Hexic HD - Xbox 360 Arcade

[Rossco]

This game is bloody marvellous. Apologies if there is a thread about it somewhere but I just couldnt find one which was quite surprising. http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/images/smilie/blink.gif

Anyway, many of you played the game much? I had one game on launch day and got like 7,000 points and thought "meh.." then me and my mate went on it last night and started a wee private chat, this was about 1am or something, then we played and played and player and player until after 5am, talking and trying to beat each others scores and sharing tips etc! :lol:

Its so fun, I have been gettin better and better and my highscore now is 60,000. Still nowhere near other people on my list, someone has 150,000 and the top score ever is 10 million. But I'm slowly getting better. :lol:

Whats all your opinions and high scores? :)

[EvilBoris]

I was playing the survival mode last night, I wanted to go to bed, but I couldn't end it, even by trying to die. EVIL

[toythatkills]

I'm loving this, I've played it more than anything else on the 360, which is just wrong really!

I've got something like 150,000-200,000 on timed and marathon, I'm trying to complete marathon at the moment though, which is really very hard.

I've only got three achievements left to earn!

[in5ane]

It took me a while for this game to click with me, but now I like it and am going for the black pearl cluster on marathon quite a lot now. It's just there is too much unpredictability for me for Hexic to be a great puzzle game. Stuff can fly down, and several chain reactions later, all your hard work is out the window. It's like tekken button mashing, someone is probably doing way better than me with absolutely zero thought.

[Rossco]

All I play is the Marathon mode, thats the normal one isnt it? The first option?

And I can only manage 60,000. I dont know how to do any better, I got 6 star pieces one game but couldnt get them all together to form a star and get the pearl thingy.

Only got 3 achievments for it. :(

And they were all done in my very first game of it.

[Mardigan8]

Just started playing this last night, really wish I hadn't as I lost an hour of good Gotham time to its addictive madness... played the marathon mode and absolutely love it. Moving my eyes in and out of focus to try and find the best path to points is my special move :) registered around 15,000 in marathon mode but gonna get more time with it and the Geometry Wars 2 game I unlocked in PGR3... anotehr highly addicitve and mental game. Gotta love the classics.

[demon9k]

Still nowhere near other people on my list, someone has 150,000

That would be me :D

Get 6 stars in a flower and you get absolutely loads of points. :)

[MartyG]

But it so bloody tricky to do - it's hard enough getting the stars in the first place. I got to the final level (well there are only 7) of the marathon game, and you have to get a 3 pearl cluster to win, I haven't managed one yet, and am floundering around the 49K mark atm - still, back to another game.

[Scarface]

My score is about 240,000 and that's enough for me. The game is just getting too boring and it takes too long before you reach the 100K mark.

So back to Geometry Wars.

[Rossco]

Got up to 128,000 I think it was tonight with my mate! Was a great game, we could have got so much higher but we messed up a good few things just through sheer stupidity and not paying attentiong because we were watching School of Rock on the PiP. :p

Think I could easily get 200,000k + now if I tried. :D

Gonna have a good few goes tomorrow! :D

[Yoraths mullet]

I love this ga,e but am rubbish at it, my top score is only 80k. I have not managed to get a black pearl yet.

[Rossco]

Yeh, we tried for ages getting a black pearl but we only had 6 silver stars at the time so I guess that made it harder, if you get alot more so you've got loads floating about, it should be easier.. :)

[toythatkills]

I try and get rid of the starflowers as quick as possible when I've got six. It's so annoying to go through that hard work, and then see three of them join together and disappear in a combo by mistake

[RobDimmock]

I don't have any games for my 360 and this is the game I have been playing all the time. It's extremely addictive.

[in5ane]

I got a bit hooked on this yesterday. I'm at the point where I'm not even enjoying it that much anymore, but I need to play! Had a few black pearls now, but I still think i'm never gonna get 6 together.

Top score of 250k I think, in the top 1000 anyway :)

The bombs are the worst tho. Sometimes on the last level there really is nothing you can do about them except keep them near the top and pray the right colours come down.

[Haribokart]

It's strange, this game is actually a bit rubbish but I keep coming back to it. I think it is strange that the game lasts for hours and hours with seemingly no end whatsoever. I hate it! But I will still play it whenever I start feeling slightly bored...

[Rossco]

I love it, was trying a few games but just couldnt get into it as well as before, wasn't seeing anything, and got hardly any points!! :mad:

GOnna try again now.

[toythatkills]

I just beat marathon mode! Over 500K my top score now, I'm in the top few hundred on that and timed mode now. Getting six black pearls into a circle is the last thing I need to do, since I'll probably get the Hexic addict when attempting it anyway! It's going to be a reet bitch though.

Some of those bombs just feel like they're impossible to get rid of

[Rossco]

Im still sucking at this, best I managed tonight was 90,000!! :mad:

Just struggling to get flower pieces at all in the first place. :(

[Psyduck]

Does anyone know how people get such high scores on survival mode? I was 20th in the rankings last time I looked with about 400,000. My record says I got 66 starflowers over the 50 levels. As far as I can tell they get you the most points (you can't get the pearls in survival), but looking at the scores above mine, some have only got a few...how did they do it? The top score has something over 1,000,000 and only got 5 of them - I don't get it!

[in5ane]

Make a starflower with a star colour piece and you get a multiplier. Make it with more stars = more bonus. I'm guessing the top scorers are very dedicated, and getting max points for practically every move.

[Psyduck]

But 6 stars in one star flower = 128,000. Someone got 1,000,000 with only 5 starflowers. There are others with 600,000 ish who only got 2 starflowers.

I've only ever managed 5 stars in one, which gets 64,000. Each extra star up to there doubles it. The only thing I can think of is that maybe 6 gives something stupid like half a million...

[HaHaUK]

I love this game, just got over 120000 :D. 4th on my leaderboard now.
Still havent been able to get any black pearls though. :(

[Chain]

3 times now I've had 2 black pearls and 5 star flowers, so just needed one more to get the third black pearl and link them up to "finish" the game. And every time I've had a bomb appear on screen that's just impossible to clear.

Ahhhh!!!!!!!!

[Gradius]

I managed to get 3 black pearls to complete the game, still have to get six black pearls in the round pattern - yeah right. Only 2 achievments left (100 games will come with time)

[HaHaUK]

Yay!!! Im 3rd on my leaderboard now with just over 216000!!! Everytime I see the frigging bombs my hearts starts beating fast.

:D

[Rossco]

Damn, I cant get that high. Think my highest was about 160,000. Not played it in ages though..

[MartyG]

Managed to get a black pearl at last this evening - but most annoyingly, I was less than a 1000 points away from getting the 150K acheivement in Marathon mode when a bomb I couldn't clear appeared. I did think that it was always possible to clear these if you looked through the grid far enough - but there really wasn't anyway to clear this one I could see.

Edit - managed to get the Timed Mode Score acheivement (just) before I was bombed earlier too. Only 4 more to get now, though I think I'm going to struggle with a black pearl flower.

Make a starflower with a star colour piece and you get a multiplier. Make it with more stars = more bonus. I'm guessing the top scorers are very dedicated, and getting max points for practically every move.
That's a top tip - I didn't even realise that happened. I shall deffo aim to do this in the marathon game now.

[Nijo]

How annoying is this game.

I tried it for the first time last night and muddled my way through, got to a point where I had 6 starflowers on screen and was ONE move from linking them to get a black pearl - except I rotated them the wrong way and chained 4 of my starflowers.

Could. Not. Be. Arsed. To. Go. Through. All. That. Again.

meh

[Rossco]

Just managed my first Black pearl, and got 60,000 for it! :o Nicely, Gonna have a good shot later at getting over 150,000 Marathon mode. Managed over 75,000 in Timed, 105,000 it was overall so that topped my firneds leaderboard! :) And also got 1,000,000 in games overall so more achievement points! :D And managed to finish Survival the other night too! And I should be nearing 100 games overall soon, I'd imagine! :)

Loving this game once again.

[HaHaUK]

One word of advice, try not to get any Flowers during the first 3 rounds as the points are very low then. Try to keep getting combos until you reach levels 4/5 where the points increase a lot for the Flowers.

[Yoraths mullet]

Just got the 75 000 timed achievement, cheers for the flower arranging tips, I have been concentrating getting them early on.

[MartyG]

Trouble with that is as the levels increase, the more colours there are, so getting a star flower becomes more difficult. To get black pearls, you need to be creating star flowers as soon as possible.

[Yoraths mullet]

I think I will try to get a few nearly made flowers at the bottom of the screen and then try to complete them a couple of levels later.At the moment I am concentrating on the 150 k achievement.

[Rossco]

I always go for starflowers straight away, so by the time I have 6, I'll be up a few levels and will get alot for the black pearl. I too am going for the 150,000 achievment right now too! :)

[Yoraths mullet]

I think I will try to get a few nearly made flowers at the bottom of the screen and then try to complete them a couple of levels later.At the moment I am concentrating on the 150 k achievement.
That was a shit idea, reckon it's back to the original plan.

[Rossco]

301265!!!!!! ROCK ON!!! :D

Got 2 Black Pearls that time and then one bomb plonked itself in the middle of nowhere and I couldnt stop it! :(

Set out tobeat 150,000 and doubled it so I'm happy!! And now have 9 of 12 achievements in this now! 8)

[KaLoZoiS]

yorath i just read ur first comment and though wow what a great idea, saving the flowers for bigger points, then i read ur next post :) guess back to drawing board for me too :(

[MartyG]

This method does work very well, you just have to take care of your star flowers and not let them drop completely to the bottom. How do you do this? It's fairly easy, keep your star flowers in pairs. When they are in danger of falling, use the 360 rotation of each flower inturn to move them further up the board, just watch out for moves that will start chains when they're rotated. Keeping them in pairs will also help making black pearls.

Re-reading, saving part complete flowers, no this doesn't work well as it's too easy for chains to destroy them. I just create flowers as quickly as possible, and manipulate these to pearls as quickly as possible. To get the black pearl star flower it requires 36 star flowers, so it's a lot of work :D

[Yoraths mullet]

It might work, you just need to be a planning genius and not some butter fingered fool like I am who keeps rotating his shapes the wrong way and destroying all his good groundwork.

[KaLoZoiS]

lol, ill give the marathon ANOTHER go later and see how i do :) tho i seem to be very rabbish coz i can get the achievements :(

[Yoraths mullet]

Just got the Marathon achievement:) .

[wicky]

how do you beat marathon mode? I thought it was infinite for some reason

[Yoraths mullet]

Sorry, I meant the 150k part of the achievement. As you may have guessed I am quite poor at this game.

[wicky]

heh cool

I can't even get anywhere near 150k but my boyfriend managed to do it (git)

[Extra Terrestrial]

8/12 achievements, 105 gamer-points for this wonderful arcade game despite being my only one! Last night, I had a 2 hour marathon of this game and did very well as I remember thinking it wasn't very good with it being slow and taking 15+ minutes to get anywhere but over time things become quicker and easier to realise - a good learning curve.

The one thing that irritated me was on my last session is my almost perfect run with 2 black pearls joined together and 5 silver stars with a nice almost complete circle of colours before an unvoidable purple bomb appeared. Thinking about it, I should have focussed on the top section for in case a purple hextagon came down instead of messing around near the bottom half of the table.

Damnation indeed.

[Yoraths mullet]

Sometimes you need that leap of fiath don't you to keep making room at the top for the right colour to appear and help get rid of the bomb.

[Rossco]

Yeh it so annoying, but when you hit gold and the right colour drops down and erases the bomb at the last turn then its just so sweet! :lol:

I've still got 9 achievments, getting the 2 black pearl ones is going to be a task and the 100 games should come soon enough.

I'm getting really good though now, managing to get a black pearl as early as level 3 now with lots and lots of silver stars too! :D

[Rossco]

****in hell, I was playing earlier today and was on a riot with silver stars, was getting them so easily but kept ruining it when going for black pearls, ended up with 24 of them but no black pearls by the time I died! Was so frustrating! :lol:

[HaHaUK]

****in hell, I was playing earlier today and was on a riot with silver stars, was getting them so easily but kept ruining it when going for black pearls, ended up with 24 of them but no black pearls by the time I died! Was so frustrating! :lol:

24 stars at once?! :blink:

[Rossco]

No! :lol:

24 overall! At once point I had 9 or 10 on screen though! :o

[HaHaUK]

No! :lol:

24 overall! At once point I had 9 or 10 on screen though! :o

Oh, I was like :wtf: 24 at once?!! Just played a bit and can't get back over 150000, that 216000 might have been a fluke :dry:

[Rossco]

:lol:

I'm going to try and get as many as possible on screen at once now without converting them to black pearls! I'll take pictures to show too! :p

I can easily get around 200,000ish now all the time and frequently go up towards the 250,000's. Top being 300,000 but someone on my list has 350k so I want to beat that soon!! :D

[sharky_ob]

He won't brag about it so I will for him!

Have a look at Gradius57300's top score for marathon. Sick!!

Edit: Just noticed you can't check scores from MS website (or if you can I can't see how), his score is well over 600,000 anyway.

[Akira]

Yay! i got my first pearl yesterday.But then got shafted by a bomb straight after :(

Man,this game is so addictive.My highest score in marathon is 160,000,so hats off to all you high scoring freaks and especially Gradius.

[Rossco]

525,000!!!!! :D

I ****ing love this game! :lol: 3 black pearls in a cluster which completed the game, wish I could have kept going though, I was on a roll! :) Seriously loving it though, getting so good at it now too. Its addictive, I got that score with my mate watching at like 4am today! :lol:

Gonna go for the big 1 million next! :D

[Gradius]

Finally done it.

Unlocked "grand pearl pooh-bah"

score 2,356,935 on marathon mode rank 212

:)

[Rossco]

LEGEND!!! Howwww though!? :lol:
I though my half million was good! :lol:

[Gradius]

Howwww though!?

i got 5 black pearls pretty easily, but the 6th was a right bugger. When you make the black pearls make sure you have a couple of star flowers left over to help make the next pearl. My score was about 1 million before i slotted the last black pearl into place. Still haven't unlocked the 100 games played achievement yet.

I think i might retire this game now, before i burn loads of hexagons onto my plasma and my retina's!!

[1P_King]

Hey Gradius, great score

funny you mentioned your retina's, cus this game has really messed with my head, i tend to play it last thing at night just before bed, but trying to get to sleep is a nightmare.

My brain just wont stop rotating them bloody blocks, and i find myself watching tv and i start trying to match things in groups and start thinking if i rotate him he would form a block of three guys leaving two girls etc.

Thats why i stopped playing, but the last go i had i jumped from 11,000 to 3,000 so i was pretty pleased, still struggle to get the third black pearl tho.

[Rossco]

Just got 976246!!!! :D Was bloody exciting. Everything was going perfect, lost a good few starflowers early on but managed to get loads more, got to 5 black pearls with 2 star flowers and then 3 collapsed into each other and ruined it all!!! :(

Now up to 600th overal though. 8)

[Extra Terrestrial]

You ****ing rock Rossco as I checked out your gamer-tag for the first-time last night thus making me get back on Hexic and unlock the '100 games played' achievement too. I have created 2 black pearls countless times for the third and final (to me anyway) stage to get the last black pearl proves to be difficult with more coloured hexagons appearing and the increase likelihood of bombs ruining the hard work.

I will (hopefully) do it one day, but not yet.

[Rossco]

You got the 100 games achievment!? :o

I thought it was "complete" 100 games, as in get 3 black pearls or 6 in a starflower shape to complete the game, and do that 100 times!

I'm surely near the 100 games if its just play 100 then. As I've played LOAAADS I thought!

[Haribokart]

You ****ing rock Rossco as I checked out your gamer-tag for the first-time last night thus making me get back on Hexic and unlock the '100 games played' achievement too. I have created 2 black pearls countless times for the third and final (to me anyway) stage to get the last black pearl proves to be difficult with more coloured hexagons appearing and the increase likelihood of bombs ruining the hard work.

I will (hopefully) do it one day, but not yet.
Have you done it yet? I got 2 black pearls last night then BOOM :(

[bootmonster]

I know this is probably late in the day but can I still get Hexic HD from anywhere? With the new one coming out I fancy a shot of the original. I got my 360 second hand and whoever had it before me must have deleted it :( it's a Japanese one btw.

[peeveen]

I believe you have to actually call MS Support to get a special code to re-download it ... utterly stupid, but that's the way it goes.

[qupe]

I have just started playing the puzzle games, lumines, hexic hd and bejeweled 2 on live and I am really starting to enjoy them but I am pants at them at the minute. I haven't got a black pearl yet on Hexic. I suppose takes pratice. My best score is about 100k so far :(

I played the demo of Hexic 2... is there much different to the game? or more tile sets on the full version cause I do not like the sets used.

[angelx]

I didnt like the style of the second Hexic at all, this is much better.

[spagmasterswift]

Up from the depths...twenty stores high..

Anyways, I just found this game in my list a couple of weeks back, had no idea about it - have been slowly getting my head around it ever since. Got as far as getting 2 Black Pearls and enough stars to make a third, but bombed out. Achievements-wise I just have Big Cheese, Addict, Tick-Tock and Pooh-Bah left to get and I honestly believe I will do them eventually. Really enjoyed the learning process with this one, no doubt there are still some things to suss out, but I'm pretty sure I have cracked the theory...just need to put it into practice and get lucky! The music is completely ace too, perfect game to zone out to for an hour or so.

[k0pp0]

Aye, it's very nice and soothing this one.. Not done so well on the achievements myself..

[spagmasterswift]

Gonna focus on Big Cheese this week, I'm so close - but then Paulos put me off by sending me a message asking me if the message he was sending had put me off.

[Paulos G]

:w00t:

Expect more of those as your score starts creeping nearer to mine!

[spagmasterswift]

LOL!1 *plays off-line*

[Paulos G]

LOL, scores not uploading to highscore table!

[spagmasterswift]

Yeah that sucks, my connection must have dropped or something and so my two black pearl run was never committed to record - not that it matters that much...ITS BIG CHEESE OR NOTHING!!

[Chunky]

Hexic is a dangerous game, i loved it so much that even when i'd got the pooh-bah i found myself coming back to it. Once you have the grid system mastered it's amazing, such a smug sense of victory :)

[Paulos G]

I was top of my friends list leaderboard until I added you Chunky. :(

The Grand Pooh Bah will one day be mine though!!!

[spagmasterswift]

I got the Tick-Toc Doc achievement, was pretty easy but I have been focusing on Marathon so not tried for it until now. Just 3 more to go, I say just but man its challenging. I'm totally addicted to it now though...

[k0pp0]

After seeing spag on this ALL WEEKEND I decided to have another crack at it.. Very minor stuff, but I did manage to get 5 of the silver stars on screen for the first time..

Well I was chuffed anyway. Fecking bombs ruined it though.

[spagmasterswift]

Yeah, I was on it a fair bit on Saturday :D I got loads of the Star Flowers at one point but found it really hard moving around without accidently dropping them onto each other and thus loosing them before I could get some black pearls created. Now I make enough flowers for a pearl plus one to help move things around and repeat - need to start counting the ten combos so I'm more prepared for them damn bombs!!

[Malc]

I'm terrible at this game and whenever I play the mode with bombs I don't know how to get rid of them quick enough? However I feel i'm amazing on the non-bomb mode. ;)

[spagmasterswift]

I remember when I started playing thinking that the count down on the bombs was time related and not related to the number of moves - was much better when I could sit back and plan out how to get rid of them instead of freaking out :D I'm totally knackered today, but have a black pearl ready and waiting at home, NEED to get back to it!!XD

[Chunky]

I really wish i could show you guys how to make the grid system that i used to get the pooh bah, it's a thing of beauty when it comes together, you basically cover the whole board in silver stars and get to a point where you ONLY rotate the stars but you can't make a single combo from them, you're safe to move around anything you want. If i could video my xbox, i'd show you all, but i guess you'll have to make do with a photo of when i did it on the MSN Games free version instead :thumb:

http://www.chunkier.f2s.com/poohbah.jpg

[Malc]

That doesn't make any sense to me Chunky, but all this chat has made me want to play it. :)

[spagmasterswift]

Holy shit!! There's a free version I can play at work??...that is very, very dangerous!

I read something about getting a grid set up, the lack of control without one is very frustrating tbh...will have to see what I can manage...

[Chunky]

I could spend ages explaining the masters grid, but instead there is a webpage written to explain it all for you:

http://hexic.info/grid.html

And yes, the freebie one is massively dangerous at work, as i found out one (extended) lunchtime (see pic above) :)

[spagmasterswift]

Will report back on tonights 4X4 grid attempt then! Cheers Chunky!!

[Malc]

I attempted to read the 4x4 grid method; only to proceed with no idea what I was doing. However, I did manage to get a few silver stars going. And then a bomb ended it for me.

[spagmasterswift]

My 4x4 grid is really taking shape, I have two columns containing 4 star flowers each and 3 in the third column...approaching the game this way makes so much sense its incredible - now I'm passing coloured hexagons from one flower to the next filling up the last flower to create a new one like some kind of multicoloured factory...interested to see what happens when I start converting them to black pearls!! Great advise Chunky. :wub:

[Chunky]

Yeah it's great when it all comes together. Personally i don't really understand the 4x4 grid, you can easily make mistakes with it. With the Masters Grid you don't even have to look what colours they are, just pass them around til you get a star :)

I'm so tempted to have a go now but i know i'll lose the next few hours :)

[spagmasterswift]

The masters grid looked like there was much more room for error setting it up tho - if I drop a star with the 4x4 grid it just stacks on top of the one below it, but if say the middle one on the masters grid fell wouldn't it take out three stars?

Anyways, once I have the 4x4 grid sorted for THE BIG CHEESE, I shall try using the masters grid...unless Ikaruga comes along and puts its dick in the mash potato...

[Paulos G]

I've just read all the info and watched all the videos from the link Chunky posted. I will regain my position at top of my friends list leaderboard and The Grand Pearl Pooh-Bah will be mine!

Mwa ha haaaaaaaa!

[spagmasterswift]

We shall be standing on the shoulders of giant autistic freaks!! :thumb:

[Chunky]

Right, you've done it now, i'm going to play at work. I'll take some screenies as i go and try to give advice.

Saying that i'll probably get bored after 10 minutes and give up :D

[Chunky]

Ok quick tutorial time. This is a tip i picked up from a video i found on the xbox.com forums, so credit to the guy who came up with it. If you're going to create a Master Grid then this needs to be practised practised practised as you will use it constantly to split your stars to where they need to be.

Ok going along the top row then the bottom.

1. The 3 stars along the bottom are in the right place for the master grid. Move some more stars around so they are on top of 2 existing ones.
2. Rotate the top right star anti-clock.
3. Rotate the bottom left star clock.
4. Rotate the highest of the four stars anti-clock.
5. Rotate either of the two stars at the end of the 3 to move the middle one to the position shown.
6. Finally rotate around the middle of the 3 until you get your next star in the right position. From here you can then rotate the spare star on top of one of the others and wait for another star to split again.

[Chunky]

And this is where i am after about 40 minutes of careful Hexicing.

The bottom 2 rows of the grid are now in place. You can now see that the 3 stars on the left of the bottom row (ignore the spare star at the bottom) are totally safe - i can rotate these stars to my hearts content safe in the knowledge that i will never make a combo with them. This is the key to the master grid. What i do from here on is move tiles from around these three to the furthest right star in the highest row, and create a ring around this star hence creating another one. Take a few moments to put your grid back, and go again.

Now it's a case of creating stars, moving them into place, and creating more stars. You have to be very careful not to make a combo accidentally as it could all go wrong. If playing at home, play for 20 minutes, take a 5 minute break, then come back to it. My first master grid took me just short of 3 hours to make.

Patience is the key :ph34r:

[Paulos G]

Impressive. Patience clearly is key. BUT I WANT MY POO-BAH NAU!!!

[spagmasterswift]

Tell you what G, you can have it when I'm done with it...

[Chunky]

Getting there, have spent about an hour on and off and have already had 3 'mishaps' but this is where i am now.

[Paulos G]

You want Spags and me to hunt you down and hurt you, don't you?

[Chunky]

:ph34r:

[Malc]

I feel like a lost boy in a forest in this thread...

I can't even plan well enough to get a star flower thingy, if I do make a star; it's by chance that the few hexagons had fallen into place, and I moved the last one because the flower glimmers.

[spagmasterswift]

:ph34r:

Star Flower NINJA!!!1

[Paulos G]

Pack your bags Spags. We're off to Reading to lay the Hexic smack down!

[Paulos G]

Just spent a couple of hours playing around with the grid system. I can see how effective it'll be when I sit down for a concerted effort. As Chunky says, patience is key!

[spagmasterswift]

Well here is what went down for me tonight - was getting on very well with the 4x4 grid and felt pretty relaxed and in control of the board.

See..pretty Star Flowers all over the place!!1

http://img174.imageshack.us/img174/5759/hexic1mediumov9.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Then something went wrong as I was creating the last column and I lost 3 flowers, freaked out I started making Black Pearls.

2 in fact...

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/1842/hexic2mediumqa4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Started to make me some more flowers and thought I had the BIG CHEESE in sight, but I'd strayed from the grid system and an invinsible bomb arrived to end my fun.

BANG!!1

http://img206.imageshack.us/img206/741/hexic3mediumti4.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Maybe tomorrow... :D

[Paulos G]

Looking good Spags. I see your score is creeping up too.

[spagmasterswift]

I may need to take a break from this for a bit - my HeXic WiDow is missing me and isn't it IKARUGA WEDNESDAY??!!1

[Chunky]

My attempt yesterday went pear shaped in the end due to me wanting to go home and rushing it, and accidentally getting 3 starred colours together which removed all tiles of that colour from the board. As you can imagine, there wasn't too much left of my master grid after that :)

Good work thouggh spags, but i urge you to try the master grid as well, its amazing when its done :)

[spagmasterswift]

Its a cruel mistress at times innit!?

Can you break down for me how it works once you have a grid in place and start creating Black Pearls? Do you use part of the flower stars that make up the grid to create them or is there some other way to do it - I presume you have to rebuild the grid after each black pearl, yers? Where is te best place to stash the Pearls, bottom left hand corner? Your secrets, tell me themz!

Gonna try for a master grid over the weekend - if I don't manage it then my holiday to Thailand is getting cancelled >_<

[Chunky]

Ok here's some pics and some tips.

1st Pic
When i got my pooh-bah i didn't complete the master grid as i don't think it's neccessary to use the top right of the screen. Here is a pic of how i had it set up. Remember, start by getting the one in the bottom left, then progress along the bottom using the technique i showed yesterday to split stars. Once you have the 5 along the bottom, move onto the 2nd row, again starting at the left.

2nd Pic
Create your stars around the star at the top left of the screen. Once you've done this, the new star should drop to where the centre star was, leaving you in the position as in the picture. This technique will mean that you get no unneccessary combos when creating your star. Create a load of spare stars and store them at the bottom of the screen as in the pic.

[Chunky]

3rd Pic
You will then need 5 more stars to move into the position shown. Start with the one at the top, then the one on the right, then the 2 at the bottom. once the one on the top left is in place, you can rotate the 3 highlighted pieces to create 2 Black Pearls in one hit :ph34r:

4th Pic
This is what you'll be left with once the Pearls have joined the fun. Use the isolated star top right to rotate the first black pearl into the grid, and store it around the bottom left star - this should be where you're aiming to create your pooh-bah. The use the star-splitting technique to recreate your grid. By creating 2 pearls in one hit you only need recreate this process 3 times. :thumb:

[spagmasterswift]

Easy ;)

[Paulos G]

Genius! Now I just need a spare few hours...

[Chunky]

Some general tips.

- Takes regular breaks so as not to lose your patience. Don't expect to get through this in half an hour, it won't happen. My first pooh-bah took over 3 hours so make sure you have a big window to play it in.

- If you ever make a mess up and lose some of your grid, DON'T turn it off. Put down the controller, go get a drink, watch 10 minutes of TV or something. Then regather yourself and recreate your grid.

- When the game starts you need to look hard at it and immediately go for stars. Don't make combos unneccessarily, you need to be solely focused on getting stars. You will make combos of course, by try to minimise them, by the time you get a couple of stars in your second row, the ONLY combos you should be making will be for stars. Remember - the more combos you make, the more quickly you advance levels and the more chance of getting to the bombs.

- Bombs can be a nightmare but you can make it easier on yourself. When deciding which colour to use to create the next star, try and use a colour of which there are at lest 8 that you can get to. This way, when you create your star you will leave 2 on the board to help defend against bombs. Remember bombs only drop in when you create a star so you know where they will be, and you know you'll be able to move them to anywhere on the board easily, so don't panic, think about your moves when the bombs arrive.

- If you haven't had a bomb in a while and you're on the verge of creating 2 black pearls, wait. Create a few more silver stars, try and move them somewhere safe (although be careful, too many can be dangerous), and when the bomb arrives, defuse it, then create your pearls. The grid will be damaged when the pearls create, and leave a big area where bombs can drop without you being able to do anything about it. I've seen videos of people getting a pooh-bah on level 1, in under 20 minutes, so if you're careful the bombs should give you no problem.

Ok i think thats all, any more questions fire away. If you don't get it before your trip to Thailand, send me your Xbox before you go :thumb:

[k0pp0]

'kin 'ell.

[Chunky]

Can't believe you guys got me addicted to this again :(

Started a game last night, probably about 2 hours in now but have survived 5 c*ck-ups and managed to rebuild each time (hence the random spare star in the bottom corner!). Getting close now though :thumb:

[spagmasterswift]

LOL!1 I'm probably gonna be hooked on Ikaruga now for a while..

[Chunky]

Right, IE crashed at lunchtime when i had 7 black pearls on the board (yes i was being greedy and going for a double pooh-bah). Won't be playing that again for a while !!! :(

[spagmasterswift]

Harsh man, but that will teach you to show off ;)

[Paulos G]

So I spent a bit of time working on the masters grid today. Managed to get the first two rows at the bottom right before making a monumental cock-up. It's definately all falling in to place now though (if you'll pardon the pun). Even from just getting those two rows and having two lots of walkable stars I was able to get quite a good degree of control. Until the aforementioned cock-up that is.

[spagmasterswift]

Amazing Scenes in HeXic this morning. I set out to make the Master Grid and got the first two rows in place and all was going well. Then when I started trying to move the next row into place I started making two circles of Star Flowers so decided to keep them, one in the bottom left and one in the bottom right. They were complete except for the flower that was one move out of place on each - primed and ready to create Black Pearls!! Created some more Star Flowers and got a circle in the top middle created. Obviously the Master Grid had gone out the window at this point and any ****ups could destroy everything...was very tense!!

All was set up so I brought my 3 Black Pearls to life!!

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/7/hexic3blackpearlsmediumat1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

Thought they were in a really nice position to try for a circle of Black Pearls I had no grid left and that bomb was scaring the living shit out of me - so I flipped the Pearl!!

http://img258.imageshack.us/img258/2594/hexicbigcheesemediummh3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

BIG CHEESE OF THE SOUTH SEAS GET!!!1

This is defo one the of the most satisfying achievements on LiVE. :wub:

[Paulos G]

Congrats Spags! I remember how satisfied I was when I got mine. And then annoyed as I hadn't realised it would end the game. Time to bring on the Pooh-Bah!!!

[smshun]

This game is good.
I got my 175G now for a half year.
The last one of completing 100 games is difficult.

[Chunky]

Been playing on and off for a week or so at home, this is where i currently am. What can i do to it next ?

[Paulos G]

Bloody showoff!!! (I'm just jealous).

[Chain]

WOW!

Er... no idea what to do next. No idea what you'd done previously :s

[spagmasterswift]

You utter bastard!