TwoDots Tips, Tricks and Strategies

• Your goal is not to connect dots, but to make squares.  Just like in the first Dots, the top strategy in TwoDots is to make squares.  When you make a square—or rectangle, or any four-cornered, closed-in box shape—you remove every dot of that square’s color from the board.  Also, the dots that then fill the board right after a square do not contain that color, so you’re more likely to be able to make another square out of the smaller number of choices.

• Bomb squares are helpful…sometimes.  A bomb-square is a larger square that contains another dot inside it.  This inner dot will turn into a bomb that explodes once all the square-color dots are removed, taking any dot in its proximity away.  (In the image above, the upper-right corner is a bomb-square: the red dot will become a bomb.)  Bomb-squares are much harder to make and are not always helpful if you have one available: since they blow up after the square-dots are removed, they can affect a cascade you were setting up for another square.  They are helpful in collecting extra dots if you’re almost out of moves and need just a few more to beat a level.
• When squares aren’t useful.  The exception to the “make squares” rule is when you’re nearing the end of a level and need to collect a specific color or drop the last anchor / break the last ice block, etc.  If that color is available in enough quantities outside of squares, don’t bother collecting wrong-colored squares.  If the anchor is held up by a color not available in a square, don’t choose a square over dropping the anchor.  The level completion goal is always most important and squares are usually the best way to get there—but don’t get so caught up in making squares that you forget the level’s goal.
• The scoring system.  Each level has a potential 3 stars possible (although earning these stars is just for completion / bragging rights—you don’t earn anything for them).  The stars are based on scores that are specific to the level itself; some levels award 3 stars at 100 points, some need a much higher score, like 300 points.  Points are awarded by collecting dots, dropping anchors, breaking ice, and dousing fires.
  • Every dot you collect or fire-dot you put out is worth 1 point.
  • Dropping an anchor off the board is worth 10 points.
  • Breaking a block of ice is worth 10 points.
  • Leftover moves at the end of the level are worth 5 points apiece.
  • Your first 5 leftover moves will be added to the board as bombs at the end.  These bombs award their base 5 points, plus the points for whatever dots they explode.  Any moves past 5 will be added to your score directly.  (So, if you had 12 moves leftover, you would get 5 bombs and then 35 additional points for the other 7 moves.)
• There is a way to “reset” the board.  TwoDots discourages restarting levels by docking a life for each restart.  Usually, this would mean you have to play with the board given and cannot reset until you get a square.  However, if you exit the level before you make a move, you won’t be docked a life.  (Credit to Touch, Tap, Play for discovering this.)  It’s important to note that this trick won’t work if you retry a level directly after failing it.  If you fail a level, be sure to exit back to the map and then select it again.  This also doesn’t work for restarts during the level: you have to exit to the map each time.

• Use the “reset” trick wisely.  Now that you know how to get around the restart restriction, use this trick to your advantage.  Never start a tough board without a square in place, or at the very least, an obvious path to a square available.  Be aware that some boards have set dots that will not reset.  Most boards are either entirely random, or have a few set dots while the rest are random.  (The picture above shows level 55, which is half-and-half: the dots underneath ice are set and will never change upon reset.  The rest of the dots are random and will change each time you start the level.)
• Don’t use power-ups unless victory is certain.  Power-ups are only available as a last-ditch, one-time $0.99 purchase per level.  You cannot buy power-ups beforehand or with any in-game currency.  Buying and using a power-up will not guarantee victory, so it’s wise to only buy one if you are certain you can win through the use of that power-up.  A good time to use it: you need one more anchor and have an anchor that can be dropped within five moves.  A bad time to use it: you need one more anchor and there’s not even an anchor on screen.

• A game of ice and fire.  As you progress through the levels, new types of dots are introduced.  Ice blocks are broken once they have had a dot removed from them three times: this includes dots removed via squares without actually touching the ice block.  Fire-dots are removed by dropping non-fire blocks on top of them.  If you make a move without dousing a fire-dot, the fire will spread and consume a nearby dot.  If you remove all fire dots from the board, the fire is extinguished and will never return, no matter how many moves you make.  Finally, note that fire and ice do not shuffle—if you run out of moves and the board is shuffled, fire-dots and ice blocks will remain in the same spaces, although the colored dots underneath ice blocks will shuffle.
• Some levels don’t require you to break “all” the ice.  Most of the ice levels have objectives that involve breaking all ice blocks, but this isn’t always true.  Pay attention to the objective number and how many ice blocks are on screen.  Focus on certain blocks instead of spreading yourself across all of them in these instances.  The same is true for anchors: you may have four on screen but only need three.  Don’t waste moves trying to get extra, unnecessary ones.
• Pay attention to what’s above.  As in Dots, the two key strategies are 1) make squares and 2) foresee the progression of falling dots.  Since there’s no time limit in TwoDots, be sure to review your moves before you make them and try not to back yourself into a corner.  Sometimes a seemingly good move will leave the board in disarray, worse than it was before, like a tempting bomb-square.
• You can turn off vibration in the settings.  The game vibrates when you make a square, but this is sometimes distracting and can cause you to mess up your line-drawing.  I personally prefer to play without vibration; squares still make a satisfying “bwong!” sound without the vibration.

A few notes on specific levels we found extra challenging:

• Level 13 is actually a tutorial.  This isn’t made clear in the game, but level 13 is a tutorial for the purchaseable bomb power-up.  To beat level 13, you have to remove two anchors that are trapped behind unmovable geometry.  The only way to do this is with a bomb, and the only way to get a bomb here is to buy one, because there’s not enough space to make a bomb-square above the anchors (bomb-squares require 3×3 dots and there are only 2×2 above the anchors).  The game willalways give you a free bomb on this level after you exhaust your six moves, so just use those moves to collect as many dots as possible.  (There is never an instance where you’ll have to buy a bomb to win.)

• Level 25 isn’t impossible.  After spending two days on level 25, I started to think it was bugged.  But it is, with luck, possible to beat.  You have to start this level with a square.  Use the reset trick above until you get a square, and one that collects more than its four own dots.  This board is so small that even squares will often net you only a handful of dots, so you need to start off strong.  This is also one of the few boards where bomb-squares are helpful, if you can make one (but don’t waste moves trying to make one).

• Level 35 is also beatable.  Just like level 25, you have to start this level with a square.  This level is 100% all squares, all day, because the anchors are trapped in that terrible side column.  Even if you can get that column moveable—in the image above, that would require a purple square to move that bottom-right corner—it would still take dozens of moves to get all the anchors out.  The good news is, once you free the column, anchors will appear in the main board as well.  So focus on freeing the column, then spam the main board with the usual tactic (squares) and ignore that left-hand side.
• Level 55 and ice.  Level 55 features 10 ice blocks, but you only need eight to beat the level.  Don’t waste moves on all the ice blocks: focus on the four at the bottom and then pick the side that has the most cracks or is most accessible to finish off.

• Level 60 is trying to trick you.  Remember how some levels have randomized dots and some are part random, part set?  Level 60 is randomized except for the red squares at the top.  When you first enter this level, don’t be distracted by the squares.  You want a board with lots of red dots beyond the squares since you’ll be popping those first.  Aim for lots of red and/or long matches on the side columns, as they’re the hardest areas to reach.

• Level 64 is more about dousing fire than dropping anchors.  The seven-anchor requirement is distracting at first, but you have a fairly generous 45 moves to get those seven anchors.  Your first goal should be to get rid of the fire blocking the bottom of the board.  If an anchor gets trapped near the fire, let the fire consume it and keep dousing the other fires with colored dots.  Once the pathways are open, then concentrate on dropping anchors that come in from the top.

Want more TwoDots help?

• Check out more tips, cheats, and strategies from friends at TwoDotsLevels.
• TwoDots Level 26
• TwoDots Level 33
• TwoDots Level 35

Jillian Werner

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Jillian will play any game with cute characters or an isometric perspective, but her favorites are Fallout 3, Secret of Mana, and Harvest Moon. Her PC suffers from permanent cat-on-keyboard syndrome, which she blames for most deaths in Don’t Starve. She occasionally stops gaming long enough to eat waffles and rewatch Battlestar Galactica.