Some How-To Tips on Playing Destruct-O-Match II

Don't worry about that, fellow Neopians. I'm not nearly that much of a braggart about this stuff. All I want to do is give some tips to Neopians who aren't so hot at this game, or want some ways to expand their gaming ability, or want to check some of their personal tips against someone else’s, that's all. Besides, I don't want to clog the Times with something useless. Who’d want to do that?

NOTE: These are not professional-type tips. These are just some ways that work for me. Other ways are useful as well, and a lot of these probably aren't the best. After all, I don’t know if you can win the game or not, and if you can, then I haven’t. However, please do not assume that I am a novice at this game for that reason. I earn points, and I think some of these tips can help people.

I'll go by type of block, so people don't get confused or anything.

Timed Blocks: Okay, these are the all-powerful counts-down-from-15 block that almost everyone groans at when they show up on the game screen. For these blocks, I have only one tip. Get rid of these as fast as you can. Click like a maniac to make these go away... If a timed block is left on the screen, it just provides a dead weight, and always gets between two blocks that could be blown away. Not fun. None of the below tips (except for the fire one) apply when you have a timed one to get rid of. After all, if you still have a timed one on the field, and it becomes an ‘X’ block, it could mean the difference between getting 9 points or getting 99 points.

Elimination Blocks: Since this block gets rid of all of the blocks in its same color, it's very tempting to click on it right away. However, this isn't the smartest thing to do. You see, when you click on it, it only gives you points for the combo that the elimination block was in. All of the other blocks on the board that get cleared aren’t counted to the score. Therefore, it works better with the points to get rid of all of the combos in that color first before getting rid of the stray ones with the elimination. That way, you get points for the combos you had in that color, instead of throwing away something you would probably rather keep.

Question Mark blocks: I like to think of these blocks as the 'whatever' blocks. You can use them at any point in the game, and it usually won't mess you up. However, if you use the question marks at the very end of the round, when the blocks are down at the bottom, it gets you more points most of the time, so that's a good thing.

Times 3 (x3) blocks: What I like to do with these blocks is get a huge combo together. I get rid of nearly all of the combos in the colors other than the one with the times 3 on it, and make a giant combo. This would make one get a boatload of points from one double-click, since there’ll usually be at least ten blocks in a super combo. That’s 30 points right there, with a times 3 block somewhere in the mix. Lately, I've been able to get 120 points from just this one super combo, and that really makes a difference, especially when you're not striking gold on the later levels.

Fire blocks: I never use these blocks until I have no other moves I can make. I think this to be a good thing, as this way I can narrow down stray blocks and perhaps get a bonus out of it, or more of a bonus than I would have without it. Sometimes, this block even brings together one or two more combos, which is always a good thing. Using this block in the middle of a just-opened round wouldn't be too pretty, I don't think. After all, you might accidentally get rid of a special block or something, and you only get one point when you blow the fire blocks up. Who would take one point, when they could take 3 or 9 or 24?

Huge combos: I talked about this earlier, in the x3 block section, but hear this. If there's no x3 blocks on the board, or the x3 blocks don't look like the most plentiful block on the board, make a different huge combo color! A lot of the time, I'll look for the block that shows up the most, seemingly, and I'll make a combo out of that. It always helps, though. It usually collects stray blocks, and adds a lot of points at once. That way, the board is cleared faster, and there aren't as many clean-up blocks at the end.

Well, okay, there you have it. That's my two bits on the special blocks and methods of Destruct-O-Match II. I hope I've helped some Neopians out there, whether somebody can use all of my tips, or just one or two.

Author's Note: Please do not start Neomailing me with flames that your game didn't improve after reading my tips, or that you know ways that are better or anything... Please. I'll accept tips over Neomail that I didn't have, I'll accept constructive criticism, I'll accept thank yous (of course), but please no mindless flames. As they say in the commercials, restrictions may apply, results may vary. Happy clicking!