist
feels less like a minesweeper and more like dungeon crawler compared to v1.0
have to kill creatures much more often now instead of having to deduce them
don't like the game anymore unfortunately
Yup. It used to be nearly solvable like Minesweeper once you got good at deduction. Now you HAVE to guess very often which usually results in death.
I liked the old one too for playability, but the new update adds many good features, board just needs reworked