Flummox!

How To Play

The Board

The board contains seven rows of seven columns of colored or patterned tiles. There are arrows at each end of each row and column. In the middle of the board is a pulsing square, which is called the Magic Zone.

There is clock-like directional circle called the Compass in the upper left.

On the left of the board is a "terminal line," under which you will see any orphan tiles. Below the Compass on the left, you will find any "Charms" you have accumulated.

Score information, aremaining move count, and a remaining move "thermometer" indicator are displayed at the top of the screen, if you have not disabled them in the preferences.

Goals

Movement

Rows and columns of tiles may be shifted by clicking on one of the arrows beyond the end of the row or column. A tile that gets shifted off of one end of a full row or column will "wrap around" to the other end. If there are gaps, tiles will fall to fill in the gaps.

You can change the direction that tiles fall by clicking on a direction in the Compass in the upper left of the board. The following picture shows what the board looks like when the direction is towards the top of the screen.

Vanishing Tiles

In the middle of the board is the Magic Zone. If three or more tiles of the same color or pattern are neighbors within the Magic Zone, they will vanish, clearing them from the board. "Neighbors" means that they share a common side -- diagonals don't count.

Any tiles of the same color or pattern outside of the Magic Zone that are contiguous to the exploding tiles will also vanish.

Any gaps left by vanishing tiles will be filled in by other tiles falling into place.

If the Magic Zone has no tiles to support it, it will also fall, as you can see in the following screen shot:

Note that the Magic Zone falls after all of the tiles finish falling, so plan accordingly.

Game Play

A level is complete when it is impossible to get three tiles of the same color or pattern into the Magic Zone (i.e., there are no more than three tiles of any given color or pattern), or when you have made the maximum number of moves for that level. The number of moves allowed for a level starts at 100, and goes down by five moves for each level, until you reach the Opal level, when the number of moves will remain fixed at 50.

Any tiles left over are called "orphan tiles." If you have fewer than 6 orphans, you will proceed on to the next level of play. You can see the number of orphan tiles during play by looking at the lower left of the screen, under the terminal line. When the stack of orphans passes the line, the game is over.

If you clear all the tiles to complete a level, you will be rewarded with a Charm.

Charms

Certain accomplishments will result in you receiving Charms. Charms can be activated by clicking on their icon. You may have up to three charms at any one time -- if you receive a new charm after that, your oldest charm will go away. Each Charms alter something about the way the game plays:

• Broad Magic Charm- expands the size of the Magic Zone. Mutiple uses of this charm will expand the Magic Zone further.
• Deep Magic Charm- the Magic Zone will now cause any two contiguous tiles of the same pattern or color to vanish. Multiple uses of this charm will cancel the effect.
• Broad Shift Charm- this will cause three rows or columns to shift as a group for your next move.
• Magic Shift Charm- this will shift the Magic Zone in the direction of the next arrow that you click.

The effects of all Charms will be cancelled at the end of a level.

Menus

Options Menu

• New Game Ends your current game (if any), and starts a new game.
• Show High Scores... Takes you to the High Scores page.
• Reset High Scores Blanks out all the high scores, with the exception of the top three. If you haven't registered yet, this will be effectively useless.
• Preferences... Take you to the Preferences page where you can customize game play.
• Register... Pops up a form where you can enter your registration code.

Help Menu

• How to Play Displays a shorter version of the help on this page.
• Scoring Displays a shorter version of the information on the Scoring page.
• About... Displays the Splash Screen.
• Useless Stats Shows you some statistics about the game: the build number (important when you're reporting bugs), how many games you've played, how many games you've completed, and whether you've registered yet.

(Sample Statistics)

High Scores

Displays the high scores.

Preferences

• Animated Interface Checking this box will cause the board to be animated, emphasizing the active areas of the interface (i.e., where you can click to make things happen). This either makes the board more interesting, or more distracting, depending on your point of view.
• Animation Speed This allows you to select the speed of the game animation. If play is too slow on your device, or you don't need the visual feedback provided by the animation, you can run in a faster speed. If you have a fast device, you can slow down the animation.
• Show Special Events Those text messages that scroll up the screen to announce new levels or special bonuses are called "special events." By unchecking this box, you can make them go away.
• Display Score During Play Normally, your score is displayed at the top of the screen. You can turn it off by unchecking this box.
• Display Moves Used Bar Normally, a "progress bar" is displayed at the top of the screen to indicate how many moves you have left on this level. You can turn this off by unchecking this box.
• Display Moves Remaining This displays numerically how many moves you have left on this level. Normally off, you can turn this on by checking this box.
• Display Points for Last Move Normally, you are shown how many points you got for the last move you made. You can turn this off by unchecking this box.