Kou-Jong Guide

This new game was released with the arrival of the Cyodrake's Gaze, and is described as follows:

Weary from your journey, you enter the young Kougra's ship cabin, hoping for a bit of distraction from the rolling sea. Instead of finding a refreshing cup of tea on the table before you, though, you see stacks of glittering, painted tiles. The Kougra invites you sit down and try her game, which she calls 'Kou-jong.' You begin matching the tiles, pair by pair, until the table is clear. As the Kougra starts restacking the tiles for the next round, you realize that you're beginning to feel quite relaxed. Clear the board by removing all the tiles. The tiles must be removed in pairs, which consist of two matching tiles that are both 'free' (with no tile partially covering it and at least one side unblocked). All of the paired tiles will be exactly identical to one another, except for the Flower and Season tiles. Put your strategic skills to use and clear away the tiles! Good luck!

As said above, the object of the game is to clear all of the tiles from the board, on three different stages, with three different difficulties.

A 'free' tile is a tile that is NOT surrounded on all sides, with at least one side that is not blocked by another tile.

Example: A tile on the left and right outer edge of the board is able to be played since one side isn't blocked, as well as with the corners.

And, a tile can also be played in the middle if it is not surrounded on the left or right side.

Please note, that since this game travels along on the ship, you may only play it when it is docked on a world. If it has departed, you will have to wait until it shows up at another time and place.

Beginning the Game

When opening the game, you must first wait for it to load... IS IT DONE YET? Ahem, sorry.

Anyway, after it has loaded, you will be presented with a screen you should very well know. (However, if you don't that's fine. People will only think you're crazy, nothing to worry about. Haha.) The title screen. *gasp* (I can be overdramatic, but pay no attention to that.) Here, you may choose to read the instructions (but who does that anymore these days?), play the game, or turn the sound off and on. Exciting, isn't it?

Now, if you choose to Play Game, you will be presented with another screen to choose which difficulty you want to play in. The difficulties consist of easy, medium, or hard. You may want to begin on the easy difficulty until you get the hang of the game, after which you can proceed to the harder difficulties. However, if you wish to challenge yourself, start directly with the hard levels!

Upon clicking your difficulty, you will then be presented with Stage 1 of 3, and begin to watch in amazement as the Kougra in charge of the game swiftly puts the board together tile by tile, row by row and so on. When the layout is done, you may begin clicking, and the game will commence.

On each difficulty, there is a certain bonus. On Easy, the Bonus max is 60. On Medium the max is 180, and on Hard it is 360. The bonus is like a timer, gradually decreasing as the game continues. If you run out of bonus points, it will not end your game. You just won't get any extra points for that stage.

Kou-Jong Tiles

These lovely beauties are the objects that you click to form successful matches in the game. Each tile MUST be matched with its corresponding shape, color, number of dots, weirdness of shape, and anything else that TNT had decided to throw in there while making the game.

HOWEVER, the seasons and flower tiles may be matched with each other. Example: The Halloween tile may be matched with the winter tile, and a white flower tile may be matched with a pink flower one. You may only match these tiles within their sets, though. That means a season tile will not correspond with a flower one.

Difficulties and Stages

There are three difficulties, with three stages each: Easy, Medium and Hard. Easy is (obviously) the easiest of the three difficulties, and hard is (obviously) the hardest of the three, with each stage also being harder and longer than the last.

During Stages, In-between Stages, after Stages and End of Game

Matching

In order to correctly assemble a match, you must click two tiles, one directly after the other. When your match is correct, they will glow green and disappear.

However, if you have chosen two tiles that do not match, they will flash yellow and red, and then you must select two new tiles. Try not to get too many of these, as it will waste your bonus points and time. Possibly your patience, too.

Hinting and Resetting

When you are completely stumped and are not able to find any tiles that will match, you may click the wonderful and helpful 'Hint' button in the bottom right corner of the screen.

When there are moves left, the two tiles that it randomly selects will glow yellow, and they will continue to glow until you match them. Best not keep them waiting.

However, if there are no more moves, you will get a highly dreaded screen that says, 'NO MORE LEGAL MOVES. MUAHAHAHA.' Alright, so the last part was added, but you know. Gotta be dramatic.

If you ever find yourself in that scenario, just click the 'Reset' button located in the same area as the 'Hint' button, and voila. A new board is laid out. Joy.

Finishing Stages, Difficulties, and beating the Game

When finishing a stage, a screen will pop up and tell you the amount of points you earned for that stage, the amount of points you earned from the bonus, your overall points from that stage, and your overall score for the game. This is useful, especially if you are trying for a trophy.

Now, when completing the third stage of whatever difficulty you chose, you will get another screen telling you how awesome you are, and the amount of Neopoints you earned from the game.

The next screen that you will see before you is the coveted 'Send Score' or 'Play Again' screen. Which one will you choose? Only you will know. Keep in mind that you can only send scores three times per day per flash game.

Strategies

As of currently, there are no secrets or codes that have been revealed. Consequently, you will have to rely on your strategy alone to win the game. Though I will admit luck does play a small part in the placement of the tiles.

1. When matching two tiles, do not wait for them to disappear. Instead, click the next match that you see.

2. If the level is taking too long and your bonus is getting too low, you can reset and hope for a better board.

3. Let your mind be faster than your hands. When you find a match, immediately look for another one.

4. Work from the outside in. When you see two of the same tiles clumped together, eliminate them separately.

5. Practice, practice, practice. :) (Oh, and did I mention PRACTICE?)

Author's Note: Thanks to all of those on the HST who responded to my neomails regarding this section. I appreciate it.

Want a Trophy?

So, you love the game so much that you have decided to get a trophy for it, hmm? In that case, there are a few things that are essential to doing so.

1. You MUST play on Hard. Otherwise, don't even bother.

2. You want to at least score around 410-480 each stage. This is possible, you'll just have to get the hang of the game.

3. Skill, Strategy, and Luck. If you want a trophy, you must practice for it and gradually get better, you must play with a strategy instead of just playing and hoping you will get acquire a trophy, and you must hope that you will only have to tackle each stage only once, instead of having to continually reset the board. (NOTE: resetting the board do not deduct points, it wastes only your time. You will get your points reset to the score from the previous completed stage, though. That means you do not earn any points for a level that wasn't completed and was reset instead.)

These three steps are very crucial if you ever want to see that pretty trophy on your lookup. Otherwise, just play for some easy Neopoints, or see how the game 'fits' you.

I hope my guide has helped you to somewhat, if not completely, understand the concept of this new game that mysteriously arrived with the mysterious arrival of a mysterious ship. Whoa, that doesn't sound like a word anymore.

Another Author's Note: If this is published it will be my first NT article! Thanks to everyone for the support and especially neodudesm for the editing and content help.