One very important tip for Saqqarah (my true confession)
There is one tip that is very important when playing Saqqarah. It is used throughout the game in every level and in every temple. The tip is basic but it’s not actually pointed out in the tutorial rules (at least I didn't see it). I guess the game creators had to leave something for us to figure out on our own.
Yes, a lot of people get confused by that. That was my tip #3 in the general tips comment. I call the sides "links," but it's the same issue.
I had one friend who kept trying to illuminate the same triangle over and over, but she was making her chain in the wrong direction so it wasn't working.
copied from my terminology post in the general tips thread. I'm including it because it also discusses the padlocks.
Oh, terminology for my tips (you may use other names for these):
Stone The gems or tokens that are of different colours (red, blue, yellow, etc). One of the obstacles are black squares with red faces--I call those black stones. (They're sort of like the black marbles in Bounce it--they move like the other stones, but you can't match them to get rid of them.)
Links The lines that make up the sides of the shapes on the board. These look like dark wood sticks on most levels. If you have made a successful match over the link, it will be lit up. Unless, of course, it had a metal chain or a padlock on it. If a link has a chain, you have to make a match over it once to break the chain, when it turns back into a regular stick. Then another match to light it up. If a link has a padlock on it, you have to make a match that is the same colour as the padlock to break the padlock. Then, again, it turns back into a regular stick. As you get to higher levels, it may take multiple links to make a side. For example, a triangle may have 3 sides, but need 4 stones because one of the sides is broken into 2 links with an extra stone in the middle.
Shapes These are the areas of the boards that you have to fill in. At the lower levels they are mostly triangles and squares. By the time you get to higher levels a shape may need 8 stones to complete it. A shape that can be lit up has a sort of fuzzy felt texture. If you see bricks inside a shape, you're looking through to the wall and that is notan area you have to light up.
For most of the temples, your goal is to light up each shape on the board. And for most temples, you light up a shape by lighting up each of its links. And you light up a link by including it in a set of at least 3 stones of one colour.
There are some exceptions--in Thot, you worry about stones, not individual shapes, and in Sobek and Bast and Osiris you have to have all the stones for one shape in position at the same time, rather than working link by link.
But for several temples, you target shapes that are dark, and you light up the dark shape by lighting up each of its links that are still dark.
I had a friend who didn't realise that the links lit up, too, and she kept making matches over the same triangle without ever lighting it up because she kept going over the links that were already illuminated instead of hitting the one side that was still dark.
And the moral of the story is that if I had spent more time reading Robin’s great tips, rather that pounding away on my mouse and blowing things up, I would have gotten through the game a lot easier. Kudos to Robin!
Thanks Bubbles! I thought my big confession was funny. I certainly laughed at myself when I saw how dense I was. I was hoping that I would get some "You're Funny" Kudos. Thanks!
Well Lizzie, you get some kudos from me as well. I'm grateful to both of you since I just started the game over in Relaxed mode. I never played too much in the timed mode because I didn't have the time. That info will save me a lot of heartache so both of you get kudos from me.
The good thing is that by you posting this it brings these valuable tips to the front since many people may not read all the posts since there are so many. I figured I would start reading afterwards so that it would make more sense to me. Thanks again.
Thanks, Lizzie, but I think the real moral is what both you and I suggested early on--plain verbal tips are just not going to help as much for this game as screenshots with techniques circled. The game is just too complex.
MargieB, Thanks, also. Clearly this is one of those games like Do You See What I See? where a picture is going to be worth a thousand words! That's why I mentioned to TeeGee that my "tips" were really just notes for you to use in preparing the real tips. For some of these things, you have to be looking at the screen in order for the tip to make any sense.
Yes and difficulty level 3 if where you really need tips on dealing with the Dark Symbol of Seth. The first and second level seem so easy compared to the third level. The first and second are challenging but nothing like level three.
GZ Points
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Jul 29, 2008, 12:24pm
One very important tip for Saqqarah (my true confession)
There is one tip that is very important when playing Saqqarah. It is used throughout the game in every level and in every temple. The tip is basic but it’s not actually pointed out in the tutorial rules (at least I didn't see it). I guess the game creators had to leave something for us to figure out on our own.