How to play Planet Buster
The interface:
- Remaining score until the level's goal is achieved
- Available special Items
- Remaining time
- Total score
- Remaining coins
Basic Gameplay: clear groups of tiles until you have reached the level's score goal. You can clear them by by swapping tiles/planets and aligning those of the same colour. At least three tiles of the same colour need to be aligned either horizontally or vertically for them to be cleared and increase your score.
The bar in the top right will show you how many more points you need to collect until you have completed the level. You should try to line up long rows of tiles and trigger chain-reactions in order achieve as high scores per move as possible for two reasons: first of all you need to reach the level's score goal before the time runs out. Luckily there are items that let you freeze the clock temporarily and buy you time (see below). Second of all each move will cost you a coin. The bad news is: if you run out of coins - you lose. The good news: coins attached to tiles will appear on the play field for you to collect. Regardless you should be careful not to waste your coins. Contemplate before each move if it is going to pay off. The longer the chain-reactions are that you build the more valuable the coins that appear will be:
Special tiles: Some tiles will have other icons attached to them. The 'lock' indicates that the tile (you guessed it) is locked and cannot be swapped. Others will freeze the clock for a short period of time or blast a small radius of surrounding tiles when cleared.
Challenge Levels, Special Items and The Shop: Challenge levels are optional levels which challenge you to clear a playing field with only one move. Once you've completed a challenge level you can pick a special item/weapon which you can from then on use in regular levels. These items clear big numbers of tiles, multiply your collected points for a period of time or come in handy in other ways. Even if some might appear more powerful/useful than others at a first glance, consider that each item has a different cool-down time (= the time it takes until the item can be used again). In order to shorten down the wait and make the item usable again immediately you can restock it in the shop for coins that you collected.
The Maps: The maps show your progress, let you replay levels and visit the shop. You can switch between worlds by accessing the 'world map'. Note that you first need to complete all levels of a world before you can access the next.
What does the 'Reset' button do? The 'Reset' button will send your save game into the black red hole and reset all your
progress, so don't click it unless you are sure you want to start over from scratch!
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