Monster Match Walkthrough

Monster Match is a monster-collecting puzzle game created by Mobage, Inc. It’s an interesting mash-up of mechanics, but don’t let the cutesy critters fool you: this game can become tough-as-nails in the blink of an eye. Gamezebo’s quick start strategy guide will provide you with detailed images, tips, information, and hints on how to play your best game.

Game Introduction – Monster Match

Quick Start Guide

Getting Started

Monster Match can be downloaded for absolutely nothing through the “Play Now” button at the top of this page.
After starting up the game for the first time, you’ll be asked to pick a monster (Matchling, Poplet, or Twigoala). Aside from the aesthetics of each creature and possibly your preferred element, there’s absolutely no reason to pick one over the other. You’ll be able to get your hands on more powerful creatures in any of the elements you don’t choose soon enough.

Menus/Interface

Once you’ve battled your way through the tutorial, you’ll need to learn your way around the menus. The very top of the screen displays your name, CP (a.k.a. friend points), coins, rank, and stamina needed for questing. Next to that are the Home and Back buttons that do exactly what you’d expect them to do.
Event – only visible when a special event is going on, but will take you to the event island map. There you can attempt to participate in a number of special dungeons in the hopes of winning rare monsters.
Continue – automatically jumps to the most recent regular (i.e. non-event) dungeon you haven’t completed. Note that it’s still possible to replay those you’ve completed; this just comes in handy when you want to keep moving forward.

Islands – brings up a map of the various islands and their dungeons that you’ve unlocked. This is where you’ll want to go if you would like to replay areas you’ve already completed.
Monsters – for everything monster-related. This is where you’ll go to change up your team, evolve, enhance, sell, summon, or just look at stats.
Friends – displays a list of your in-game friends, as well as any pending friend requests.
Summon – summon (potentially) powerful monsters using CP – or the super premium cash-only MonStars.

My Page – your account information. This includes your stats and info, items in your bag (i.e. summon coupons, stamina refills, etc), goals, leaderboards, and options.

How to Play

The core concept behind Monster Match‘s gameplay is quite simple: just drag a finger to link two or more of the same colored gems together. Once connected, the gems will disappear and enable monsters of the same color to attack.
By linking up five or more gems, your attack will hit every enemy monster on the screen.
Link up four or more gems and you’ll produce a special gem in place of the last gem in the chain. These special gems can do one of three things:

Explode to clear out all gems within a 9-gem radius. This will also trigger other special gems if they’re in the blast zone and can create a chain effect.
Clear an entire row or column. When these gems are triggered they always start horizontal, and then go vertical when the next is set off. So plan accordingly.
Destroy all similarly-colored gems. This will wipe the board clean of all gems of the same color, creating some sizable gaps and leaving it open for some pretty intense combos.

Combos are also an important gameplay element. When three or more like-colored gems fall into place (i.e. are all connected horizontally and/or vertically), they’ll clear themselves automatically and more will fall down to fill the gap. This can potentially lead to some very large chains and combinations, and the more combos, the more damage your monsters’ attacks will do.
Every time you take a turn, the enemy monsters will move one step closer. When they reach the bottom of the screen, they’ll attack. After dealing their damage they’ll jump back up to the top of the screen and start their steady trek to the bottom again.

Tips

Don’t forget to enhance/evolve those monsters! Every little bit helps, and the more health each monster has, the more overall health you’ll have when fighting your way through a dungeon.
Most of the starting monsters aren’t worth keeping. I don’t mean the starters, but rather the filler you’re given during the tutorial. These little grubs can become more powerful through enhancement and evolution, but chances are you’ll find others along the way that are much more effective. So don’t get attached.

Pay attention to the elements. Each monster belongs to one of five elements, and each one is weak to another. Exploit those weaknesses to better your chances.
Sometimes overall power can win out against elements, though. At least in the beginning when you have a couple of high-level monsters. So while it’s a good idea to try and match up gems that will do a specific kind of damage, that doesn’t mean you should neglect the other elements.
Use those skills! Whenever you see a monster’s portrait bouncing up and down, that means their special skill is ready. Always consider using them in a pinch. Some of them will heal damage, others will cause damage, but all of them don’t cost a turn to use. In other words, you can heal the team and maybe take out one or two enemies without actually using one of your turns and allowing them to move closer.

Don’t rely on big sets of gems. I know it may be tempting to try and connect the most gems you can link up, but sometimes smaller clusters can lead to huge attacks. Especially when they involve special gems that can explode and whatnot.
Combos are king. Linking up lots of gems is great and all, but the real damage comes from creating massive cascading combos. So take a moment to assess the board every now and then and ask yourself if linking up six gems is really your best course of action.
Remember that special gems are created at the end of each 4+ gem link. This gives you some control over where these special gems will end up, and presents an opportunity to set up your own crazy combos.

Congratulations!

You have completed Gamezebo’s quick start guide for Monster Match. Be sure to check back often for game updates, staff and user reviews, user tips, forums comments and much more here at Gamezebo!