Overview
Brand new to Spaera and having trouble with the AI players? Playing online and want to know how to improve further? Just want to bloody well know how to beat Rafael? You’ve come to the right place. This guide, written by self-professed “World’s Best Spaera Player” features absolutely everything you could ever wish to know about Spaera!
To do list:
- Character sections for Setter Z, Rafael
- Character tips and thoughts for Joseph, Harland, Setter Z, Rafael
- How to beat Rafael
- Colour and Piece theory
- KO theory
- Garbage theory
- More general tips
- FAQ section
- Anything I’m missing
Introduction
What is Spaera?
Spaera is a Puzzle Fighter game created by Blazing Orb in which you play as one of eight six unique characters as you journey to uncover the truth behind the catastrophic FINAL FUSION and unite the mystic force known as the SPAERA. Whatever that means.
A more useful description would be “Tetris Battle Gaiden meets Tetris 2, with a focus on 2 player battling”. It’s fairly simple to pick up, difficult to master, and hard to put down.
As of September 2016, the game has been released on Steam Early access, meaning everyone can play it! Be sure to check out the official Spaera Discord channel[discordapp.com]. That’s where all us really good players hang out, plus the developers. It’s a great place to go if you need technical help, or if you’re looking for gameplay feedback.
About this guide.
Hey there! I’m MBI, self proclaimed “Best Spaera player in the world”. I first found this game on a sidestream when watching EVO 2015, the vibrant art style and deep-looking mechanics drawing me in. From there, I discovered the wonderful world of Tetris and its awesome community. While Spaera has changed radically over the last year, the more Tetrisy elements long-gone, I am forever indebted to this game for showing me the joy of making blocks vanish.
It is my sincere hope that Spaera succeeds beyond my wildest dreams and BlazingOrb find the success they deserve, which is why I’m writing this guide. I know that new players are often confused by the intricacies of modern Spaera, and I’d rather those players find the info they need rather than being left to fend for themselves. At the same time, I know a lot of players will want to push their skills as high as they can, and will be interested in various strategies they could use. As a result, this guide is aimed for players of all skill levels.
As a final note before we jump in, the game is currently undergoing a state of rapid development. Many aspects of this guide could potentially become outdated in the coming months. If the game build listed on the title screen isn’t 0.9.2.9, this guide is likely out of date. Check out the patch notes to see what’s changed since then!
Acknowledgements
First off, I’d like you guys to acknowledge the hard work I put into this thing. Converting from a Google Doc to a Steam Guide is quite bloody annoying, after all. Don’t just go copy/pasting whole segments to other places and pass them off as being your own work. I’ll be quite annoyed if you do do that.
Next up, I want to thank the devs Teddy and Denis for answering some questions I had for them, and for creating this game I love so much.
Special thanks to NiGHTcapD checking a few facts for me, correcting a few errors, and for being a great rival. I wouldn’t be anywhere near as good or as knowledgeable at this game if you weren’t here to push me.
Thanks OkeyDokey for making me realise that Spaera is more similar to Tetris Battle Gaiden + Tetris 2 than it is similar to Tetris Battle Gaiden + a Puyo/Panel de Pon fusion.
Lastly, I’d like to thank Mevious. I have no idea who you are, but you corrected an embarrassing maths error I was going to put in the guide.
And finally, thank you to you for taking the time to check out this guide! I really do hope you can get some use out of this.
The basics
The core mechanics of Spaera run deep, and it can be rather overwhelming for a new player. As a result, the following few sections are aimed at getting a brand new a player started.
Character selection
Six characters are currently available in Spaera. Each character has a unique set of abilities to help them turn the tides of battle in their favour. Later, I’ll be covering what each character is capable of. For now, I’ll quickly go over what each character is like, going clockwise from the top left.
Tsubaki is one of the two characters currently unable to be selected. She’s also the first character Blazing Orb designed, incidentally. In past versions, her skillset was about annoying the enemy and forcing them to use resources at less-than perfect times.
Leon is the other guy currently unavailable. In past versions, he was the king of turtling. Three of his skills were defensive in nature (And also rather weak), but the fourth skill… That was a gamechanger that combined both attack and defense into one insanely good move.
Luna is a witch who is secretly 1000 years old or something. She’s all about offensive play, overwhelming opponents with difficult blocks. If you want to rush down the opponent, pick Luna.
Pone is some big hero guy with lots of muscles. Of all the characters, people tend to agree he’s the most well-rounded. There’s lots of styles he can play, and an excellent beginner character. If you want to be a jack of all trades, pick Pone.
Joseph is a smol dude who hates fire. Like Pone, he’s got quite a grab-bag of skills, although his powers require better timing than Pone to be effective. If you want to ruin the opponent’s entire board at once, pick Joseph
Harland is a spooky character whose name evokes terror in my heart every time I see it. In past versions of the game, he was without a doubt the best character of them all. He’s more in line with the others now, thankfully. These days, he’s all about utility, having weaker offensive and defensive options than the others. If you want to control your opponent, pick Harland.
Setter Z is every anime robot you’ve ever met. He’s the only character who can’t mess directly with the opponent’s playing field, although he can end games quite well. Played right, he can overwhelm the opponent in a single spell. Played badly, he can turn a lead into a heavy disadvantage. If you want to play the long game, pick Setter Z.
Rafael is a medieval rock star. So basically, a bard. His skills are all kinda wonky and unique, in all the best ways. His level 4 is so good that there’s an entire section of this guide based around countering it. I’m on the fence about whether it should be toned down or not, myself. If you want to have a really weird skillset, pick Rafael.
Understanding the Playing Field
Your first few games of Spara can be very overwhelming. After all, Spaera is an information dense game. This section is aimed at getting you used to looking at the important stuff, so that you don’t give your full attention to the least relevant sections at the most important times
Below is a picture with various aspects highlighted. Underneath, I’ll walk you through the basics of each area.
This is where the action takes place, so obviously, most of your attention should be placed here. Starting out, it’s easier to just ignore the opponent’s Board and to focus on your own situation. Of course, a glance at the opponent’s situation is never a bad idea. Even a quick look should be enough to tell you what kind of situation their in.
Skilled players will be able to exploit their opponent’s situation, denying the opponent vital pieces and timing their magic in order to cause the most damage.
Magic is fairly easy to keep track of, so you’ll probably not want to focus too much on these parts of the screen.
The way this works is simple in theory. You place a piece, and the top piece is the next piece you’re given control of. However, things quickly get more complex than that. You and your opponent both share the same Piece Queue.
Spaera is a constant battle of controlling pieces. You should try to pay attention to this at all times, so you know which valuable pieces you need to try and snatch before your opponent.
These meters fill up by one notch whenever you clear a tile. 70 cleared pieces will fill it up completely, resetting the meter and adding an orb to your count. Nice and simple, right?
While it doesn’t demand constant attention like the other aspects of the game, ignoring it can lead to losing track of how much magic you have available, sometimes leading to a wasted spell or missed opportunity.
Controls (Including 2P Versus Mode controls)
Controlling Pieces
In order to match blocks, first you need to know how to manipulate the pieces. There’s a few default control schemes which you can customise to your liking. Better controller support is on its way in the future
The piece you have control of is generated at the top of the field and slowly falls downwards. The following actions will control where the piece lands.
Shift Left/Shift Right: Moves the piece one column to the left/right. Pieces will always align with these columns, no matter what happens.
Shift Down: Also known as a “Soft Drop”, this accelerates the speed at which the piece falls downwards as long as the button is held.
Confirm Drop: Also known as a “Hard Drop”, this surrenders control of the current piece and drops it downwards, the piece locking into place the moment it stops falling. This is useful for when you need to match tiles fast.
Rotate Left/Rotate Right: Rotates the piece 90 degrees anti-clockwise/clockwise. Depending on the shape of the piece, the “anchor”, or, the tile which acts as the axis for the rotation may be different. If there’s no room for the pieces to rotate, the rotation will fail. Tetris style wall-kicks do not exist in Spaera.
Use Magic: This removes both your piece and your opponent’s current piece from the board, then expends your Magic Meter in order to cast a spell. This is one of the more complex areas of the game, but it’s useful to remember that if faced with defeat, you can get rid of an unplaceable piece by using Magic.
The Piece which you can currently manipulate is known as the “Active Piece”, although “Falling Piece” is sometimes used.
Versus Mode controls
In Vs Mode, the controls are a bit different due to two players being on a single keyboard. The controls uses in this mode are as follows:
Player 1
A/D: Shift Left/Right
W/S: Soft/Hard Drop
C/V: Rotate Left/Right
Q: Use Magic
Player 2
K/;: Shift Left/Right
O/L Soft/Hard Drop
[/] Rotate Left/Right
I: Use Magic
Game Mechanics
Now we’re getting into the meat of things. Changes are, you skipped ahead to get to this section. If so, good for you! Everything you need to know about the mechanics behind Spaera is covered in the upcoming sections!
Matching Tiles
The core of Spaera’s gameplay is matching Tiles. What are tiles, you may ask? Well, the official term for Tiles is Blocks. However, I usually call them Tiles because I’m awkward like that.
Tiles have four standard colours: Yellow, Blue, Red and Green.
To get rid of tiles, you must match them with tiles of the same colour. This is known as “clearing” them. Matches must contain three or more of the same tiles, and they can be done either horizontally or vertically.
After tiles from your current piece have been matched, the unmatched tiles from the same piece will then be subjected to gravity, falling downwards until they land, at which point they lock into place.
Pieces which have already been locked in place will fall if they are located above a match. This can sometimes work in ways you might not expect, as seen below.
Finally, if no match has been made after placing your active piece, the tiles will lock into place without falling whatsoever.
Garbage
Garbage
For every 12 tiles which are cleared, one line of “Garbage” is sent to the opponent’s side of the field. This is also sometimes known as a “Line Attack” or “Sending lines”.
Victory and Defeat
At the top of the board is a 3 by 9 area which new tiles drop down from. This zone is known as the Danger Zone, due to the power it holds over the outcome of the match.
When tiles are forced upwards into into the Danger Zone, they are removed from the game. Sending garbage alone isn’t enough to defeat your opponent. Instead, your opponent will be defeated if the piece they’re currently controlling intersects with the Danger Zone. However, if they are able to clear at least three tiles with the intersecting piece, the game will continue. Skilled players can time their placements well, forcing the opponent into controlling unusable pieces!
Chains and Combos
Learning how to perform Chains and Combos is potentially the single most important step in improving as a Spaera player.
A Chain is a situation in which performing a clear leads to a second clear being performed immediately afterwards. Take the below example.
While Chains by themselves look impressive, their true power is in what happens in the second step of a Chain and beyond.
Vertical Chains
Horizontal Chains
Combos
Cross-board Combos
Occasionally, rising garbage or spell effects will align three tiles somewhere on the board. Since the tiles won’t clear until your next piece is locked into place, you can create a combo by matching another colour elsewhere with your Active Piece.
Wildcards
Wildcards tiles are somewhat rare, occasionally appearing embedded inside normal pieces. A wildcard tile, as the name suggests, is able to act as any colour tile for the purpose of clearing blocks. Furthermore, when a wild card is cleared, it explodes, clearing the entire row it was located on, as if it was a horizontal chain!
Panic Blocks and Panic Mode
There’s lots of silly names for Panics Blocks, most of which failed to stick due to being silly. For reasons I don’t quite understand, I call them Panic Blocks, as opposed to Panic Tiles. Whatever you want to call them, these tiles are generally a bad thing. They work the same way as regular tiles, except they’ll never show up in the Piece Queue, making clearing them a difficult task. Luckily, explosions work just fine on them.
Bricks
To clear a Brick tile, first you must morph the Brick back into a regular tile.
To do this, you can either clear a tile/orb adjacent to the brick, or catch the brick inside an explosion.
Notes about Bricks
When a Brick is morphed back into a regular tile, it will return to being whatever tile the brick originally replaced. The exception to this rule is Harland’s bricks, which overwrite existing tiles completely using an algorithm designed to annoy you. These bricks can be any colour when morphed back, even the Panic colours.
For the purpose of sending garbage and building your meter, morphing a brick back to normal is classed as a “clear”.
Horizontal explosions and bricks interact in a strange way, for the sake of gameplay balance. Basically, if brick is caught in a vertical explosion, gravity will not apply to any of the tiles which would be pulled downward on the line above. There is an example of this behaviour below.
Magic
Spaera’s Magic system is what sets it apart from other puzzle games, and is what gives the game a competitive edge to it. Every character has 4 unique spells, with different characters catering to different styles of play.
Players can see how much magic they have accumulated underneath their Character Portrait.
There are three ways to gain Magic:
- Every 85 tiles cleared gives the player one point of Magic
- Some spell effects allows the player to gain Magic
- Clearing an Orb gives the player one point of Magic.
Orbs
Orbs can also be cleared with explosions,
through either chains, combos or wildcard
Using Magic
After collecting Magic, you can press the “Use Magic” button in order to expend it. This will remove both player’s active pieces, and cast a spell specific to your selected character. After the spell has been cast, the caster will be given the next piece from the shared Piece Queue.
There are several rules to magic:
- When Magic is used, all Magic is expended
A player with two points of Magic can’t spend them one at a time. The player must either spend 2 magic, or keep saving their Magic for later. Even the Magic Meter is reset to 0 when a spell is cast. - Every character has 4 levels of spells
Each character has 4 spells, with each often referred to as a “level”. A player with one Magic, for instance, will cast their level 1 spell upon use, a player with two magic will cast their level 2 spell, and so forth.
The maximum amount of magic able to be stored is four. After that, no more can be gained. - You must have an active piece to cast a spell
Spells are unable to be cast in the time between a piece locking into place, and the next piece being given to the player. This doesn’t apply to the opponent’s piece, however. It is possible to cast a spell when the opponent has no active piece - New spells can’t be activated if a spell you cast has an ongoing effect.
Some spells have lingering effects, such as obscuring the opponent’s vision or altering the opponent’s controls. If a temporary effect such as this is in play, the person who initiated the effect is unable to cast new spells until it expired. - Spell durations are measured in Pieces.
Some spells impose temporary effects on either yourself or the opponent. For these spells, the length of time they last is measured in pieces placed. The opposing player casting a spell of their own will also decrease the duration of spell effects. For example, Setter Z’s Blast Knuckle has a duration of 1. The player affected by it can either suffer the effect for the duration of one piece, or use magic of their own to reduce the duration to 0. - Tiles destroyed by spell effects are not Cleared.
Any tile removed directly as a result of a spell is not considered to be “Cleared”, and therefore will not decrease the Spell Counter or send Garbage to the opponent.
Characters
Important note before we go any further: From this point on, the guide will take a more non-linear form. While the following sections will cover spells and their functions in order to help newer players, they’ll also cover some of the deeper mechanics, and will feature my opinions on character matchups when played at a high level. If you feel a bit overwhelmed, don’t worry about it. Just focus on the bits that seem relevant to whatever skill level you’re on.
Now, time to delve into the real meat of things! Characters! Go ahead, skip to whichever character you want!
One thing to add: This section is currently
I haven’t gotten around to covering each of the characters just yet I’m afraid.
Luna
Luna’s Abilities: A Primer
Level 1: Luna Eclipse
Luna basks her opponent’s board in darkness for four turns, leaving only a small area under their Active Piece visible. This forces the opponent to either slow down, or play from memory.
Level 2: Ion Beam
Luna fires two beams of light from below, each erasing two tiles from either side of the board. While pretty effective at creating more space for yourself in a pinch, this spell can erase useful tiles such as Orbs and Wildcards.
Level 3: Curse of Venus
Luna curses her opponent, sending them a Panic Mode line of garbage the next four times they take a piece from the queue. This has the additional effect of converting all garbage lines sent for the duration into Panic Mode garbage too.
Luna calls down a meteor to hit the opponent, impacting the highest point of their board and leaving three lines of panic blocks above the point it hits.
Tips for Luna
0.9.2.2 BUG: If Curse of Venus is cast when Luna’s opponent is in the process of taking a piece from the queue (Meaning they have just placed a piece), only three lines total will be generated over the course of the spell’s duration
She blinded me with Science Magic: Luna Eclipse is generally seen as a rather weak spell, as players often plan out their next few moves ahead of time. Against a player who is unable to plan that far ahead, they can lessen the impact of the spell by simply softdropping their piece to above the general area it’ll be placed in, casting light upon their tiles. There are a few matchups where the darkness effect can come in quite useful, however. Setter Z is constantly changing the layout of his own board. Very few Setter Z’s will be able to play effectively in the dark after one of these layout changes, meaning he’s a prime target for this spell.
Beam me up, Scotty: Ion Beam is a spell that ideally, you won’t be casting very often; Luna is a character who excels at offense, after all. What this spell is best for is buying yourself some time when you’re backed into a corner, hopefully being able to use the space to clear some orbs and put your opponent back on the defensive. The 2-wide gap doesn’t allow X pieces and W pieces to fit through, meaning that aware opponents will be able to send these shapes your way if they occur in the queue. Be more aware, and make sure the opponent gets these pieces! Finally, try making explosions to lower the high points of your stack to make yourself even more room.
CoVering All Bases: Curse of Venus is an amazing spell. Use it, then the opponent gets a minimum of four panic garbage. Even better, all garbage sent during this time is also converted to Panic garbage. A really powerful technique is to create a large chain/combo to send lines to your opponent, then cast this spell before the opponent places their next piece, turning those lines that are queued up into panic blocks. Remember, the duration of this conversion effect is 4 pieces. You’re gonna want to play as fast as you possibly can in order to send as many lines as possible during that time. On the other hand, the opponent should play as fast as possible too, in order to minimise this window of opportunity.
PK Starstorm: Luna Punishment is situational, but it shouldn’t ever be underestimated. Since it placed three lines above the opponent’s highest tile, the effect will be wasted completely if the opponent’s highest tile is immediately below the Danger Zone. Ideally, you’ll want to use LP when the opponent is 3-4 tiles from the top, when the second next piece in the queue is especially awkward. I, W and U blocks can easily lead the opponent to defeat. Do note that wildcards are very effective at clearing LP. Try not to let your foe have them! Another use for Luna Punishment is if the opponent is stockpiling orbs. Use this, and they’ll have to contend with three lines of panic blocks before they can cash those orbs in.
MBI’s thoughts on Luna
Luna was the first character I used when I first started. She’s adorable; how could I resist defeating my foes with such a cute character? Back then, her kill setups were a lot more powerful, although that was more due to differences in game mechanics. Although in recent days I’ve thought that she was the weakest character, I’ve now come to realise that her identity as a strong rushdown character is still very much intact. Most of the currently playable cast is able to nullify the defence that Ion Beam gives in one way or another. Setter Z can lock your rotational controls, Harland can place bricks over the gaps, Rafael can just mind-control you like a jerk and force you to place a piece in the middle.
Luckily, Luna has a second defensive option. As the proverb goes, “The best defence is a good offence”. Keep the opponent fighting a constant barrage of attacks, force them to use orbs defensively, and never let up for even a moment. If the opponent is pushed up to the top, there’s no use saving for a Level 4. Keep pushing! Eventually, you’ll force panic blocks from an earlier level 3 up to the top, sealing your victory.
Pone
Pwning with Pone: Moveset
Level 1: One Punch
Pone punches his opponent, confusing them for the next four pieces. Their controls become inverted, the following functions becoming swapped:
Shift Left/Shift Right
Rotate Clockwise/Rotate Anticlockwise
Soft Drop/Hard Drop
Laval 2: Lava Geyser
Pone punches the ground with such pressure that lava erupts, immediately giving the opponent three lines of normal garbage. Even in Panic Mode, this will be normal garbage.
Level 3: 1000 Shattering Fists
Pone channels his inner Kenshiro, pulling off an amazing 1000-hit combo on the opponent’s board. Each tile on the opponent’s board has a 25% chance of turning to brick. Even Wildcards and Orbs can get bricked with this spell.
Pone grabs his board’s stack and splits it in two with his bare hands, creating a 3-tile wide empty space down his board. The left five tiles get moved two to the left, the right four tiles get moved one to the right. Tiles moved offscreen are removed from play
Tips for Pone
One Punch shortens to OP?: Now this is an interesting spell. Against some players; it’ll have zero effect on them, on other players; it’ll cripple their ability to play the game even beyond the four turn duration as their muscle memory goes haywire. To get the most out of this spell, you’ll just have to try it and see, making a note of which players it works on.
Countering Said OPness: If you’re of those players who has trouble with the spell, and find yourself on the receiving end of One Punch, don’t panic! Just play at your most careful for the duration. If you don’t make a mistake, and if you can keep up a decent speed, your opponent is likely to assume “Meh, not much effect” and move on. Four turns without a mistake is difficult, but still completely possible. If you’re one of the players who really finds this spell difficult and the opponent realises, I’m sorry. Practice is the only way to improve.
CPUnch: The AI are bad with dealing with this spell. Like, really bad. This is the opposite of in the old days, in which the AI just ignored the effects of this spell completely. If you ever need to cheese kill the AI for whatever reason, consider using this thing.
Notes on Lava Geyser and 1000 Shattering Fists: In many scenarios, you’ll have to choose between which of these spells to use. Here’s some important things to note about each.
- Lava Geyser never gives the opponent Panic Blocks. Its primary use is to push their stack upward, not to provide a long-term threat.
- 1000 Shattering Fists is more effective the more tiles the opponent has. There’s almost no point to it if the opponent’s stack is low down.
As you can probably see, the best strategy generally is to use LG when their stack is low, and 1KSF when their stack is high. However, sometimes you’ll find it in your best interests to use Lava Geyser when their stack is high. The instant 3-tile rise can push orbs into the Danger Zone and out of the way. Furthermore, it can push masses of Panic Blocks or Bricks to the top, forcing them to deal with them immediately and potentially more. See “KO Theory: Pone” (Coming eventually) for more on how to KO with him.
Report Pone, no SS bot: If you’re fighting Pone, Sky Splitter will likely be the bane of your existence. If you are the Pone, this spell will also likely cause you grief. Everyone hates this spell, no exceptions. Don’t even pretend you’re a fan of it. It gives Pone an escape at the cost of messing up his board the entire way down to the bottom. Hit four orbs by mistake, and you’re stuck there. All your magic is offline until you cast this. If this happens to you, it’s often best to cast the spell early so that the messiness is minimised.
When a Pone is That Guy: So, you’re fighting a Pone, he’s hit four orbs, and he’s holding into the spell? This isn’t going to be fun. If you’re playing as Harland or Luna, he’s definitely going to be saving it for until you use your level 4. For other characters, he’s gonna wait until he’s about to lose. Generally, you’ll have two options in these scenarios. You can either try outplaying him without using magic, maybe using the time to get rid of accumulated brick tiles. Or you can hit him with everything you’ve got, forcing him to cast the spell and setting you both back to zero magic. After he uses his spell, things should be in your favour given how messy his board will be (Assuming your board isn’t equally messy). Use this chance to either gather the orbs to finish him off before he can hit 4 orbs again, or to send as many lines as you can before he hits four orbs again. Naturally, Rafael can just ignore all this fuss.
1000 Shattering Fists: A watered down version of The Brickinator?: No, that’s called Raging Waters.
But For Real: Jokes aside, 1KSF carries a few advantages TB doesn’t. The two obvious examples are the ability to turn special tiles (Orbs and Wildcards) into Brick, and the lower spell cost. Less obvious is horizontal explosion resistance. With Joseph’s Brickinator, any line caught in an explosion will morph back into normal tiles, ready to clear their surroundings. With Pone’s 1KSF, a line with a brick on it will be cleared by an explosion, leaving just one tile where the brick was. This one tile will prevent gravity from lowering the stack after the explosion, creating an awkward gap in their stack.
Rapid Fire Fisticuffs:
ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA ORA… ORA!
Rapid Fire Fisticuffs Part 2: Multicasting: Pone is unique in that both his level 2 and his level 3 spells are attack spells. More importantly, both are durationless spells, meaning their full effect applies instantly. This is important because it means you can cast another spell right after the first ends, assuming you can get Magic with the next piece. Pone, more than other characters, benefits from storing orbs on his board. A skilled player can place orbs strategically, before unleashing two or even three spells in rapid succession, overwhelming the opponent in a burst of spell effects!
With 4 orbs on the board and 2 orbs in your meter, you can do the following attacks:
- Lava Geyser > Clear orbs > Lava Geyser > Clear orbs > Lava Geyser. Total effect: 9 lines of garbage sent.
- Clear orb > 1000 Shattering Fists > Clear orbs > 1000 Shattering Fists. Total effect: Each tile on the opponent’s board has a 44(ish)% chance of being bricked.
- Lava Geyser > Clear orbs > 1000 Shattering Fists > Clear orb > One Punch. Total effect: 3 lines of garbage sent, then bricks applied, then the opponent’s controls are reversed. Whew!
Obviously, when casting spells in quick succession, you’ll need to save any One Punch casts for last, otherwise you’ll prevent yourself from casting magic for four turns. Try some setups against a computer opponent; see what you can make happen! Remember to check out the Orbs section for a reminder on how to clear multiple orbs at once.
As a final note: If you try this vs Joseph, you deserve everything that’s coming to you.
MBI’s thoughts on Pone
To be honest, Pone is almost certainly my least played character. I just kinda find him sorta bland. Coming into this section, I was kinda dreading the task of finding things to say about him. Imagine my surprise when I ended up writing more than I did for Luna! Still, his basic gameplay loop really doesn’t catch my attention. He feels very “flowcharty” to me, with the basic loop of “Raise stack with Level 2, mess up raised stack with level 3, level 4 when in danger”. Can’t say I find it all that appealing.
What does catch my attention, however, is his ability to rapid-fire spells to overwhelm his foes. For a character with no spells that affect his own board, he sure is set-up heavy when played in this way. I do worry that this style of play isn’t viable at the top levels of play though, since storing orbs means you’re giving up immediate power for later power, something your opponent can prevent given they have the right spells. It’s too early for me to draw any conclusions though, so for time being, I’ll let you decide for yourself if its worth it.
Don’t let any of the above fool you. Despite my personal thoughts on his gameplay, he most certainly is a strong character.
Joseph
The Foundations of your victory: Moveset
Level 1: Hydro Splasher
Joseph takes aim at the opponent, disrupting the movement of their next three pieces with jets of water. Pieces rapidly rotate clockwise when soft dropped or hard dropped, and rotate rapidly when the piece rotation buttons are held.
Joseph pulls the bottom three rows of his stack away with a lasso, removing them from the game and lowering his stack.
Level 3: Raging Waters
Joseph hoses the opponent’s playing field with water, flushing away all orbs present on the opponent’s side and instantly adding them to Joseph’s own meter.
Level 4: The Brickinator
Joseph attaches his fire hose to a cement mixer and coats the opponent’s playing field, transforming all tiles into bricks. Orbs and Wildcards are unaffected by this.
Tips for Joseph
WIP
MBI’s thoughts on Joseph
Harland
Gearing up for battle: Moveset
Level 1: Orb Eater
Harland sends forth a ghost to eat one of the opponent’s orbs, setting their meter progress back to zero in the process.
Level 2: Gas to Solid
Harland sets some spirits to work, converting his bottom row into a solid line of Panic blocks, ideal for making a cross-board combo with.
Level 3: Phantom Paynes
Harland copies his stack, replacing the opponent’s entire playing field with a recessive clone of his own field. This copy is two rows lower than the height of his own stack at the time of copying.
Level 4: Tweets of Afterlife
Powerful spirits place a randomly generated message or symbol on the highest point of the opponent’s board, overwriting the existing tiles with bricks. These bricks don’t correspond to the kind of tile they replaced, the colour when unmorphed sometimes even being panic blocks.
Tips for Harland
WIP
MBI’s thoughts on Harland
WIP