Ophie
Salingerian Phony
(I've decided to put this here because I get the feeling that Voltorb Flip is here to stay, due to European lawmakers' views on gambling. HeartGold/SoulSilver is just the beginning, so you'd better get used to it.)
It seems that a lot of you have trouble figuring out Voltorb Flip, and many more are angry at its replacement of the normal Game Corner. Mr. Game and his minions give out a lot of valuable items, and it may seem awfully slow compared to simply buying Coins. Well, the better you are, the more rapidly you'll earn Coins, and once you get good enough at it, the rate that you get Coins from him may even exceed the rate of money you'd have to earn to get that many Coins in the old Game Corner!
Now, I'm not forcing you to like Voltorb Flip. If you genuinely dislike it, that's fine. The problem is that I noticed many, many people here don't understand the inner workings of the game.
The first thing you'll probably notice, if you've played a lot of puzzles before (both video game and real life), is that Voltorb Flip is a logic game. People have compared it to something between Picross and Minesweeper. Those two games require entirely different logical mindsets, and as a result, being good at Picross or Minesweeper does not necessarily mean you'll be good at Voltorb Flip. Inversely, you could stink at Picross or Minesweeper and be good at Voltorb Flip.
The second thing to remember is that there will always be an element of chance. The game designers for Voltorb Flip were probably aware of this, so the penalty for losing is not very strict. The more you solve a set of panels, the less you will fall if you mess up. Because of this, try not to feel frustrated when you flip over a Voltorb, because failure is a natural part of the game.
;100;;100;;100;
Now, onto the actual game itself:
Voltorb Flip plays on a set of 25 panels, arranged in five rows and five columns. Some of the panels will contain Voltorbs, which causes you to instantly lose that round. The remaining panels are designed with either a 1, 2, or 3. The first numbered panel you flip over will give you that many Coins, and the rest of the numbered panels you flip over will multiply the Coins you've earned that round by the number indicated on the panel. (This means, of course, a panel with a 1 on it won't affect your Coin total at all unless it's your first panel.) Your goal is to flip over all of the panels with a 2 or 3. Once you've done so, Mr. Game will congratulate you, give you the Coins you've earned, and increase your Level by 1. Voltorb Flip always begins on Level 1, and it can reach up to Level 8. Each successive Level increases the amount of panels with 2 or 3, but they also increase the amount of panels with Voltorbs. (For the record, you reach Level 8 by achieving a winning streak of 3 or more, starting at a minimum of Level 3. The game will randomly decide when you get to go there.)
To keep this from being an extreme luck of the draw, there are spaces along the bottom and along the right of your playing field displayed as colored boxes. Each colored box has two numbers. The number on the top is the sum of the numbered panels, and the number at the bottom is the amount of Voltorbs in that row. From here, you can make some logical deductions, and failing that, make safe guesses as to where some important panels may be. Once you start flipping over panels, you can then use process of elimination to determine where more panels will belong.
Here are a few pointers, detailing my methodology behind it:
1. Look for any rows or columns with either 0 Voltorbs or 5 Voltorbs.
1a. If the row or column contains 0 Voltorbs, flip them all over. This is because if you lose, the Level you drop down to will be the number of flipped number panels before you flipped over Voltorb. By doing this, you'll ensure you don't drop down much, or if you're below Level 5, you won't drop down a Level at all.
1b. If the row or column contains 5 Voltorbs, open the memo and mark them all as Voltorb since there's no possibility of there being a number panel in it. Once you do so, look for any lines perpendicular to the 5-Voltorb line that only have 1 Voltorb. Flip over all of the panels in this or these lines except the row or column with 5 Voltorbs, because you've just determined the only Voltorb in that line, and the other 4 panels are safe to flip over.
1c. If every row and column contains between 1 and 4 Voltorbs, move to the next step immediately.
2. Add up the numbers in each box and see which ones add up to 5.
2a. The ones that add up to 5 don't contain any multipliers. They contain only Voltorbs or panels with a 1 beneath. We will call these lines "dead." Mark them with anything you wish, but I mark them with the Voltorb marker and the "1" marker to indicate that this line contains only one or the other. You should skip these lines, since they will not bring you any closer to winning the round and will probably hinder you if you accidentally flip over a Voltorb in this row.
2b. Add up the numbers in the other boxes and subtract that number from 5. Let's call this number the "worth." All of these lines contain multiplier panels. When you flip over a 2-panel, subtract 1 from the worth, and when you flip over a 3-panel, subtract 2 from the worth. Once the worth reaches zero, this line is dead and you can mark it as such.
3. Subtract the number of Voltorbs in each line from 5. This is the amount of number panels in the line. If the sum of the number panels is three times, or one less than three times, the amount of number panels, then there are no 1-panels in this row. This will be a "line of interest." If you don't want to do the math, these are the numbers you'll be looking for:
0 Voltorbs: 14 or 15
1 Voltorb: 11 or 12
2 Voltorbs: 8 or 9
3 Voltorbs: 5 or 6
4 Voltorbs: 2 or 3
Lines like these are among the easier ones to solve because very often, you will find that you've flipped over all of the multiplier panels in some line (not necessarily one of these). If there is perpendicular line of interest with no 1-panels, then you can deduce that a Voltorb lies there. As you keep going, you will discover the locations of more and more Voltorbs in this line of interest. With enough skill, you'll have a high chance of finding all of the Voltorbs, which will lead to a lot of multiplier panels.
4. If none of the above apply to your situation, look for the column with the fewest Voltorbs and the row with the fewest Voltorbs and flip over the panel where they intersect. If there is a tie for the fewest Voltorbs, pick the one with the highest sum. If they're tied there, just take a guess. This is because that panel is the one least likely to have a Voltorb. The higher the worth of the line, the more likely you'll find a multiplier panel, which is a potential clue to make the round easier. Beware! You may still flip over a Voltorb. However, you're least likely to flip over a Voltorb in such a row.
5. Always choose to continue unless you need to do something else immediately or if you're brought down to level 1. Coin turnout in Voltorb Flip may feel slow, but leveling up will dramatically increase the amount of Coins you get. The increase is roughly exponential, though it may be logarithmic. Based on my observations, you can stand to get the following amounts per level:
Level 1: 12 to 32 Coins
Level 2: 36 to 81 Coins
Level 3: 96 to 192 Coins
Level 4: 216 to 324 Coins
Level 5: 384 to 648 Coins
Level 6: 729 to 972 Coins
Level 7: 1024 to 1944 Coins
Level 8: 2048+ Coins
This most certainly beats gathering up a ton of money so you can buy the Coins. If you can consistently reach even Level 5 or 6, you're getting 10,000 Pokédollars' worth of Coins every 2 minutes.
;100;;100;;100;
Of course, I'm sure very little of this makes sense to you without an example, so I will provide a few. These are reports of actual Voltorb Flip sessions done as I type.
You will probably not understand everything on your first read. Take as much time as you feel you need. Thought processes like the ones you see below come with practice.
Example 1
I've fired up my HeartGold version and started a round of Voltorb Flip. You always begin with Level 1, and the scheme looks something like this:
You'll see that columns 2 and 4 have no Voltorbs. They're absolutely safe from top to bottom, so I'll flip them over.
The next thing to see is that rows 1 and 2 and column 3 are devoid of multiplier panels because the two values associated with these lines add up to 5 (4+1 for the rows and 2+3 for the column). I will mark them as dead, with a slash mark:
It gets a little more complicated now. Row 5 has a "worth" of 1 because its two values add up to 6 (4+2). That means the only panel of importance here is a 2-panel. We've already determined that the fourth panel from the left is that 2-panel. Thus, we can mark this row as dead also:
Here's where things can get a little tricky. Column 1's worth is 2, as 5+2=7. This means there is either one 3-panel or two 2-panels. To determine this, we look at rows 3 and 4. Both of their worths are 2 as well, meaning they, too can hold either one 3-panel or two 2-panels.
However, we've alrady confirmed that a 2-panel exists on row 4, so it must contain a second 2-panel somewhere. Let's flip over the rightmost panel to find out what it is.
It's a 2-panel! The rest of the round can be solved now, but I'll continue to go step by step. We've found all of the multiplier panels in row 4, so we can mark this row as dead.
In turn, column 5 is also now dead because we've found the one multiplier panel--the fourth one from the top:
This leaves one single panel left. The math states that this must be a 3-panel:
And it is! This round was worth 24 Coins. The revealed layout was:
You can see that if I had chosen to flip the leftmost panel on row 4 instead of the rightmost, I would've hit a Voltorb. I chose the rightmost one because only 1 Voltorb lies in that column, as opposed to 2 in the leftmost column. This is the importance of making safe guesses.
;100;;100;;100;
Example 2
Now that we've solved Level 1, let's advance to Level 2. The layout given to me this time is:
No Voltorb-free rows exist in this round. Let's proceed by determining the dead rows. They are rows 2 and 5, and columns 2 and 4, as 4+1=5 and 3+2=5:
This might not seem very productive, but it really is: We've just eliminated over half of the panels. However, no safe guesses remain. Let's flip over the leftmost panel in column 3:
This is an even more important clue than determining the dead rows. We've figured out that there is a 1-panel, the third from the top, and a Voltorb, either the second or fourth from the top. The Voltorb must be one or the other and can't be both. That must mean the other must be a 1-panel.
There can only be one panel scheme that can exist with these conditions whose panels add up to 8: One Voltorb, two 1-panels, and two 3-panels. Nothing else can possibly add up correctly. Therefore, the topmost panel and the fourth panel from the top must both be worth 3:
Row 1's worth is 2 because 5+2=7. The single 3-panel on the top-left corner has already been determined, so the row is now dead:
Here's the trickiest part. Multiple possibilities exist here. I looked at it carefully and at least three exist: All four remaining panels may be worth 2, or opposite corner panels are worth 3 and the others are either 1 or Voltorb. Let's pick the rightmost panel in row 3. Since both the row and column contain 1 Voltorb, that makes it the safest bet:
We can now determine row 3 and column 5 to be dead, since both of their worths were 2:
This leaves one single panel left, which must be a 3:
This round was worth 81 Coins. The revealed layout was:
It looks like either of the panels in column 3 would've been safe, but we didn't know that. By the way, flipping over ANY panel, as long as it's not Voltorb, would have solved the round.
Example 3
By now, you've probably got a better idea of how Voltorb Flip works. I'm going to skip right to a later Level for this example to show some stuff that only shows up in later Levels. Here is an example of the Level 6 layout the game gave me:
Here, we can see the cousin of the Voltorb-free line: The Voltorb-ful line. Column 5 contains nothing but Voltorbs, so we can mark all of them as such. I'll use an X for this:
This means we've determined the location of the single Voltorb in row 5. We can thus safely flip over the remaining panels there without getting blown up:
This might not seem very helpful: We can't determine the location of any multiplier panels. Not directly, at least. For now, let's declare row 1 as dead, as 3+2=5:
This might look hopeless, but it isn't. Take a look at row 2. There are 3 Voltorbs in that row. That means there are 2 number panels that add up to 6. This means there can only be Voltorbs or 3-panels in that row. If a column can't fit in any more 3-panels, then a Voltorb must exist there.
We'll first look at column 1. The number panels add up to 6, there are four of them, and we've determined one of them to be 2. That means the remaining three panels must add up to 4. In turn, that means the remaining number panels must be 1, 1, and 2. There is a Voltorb in the leftmost panel of row 2.
Now let's move to column 2. The number panels add up to 7, there are four of them, and we've determined one of them to be 3. Like before, this means the remaining three panels must add up to 4. Again, the remaining ones must be 1, 1, and 2, and thus a Voltorb exists in the panel second from the left in row 2.
Do you see what has happened here? We've figured out all of the Voltorb locations in row 2. Only 2 panels are left unflipped, both of which must be 3-panels.
Column 3 is now dead. We will mark it as such.
We've already figured out where the Voltorbs are in columns 1 and 2. We can now safely flip over the panels in these columns that don't have Voltorbs:
The round is almost solved: We can determine row 4 to be dead, as we've found its only multiplier panel. That means the remaining multiplier panel must be in the third panel down on column 4:
This was worth 864 Coins. That's over 10 times the amount that we earned in Level 2. You can see the benefit of working up to later rounds; the Coins really start pouring in. Here's the revealed layout:
There aren't very many panels we didn't flip over that we didn't know were Voltorbs, so the revealed layout doesn't have many surprises. We figured this one out with logic.
;100;;100;;100;
You're...probably still very confused. But try to keep anything you can understand the next time you try Voltorb Flip, and hopefully it'll be easier. At the very least, I hope you come out of this knowing that there are tricks to make it less of a guessing game than it may feel to you.
It seems that a lot of you have trouble figuring out Voltorb Flip, and many more are angry at its replacement of the normal Game Corner. Mr. Game and his minions give out a lot of valuable items, and it may seem awfully slow compared to simply buying Coins. Well, the better you are, the more rapidly you'll earn Coins, and once you get good enough at it, the rate that you get Coins from him may even exceed the rate of money you'd have to earn to get that many Coins in the old Game Corner!
Now, I'm not forcing you to like Voltorb Flip. If you genuinely dislike it, that's fine. The problem is that I noticed many, many people here don't understand the inner workings of the game.
The first thing you'll probably notice, if you've played a lot of puzzles before (both video game and real life), is that Voltorb Flip is a logic game. People have compared it to something between Picross and Minesweeper. Those two games require entirely different logical mindsets, and as a result, being good at Picross or Minesweeper does not necessarily mean you'll be good at Voltorb Flip. Inversely, you could stink at Picross or Minesweeper and be good at Voltorb Flip.
The second thing to remember is that there will always be an element of chance. The game designers for Voltorb Flip were probably aware of this, so the penalty for losing is not very strict. The more you solve a set of panels, the less you will fall if you mess up. Because of this, try not to feel frustrated when you flip over a Voltorb, because failure is a natural part of the game.
;100;;100;;100;
Now, onto the actual game itself:
Voltorb Flip plays on a set of 25 panels, arranged in five rows and five columns. Some of the panels will contain Voltorbs, which causes you to instantly lose that round. The remaining panels are designed with either a 1, 2, or 3. The first numbered panel you flip over will give you that many Coins, and the rest of the numbered panels you flip over will multiply the Coins you've earned that round by the number indicated on the panel. (This means, of course, a panel with a 1 on it won't affect your Coin total at all unless it's your first panel.) Your goal is to flip over all of the panels with a 2 or 3. Once you've done so, Mr. Game will congratulate you, give you the Coins you've earned, and increase your Level by 1. Voltorb Flip always begins on Level 1, and it can reach up to Level 8. Each successive Level increases the amount of panels with 2 or 3, but they also increase the amount of panels with Voltorbs. (For the record, you reach Level 8 by achieving a winning streak of 3 or more, starting at a minimum of Level 3. The game will randomly decide when you get to go there.)
To keep this from being an extreme luck of the draw, there are spaces along the bottom and along the right of your playing field displayed as colored boxes. Each colored box has two numbers. The number on the top is the sum of the numbered panels, and the number at the bottom is the amount of Voltorbs in that row. From here, you can make some logical deductions, and failing that, make safe guesses as to where some important panels may be. Once you start flipping over panels, you can then use process of elimination to determine where more panels will belong.
Here are a few pointers, detailing my methodology behind it:
1. Look for any rows or columns with either 0 Voltorbs or 5 Voltorbs.
1a. If the row or column contains 0 Voltorbs, flip them all over. This is because if you lose, the Level you drop down to will be the number of flipped number panels before you flipped over Voltorb. By doing this, you'll ensure you don't drop down much, or if you're below Level 5, you won't drop down a Level at all.
1b. If the row or column contains 5 Voltorbs, open the memo and mark them all as Voltorb since there's no possibility of there being a number panel in it. Once you do so, look for any lines perpendicular to the 5-Voltorb line that only have 1 Voltorb. Flip over all of the panels in this or these lines except the row or column with 5 Voltorbs, because you've just determined the only Voltorb in that line, and the other 4 panels are safe to flip over.
1c. If every row and column contains between 1 and 4 Voltorbs, move to the next step immediately.
2. Add up the numbers in each box and see which ones add up to 5.
2a. The ones that add up to 5 don't contain any multipliers. They contain only Voltorbs or panels with a 1 beneath. We will call these lines "dead." Mark them with anything you wish, but I mark them with the Voltorb marker and the "1" marker to indicate that this line contains only one or the other. You should skip these lines, since they will not bring you any closer to winning the round and will probably hinder you if you accidentally flip over a Voltorb in this row.
2b. Add up the numbers in the other boxes and subtract that number from 5. Let's call this number the "worth." All of these lines contain multiplier panels. When you flip over a 2-panel, subtract 1 from the worth, and when you flip over a 3-panel, subtract 2 from the worth. Once the worth reaches zero, this line is dead and you can mark it as such.
3. Subtract the number of Voltorbs in each line from 5. This is the amount of number panels in the line. If the sum of the number panels is three times, or one less than three times, the amount of number panels, then there are no 1-panels in this row. This will be a "line of interest." If you don't want to do the math, these are the numbers you'll be looking for:
0 Voltorbs: 14 or 15
1 Voltorb: 11 or 12
2 Voltorbs: 8 or 9
3 Voltorbs: 5 or 6
4 Voltorbs: 2 or 3
Lines like these are among the easier ones to solve because very often, you will find that you've flipped over all of the multiplier panels in some line (not necessarily one of these). If there is perpendicular line of interest with no 1-panels, then you can deduce that a Voltorb lies there. As you keep going, you will discover the locations of more and more Voltorbs in this line of interest. With enough skill, you'll have a high chance of finding all of the Voltorbs, which will lead to a lot of multiplier panels.
4. If none of the above apply to your situation, look for the column with the fewest Voltorbs and the row with the fewest Voltorbs and flip over the panel where they intersect. If there is a tie for the fewest Voltorbs, pick the one with the highest sum. If they're tied there, just take a guess. This is because that panel is the one least likely to have a Voltorb. The higher the worth of the line, the more likely you'll find a multiplier panel, which is a potential clue to make the round easier. Beware! You may still flip over a Voltorb. However, you're least likely to flip over a Voltorb in such a row.
5. Always choose to continue unless you need to do something else immediately or if you're brought down to level 1. Coin turnout in Voltorb Flip may feel slow, but leveling up will dramatically increase the amount of Coins you get. The increase is roughly exponential, though it may be logarithmic. Based on my observations, you can stand to get the following amounts per level:
Level 1: 12 to 32 Coins
Level 2: 36 to 81 Coins
Level 3: 96 to 192 Coins
Level 4: 216 to 324 Coins
Level 5: 384 to 648 Coins
Level 6: 729 to 972 Coins
Level 7: 1024 to 1944 Coins
Level 8: 2048+ Coins
This most certainly beats gathering up a ton of money so you can buy the Coins. If you can consistently reach even Level 5 or 6, you're getting 10,000 Pokédollars' worth of Coins every 2 minutes.
;100;;100;;100;
Of course, I'm sure very little of this makes sense to you without an example, so I will provide a few. These are reports of actual Voltorb Flip sessions done as I type.
You will probably not understand everything on your first read. Take as much time as you feel you need. Thought processes like the ones you see below come with practice.
Example 1
I've fired up my HeartGold version and started a round of Voltorb Flip. You always begin with Level 1, and the scheme looks something like this:
Code:
_|_|_|_|_| 4/1
_|_|_|_|_| 4/1
_|_|_|_|_| 6/1
_|_|_|_|_| 6/1
_|_|_|_|_| 4/2
5 5 2 7 5
2 0 3 0 1You'll see that columns 2 and 4 have no Voltorbs. They're absolutely safe from top to bottom, so I'll flip them over.
Code:
_|1|_|1|_| 4/1
_|1|_|1|_| 4/1
_|1|_|1|_| 6/1
_|1|_|2|_| 6/1
_|1|_|2|_| 4/2
5 5 2 7 5
2 0 3 0 1The next thing to see is that rows 1 and 2 and column 3 are devoid of multiplier panels because the two values associated with these lines add up to 5 (4+1 for the rows and 2+3 for the column). I will mark them as dead, with a slash mark:
Code:
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
_|1|/|1|_| 6/1
_|1|/|2|_| 6/1
_|1|/|2|_| 4/2
5 5 2 7 5
2 0 3 0 1It gets a little more complicated now. Row 5 has a "worth" of 1 because its two values add up to 6 (4+2). That means the only panel of importance here is a 2-panel. We've already determined that the fourth panel from the left is that 2-panel. Thus, we can mark this row as dead also:
Code:
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
_|1|/|1|_| 6/1
_|1|/|2|_| 6/1
/|1|/|2|/| 4/2
5 5 2 7 5
2 0 3 0 1Here's where things can get a little tricky. Column 1's worth is 2, as 5+2=7. This means there is either one 3-panel or two 2-panels. To determine this, we look at rows 3 and 4. Both of their worths are 2 as well, meaning they, too can hold either one 3-panel or two 2-panels.
However, we've alrady confirmed that a 2-panel exists on row 4, so it must contain a second 2-panel somewhere. Let's flip over the rightmost panel to find out what it is.
Code:
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
_|1|/|1|_| 6/1
_|1|/|2|2| 6/1
/|1|/|2|/| 4/2
5 5 2 7 5
2 0 3 0 1It's a 2-panel! The rest of the round can be solved now, but I'll continue to go step by step. We've found all of the multiplier panels in row 4, so we can mark this row as dead.
Code:
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
_|1|/|1|_| 6/1
/|1|/|2|2| 6/1
/|1|/|2|/| 4/2
5 5 2 7 5
2 0 3 0 1In turn, column 5 is also now dead because we've found the one multiplier panel--the fourth one from the top:
Code:
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
_|1|/|1|/| 6/1
/|1|/|2|2| 6/1
/|1|/|2|/| 4/2
5 5 2 7 5
2 0 3 0 1This leaves one single panel left. The math states that this must be a 3-panel:
Code:
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
/|1|/|1|/| 4/1
3|1|/|1|/| 6/1
/|1|/|2|2| 6/1
/|1|/|2|/| 4/2
5 5 2 7 5
2 0 3 0 1And it is! This round was worth 24 Coins. The revealed layout was:
Code:
V|1|1|1|1| 4/1
1|1|V|1|1| 4/1
3|1|V|1|1| 6/1
V|1|1|2|2| 6/1
1|1|V|2|V| 4/2
5 5 2 7 5
2 0 3 0 1You can see that if I had chosen to flip the leftmost panel on row 4 instead of the rightmost, I would've hit a Voltorb. I chose the rightmost one because only 1 Voltorb lies in that column, as opposed to 2 in the leftmost column. This is the importance of making safe guesses.
;100;;100;;100;
Example 2
Now that we've solved Level 1, let's advance to Level 2. The layout given to me this time is:
Code:
_|_|_|_|_| 5/2
_|_|_|_|_| 4/1
_|_|_|_|_| 6/1
_|_|_|_|_| 7/2
_|_|_|_|_| 4/1
8 3 5 4 6
1 2 2 1 1No Voltorb-free rows exist in this round. Let's proceed by determining the dead rows. They are rows 2 and 5, and columns 2 and 4, as 4+1=5 and 3+2=5:
Code:
_|/|_|/|_| 5/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
_|/|_|/|_| 6/1
_|/|_|/|_| 7/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
8 3 5 4 6
1 2 2 1 1This might not seem very productive, but it really is: We've just eliminated over half of the panels. However, no safe guesses remain. Let's flip over the leftmost panel in column 3:
Code:
_|/|_|/|_| 5/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
1|/|_|/|_| 6/1
_|/|_|/|_| 7/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
8 3 5 4 6
1 2 2 1 1This is an even more important clue than determining the dead rows. We've figured out that there is a 1-panel, the third from the top, and a Voltorb, either the second or fourth from the top. The Voltorb must be one or the other and can't be both. That must mean the other must be a 1-panel.
There can only be one panel scheme that can exist with these conditions whose panels add up to 8: One Voltorb, two 1-panels, and two 3-panels. Nothing else can possibly add up correctly. Therefore, the topmost panel and the fourth panel from the top must both be worth 3:
Code:
3|/|_|/|_| 5/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
1|/|_|/|_| 6/1
3|/|_|/|_| 7/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
8 3 5 4 6
1 2 2 1 1Row 1's worth is 2 because 5+2=7. The single 3-panel on the top-left corner has already been determined, so the row is now dead:
Code:
3|/|/|/|/| 5/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
1|/|_|/|_| 6/1
3|/|_|/|_| 7/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
8 3 5 4 6
1 2 2 1 1Here's the trickiest part. Multiple possibilities exist here. I looked at it carefully and at least three exist: All four remaining panels may be worth 2, or opposite corner panels are worth 3 and the others are either 1 or Voltorb. Let's pick the rightmost panel in row 3. Since both the row and column contain 1 Voltorb, that makes it the safest bet:
Code:
3|/|/|/|/| 5/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
1|/|_|/|3| 6/1
3|/|_|/|_| 7/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
8 3 5 4 6
1 2 2 1 1We can now determine row 3 and column 5 to be dead, since both of their worths were 2:
Code:
3|/|/|/|/| 5/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
1|/|/|/|3| 6/1
3|/|_|/|/| 7/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
8 3 5 4 6
1 2 2 1 1This leaves one single panel left, which must be a 3:
Code:
3|/|/|/|/| 5/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
1|/|/|/|3| 6/1
3|/|3|/|/| 7/2
/|/|/|/|/| 4/1
8 3 5 4 6
1 2 2 1 1This round was worth 81 Coins. The revealed layout was:
Code:
3|1|V|V|1| 5/2
V|1|1|1|1| 4/1
1|V|1|1|3| 6/1
3|V|3|1|V| 7/2
1|1|V|1|1| 4/1
8 3 5 4 6
1 2 2 1 1It looks like either of the panels in column 3 would've been safe, but we didn't know that. By the way, flipping over ANY panel, as long as it's not Voltorb, would have solved the round.
Example 3
By now, you've probably got a better idea of how Voltorb Flip works. I'm going to skip right to a later Level for this example to show some stuff that only shows up in later Levels. Here is an example of the Level 6 layout the game gave me:
Code:
_|_|_|_|_| 3/2
_|_|_|_|_| 6/3
_|_|_|_|_| 5/2
_|_|_|_|_| 4/2
_|_|_|_|_| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5Here, we can see the cousin of the Voltorb-free line: The Voltorb-ful line. Column 5 contains nothing but Voltorbs, so we can mark all of them as such. I'll use an X for this:
Code:
_|_|_|_|X| 3/2
_|_|_|_|X| 6/3
_|_|_|_|X| 5/2
_|_|_|_|X| 4/2
_|_|_|_|X| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5This means we've determined the location of the single Voltorb in row 5. We can thus safely flip over the remaining panels there without getting blown up:
Code:
_|_|_|_|X| 3/2
_|_|_|_|X| 6/3
_|_|_|_|X| 5/2
_|_|_|_|X| 4/2
2|3|1|2|X| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5This might not seem very helpful: We can't determine the location of any multiplier panels. Not directly, at least. For now, let's declare row 1 as dead, as 3+2=5:
Code:
/|/|/|/|X| 3/2
_|_|_|_|X| 6/3
_|_|_|_|X| 5/2
_|_|_|_|X| 4/2
2|3|1|2|X| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5This might look hopeless, but it isn't. Take a look at row 2. There are 3 Voltorbs in that row. That means there are 2 number panels that add up to 6. This means there can only be Voltorbs or 3-panels in that row. If a column can't fit in any more 3-panels, then a Voltorb must exist there.
We'll first look at column 1. The number panels add up to 6, there are four of them, and we've determined one of them to be 2. That means the remaining three panels must add up to 4. In turn, that means the remaining number panels must be 1, 1, and 2. There is a Voltorb in the leftmost panel of row 2.
Code:
/|/|/|/|X| 3/2
X|_|_|_|X| 6/3
_|_|_|_|X| 5/2
_|_|_|_|X| 4/2
2|3|1|2|X| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5Now let's move to column 2. The number panels add up to 7, there are four of them, and we've determined one of them to be 3. Like before, this means the remaining three panels must add up to 4. Again, the remaining ones must be 1, 1, and 2, and thus a Voltorb exists in the panel second from the left in row 2.
Code:
/|/|/|/|X| 3/2
X|X|_|_|X| 6/3
_|_|_|_|X| 5/2
_|_|_|_|X| 4/2
2|3|1|2|X| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5Do you see what has happened here? We've figured out all of the Voltorb locations in row 2. Only 2 panels are left unflipped, both of which must be 3-panels.
Code:
/|/|/|/|X| 3/2
X|X|3|3|X| 6/3
_|_|_|_|X| 5/2
_|_|_|_|X| 4/2
2|3|1|2|X| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5Column 3 is now dead. We will mark it as such.
Code:
/|/|/|/|X| 3/2
X|X|3|3|X| 6/3
_|_|/|_|X| 5/2
_|_|/|_|X| 4/2
2|3|1|2|X| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5We've already figured out where the Voltorbs are in columns 1 and 2. We can now safely flip over the panels in these columns that don't have Voltorbs:
Code:
1|1|/|/|X| 3/2
X|X|3|3|X| 6/3
1|2|/|_|X| 5/2
2|1|/|_|X| 4/2
2|3|1|2|X| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5The round is almost solved: We can determine row 4 to be dead, as we've found its only multiplier panel. That means the remaining multiplier panel must be in the third panel down on column 4:
Code:
1|1|/|/|X| 3/2
X|X|3|3|X| 6/3
1|2|/|2|X| 5/2
2|1|/|/|X| 4/2
2|3|1|2|X| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5This was worth 864 Coins. That's over 10 times the amount that we earned in Level 2. You can see the benefit of working up to later rounds; the Coins really start pouring in. Here's the revealed layout:
Code:
1|1|1|V|V| 3/2
V|V|3|3|V| 6/3
1|2|V|2|V| 5/2
2|1|V|1|V| 4/2
2|3|1|2|V| 8/1
6 7 5 8 0
1 1 2 1 5There aren't very many panels we didn't flip over that we didn't know were Voltorbs, so the revealed layout doesn't have many surprises. We figured this one out with logic.
;100;;100;;100;
You're...probably still very confused. But try to keep anything you can understand the next time you try Voltorb Flip, and hopefully it'll be easier. At the very least, I hope you come out of this knowing that there are tricks to make it less of a guessing game than it may feel to you.
