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So the new crafting puzzle is coming out soon, and is available for learning on Ice. Definitely worth learning on Ice so that you don't have a lot of bad scores to overcome on midnight Wink. It started out feeling like carpstillary, but now there are more elements of sailing and bilge in there. So without further ado, straight from the mouth of the #5 shipwrightist in... uh.. well, one of the arches on Ice, your tutorial/hints/tips thread: The Puzzle: Layout: The board is a 5x5 grid, with 5 different types of tiles on it. -Iron (-) moves side to side -Cloth (o) doesn't move by itself -Rope (x) moves diagonally -Wood (|) moves vertically -Gold (G) is a wildcard and cannot be moved at all Below that is a tool box with 5 or 6 patterns in it. These do not rotate, and are to be matched up to the board. Play: Play is in two parts. First, you move the pieces on the board around until they are in the position you want. Then you match the patterns up to the grid one at a time. You create combos by placing more than one pattern in a row without moving any of the tiles. When a tile is used, it is replaced by a random one. While you are moving the tiles water builds up, and if it reaches the top your most valuable pattern is removed.. Placing a pattern instantly drops the water to the bottom. So how do I get to be on the Top 10 list? Movement: The first thing to learn to excel at this puzzle is piece movement. Tiles drag like they do in distillary, but the movement is much easier. For one, the pieces are marked with the direction they move in, so you don't have to remember. Also, moves are reversible, so you can back up instantly if you misdrag. You need to reach a point where moving the pieces is pretty automatic, except for some sticky spots, so you can focus on actual strategy. The key piece is the diagonal rope, which can move in all diagonal directions. Assuming no golds block it, it can reach half the squares on the board by itself in one drag. It can reach the other half by swapping once with a wood or an iron. You're almost never going to find a situation with no iron or wood, so the rope can reach any spot on the board in a single drag. This is assuming you don't have a corner that can only be reached vertically or horizontally due to wildcards. Rope can mimic an iron or wood piece when it is moving iron or wood, because the moved piece can move over one once it's been shifted in the direction it can't travel. You'll need rope or iron on the side column, and rope or wood on the top and bottom rows if you want to get other pieces there. Strategery: There is a leveling system for this puzzle, like in alchemistry. When fully enabled, you will always have two 5-tile patterns in your box - using one will replace it with another. You want to use both of these to finish your initial chain, so your first decision is where to place them. You plan, then move, then trigger. Planning: 1) Check what tiles are needed for the patterns. If you are short, see if you can position the pattern so that a wildcard can fill in. If you are stil short, or that placement would not leave you any room to do anything else, try to clear a 4-tile pattern of the pieces you have a lot of. 2) See how many tiles you have left once you've used those, and which of your other 4 patterns would use those. 3) Now you use your carp skills to decide where you are placing the two big patterns, so that the remaining space will fit as many of the smaller ones as you can. Don't worry too much about where your pieces already are - you should be able to move them easily to almost anywhere. Just worry about shapes. The 5 piece shapes are: * * * *** * *** ** ** *** *** * * * * * * ** *** * * * *** *** * **** You need to get a sense of how each pair of those should be placed to leave the best playing room for the others. Generally it's pretty obvious, as 4 of them (actually 5 as one matches two patterns) fit flushly in a specific corner, and another one can fit in two of them. They usually go side by side on the bottom, or one above the other on the left. 222.. 1.222 111.. ..... 1.12. 1.... .2... 1112. .1... ..... 1112. 111.. 12... 1..2. .1.2. 222.. ..222 1.... 111.. ..... ...2. .21.1 ..... 2.2.. 1.... ..... ..222 .2111 ..... 222.. a b c d e f ..... ..... ..... ..... 22... ..... ..... 22... ..... 222.. ..2.2 .122. 222.. ..22. ..... 11222 .1222 11... 11222 11... 111.. 111.. 111.. 111.. 111.. g h i j k The diagrams show what I find is the best position if I don't have straight pieces that can squeeze into the edges. You are generally trying to form a single space that isn't skinny. a, b, and c show what is usually the best position for the double T problem. Double vertical Ts are very dependant on your other patterns. From the position in c, one of them can move up or across to accomodate different secondary patterns. g-k show another problem, caused by having two patterns that both are of length 3 along their bottom. Again, these depend on the other patterns you are going to fit in. Building: 4) Build those two patterns. Your main concern is to not trap a rare piece behind them. 5a) Get those other patterns in place. You are almost certainly not going to fit all of them. Your priority is to get as many of them done as you can, no matter the size. These aren't meant to score, they are meant to make the multiplier on your 5-piece patterns as high as possible. Each step in the combo before clearing the big patterns is worth TWO, as it bumps both of your big patterns up a multiplier. 5b) Using the pieces that are left over, build as much of the missing patterns as you can, with the incorrect pieces being part of a pattern you are clearing. Wildcards are best used here - don't waste them on the original patterns unless you have to. 5c) You are going to start running out of time here, so once you start building your smaller patterns, you should be sure that you know where your smallest completed one is. It will be first to go once you trigger, but once it has been cleared you will be able to take the time to think about the triggering order. Triggering 6) Start it off. You want to trigger patterns smallest first - start with 3s, then 4s, finally 5s. After the first one TAKE YOUR TIME. Look at your new tiles, and the new pattern you got, and see if a new pattern formed. Trigger any new sized-3 non-overlapping patterns. If a sized-4 pattern overlaps a sized-3 pattern, go with the bigger one once all the other 3s are triggered. You have as long as it takes for the water to come in to decide, so there isn't really any hurry here. There is one exception - at the end of the puzzle, the tide comes pouring in, and you get another couple seconds to finish up. Don't take your time here, and make sure you don't run out just before triggering a 5. 7) Eventually you'll run out of 3s and 4s and get to the 5s. Generally you want to clear the one towards the middle, because it's more likely to leave you with new patterns, but take the time to check. Make sure to check for new patterns again after each 5 is cleared. There might be a couple of little ones even after you've finished everything you've planned. Special Note - If your flag is about to hit the top, don't finish with that little 3 that just popped up. Start a new chain instead, and be ready to trigger it quickly. Don't look around for emergine patterns in this chain, as you don't have time - just trigger the ones you have built in ascending order. Once you've done that, you can pick up the most likely patterns that you have left, and click around like mad with them to see if you hit something extra.

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