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Grand Pearl Pooh-Bah achievement in Hexic HD

Grand Pearl Pooh-Bah

Surround one piece with six black pearls.

Grand Pearl Pooh-Bah-0.2
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How to unlock the Grand Pearl Pooh-Bah achievement

  • GibGirlGibGirl
    12 Jan 2006 15 Dec 2008
    Definitely one of the hardest achievements around, but if you decide to keep playing Hexic to become good, this should come around in time.

    Remember, the game is NOT about matching groups of hexes together. It's about creating starflowers, then pearls. That should be your mindset. Every move should work toward creating a starflower, maneuvering stars together to create a pearl, grouping pearls, or defusing a bomb. Everything else is a bad move.

    Things to keep in mind:

    1) Defusing bombs is always the top priority. Always.

    2) You should always have lots of stars on the board. They allow a lot better maneuvering and piece movement. In fact, until it's hard to move without comboing stars, keep making them. Make the pearl when you pretty much have to do it to clear out some of the stars.

    3) The best place to make a starflower is centered on a star. It's easier to move pieces into place, you get more points, and the new star is dropped from up above, where it's less likely to result in comboing stars.

    4) Think through your moves before making them. It's not a timed game - make sure you're not going to accidentally make a combo before moving. Accidental combos are the quickest ways to wipe out clusters of stars.

    5) Be extremely careful when going for the pearl flower. Use a star as the center, and double and triple check each move once the pearls are nearby. Nothing worse than accidentally comboing three of them when you're close. Don't even move the pearls close together until you have all six to prevent a runaway cascade from comboing them on you.

    Guide not helping? View 8 more guides for this achievement.

    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    I Sphyre IIf there was a way to dashboard to "undo" a bad combo that led to cascade I coud see this being possible for me but the way things stand it isnt. I wish I had never started this wretched game which now forever stains my profile and keeps me from getting the completion rate I want.
    Posted by I Sphyre I On 28 Oct at 19:17
    alpaca777You’ll get it just stick with it, worse you can do is go back to it
    Posted by alpaca777 On 28 Oct at 21:31
    I Sphyre IThanks for the encouragement Alpaca777 but I dont think I ever will. I have been going back to play that game every so often but I just cant ever fully get the hang of making a grid. Somewhere I always fuck up and then ruin the whole board in one combo. At this point I would gladly just let someone else do this crap for me so I can just get it off my backlog but nobody in my circle of RL friends is any better at puzzle games than me and I am horrible.
    Posted by I Sphyre I On 01 Nov at 15:02
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  • SpeleoFoolSpeleoFool
    06 May 2009 06 May 2009 14 Oct 2016
    UPDATE: 10/14/2016 - The bomb-defense video I linked was missing; replaced it with a video showing the same technique

    --

    The key to this achievement for me was creating a Master Grid. There's a great picture of it on hexic.info. IMO, don't bother with the 4x4 grid. It's vulnerable to accidental combos, whereas the Master Grid protects you from them. I failed quite a few attempts at this achievement because I'd lose starflowers while trying to repair a collapsed 4x4 grid.

    Before even thinking of starting the grid, you'll need to develop a few skills:

    1. Making Starflowers
    To make a Starflower you must surround one tile with a ring of 6 tiles of any same color (except the color of the center tile). This takes some practice, but it gets easier. Look for places where you think you can make a starflower, then look nearby on the board for places you can make simple combos (3 tiles) that will rotate pieces near or into position for your Staflower.

    2. Learn how rotating Starflowers triggers combos
    Really what you want to do is learn how to avoid making combos. First, look at the ring of 6 pieces immediately surrounding your star. Next, look at the ring of tiles immediately outside of the ones you can rotate with your star (it's a bigger ring, with 12 tiles). Anywhere you see two of the same color touching on the same ring is a place where a combo could be triggered. For example, if you have two blue tiles touching on the outer ring, watch out if you have any blue tiles on the inner ring.

    If you have two of the same color on the inner ring, pay close attention to any tiles of that color on the outer ring. If the tile has a corner pointed toward the center of your star then you'll make a combo if you rotate. If tile on the outer ring has a flat egde pacing toward your star then it's safe to rotate.

    3. Star-walking
    When you get two Starflowers touching you can use them to rotate each other and move around the board. This can help you to create more Starflowers, which is the key to starting your grid. Star-walking is decribed on hexic.info and is shown in the videos I've linked, so look on of those places to see how it works. Practice Star-walking while avoiding combos and you'll be able to make the Grid and get this achievement.

    There are several tutorials on YouTube on how to set up the master grid. The one I found most helpful is the linked below (first link). Pay particular attention to the two key moves: the Parallel Turn and the C-Turn. These are absolutely key to moving stars into position with minimal risk. You're most at risk of an accidental combo / grid collapse when doing these moves, so look carefully before you move.

    If you manage to get a grid built, you've got most of the hard work out of the way. Your biggest threats at this point will be rebuilding your grid after you make pearls and bombs. Repairing your grid is exactly the same as building it, so just keep at it. And for bombs, check out the second video for a way to instantly kill any bomb by setting up "Multipliers" in the top-left corner (the video explains this well). Just make all of your new Starflowers on the second-from-left Starflower. The video just shows making simple combos there, but if you make Starflowers then the bombs will still always drop in the right spot.

    If you make it this far, you should have "no trouble" making enough Pearls for your Pooh-Bah. Just be careful rebuilding that grid! Good luck!
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    SpeleoFoolJust noticed the bomb defense video I had linked went MIA. Replaced it with a video that shows the same technique.
    Posted by SpeleoFool On 14 Oct 16 at 21:01
    madmankevinHa! My link is gone too... Glad you're keeping up on this guide because Hexic resources seem to vanish haha!
    Posted by madmankevin On 16 Oct 16 at 16:30
    eohjayThat bomb defense video saved me a few times in the pursuit of this achievement. Thanks for posting it - I surely would have lost without it!
    Posted by eohjay On 04 Jun 18 at 13:10
  • Removed Gamer
    Gamer has been removed
    the grid method works but for less experience players may be harder than the 6 black pearls to set up. my advice to anyone trying to get this achievement is to follow these guidelines.

    1. work a star flower to the bottom left hand corner so it is above one hexic piece and has one to the left so it is in the corner as far as it can. this is where you will bring your black pearls and put them around this star flower starting by puting your first pearl under the star. this way if a color gets erased from the board your star flower with the pearls will be unaffected.

    2. "starwalking" is a method that benefits you the most by giving u control of all peices on the screen. this is done by having two or more starflowers and using them together to manipulate the pieces and travel across the board.

    3. using the starwalk with two or more starflowers, move pieces of a same color on a single starflower. you can easily make more starflowers this way. but do not get cocky and start making moves fast because u can easilyu loss 3 to 5 stars by collapsing them together so check your moves thourghly before making them.

    4. have atleast 9 starflowers before making a black pearl so that you can continue to make them without losing momentum.

    5.you can stack starflowers in a strait vertical line to avoid the risk of collapsing them.

    6. keep a few starflowers at the top of the board to have a easier time with the bombs.

    7. most of all be patient because it takes a little time to learn how to control all the pieces in a efficent manner and thats what practicing helps with. making efficent moves and not "randumly" mashing the x button will benefit you.

    good luck and i hope this helps, if you have questions about this guide then send me PM and i will get back to you with an answer or send a party inv on xbox live.
    Showing only comment.
    CormacSome good advice from somebody who has the achievement.
    Posted by Cormac On 08 Aug 10 at 06:34
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