A Visual Guide to the Grid System
Made by: oldtaco & Stoffs
Introduction
The Grid System allows you to control the Hexic board so that you can make star flowers and black pearls while minimizing combos. Most of all it allows you to set up a good bomb defense. We, oldtaco and Stoffs have combine our methods and techniques along with images and videos to illustrate how to do star stacking, star walking, set up the grid system, make black pearls, how to restore the grid sytem after making a black pearl and finally making a pooh-bah.
Stacking Star Flowers
First you need an effective method to make star flowers. I use a method I refer to as 'stacking'. The idea is to make a star flower anywhere other than the bottom of the board, the higher up the better. Then use that first silver star to help you make your next star flower within the same column. It doesn't need to be exactly above the first star flower as long as it's in the same column. Keeping silver stars lined up vertically will increase your chances of making another star flower. If you make a mistake your star flower will land on top of a star flower and your stack will still remain. As you make more star flowers, always make them at the top of the stack, and continue to do so even when you have complete the grid. This is the best location to make star flowers without disturbing the grid system
How To Move Star Flowers In Place
There are two methods mention in the following, Star Flower Moves 1 & 2 and Starwalking. Once you have a stack of star flowers it's time to move them to form the grid system. This seems a little tricky but with practice it becomes very easy. I've tried to find the best way to do this and these are the two ways I find easiest. Notice how in each video I use stacks of silver stars to rotate pieces into the proper position on the grid. These videos show techniques that can be used over and over to move silver stars into the 20 grid spaces. With each position on the grid you fill, it becomes a little easier to make star flowers, which makes it easier to create another stack, which provides the extra silver stars you need to fill out the grid and start scoring or making black pearls. The star flower move 1 is the easiest and probably the best way. Highly recommended. The star flower move 2 is great for flexibility.
Star Flower Move 1 (YouTube)
Star Flower Move 1 (FileFront)
Star Flower Move 2 (YouTube)
Star Flower Move 2 (FileFront)
Starwalking
Starwalking simply means that you move a pair or three stars around the board. This is a great technique to collect the pieces you need to create more star flowers, to get your stars in place to do your star stacking, and to place your star flowers into the grid system.
Example of using starwalking to create silver stars and pearls
1 - Purple starflower (YouTube)
2 - Purple starflower (YouTube)
3 - Red starflower + bomb (YouTube)
4 - Blue starflower (YouTube)
5 - Black Pearl (YouTube)
Example of using starwalking to put the two bottom rows of the grid
6 - The two bottom rows of the 4x4 grid (YouTube)
Example of using starwalking to transport your stars around the board.
7 - Transporter, a pair of stars (YouTube)
8 - Transporter, three stars (YouTube)
The Far Right Wall
I know a lot of guys are putting 4 black pearls on the far right wall. I don't recommend having more than two black pearls in a game if your going for scoring, because you want to eliminate every game ending possibility. Having that many black pearls is asking for an accident to happen. Accidental Big Cheese anyone? So what I recommend is very simple: just use star flowers instead. 'The Grid System' A total of 20 star flowers. This works great and is much safer. If you make a mistake, all you worry about is a bomb landing instead of an accidental Big Cheese ending your game.
Making The Grid System Video
Here is the video making the grid system using all the information above. It's 36 minutes long, mainly because I constantly was trying to find the best way to move star flowers into place. I could of done it faster using only the star flower move 1. The grid was completed in level 1 with 4 combos remaining and ended the 1st level with 24 star flowers. I recorded the video in fast foward because it does get a little boring.
Making The Grid System (FileFront)
Before You Make A Black Pearl
Before you make a black pearl you want to make 7 extra star flowers. Have them put alway safely until you are ready to make the black pearl. You will need these star flowers to replace the 6 star flowers that were used to make the black pearl. The 7th star flower will help place the 6th star flower into the grid. Remember to move your multipliers alway from making star flowers and black pearls. It could damage your grid. Here is a video placing star flowers safely away.
Placing Star Flowers Safely Away (YouTube)
Placing Star Flowers Safely Away (FileFront)
Making A Black Pearl
Now you are ready to make a black pearl. If you know or have a feeling that a bomb is about to land, it would be good to purposely have it land and disarm it before you make a black pearl. Your grid system will be temporarily damage after making a black pearl. Here is a video making a black pearl.
Making A Black Pearl (YouTube)
Making A Black Pearl (FileFront)
Restoring The Grid System
After making a black pearl it's time to use them 7 extra star flower to restore the grid system using the same method mentioned on moving star flowers. Here is a video restoring the grid system.
Restoring The Grid System (YouTube)
Restoring The Grid System (FileFront)
Pooh-Bah Location
You need a location to start gathering your black pearls. I like using the bottom left silver star. It's a safe spot.
Pooh-Bah Location
Making The Pooh-Bah
Here is the video making the pooh-bah using all the information above. I can't believe it took 56 minutes for this pooh-bah. I guess I didn't want to make a mistake and I haven't made a single pooh-bah in months. I completed the pooh-bah in level 2 with 15 combos remaining. It does get a little boring to watch so I recorded the video in fast foward to speed things up.
Making The Pooh-Bah (FileFront)
Final words by Oldtaco and Stoffs
Oldtaco: First of all, I want to thank Motosan for helping me with this He has been a consistent contributor to the Hexic forum and he is a very great person. I also want to give a BIG THANK YOU to Stoffs for sharing and combining his methods and techniques in this guide, making this guide much more informative. I hope this information does help out in your Hexic game or even give you some ideas to improve. I do apologize for the picture quality. Feel free to post any information that you would like to share. The Grid System is a good start but 'never' stop looking for improvements. There is always a different way.
Stoffs: I wish you all good luck in your journey to achieve your personal goals and the understanding of Hexic. I hope this guide made by me and Oldtaco help you in the right direction. I also want to bring out a big THANK YOU to motosan and yojono for all the help you guys provided behind the scenes for this guide and the Hexic community and oldtaco gets his own THANK YOU for giving me the option to combine my guide with his and for beeing a great person.
Original threads
A Visual Guide to the Grid System (Videos)
http://forums.xbox.com/6092161/ShowPost.aspx
Created by: Oldtaco – 2006-08-15
Get to know your stars | Video"guide" in starwalking
http://forums.xbox.com/5611490/ShowPost.aspx
Created by: Stoffs – 2006-07-24
www.hexic.info
