Sails

Ok time for Crabcake's super awesome sailing guide. This is my best puzzle but the one that makes me the maddest when I screw it up. Best of luck in your sailing adventures. A good sailor is always appreciated and often hard to find

Like any puzzle there are several ways to get high scores and you need to find where you fit into that scheme. Most of the best sailors are big combo people. Most guides show you how to set up a vegas and what something like that looks like. I don't have any screencaps of such a thing because on my life I NEVER get vegas so don't feel like that's the only way...

When you are starting and just get on the station you have no wind at all. On sails the wind lasts a while so once you get it blowing it is easier to keep it blowing and think about bigger combos. Start off with doubles and triples if you can and get that wind blowing. When you are deciding where to place pieces try and place them as close to the bottom as possible and work up from there. It is much easier to have a combo when a bottom clear is only missing one piece.

Once you get a bit of wind then you start building bigger combos if you can. You can get incred and ult with mostly triples but you have to be making more clears per minute than someone who is pulling bingos. Nothing wrong with that mostly about style here.

Like carp there is also piece frequency in sails. The mixed color pieces are more common than the solid color pieces so keep that in mind if you are waiting for a certain piece.

If it is taking you too long to set up a combo that that will hurt you. If your sparkly sails go below green between each clear then you are taking too long to set up and maybe you should consider smaller combos. That or practice setting up combos faster.



Lame tips:
Don't do sails unless you can stay on it the whole time. It may take a couple of leagues to get incred and you will be wanting that. If your jobbing crew wants you to do more than just sail then you need to job with better people. A good sailor needs to focus on just that.

DO NOT play it you are lagging!

Do NOT hop on station (if you can help it) right before you hit a league. (but that applies to all puzzles) Kills your score.

If you are tired play bilge ok?

Okay mates. Tomrizzo here to spread my wisdom on sailing so that you too can all get increds (and eventually this will lead to Ultimate.)

Sailing

Sailing is all about timing like so many other puzzles in Puzzle Pirates are. You're sailing along and your sail is all sparkly and then all of a sudden it falls to nothing. Here's how to avoid this dilemma:

1) Singles actually hurt your score in Sailing; so they are a waste like so many other puzzles.

2) Singles and doubles are useless, unless you are out of moves.

3) Bingos or higher = Incredible. Learn how to make bingos and how to optimize each board.



4.) Clear any blocks that will stop your pieces from completing your chain.

5.) Build from the bottom of the board up leaving one (or more) pieces open so that the one you need drop into place from the section above.

How do I prevent getting Good or even less on the first League Point?

Quote :

Squirt tells you, "Sailing takes time to take affect, so that's a problem for many a' sailor. Even I still get excellent at the first league, then increds the rest of the way. The secret to getting excellent at the first league is triggering a fast triple RIGHT AWAY. Every piece you get in the beginning must go toward building this super-fast triple. And ye have to use the spacebar consistently until the first league point.

Just pick the easiest target (usually one with some room around it, and a square block above it) and make a break leading into the target, the target triggers, and a break after the target. Small, but enough to get your sail glowing (to FULL capacity) really damn fast. If you break anything before this triple, then your sail won't glow as brightly. So the more single, or non-target, breaks before this triple will lessen the effect your triple will have on your sailing indicator.

The triple will get your sail to the brightest ye've ever seen it, but it is short-lived, so try to break another chain (bingo or donkey) after the triple so you don't encounter the problem of having a nice full glowing sail, then two seconds before the lp, it drops to nothing but a stick.

This'll work to help your sail get glowing right out of port. Just try the triple (with no breaks before it) and ye'll see your sail shoot up! From there, ye just have to keep it up "

Ah! I've messed up, what do I do?

Alright, so we've all done it, myself included. None of us are pefect; but here's a little Sage-like knowledge from this salty sailor. A big part of sailing (other than making chains) is NOT clearing single rows. Single clears hurt you. The worst thing you can do after a big mistake is start clearing the junk out; if you need room, quickly make a double to clear the messed up pieces.

Here's an image of a yicky horizontal clear gone terrible wrong (you can see the booch in red)


and here's salvaging the booch into a Vegas^2:


Okay, I can get Bingo's....how can I do better?

Hee hee, this is what makes Tomrizzo; Tomrizzo. I absolutely love tagging cheap single breaks to the end of my combo. Is how a Bingo quickly becomes a Vegas.


Wow, these are some big breaks. What else can I do?

Aye, Big breaks are great, but sailing is all timing and chaining. I leave you with this complicated looking (but simple to make) Vegas^4 to show that even little breaks can grow into some awesome combinations.

Tweedledee wrote:

Hey guys!

I didn't even know these forums existed til Tom pointed me in the direction of the sailing thread. I'm an ult sailor, usually top 5 on the list or so, so I thought I'd add in a few tips. Unfortunately, I usually have my finger mashed on my space bar too much to pause to take screenshots so I don't have pretty pictures for you.

Stuff to add to what Tom and Squirt said (all good stuff!):

1) While you are building your Vegas chains, you had better be breaking the occasional triple or bingo off to the side... the key to getting incredible sails is not just breaking big, but keeping that sail sparkly consistently. If you build a Vegas ^5 but your sails are dead in the water, it will hurt your score. Keep your sail meter yellow/sparkly as much as possible while you build big.

2) From what I have learned, scoring on sailing has a lot to do with efficiency. I know some people have little waste piles right off to the side of their main build, but try to use every piece you get in a double break or above. NO WASTE PILES! they hurt your score

3)Platforms are still important! Sailing is about the big combos, but you can think of the platforms as adding a little bonus multiplier to the score that your combo brings in. I always try to include at least 1 platform in any mid-to-large combo. That being said, those cheap single clears that Tom talked about are insanely awesome for taking 1 platform and building vegas chains off of (I love starting off new alts on that very first sail board that you get.. hello Vegas ^6!)

4) Get used to hanging 1 ball off the side of your build to extend your chain. Once you get the hang of this, the size of your combos is only limited by how much you can mash that spacebar down and how much vertical headspace you have left. Practice on an alt if you have to.

5) Remember that your breaks only get counted and add to the multiplier if they happen one after another.. not together. One break has to set off another break, has to set off another break, etc..

It's late and I can't thinkof too much else. I hope this made sense, I might maybe try to take screenshots later. Hope it helps

Tdee

ok guys.
as for above:tomrizzo showed you how to sail efficiently ,the tommy style.
what i am going to try is show you how to extend smaller breaks into big ones:
beotians extention list

ok so heres the first one :



nothing big here,just the towerlike extention above the first board that makes the last board go donkey.

second one:



notice the blue extention on the second board.
this could have been a better combo if you put some pieces on the right too,but it was a short run .

third one:



this one is ok.notice the last board is gonna get vegas^2 ed.

again:building this one better would have been peanuts but i couldnt be bothered.i tend to try getting the vegas^2 on a board,because a board x7 is a lot better then a simple row of 4 x7.

now for the bad moves:a booch



this vegas^2 isnt going to be succesfull because the 2nd lowest row of blues will be cleared. always watch out for horizontal clears you dont want.

also,the other extentions i forgot capping(or havent found yet>>>help me out on this one):
-using the different clearing times of boards and simple rows:boards will always clear before a row can,and that way you can make a logical double into a bingo(to be extended) by using timing
-...



also,a last question i'd like to add for myself:
if u get a vegas^2,is the whole set x7 or just the board u hit the vegas^2 with?

haha i feel like i am famous i can see my avatar and name in your paint

Okay mates; Beotian made an extension list of bigger combos.
I love the first picture because it teaches a valuable lesson in sails. And that lesson is: PLATFORMS always clear before FOUR OF A KIND (or ROWS).

Tomrizzo, while looking that the first picture wrote:

To notice, you see after is double break, the two yellow fall on top of two more yellow, but they don't break because his blue finishes the platform for the triple, and the yellow then finishes the platform for the yellow; saving his Bingo platform.

As for his second picture; that just scares me. The fact he built a a Donkey is good, but again in the world of Efficient sailing. It would personally take me a while to clear the yellow booched pieces. I'm not a fan, as the waste pile is scary.

For the third picture, it rocks. Few waste piles, good example of the horizontal tags on the end. kudos mate.

The fouth picture; teaches me nothing. But beo explained it well, stating watch out for the horiontal clears; they're tricky to spot!

His question:

Beotian wrote:

if u get a vegas^2,is the whole set x7 or just the board u hit the vegas^2 with?

Tomrizzo's Answer wrote:

If you're sailing say on a pillage, it counts towards the whole set. It's how I can laze and still be top sailor.

This is a Shameless Promo:
Beotian's Board


An example of a Vegas^2 with no efficiency.

Tomrizzo's Board


An example of a Vegas^3 with near perfect efficiency.

you made me laugh quite hard

the reason my sails arent moving is because i made the pics on alkaid-mcguffin with a navy vessel,and you only have time for a single good break there


i always have an excuse ready

haha i go for a huge break and my efficiency is alway bad