Techniques In Bejeweled

Work Top to Bottom

• In the original "Bejeweled," as well as Classic Mode in "Bejeweled 2" and "Bejeweled 3," working top to bottom preserves the most matches and increases your chances of moving to the next level. You lose the game when you can't swap gems to make any more matches. Start at the top row, where the game adds new jewels, and use lower rows only when you can't get a match near the top.

Use Matches When Available

• Saving a simple match in the hopes of getting a more complex one worth more points can be tempting. However, most of the time, it ends up ruining the original match. As you move jewels around, they disturb their neighbors, causing useful patterns to end up scrambled. If you see three jewels in a row, make the match instead of waiting for a fourth.

Use Special Jewels Strategically

• Special jewels, such as exploding jewels or hypercubes, appear in "Bejeweled 2 and 3." These jewels remove large numbers of gems at once and disrupt the grid. Wait to use these gems until you've exhausted all other easy matches. Otherwise, you could destroy those matches inadvertently, depriving yourself of points. Use hypercubes on the most plentiful color to get the highest possible score and rearrange the board more favorably.

Remove a Color Entirely

• Whenever possible, make your matches so that they remove all or most of a given color of jewel. Leaving one or two stragglers behind interrupts other matches and scrambles the board. Scan for other matches whenever you see just four or five jewels of one color in the same place. You may be able to create a multi-jewel match that removes all the gems.

Watch for Shapes

• Multi-jewel matches come in a few basic shapes. For instance, you can move the top jewel in a cross arrangement to create a "T" shape that removes five jewels. "L" shapes often indicate a four or five jewel match. Learn to recognize these shapes without thinking about it, especially for timed modes.