Cubix is one of the two most popular games on prizegames.com (the other is Super Solitaire). The best way to learn how to play the game is to read the Rules that are available on prizegames.com, then start playing!

Object of the game

The game board consists of 117 colored tiles in a 13 by 9 grid. The object of the game is to remove as many tiles from the game board as possible by removing adjacent tiles that are the same color as each other. As you remove tiles, remaining tiles move down and to the right to replace the tiles you just removed.

Levels

In free-play mode, there are only 6 levels to the game; In pay-to-play mode, there are 12 levels. On levels 1 through 4, you must match 3 or more adjacent same-colored tiles; for levels 5 through 12, you must match only 2 or more adjacent tiles.

In order to progress to the next level, you must remove a certain number of total tiles on the current level. The number of tiles you are required to remove and the number of tiles you have removed so far are displayed near the top of the playing area.

Colors

As the game progresses through levels, the number of different tile colors increases. At the beginning of the game, there are only 3 different colors (red, blue, and green); by the time you reach level 9, there are 7 different colors. The colors are (in the order they are added as the levels increase): red, green blue, orange, pink, light purple, dark purple.

Scoring points

There are two ways to score points: the first way is that each time you remove a group of tiles, you are awarded points; at the end of the level (provided you have removed the required number of total tiles), your cumulative score will be multiplied by the time remaining, so speed is somewhat important.

The second way to score points is much more difficult. On each level you play, if you clear the entire screen (all 117 tiles), in addition to your normal score, you will also receive bonus points for that level. The number of bonus points you receive will be your level number times 10,000 (so for example, if you clear all 117 tiles on level 2, you will receive 20,000 bonus points). You can receive such bonus points for each level you completely clear, but it is very difficult to clear all the tiles!

The following table shows some general information about the 12 levels. Note two things: (1) free play mode only has 6 levels while pay to play mode has 12 levels; (2) levels 3 and 4 are slightly different in free play mode and pay to play mode.

Points Received per tile grouping on each level

The table below shows how many points you will score for each group of matching tiles. It is important to note that the more tiles you have in the group you select to remove, the more points you will receive. This is important to remember, and holds especially true for removing a group consisting of just one more tile than the minimum (for example, in level 1 you score 10 points for removing a group of 3 tiles, but 20 points for a group of 4 tiles). Therefore, try to remove as many tiles at a time as you possibly can.

Also note that the scores recycle every 4 levels. In other words, you get the same number of points for removing 3 tiles on level 5 as you get for removing 3 tiles on level 9.

Clicking "Next Level" vs. continuing the level

In most cases, there will still be matching sets of tiles remaining on the playing field even after you have cleared the minimum required number of tiles for that level (see Table 1 above). Once you have cleared the minimum required tiles, you will have the option of clicking "Next level" near the bottom of the playing area (which will propel you to the next level immediately), or you can continue the level until you are out of matches.

I recommend that you don't ever click "Next Level"--that instead you should play out each level until you have no matches left. There are three reasons for this: (1) after you clear the minimum required tiles, all additional tile removals give you double the previous score (2) these additional double-points you will receive by removing additional tiles will more than offset any time advantage you might receive by clicking "Next Level"; (3) there is a possibility that you might clear the entire level! If that happens, you'll receive an awesome number of bonus tokens.

How do people score so many points?

In an average game, you can probably expect to score around 10,000 points for each level you complete. In other words, if your game ends at level 4, your score will likely be somewhere around 40,000 points.

But if you look at the high scores list or the current progressive list, you may notice that some of the scores are much higher than the maximum number of levels times 10,000. How is this possible? The answer is that the players who have scored such high points have very likely cleared one or more levels completely and have thus scored bonus tokens for that level. Remember, if you are playing in Pay to Play mode and you clear all 117 tiles from EACH of the 12 LEVELS completely, you would receive an amazing 780,000 bonus points. (Of course nobody has managed to do that so far!).

I have actually on a couple occasions been lucky enough to have cleared level 6 entirely and for those games, I received an additional 60,000 bonus points. Needless to say, those games were so good that I managed to place in the top 10 for the progressive contest, and I received even more prizebucks at the end of the contest time period!

Tips

I have played this game quite a bit so I am pretty familiar with it, but I'm afraid I don't have too many sure-fire tips for doing consistently well (I sometimes still don't even make it past level 2!). However, here are a few tips I try to follow to try to ensure that I get lots of points and that I keep progressing through the levels consistently:

• Remove larger groups of tiles at one time. You will score more points overall and per tile by removing larger groups of tiles at one time
• Play upper-left to lower right. I generally try starting with the upper left portion of the playing area, and as the game progresses I move down and to the right (this is because when tiles are cleared, other tiles replace them by moving down and to the right).
• Clear all of a color first. I try to pick one or two colors and clear them completely if possible first. This is especially helpful at the earlier levels, and can help you clear all the tiles on a level.
• Always complete your current level. Instead of clicking on "Next Level", complete the level you are currently playing.

If you have other helpful tips, send me an email with your tip and I'll try to include it here!