Foraging for Tips and Tricks!!!!!!!

Spacehog

WARNING...Images are a little on the large size, but I'm too lazy to shrink them down.

So for some incredibly bizarre reason, I get foraging on a level I don't get any other puzzle, and hardly ever get less than an excellent, and at time of press I'm standing at No. 13 in the Ultimate list. So after one or two people asked me to, I've put together a little guide that shows how I have learned to play the puzzle.

So here's how I view a board, and attempt to clear it.

The small crates are very simple to clear and as such I don't think I need to explain them, but the 2x2 and 2x3 boxes require a more tactical approach to remove. Take the example below...........

So the crate is quite close to the left hand side of the board, and so this means that I'm going to be very restricted in my movements down that side. As such I want to clear that entire line as quickly and as easily as possible, and hopefully without dropping the crate too low in the process. I chose the 4 squares highlighted as my starting point.

As you can see , that turned out very well and I managed to keep the crate relatively high, this gives me more room to work underneath it and should allow me to drop it very quickly.

As I'm clearing, I luckily get a 1x1 crate and so will work to get that adjacent to the larger crate. That way when the large crate drops it will take the small one with it, increasing the score.

And here's me almost ready to drop it. Re-arranging the 3 "rocks" vertically to clear them, and then using the left-hand spade I can clear the two crates in very few moves.

Two large crates. Notice again how I clear the outside edges first. I end up clearing the right hand crate first, which has a few handy pieces that allow me to do that easily.

A new crate appeared from the top, and fortunately ended up in a great position above the lower one! In this image I've set up the end clear to drop both.

A rare, yet satisfying Incredible!!!!!!

The special tokens are very useful, but they do have a tendency of not appearing quite where you'd like them on the board. I can explain uses of them if people like, but the details are in the wiki too.

Hope this helps, if I've been very confusing and this doesn't make sense I'd be happy to try other methods to help too.
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I have CDO....that's Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but alphabetically.....like it should be!

ara · Posted: Thu Sep 04, 2008 6:09 am Post subject:

thanks, space! this will help me out a lot!
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Avera · Apprentice Forum Tart Joined: 26 Dec 2005 Posts: 69

Yeah, thanks! And congrats, Spaishawg Very Happy

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