This guide is heavy in GIFs, showing you stuff, so let it load for a whimsy~
Hello there and welcome to my guide on how to make money in Shock Switch!
I use Shock Switch almost every day, and I hit the 75k mark after roughly 35 minutes.
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Hello there and welcome to my guide on how to make money in Shock Switch!
I use Shock Switch almost every day, and I hit the 75k mark after roughly 35 minutes.
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I will explain a lot of mechanics in Shock Switch!
While it may be used for high scores, I will do this guide mainly for treasure-seekers. The information might get a little too much in one go, so feel free to learn it little by little :)
Most of you know the standard tactic for clearing Shock Switch, the "Spam everything" one. This guide will require a bit more finesse from you than that.
I will show you step by step :D
While it may be used for high scores, I will do this guide mainly for treasure-seekers. The information might get a little too much in one go, so feel free to learn it little by little :)
Most of you know the standard tactic for clearing Shock Switch, the "Spam everything" one. This guide will require a bit more finesse from you than that.
I will show you step by step :D
Select Difficulty
You will want to go Easy or Very Easy mode. While the Harder modes rewards score faster, score isn't relevant for making treasure. I always go the Very Easy mode.
Bumping up the blocks
Hit space repeatedly until the blocks are almost at the top of the screen.
Clearing blocks
Normally when clearing blocks, you are doing 3-in a rows with blocks of the same colour. However, 3-in-a-rows award very little treasure compared to everything else in Shock Switch.
Combos
| A combo is a 4-in a row and upwards. You can do up to 10-in-a-row, by stacking the blocks vertically. You might do this a little, but you will want to stick with chaining as much as possible. |
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Chains
So, what you are going to aim at is making chains. It's the bread and butter of making treasure with Shock Switch, so I can really recommend studying its mechanics. A chain is what happens when a block "falls" into making a 3-row (or higher), clearing the blocks. You will notice a number popping up when this happens, and it will increase as you continue the chain.
Allow me to demonstrate:
My chain here went up to 6. Chains can go on for quite a while before all the blocks are depleted, and the longer chain you make, the better treasure you will net.
Mechanics of Chaining
Most of this is just about how blocks fall, but I'm going to start off with telling you the only "inconsistent" feature when chaining.
Falling in the middle
If a group of blocks are falling, it can create/count towards a chain while falling, if two horizontally adjacent blocks are of the same colour. Does that sound confusing? I bet it does.
Well, let me show you!
Pay attention to the pink blocks to the left here:
Note that this will not happen if the same coloured block is the lowest one in the falling group!
Note how the pink block passes through its neighbours here without reacting:
So, with that out of the way, I will tell you all the other things about chaining. The key to great chaining is working while things are falling and disappearing, so you the quicker you are to discover patterns, the quicker you will rearrange things, the longer chains will you be able to make.
| The basic, block-on-top-of-vertical-chain needs you to look at the block on top of another chain and find 2 other blocks of the same colour, in the vicinity. |
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| As you proceed, you will probably get options, but quick decision making and practice will let you continue the chain. Here, I could choose between the blue and the yellow blocks as the next part of the chain. |
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This is the scenario above, as it happened.
Here is mostly prepare horizontal chains. They are the easiest way to pull off very long chains.
When clearing out a whole window of blocks, I usually accumulate chains of 9 to 12.
The timing hax
Not really a hack, but if you're quick, you can sneak in a block into a falling column. It's good to know :) I usually don't do this, since it's difficult to continue the chain this way.
The left shows what happens in real time, the right one is slowed down to 10%
Don't forget that the same principle can be applied horizontally!
Pay attention to the first block I move here:
Hovering
You can transport blocks on top of disappearing blocks! You need to be quick, but disappearing blocks make efficient bridges for moving one block somewhere where its needed.
Pay attention to the green blocks:
The after-the-last-second-move
A chain is usually broken directly when no more blocks are currently disappearing, but there is one move that may be used at a delay without breaking the chain. If you drop a block on top of disappearing blocks, it will count as if the block was on them before they disappeared.
Look the blue blocks, as the vertical row actually disappeared before the blue falling block touched it, and how it still works:
Tips on what to look for
The most easy way to do very long chains is to do horizontal ones, and usually doing the chains in the direct vicinity of the disappearing blocks (It's much easier to spot same coloured blocks in direct vicinity). Don't limit yourself to the vicinity! Remember that disappearing blocks affect all the blocks above, and you can continue the chain at a completely different height in the window.
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For example, look what I do with the green blocks here. This time it was another row above the disappearing blocks, but in reality, it could be any number of rows above! This works easiest when three (or more) horizontal blocks are disappearing. |
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| A trick you can use, often used together with hovering, is to make your own "bridge". It's hard to explain, so look at my example. Pay attention to the red block I move in order to hover the green block to its buddies. |
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Combos and Chains at the same time
Well, this happens a lot when you do the very easy and easy mode, since we only have 4 different colours on our blocks. I usually don't do this intentionally, it just happens, similarly to the "buttonmash everything" tactic. I think long chains net you more treasure than these, but when these happens, it's not a bad thing either.
Screwing up
I screw up a lot, all the time. There are mainly two reasons behind this.
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1. You are not fast enough. You try, but you couldn't manage to get a block somewhere in time. I think the most important thing is to challenge yourself. Even if you don't think you can manage to move a block to another place in time, TRY! You will be surprised at the things you manage to pull off. I think it's the best way to improve as well. Here in my example I could have gotten the last 3 blue blocks into the chain, but I screwed up by moving the wrong blocks and also not being fast enough. |
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2. An unforseen combo (or 3-in-a-row) makes a lot of blocks go away, and your continued plan for the chain is in ruins. I mean, however good your peripheral vision is, there will be occasions where you just can't control everything that's happening. Especially at Easy and Very Easy mode, since we only have 4 different blocks, they tend to disappear by themselves a lot. At the more difficult modes with up to 6 blocks, this is rare. Though, there is a tactic to reduce unforeseen chain breakers. Waiting! You will need to be quick and ready, but following the falling blocks and see how the situation unfolds gives you more time to perceive the field, and therefore gives you a better idea of what blocks to move. In the example here, I try to continue the chain with the red blocks, but I didn't see the yellow blocks, which breaks the chain. |
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In reality
I don't always get super long chains, but I always try to achieve them. Knowing all the mechanics actually makes the "tedious" schock switch very fun and challenging. I find this fairgrounds activity to be the most fun. I hope you will enjoy this tactic more than the "random buttonmash" one, since I can imagine that one gets boring after half an hour xD
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Use all tricks you have up your sleeve to keep a chain rolling! My last but best advice is perhaps the most obvious one: Practice! There is no way to become better than challenging yourself and play Shock Switch a lot. If you want to get better quicker, I could recommend using higher difficulty, since this will force you to learn the Shock Switch ways :) |
