3 Part Guide to Faerie Bubbles

I believe it's time to write something to honour this game and so I present my three part guide to Faerie Bubbles

Part one is for beginners, part 2 for advanced players and part 3 for experts. Feel free to jump directly to the part that concerns you.

Beginners Guide

(For those who have never played this game before or have but still feel a bit confused)

The goal of the game is to clear the screen of all Bubbles. The bubbles come in six types, each honouring one type of faerie. To remove them you have to use your bubble cannon to connect 3 bubbles of the same colour. (For example by shooting the 2 water bubbles in the bubble cannon -see screenshot below- at one of the existing water bubbles.)

Use the left and right arrow keys to move the cannon and the up arrow key to bring it back to center. If you shoot against one of the walls, your bubble will bounce away in an angle.

If you have a good look at the bubble cannon, you can not only see the type of the bubble you are about to shoot, but you'll be able to see the bubble for your next shot too.

If you can manage to create a combination of 4 or more connected bubbles of the same kind, a special effect will happen. I am calling those the magic combinations. -In the screenshot that would happen if you shoot a Fire bubble into the five connected Fire bubbles- .

Magic Combinations:

-A combo of 4 or more connected Air bubbles will fill up their rows with other bubbles. Those bubbles are of random types. (Avoid that if possible)

-A combo of 4 or more connected Dark bubbles will turn into random types of other bubbles. (Annoying but it could be worse)

-A combo of 4 or more connected Earth bubbles will make a new row of random bubbles appear at the top of the screen. Because of this the other bubbles will be one row lower. (Avoid that if possible)

-A combo of 4 or more connected Fire bubbles will destroy all bubbles touching them. Bubbles of the water type are the exception. They are not affected. (Helpful effect)

-A combo of 4 or more connected Light bubbles morphs all bubbles touching them into the same type of bubble. That type is random. (Can help you and can hurt you)

-A combo of 4 or more connected Water bubbles will remove all other Water bubbles on the screen. (Helpful effect)

In addition to these bubbles it's possible to get 2 types of bonus bubbles for the cannon.

-The nova bubble will destroy the bubbles surrounding its point of impact in a two bubble radius.

- The rainbow bubble will turn into the type of bubble it connects with.

The screen is 9 bubble rows deep. If a bubble ends up in the 10th row (purple in the screenshot) it is game over.

Every couple of shots the bar will sink one bubble row, taking away some of your space.

In the first few levels that happens every 6 shots, in later levels it takes fewer shots.

Advanced Players Guide

(For those who have not reached level 20 yet)

I assume you already understand the basics of the game, dear reader (if not read the beginners guide first) and are working on scoring as high as possible.

As an added motivation: If you ever manage to get 2000 points you'll receive the Faerie Bubbles Avatar. Until then maybe you'll give joining the World Challenge for Faerie Bubbles a try? I can't explain the mechanics of the World Challenges here in addition to Faerie Bubbles (and luckily there are already some very nice guides in existence), but Faerie Bubbles is one of the few games where you don't have to be a master to have the chance of winning a prize in the world challenge, especially if you try for highest cumulative score.

Now what strategy should you follow to score as high as possible? Believe it or not, until you mange to reach level 20 your best bet is to take no risks and try to finish each level with as few shots as possible. Yes, you get extra points for bubble combinations, but if you try to get fancy combinations rather than finishing the level as quickly as possible, you'll usually loose more points for using too many shoots than you'll get for combos. More importantly: You might loose the game before you reach the next level and that is never worth it.

Keep in mind that you'll get 250 extra bonus points for beating the game if you ever manage to reach level 20.

To survive as long as possible learn how to shoot in angles and keep in mind that if a bubble (or a group of bubbles) is only attached to the bubbles you are about to remove then you'll get rid of it as well.

Removing these air bubbles removes the attached dark bubble too.

There are four codes that can help you. You can use each of them once per game. One turns the topmost bubble in your cannon into a nova bubble, another turns it into a rainbow bubble. The third code resets your bar to zero and the fourth code turns all the bubbles into the same type. In the spirit of leaving some things for you to discover on your own I'll not give them away here, but if you ask around in the help chat or in the game chat, it shouldn't be hard to find out. It's a rather badly guarded secret.

Use the codes whenever you are in danger of loosing the game. Level 15 is the most difficult level in my opinion. If you still have the code that turns all bubbles into the same type, use it in level 15. If you have the code that turns your topmost bubble into a rainbow bubble left too use it after this and finish this level with one shoot earning an insane amount of points for it in the process.

Good luck!

Expert Players Guide

(Once you are good enough to reach level 20)

I assume your bubbles go wherever you want to place them. You know when the bar is about to descend, when you are in danger of loosing the game and when you have a good safety margin. You don't have to rely on your codes and can place them for maximum points advantage instead.

Now it's time to think about trophies and maximize the points in each level. For that you might need to adjust your strategy a bit.

But to do this, it's important to understand how scoring works in Faerie Bubbles.

During each level you are awarded bubble points. You get 1 point for each bubble removed and 5 points for each magic combo.

At the end of the level you'll receive additional bonus points if you managed to clear the level with less than 35 shots.

Bonus Points:

• 1 Shot: 250
• 2 Shots: 175
• 3 Shots: 150
• 4 Shots: 125
• 5 Shots: 100
• 6 Shots: 90
• 7 Shots: 80
• 8 Shots: 70
• 9 Shots: 60
• 10-11 Shots: 50
• 12-14 Shots: 40
• 15-18 Shots: 30
• 19-22 Shots: 20
• 23-26 Shots: 15
• 27-30 Shots: 10
• 31-34 Shots: 5

Now you have to make a judgment call: If there is a possibility of clearing the level quickly, it's still the best course to maximize the bonus points, but if it's going to take a lot of shots, you might do better to maximize your bubble points instead.

If you want to maximize your bubble points, you'll encounter a strange phenomenon. The air and earth combos are suddenly helpful instead of troublesome. If you use an air or an earth combo, you get extra points for the combination AND you get additional bubbles on the screen with the possibility of creating clusters of three or more bubbles from the same type. Those will allow you another combo, which you don't have to build up the hard way.

I've noticed that if I have to rely on fire or light combos to maximize my bubble points, I am lucky if I can finish my level with more than 100 points, but with air and earth combinations mixed in I can come close to 200 bubble points.

There is a certain risk in this, of course. Even a master of Faerie Bubbles might loose the game if they try too many air or earth combinations in the same level or have a stroke of bad luck.

I, for my part, am a lot more likely to try and get fancy with bubble points in the low levels where the bar descends more slowly and where it doesn't hurt as much if it's game over. But at the end of the day the decision how much you want to risk for a high score is up to you.