Sutek's Tomb

Long ago, in a lost age among the lost sands of the Lost Desert, lived Sutek, the ruler of a (lost) civilization of Gebs. In their ancient tradition, when the time came he was buried with all his possessions, a treasure hunter's dream, and his tomb sealed with a fiendishly difficult puzzle to keep out intruders. If you're clever and skillful, however, all is not lost...

You've lost me already!

How to Play

Sutek's Tomb is a "match three" game, which is primarily played with a mouse. To play, click on a tile, then click on one of the four tiles directly adjacent to it (either above, below, left, or right) to cause those two tiles to switch places. Tiles can only be moved to a spot where they will form a line, either horizontally or vertically, of at least three matching tiles. When a match is made, the matched tiles will be converted to points and removed from the game, with all the tiles that were above them falling down to fill the empty space.

If the tiles become arranged in a way that no matches are possible, the game will automatically reshuffle the game board before continuing. In Zen Mode, this will also cause cause your score to reset. If you're unable to find any matches but the game isn't reshuffling, you can type the code pyramibread for a hint.

How did Gebs build all this with such stubby little arms, anyway?

As you play, an hourglass timer to the right of the play area will count down, starting with 60 seconds on the clock. However, it will only run while you're in control; when tiles are disappearing or falling down, the clock will be stopped. Additionally, every match you make will add a few seconds to your remaining time, meaning that so long as you keep making matches quickly enough, your time won't run out. You can type the code plzsutekcanihavemoretime once per game to add 30 seconds to the clock. The game can be paused at any time by clicking on the hourglass, though this will also hide the game board to prevent you from finding matches, and can only be done three times per game.

Sutek's Tomb has three modes of play: Easy, Hard, and Zen. In Easy mode, you play on an 8x8 tile grid, with five types of tiles to match. In Hard mode, the grid is 10x10 tiles, with two additional types of tiles. Zen mode has the same grid and tiles as Hard, but has no time limit. Each mode also awards different numbers of points for matches, which is discussed in the Scoring section below.

Regardless of game mode, you will occasionally get special tiles that behave differently. While these can be matched in the same way as normal tiles, each also has a unique effect that will activate under certain conditions.

Scoring

Points are awarded in Sutek's Tomb based on how many tiles you match at once, with more tiles included in a match awarding more points. In addition to this, chain reactions can occur when matches are formed by tiles falling into place after you've made a match (detailed in the Strategy section below), which will award the normal number of points multiplied by how many matches you've made with this single move. In other words, the initial match you make will award the normal number of points, the second match (the start of the chain reaction) will award two times what it normally would, the third match will be times three, and so on.

The specific number of points you're awarded for matches depends on the game mode you're playing in, with Zen Mode offering the least and Hard Mode offering the most. It should be noted that while Zen Mode's lack of a timer may make it seem like a low-pressure way to earn points, you will only receive 1 point for every action in the game, including matches, chains, and bonuses from special tiles, and that your score resets every time the board reshuffles.

Strategy

To prevent yourself from getting stuck, you should keep in mind how the game is going and what you're currently trying to accomplish. For example, if there are no matches in the lower half of the game board, you might want to prioritize making vertical matches to keep moving new tiles downward. If you're trying to find a tile for 5-tile match or to set up a chain reaction, it would be best to try making horizontal matches around the level you need the tiles at.

As with any timed game, it's also important to keep moving and ignore distractions. While you may feel inclined to watch the tiles drop down after you've made a match, any new matches made possible by it will only become obvious after everything's stopped moving, so you should use that time to look for other matches instead. There are times, however, when it will pay to spend a bit longer looking at the tiles surrounding potential matches, as this can lead to opportunities for chain reactions.

In the above image, you could match either the palm trees or the suns for a standard 3-tile match score, but matching the trees would put the sun on the left down below where it can be matched with the others. If you match the suns, however, it will begin a chain reaction in which the two trees at the top fall down onto the ones below, resulting in 4-tile match. Chained matches like this are given multipliers (see the Scoring section above), and can be worth significantly more than normal matches. If there were another tree to the left of the ones shown, it could be used to create a 5-tile match, which is worth the same number of points as the 3-tile match with 4-tile chain, but would result in fewer tiles dropping down from above (and thus less opportunity for further chains).

Finally, you can best make use of the game's built-in cheat codes by pausing the game before typing them. While the codes will only activate if the game is running when the last letter is typed, you can pause, type all but the last letter, then press the last key after unpausing.

Is the giant hourglass here yet?

Quick Tips

• Play on Hard Mode to earn the most points with the least effort.
• Type plzsutekcanihavemoretime once per game to add 30 seconds to the clock.
• Type pyramibread to highlight a random 3-tile match; there is no limit to how many times you can do this.
• Aim for larger matches and potential chain reactions when possible.
• Try to ignore the timer and falling tiles; focus on finding matches.

Ollie Appearance

Like many Flash games on the site, this game was worked on by Ollie, also known as the Phantom Orange Shirt Guy. In addition to appearing as a rare tile, Ollie can be found hidden on the instructions page for Sutek's Tomb. From the Instructions menu, click on the door of the small pyramid in the upper-right corner.

For a full list of Ollie's various appearances, check out our Phantom Orange Shirt Guy article!

Video

Game Info