Jewel Match Dracula Collector's Edition

Jewel Match Dracula Collector's Edition

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Jewel Match Dracula Tips & Steam Achievements
By SynthpopAddict
Some useful tips for playing and how to get the Steam Achievements.
   
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Gameplay basics: Dracula and the Butler
The Strategy Guide built into the CE Extras is very detailed (and long) explaining most of the things you'll see in the game, so I'm not going into that here. However, anything to do with the Dracula and Butler characters was left out of the in-game help as well as the tutorial levels.

-Dracula: Must be led into his coffin if he's present in a level. You move Dracula with adjacent matches; he will walk one space on whatever side you matched next to. The coffin is not necessarily in the same room.

-The Butler is Dracula's helper. He walks around in the same manner with adjacent matches.

-Both Dracula and the Butler can be dragged over one space if the drag produces a match. This is a very useful thing to remember if Dracula has been stopped by garlic. Yeah, you can still literally drag him about a bit. Makes me think he must be kicking and screaming in those instances!

-If there are conveyor belts, Dracula and the Butler will move faster on the belt when you match the pieces on the belt. However, both characters do not have to be on a belt at all times, and in some cases, it's better to move them off a belt, even if they walk slower.

-There are barrels, tombstones, and garlic, all of which either block access to something or in the case of garlic, stops Dracula from walking with matches (but you can still drag on him if it produces a match as stated above).

-Only Dracula can remove tombstones. He has to get close enough to them and they will get zapped.

-The Butler removes barrels, garlic, snails, and turtles with zaps when he's close enough. If there are a lot of any of these in the playfield, it's rather awesome to watch all that lightning!

-A small number of levels feature portals, which teleport either Dracula or the Butler and the trick to winning is to get Dracula and the Butler to swap rooms using the teleport. Level 15 is the first example of this, as there is no other way to get Dracula to his coffin otherwise. You must move one of the characters over to the blue portal and the characters will then switch places. It's too bad the Butler and Dracula are both in black clothing, as I get them mixed up sometimes...

Gameplay Basics: Collectible Cups, butterflies, and beetles
There are only 15 Collectible Cups. A Collectible Cup will appear in a bonus room which is randomly tacked onto a level. The object is to move the cart holding the Cup using matches next to it until the cart touches the edge of the playfield or a hole in the playfield. The cart has a counter indicating a limited number of moves. If you zero out the counter before the cart reaches an edge or hole, you will lose the Cup. Arrows and powerups don't work on the cart.

-If the cart is one space away from the edge of the playfield or hole, you can drag the cart to the edge or hole and it will be collected.

-I found obtaining the Collectible Cups was easier than trying to get the cups in Origins 3 or the collectible fish in the last Aquascapes game as the rooms aren't quite as devious this time.

-You get more chances for a "cup room" when you play on the harder difficulty modes, but with 150 levels total, there's plenty of opportunities to get the 15 cups, so don't stress too much if you miss one.

-If you missed a Cup, you automatically get another opportunity in the next level. If you restart a level with a cup room attached, the cup room also comes back in the restart.

-The amulet-containing butterflies and beetles seen elsewhere in the M3 levels can be picked off with arrows, but the "one space away" drag also works. However, I've noticed the butterfly and beetle need to be in a certain orientation before the dragging trick works, so if the bugs don't go away on the first try, try again!
Scene building
From what I can tell, the thresholds for building the castle and interior rooms was set too high, so if you truly want to 100% it, you might "need a life for grinding" per a well-known review template...

After a lot of replays, I finally realized that tutorial level 6 is the fastest way to fill the gem chest. Make sure you bought the biggest chest first. Then leave just one or 2 tiles uncleared in one of the top 2 rooms of tutorial #6. I usually leave a match in the middle room right where the top left corner has opened up. Then go into the bottom room and use a set of arrows to get the pieces going. Wait for the pieces to stop moving, then repeat with a new set of arrows. Keep doing this until the chest is nearly full or full, then finish the level with that last move. Then you can go into whichever castle or scene and buy several pieces.
Tile sets
I wasn't that much a fan of the new playing tiles in this Jewel Match. If you go into the CE Extras, under Customization, you have a few other choices of playing tiles to choose from. The tiles from the Twilight games or the Origins games are easier to see IMO.

The background brightness can be adjusted using a slider in the game options.
Steam Achievements
Many of the Steam Achievements are self explanatory. The others:

Perfectionist: Go back into the first map after getting your 100 perfect levels (in the regular M3 levels) for the achievement to pop.

Accomplished Perfectionist: Go back into the second map after getting perfect on the 50 regular levels there.

Thrifty and Treasurer: You need to have 10K and 30K actually amassed before the achievements pop. Buying stuff in the shop will set you back.

Perfectionist Decorator: This applies only to buying all the optional scene decorations in the first castle and first set of rooms, but you have to do it before playing level 100. This is a grind trophy of replaying levels.

Ultimate Decorator: Buy all the optional scene decorations in the CE castle and CE interior rooms. As with Perfectionist Decorator, it's a grind trophy.

Match Winner, Super Match Winner, and Mega Match Winner: Maybe it's just me, but it seemed like only match 4s count, and not M5s or bigger. You need to get some setups made first and a bit of luck with the cascades for Mega Match Winner. The joker gem is your friend for these.

Examiner: Build either a castle or an interior room to 100%. Then go to the wallpapers section and find the wallpaper of that castle or room. It will be empty like your scene first started in the game. Click on a part to build something into the wallpaper scene, and the achievement will pop.

Bonus Track and Bonus Habit: Play enough of the minigames (spot the differences or the clutter games).
1 Comments
Jen in September 16 Jan @ 9:21am 
In MEGA Match Winner, Match 5's DO count towards the goal. I just got it with a mix of 4's and 5's. Hope this helps someone. Also, I got mine in the last level of the Tutorials.