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Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

danielben.itch.io

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Re: Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

#91

Post by Aardwolf »

mrcsno wrote: post #90
Aardwolf wrote: post #69

This seems to kind of work on mobile, except the right half of the game board is cut off, making it unfinishable despite playable. Everything else works, but like 3-4 columns of tiles missing on the right and a purple book at the bottom which is visible in the screenshot. So seems like just some fix needed to avoid that cut-off in the right an it should work properly on mobile. I tried both chrome and firefox on andr…

If it worked on mobile, it would eat my day alive. For such a fantastically designed game, I’m shocked at this misstep. It’d popularity would explode with a working mobile version.

Agree, it's a genius game design! Played it in pc now but long for playing it anywhere!

Got a game with score 299, really want one with above 300 and everything maxed :)

Re: Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

#92

Post by infthi »

tunesmith wrote: post #44

Huh, I thought I played perfectly, but when I cleared the board (aside from the dragon), I had only 14 hearts left.

What device are you playing on? I have accidentally figured out that playing in a narrow browser window hides the right side of the board without any hint it is there (except for the health bar being cut mid-heart - I have initially thought remembering whether you already have 15 hearts or not was part of the game process). This partially visible/explored board might be the reason you did not get enough resources for lvlup

Re: Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

#93

Post by yacin »

jncfhnb wrote: post #82

Fun game! I lost a few points short of killing the dragon as I assumed it would work out that he was definitely killable if you wasted no heals. Turns out that’s false. I can now fully clear the board very quickly. A few insights: Since the lich is always in a corner you can guess where he is by checking just three corners. This also unlocks a free powerful spot on the map. It has strength 11 mind you. You have to ge…

if you see the 8 slimes, they cluster in a

    SSS
    SLS
pattern that can be rotated where the Ss are 8 strength slimes and the L is the 1 strength lich that, when killed, reveals all 8/5 strength slimes on the map. if the pattern is obvious from what you have revealed so far, it's worth it to kill the lich to give more map knowledge. but yeah, save the 8s for leveling up late game.

Re: Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

#94

Post by Etherlord87 »

Etherlord87 wrote: post #84
shultays wrote: post #55

Pretty cool design, I am not sure if some boards are unsolvable or if I suck though. Some hints: * It works similar to minesweeper so hints/patters for minesweeper also applies. https://minesweeper.online/help/patterns * Prefer levelling up to heal over the hearts. You can use hearts later for bigger heals * Don't level up unless needed to. Try to hit 0 heart before levelling up. * Point is exploring as much as possi…

My thoughts: The ultimate goal is to kill the dragon, which has 15 lvl, so you need 15 hp (15 lvl) to fight it. You therefore need to get 15 lvl. You therefore need to kill monsters. Killing monsters doesn't give you enough exp, so you need to find healing/gold to compensate. As you pointed out, healing scrolls heal you completely and therefore are more effective at higher lvl. The strategy therefore, is to search th…

lvl 11 always in a corner, and you probably want to kill the eyes early. the eyes produce question marks in a radius of 2 fields, rounded down, meaning it's 2 fields horizontally and vertically, and 1 field diagonally.

Re: Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

#95

Post by unsnap_biceps »

Arnavion wrote: post #79
o11c wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's impossible to play optimally, because you have no way of knowing which combination of monsters for the first 5 and 6 HP will reveal a scroll of HP to let you continue. You're dependent largely on luck.

There is an optimal way to play even for the first 11 XP as well as onwards and will always give you enough health scrolls / level ups to continue. FYI I've played probably a couple of hundred games at this point (since a week ago when I found it) and have not found any unwinnable one.

So what is the optimal way for the first 11 XP? I've found that I'm often left with a 50/50 on which one is which.

Re: Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

#96

Post by atzmzt »

mrcsno wrote: post #90
Aardwolf wrote: post #69

This seems to kind of work on mobile, except the right half of the game board is cut off, making it unfinishable despite playable. Everything else works, but like 3-4 columns of tiles missing on the right and a purple book at the bottom which is visible in the screenshot. So seems like just some fix needed to avoid that cut-off in the right an it should work properly on mobile. I tried both chrome and firefox on andr…

If it worked on mobile, it would eat my day alive. For such a fantastically designed game, I’m shocked at this misstep. It’d popularity would explode with a working mobile version.

Works on Firefox on mobile, if you request the desktop version and change the zoom on the page to 50%

Re: Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

#98

Post by o11c »

unsnap_biceps wrote: post #95
Arnavion wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is an optimal way to play even for the first 11 XP as well as onwards and will always give you enough health scrolls / level ups to continue. FYI I've played probably a couple of hundred games at this point (since a week ago when I found it) and have not found any unwinnable one.

So what is the optimal way for the first 11 XP? I've found that I'm often left with a 50/50 on which one is which.

I've found I have at least 75% success with the following strategy:

* if at any point the rat king becomes visible (directly or via using the warlock scroll to identify all other 5s), activate it as soon as possible

* don't worry about leaving 1 and 2 enemies for the endgame; there's 16HP worth of walls to play with. (do however worry about leaving 1 and 2 enemies for the immediate following turn)

* if you can figure out where the warlock is, use it as one of your 1s

* make your 5 out of as many small numbers (known or constrained) as possible, even if this means not leaving a certain combination that makes 6.

* if you know "these squares must add up to N", clicking one of them is better than clicking a known N, and clicking a known N on the perimeter is better than clicking a known N that won't reveal any knowledge to you.

(for example, in a game I just started, revealed enemies are 21333 2467, but I have 16=2+4+6 + three unknowns, so I start there)

* aggressively expand toward areas with known 0s, you might get the ?gnome or a treasure chest containing XP (the mimic is no threat if you're paying attention and deal with gazers)

* whenever you use a scroll of HP, always do one that will reveal new information

* if you find the scroll of orb, use it immediately only if it's the very beginning of the game; otherwise leave it until you're lacking information and don't have any suspected 0s (if you have "100" next to 2 squares, it might choose that instead of a more useful 0 elsewhere on the map)

* work towards at least 3 of the corners so that you can kill the lich as soon as you reach 11HP. But before activating the scroll, make sure to flag (or at least constrain the position of) as many mines as you can . It's really annoying that this game "maybe" flagging (and yet, it has a useless 9).

* do not click on any walls until the endgame unless you don't know/suspect where any 1s are and you have only 1HP left

* remember that cells near the center can only be 0-7 or 10. The fact that 8s are only near the edge and there are no 9s often constrains how a large number is formed.

* with mines you have an extra level of logic, so very often you can constrain what nearby numbers are

Re: Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

#99

Post by tunesmith »

infthi wrote: post #92
tunesmith wrote: post #44

Huh, I thought I played perfectly, but when I cleared the board (aside from the dragon), I had only 14 hearts left.

What device are you playing on? I have accidentally figured out that playing in a narrow browser window hides the right side of the board without any hint it is there (except for the health bar being cut mid-heart - I have initially thought remembering whether you already have 15 hearts or not was part of the game process). This partially visible/explored board might be the reason you did not get enough resources for…

I played later, still I thought perfectly, but was 4-5 hearts short. Then I played again and cleared the board with 2 hearts to spare, and another time with 1 to spare. I've scored 303 and 302 points. It might be possible to score higher by getting really lucky.

I think it's about delaying using the heart-healup as long as possible. Use them at later levels, not earlier levels, whenever possible.

Re: Dragonsweeper — A minesweeper game that requires observation

#100

Post by unsnap_biceps »

o11c wrote: post #98
unsnap_biceps wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what is the optimal way for the first 11 XP? I've found that I'm often left with a 50/50 on which one is which.

I've found I have at least 75% success with the following strategy: * if at any point the rat king becomes visible (directly or via using the warlock scroll to identify all other 5s), activate it as soon as possible * don't worry about leaving 1 and 2 enemies for the endgame; there's 16HP worth of walls to play with. (do however worry about leaving 1 and 2 enemies for the immediate following turn) * if you can figure…

Thank you for the write up. That's a lot of great information
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