Spellseeker

That old Gelert wizard is your mentor in spellcasting, and because you're the apprentice in this story, you're the one who has to practice incantations by putting runes together to create spells and advance. But beware—the path of sorcery is not an easy one, and your fancy wand-waving can get you and your mentor in trouble if you're not careful!

How to Play

The goal of the game is to create strings of at least three runes to move on to the next level—the longer the string, the more points you'll get. To do that, simply click on a tile, and then click on another tile adjacent to it, and then another adjacent to that one, and so on.

Tiles

A typical tile. Put them together for points. The yellow dot(s) on the lower right corner show how valuable an ordinary tile is: two dots means double points, three dots means triple points.

Cursed tiles move one space down after each submission. If there's one on the bottom row and you don't use it, it's game over (unless you finish the level). They can also be removed with the potion bottle, but more on that later.

Gold tiles will randomly drop on the board as you make tile combinations. Using one in your string multiplies your string's score by 4, using two multiplies by 7, and using three multiplies by 10! Using them also fills up the potion bottle on the left side of the screen.

Your selected tile turns purple. To erase the string of tiles you've created, double click the one you started with.

As you build a string, its point value will show up at the bottom of the screen. If it's not a valid string, no point value will appear.

Modes

When you start the game, you can pick what kind of tiles to work with:

• Symbols: Akin to those you find on codestones. You must create strings of identical runes. This has the advantage of being very easy to see the possible strings available to you.
• Numbers: Create strings with a specific difference between each tile (ex: all tiles must increase or decrease by 1). This has the advantage of being able to consistently make fairly long strings compared to the other modes.
• Words: Create strings of words found in the Neopian Dictionary. While generally the most difficult to make strings, it is the only mode where some tiles are worth 200 or 300 points instead of the standard 100.

Note that if you play with Words, the Neopian Dictionary has some quirks:

• Some words that do not exist in an English dictionary are allowed if they are Neopets-related, but not all Neopets words are allowed. For example, SLORG is a valid word, but NOAK is not.
• Some fairly common English words are not valid, such as UNIT, GEEK, and PHONE.
• Not every plural is allowed. For example, ARK is a valid word, but ARKS is not.
• In general, proper nouns (names of people and places) are not allowed, but there are some exceptions for some Neopian proper nouns, such as GORS or THADE. Even some real proper nouns are allowed; for example, SUKARNO (a longtime former president of Indonesia) is a valid word!

In whichever mode you play, you can check whether a string is valid by deferring to your wizard mentor: he will let you know when it is valid!

Levels

To advance, you will need to destroy tiles to fill up your meter (or rather, your scroll), which is located on top of the tiles. The number of tiles you need depends on your game mode: symbols and numbers have set thresholds of tiles, while words has unclear thresholds of yellow dots (if you figure out the pattern for words, let us know). To maximize your score, try to use one less tile than the number in the table, then make your last string as long as possible; not only do you use more tiles overall, but you have opportunities to get and use gold tiles.

Potion Glass

With every gold tile you play, the potion glass to the left fills up. Once it's full and flashing green, you can click on it to clear all cursed tiles on the screen! It then empties and you have to start again. This is best used when you have a cursed tile in the bottom row, and you know that you won't be able to include it in a string nor finish the level on your next move.

Also available as a Battledome item!

Shuffling

If it seems like there aren't any (good) sequences to make with the tiles you've been dealt, hit the SHUFFLE button. The wizard will flick his wand and change those pesky tiles around, but it won't make the cursed ones disappear. In fact, it can actually move them to the bottom of the screen and put your game in jeopardy, or even make new ones appear, so be sure to use this function wisely.

No, we're not talking about THAT kind of shuffling...

Tips and Tricks

Especially when you're aiming for that elusive high score, don't just create a short string of runes and submit it quickly. Since you don't have a time limit, try to explore the different possibilities. Will a certain sequence give you more points, clear some cursed tiles, and/or score some gold ones? Think before you cast; this becomes more and more important as the levels get progressively harder.

Don't force yourself to play a mode that you aren't particularly fond of. It doesn't affect the gameplay and won't ruin your chances of getting into the high score table. But what exactly IS the best mode for you? You'll find out as you keep on playing. Personally, I'd suggest beginning with Number mode, since it's less limiting than the other modes—you could even get 100K in the first level with some luck. Start by shuffling until you have at least three gold tiles you can use to create a very long sequence (thanks to kabouterland1 for this tip!).

Go for the gold tiles and get your potion ready for those times when you need a clean sweep of cursed tiles. Speaking of gold, you can use those glistening tiles to save you when your hourglass is bare and you've entered the danger zone. If you only need a little more to advance, see if you can take the risk and make a long enough sequence. Of course, you have to be careful—if your spell doesn't bring you to the next level, it'll end your game.

Anticipate your moves; consider what will happen once those tiles are gone. Do you stand a better chance of clearing a cursed tile if you let it drop one more space down? Can you include that gold tile in your next move? You can take all the time you need to think it through.

To snag some extra points in the earlier levels while it's easier to make the grade, try making a series of shorter chains to almost fill your scroll meter to full, then make one final enormous chain to progress onward while earning you a nice points bonus.

And most of all, have fun learning how to be a wizard!

Game Info