Metal Slug Defense V1.8.0 World 3 (Fourth Map)

Hooray! The Metal Slug Defense has another major update - World 3! (the Purple Fourth Map)

To make it clear, the MSD considers this as the "World 3" (but it is a Fourth Map if you have been following the progress of the MSD updates ). Previously, we have a third world (but that's a different map).

If you think that the stages so far are not challenging enough, then I assure you, the difficulty of the stages in the fourth World won't let you down.

New stages with New POW rescues

Be honest, I have been waiting for this for a long time. The Metal Slug Defense World 3 (Fourth Map) introduces another level of the skills upgrade, with more POW rescues than ever. And, unlike the previous version (before 1.5), this time, I have to say, the POW rescues tend to rely more on luck.

Yep, those POW are somehow being saved from the sky during the game play. (You may claim that more attacks on the sky do increase the chances of POW rescue).

9 POW in a single stage!

Either way, this Fourth Map would probably consume another month of your life (:p) in order to have all the skills unlocked and enhanced at the rate of 100%. (The most prisoners of war in a single stage could reach 9!)

It is really Hard

The enemies in the Metal Slug Defense World 3 are much much tougher than before, in the sense that now they know how to activate their skills! For example, the Rebel Infantry will throw the grenade at your units, while the tanks could launch combo attacks. One more thing, their Hit Points are upgraded too. Although I have all my best units (on the deck) upgraded to the max, sometimes those enemies do give me a lot of troubles.

New Units are introduced

The Donald Morden is the one impressed me the most (last area, last stage). He has become the Zombie Donald Morden - Morden Robot, and is still able to fight after the death.

100 Medals Award

Like in the previous two Worlds, you will be awarded another 100 Medals after completing the new World. It is challenging yet interesting. (By the way, you will also gain 10 Medals each after completing the Areas 2, 4, 6, 8 ...) Now, it is time to save the POW one by one :)

Cheer Cubes Walkthrough

Getting bored of the Match 3 games like Candy Crush Saga? Here's a relatively new game with a new concept - Cheer Cubes.

The game play of the Cheer Cubes is that, instead of matching 3 or more blocks, you have to make sure the corners of the dragged blocks have the same color. When you achieve this, all the blocks contained would be destroyed - yielding scores.

There are two modes in the Cheer Cubes game - Arcade Mode or Puzzle Mode. In the first mode, it is a challenge to see how far you can reach within 2 minutes. I personally think that the element of luck plays quite a significant role here. My score ranges from 10,000 to 35,000, depending on how good the blocks placement is. Meanwhile, the second mode features different puzzles (up to 90 at the time of writing):

• Get a Full Clear (clear the entire map)
• Get the silly cubes to the bottom
• Clear out midnight cubes
• Get a minimum score

I find this Cheer Cubes interesting as hints are provided when you hit the walls for too long. Apart from that, there are 'special cubes' changing the cube colors when they are in need.

The only mysterious thing in the Cheer Cubes game is that, the 'Multiplier', or the 'Combo bonus' seems to be inconsistent. As you can expect, the ultimate key to a higher score in this game is the 'multiplier' obtained. The more cubes you destroyed (dragged a larger dimension), the higher 'multiplier' you will obtain, theoretically. However, as observed, it doesn't follow a consistent formula. Sometimes you get a higher 'multiplier' with a lower number of cubes, while sometimes it goes the other way round.

Anyway, this Cheer Cubes seems to be having a good start. Once it has a social networking feature enabled, it would attract more players to get hooked on.

Understand the complexity of the Rubpix game

It took me about 2 weeks to complete the Rubpix puzzles of the dimension 3x3 and 4x4 (the first 100 level), with the best move solutions. However, I immediately realize that it would probably take months to complete the rest - 6x6 and even 8x8. Why?

At first sight, this Rubpix game is indeed deceptively simple, with simply Up, Down, Left and Right movements. For the first few puzzles, you may find them solve-able, as long as you make some additional movements. However, after considering the possible sample sizes more seriously, you will immediately realize that the complexity of these kinds of puzzles has the potential to grow exponentially!
 
To start with a simpler picture, let's consider the simplest form of the Rubpix game - 3x3. Here, assume that there are 9 unique colors in the puzzle (worst case scenario), with some high school maths, you will come out with an answer that it has basically a total of "9 factorial" permutations - aka 362880 patterns! Yep. You are seeing it right - MORE THAN 300 thousands! In a worst case scenario, the solution of the puzzle could be only obtained after a total of 300 thousands moves! (with a naive move)

Of course, the developer of the Rubpix game isn't that brutal. Most of the time (from observation), the unique colors of the puzzle are usually lesser than 6. Hence, with some human's non-naive filtering, the answer can still be found after not more than 50 moves (Alright, if you take more than that, something is really wrong).

Now, back to the harder question. What if it is a puzzle of 6x6 (not to mention, the horrible 8x8 as well). Taking the example of the Rubpix puzzle Level 101, it has 36 blocks with six unique colors. So... can you guess how many unique permutations are there? There are MILLIONS! Playing this kind of game naively would claim your life!

Anyway, I will only play the rest of the Rubpix puzzles when I am free. If you have solved all of them, you have my respect!

Boom Beach - How to form the strongest defensive base?

Admit it. Your Boom Beach base has been raided for a number of times by some random jerks out there, regardless of in which level you are. Me, too.

The good thing about Boom Beach is that, there's a recap video of the entire base attack which is playable at different speeds for your lesson. Depending on which level you are, there is actually an article which might give you an idea of how to build your base in order to defend as much variations of the enemies attack as possible.

Of course I am NOT copying the ideas. After so many troubles of rewinding the 'Home base raided' videos, here summarizes my opinion on how to build the Boom Beach defensive base as strongest as possible (air your opinions if you find this not convincing):

1. Your headquarter is better surrounded by the defense towers

As mentioned last time, if your Headquarter is placed in front of the jungle, the enemies troop might use the flanking to reach your headquarter DIRECTLY, skipping all your defense. Hence, a better defense would be, make sure the Boom Beach Headquarter is defended in all directions (or as much as possible depending on your available towers). However, make sure the towers do not stick together as the Artillery attack would have splash damage.

2. Do not log too much

The first point above has one weakness - your economy/support buildings are exposed to attacks (which will reward your enemy some energy points). To reduce this impact, my advice is - Do not log too much in this Boom Beach game (unless you have sufficient towers to cover the entire base in the late game), such that some of the trees can serve as an obstacle to the troops such as the tanks. Precisely, I mean a lesser but strategic logging which would limit the advancement of the enemy troops. I know that Woods are important resources, but you could boost it either from the statue, or more underwater explorations.

3. Welcome your enemies with Towers

Accompanied with the first and the second points, you would be able to place your towers such that the enemy troops would deal with your towers first (as in the picture). To make sure they won't bypass the towers, a number of mines could be placed around the jungle. If you have insufficient towers for this, pick the support building with the highest HP.

4. Boost your own defense with Statues

Last but not least, create some Statues with the Ice crystals. That's one of the special features in this Boom Beach game. The statues would significantly enhance the HP of both your support buildings and the defense towers.

The bug of Ultimate Block Puzzle Solver in the Android 4.4

To every Android Kitkat 4.4 user out there, here I would like to convey my apology on the app incompatibility issue of my masterpiece Ultimate Block Puzzle Solver. 

Currently, when the 'go' button is tapped, the app may crash, without providing any useful result.

Hence, this particular post is created in order to assure you that the efforts to amend it are on the way. I will update this as soon as the issue is fixed.

Meanwhile, you may use the Android device of a lower version, if you are desperately going to solve a puzzle, OR send your puzzle here so that I could help solve it.