The longer the Puzzle Fighter mobile app is available, the more people are finding out that this game is very different from the console and arcade versions. While some aspects of the game are certainly similar, Puzzle Fighter mobile requires very different strategies compared to the other versions of the game. This article covers some Puzzle Fighter strategies to help you make the most of your time with the new mobile game. Even if you’re a veteran of the arcade and console games, you need a new Puzzle Fighter strategy if you want to climb to the top of ranked play in the mobile app.
Build for Special Moves
In previous versions of Puzzle Fighter one of the best strategies was to build the largest Crash Gem possible and drop as many Timer Blocks on the opponent as you can. In Puzzle Fighter mobile, that strategy doesn’t hold nearly as much weight. Instead, you want to take a look at the Crash Gem requirements of your character’s special moves, then build to create as many of those Crash Gems as possible.
Let’s say you’re using Chun-Li with the Spinning Bird Kick and Kikoken special moves. The Spinning Bird Kick requires a 3×3 Crash Gem to execute, while the Kikoken only needs a 2×3 (or 3×2, orientation doesn’t matter). That means if you break a single 3×3 Crash Gem you’ll get both the Spinning Bird Kick and the Kikoken for significantly more damage compared to just one of the attacks, but the strategy doesn’t stop there.
While your highest damaging attack should be built with Crash Gems of your character’s color affinity (blue in Chun-Li’s case), don’t focus exclusively on one attack. You’re going to get gem drops of every color, so you should focus on building as many 3×2 and 3×3 Crash Gems as you can. Ideally all of these Crash Gems would be different colors so that they don’t merge together. You want separate 3×3 and 3×2 Crash Gems so you can break them one after another, constantly attacking your opponent.
Don’t Clear the Board
Clearing the board isn’t always the best course of action. In the arcade and console versions of Puzzle Fighter this wasn’t a big issue because you could just wait for the opposing player to drop some Timer Blocks and build off of that (slow long as they didn’t drop an instant KO). In Puzzle Fighter mobile there are health bars for each character and very few wins or losses by over stacking. That means you need to be able to constantly attack so you deplete the opponent’s health bar before they deplete yours.
As we’ve already mentioned, you should be building as many Crash Gems as possible, but only until you reach the requirements for your special moves. If your best special move only requires a 3×3 Crash Gem, you should build as many 3×3 Crash Gems as you can, but stop at 3×3 and start building another Crash Gem elsewhere on the board. In this example, every 3×3 Crash Gem you have is another attack on your opponent and another chance to reduce their health bar. If you have no gems on the board you can’t attack. All you can do is hope your opponent won’t KO you while you wait to build up more Crash Gems.
Drop Fast
Speed has always been a key strategy if you want to win in Puzzle Fighter. That doesn’t change with Puzzle Fighter mobile. The faster you drop gems to create and break Crash Gems, the faster you build your super meter and the faster you can attack the opponent with special moves and Timer Blocks. You should be using the instant drop (swipe down) whenever possible. Don’t sacrifice accuracy for speed, but the more your play the faster you’ll be able to drop gems while maintaining accuracy.
Know Drop Patterns and Timer Blocks
The higher you go in ranked play, the better the opponents you’ll be facing. As you go up against skilled players you’ll have to deal with Timer Blocks more often. The best way to deal with Timer Blocks is to build based on the opponent drop pattern. If the opponent drops a stack of blue gems on the left side of the screen, you should be building blue around there as well so any Timer Blocks just add to your current build instead of interrupting your Crash Gem formation.
Even if the opposing character has a column of red gems on the left with a column of blue gems just right of the red, you can still build red or blue to the far left. In most cases you’ll want to stack at least two columns, if not three, so you can build whatever Crash Gems you need for your special moves. If you’re building blue and you get a red drop to the far left, keep building blue but try not to cover that red gem. If you’re playing fast you should have something to break that red gem pretty quickly, clearing the way for more blue Crash Gem building.
Keep in mind, you can remove Timer Blocks by breaking adjacent gems. If a red Timer Block falls into your blue Crash Gem formation, you can break that Timer Block by breaking anything directly touching it. So if you see a yellow gem drop that’s attached to a yellow orb, drop it on the Timer Block to remove it completely and clear the way for more building.
You can find more tips and learn how to win in our Puzzle Fighter mobile app game hub!
