Puzzle Bobble Online FAQ v.1.3 by Michael Kelehan April 30, 2002 mkfaqs@hotmail.com Mkelehan in the game ________ Contents ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ I. What is Puzzle Bobble Online? II. Signing Up III. The Lobby and Game Rooms 1. The lobby 2. The game rooms IV. Gameplay 1. Basic gameplay 2. Attack modes a. Attacking b. Items c. Critical Attack 3. After the game 4. Etiquette V. Strategies 1. General strategies 2. Items 3. Play styles VI. Closing ________________________________ I. What is Puzzle Bobble Online? ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ You've most likely played Puzzle Bobble in some form, probably by its Western name Bust-a-Move or the terrible knockoff Snood. Well, now you can play it online, with as many as six people in a single game. Play against 5 total strangers, team up with a friend against two teams of other friends, whatever you want. And, there are a few new things thrown into the mix, such as special items and deleting your own bubbles when in a tight spot. It's free, it's awesome... and it's in Japanese. This FAQ, however, is in English, so with its help, you should have just as much fun as little Hoshi. ______________ II. Signing Up ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ First, you'll want to go to the Puzzle Bobble Online webpage. Bookmark it; you'll need to go here whenever you want to play. http://www.pbo.jp/ Okay, now, don't be scared of all the Japanese. The left menu has a big red "Login" button that is really all you need. The last option (yellow crown) is a ranking of the top players, which you should absolutely aspire to become through play after play. Let's click "Login" and get ready to set up the account. Ignore the two text fields for now, and click the red button that has "ID" followed by some Japanese. The first field on the new screen is for your ID, which can be no longer than 8 characters and is how you will be known in the game. Type in what you want, and click on the little button next to it to see if it's taken. If there's an OK button, you're all set. If not, well, try again until you get something new. The next field is for your name... where you also have an 8 character limit. This makes sense for the Japanese, since their names rarely pass 5 characters, and that's first and last. Just type your first name. The next one is for your password, with the following one being the field where you retype your password. It must be 6 to 10 characters. Password hint and password answer are next up, followed by email. Feel free to type in your real email; they haven't sent me a blessed thing. If you can't trust Taito, I ask you, whom CAN you trust? Click the first button on the bottom, and away we go. If there was a problem, reread the instructions above to make sure you entered everything right. If it went through okay, you should get a confirmation screen with your name, email, and user name. Now you can login with the ID and password you chose. When you login, you'll have the choice of two servers, one in Japanese, and one that's English Only. If both you and your version of Windows understand Japanese, you can try that, but I'd take English if that's what you speak. Now, Bob will look all sad, because you don't have the program on your computer. No matter, just wait a little while and it should start the fully English install. If it doesn't, click Retry. Now that the game's installed, when you login and pick your server the game should load up... and we're ready to rock. _____________________________ III. The Lobby and Game Rooms ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ 1> The lobby When you start up, you'll be in the lobby. You should see a few things: a list of games, a chat area on the bottom, a list of people in the lobby, and buttons all over the place. The top right has your standard Windows buttons, with the line minimizing and the X closing. The one in the middle switches between windowed and fullscreen, which you won't notice if you're playing in the game's native 800x600 resolution. Clicking it to windowed will make it easier to switch to other programs if you must (like, say, Notepad for writing a FAQ), but the game will run better in fullscreen. The Exit button will take you back one screen. Chatting is pretty simple: you click in the text box on the bottom of the screen, type your message, and hit enter. You can click the Refresh button to refresh the list of people, and scroll with the up and down buttons. Click on someone and then click Messenger to send them a private message. You can click Find then type a name to see what game a friend is in, if that friend is online. If you click on a name and then click Info, you can see their rank and score. Score is changed after every game, depending on how you do. You start with 1000 points. Click Option to bring up the ol' options menu. Turn BGM and SE on or off, pretty obvious. The F1-F8 fields change what message will pop up when you press that particular key in the heat of battle, so set them for different occasions, such as when you're about to send something over or when you're in trouble. On the right you can change the controls, but be warned that in this guide I will refer to the default controls. Now, the game list. That big list on the upper left contains all of the games that are on the server. The All list is pretty pointless, since it contains games that are full or in play, so click Waiting if you want to join a game. The list won't update itself, so click back and forth between All and Waiting to get a more current list. Click a game to enter it. If you get an error message, update the list and click another one. If you want to create your own game, you'll obviously hit the Create button. The immediately highlighted field is the game name, with the one above it containing the password. Don't put on a password unless you've arranged one with your friends, obviously. The 5-6-7-8 on the left refers to the number of colors of bubbles, less colors equals easier play. The little 6 in the yellow oval is the max number of players; set it to less when you want a more personal gaming experience. The only other thing left to check is the game mode: Beginner, Normal, or Hard. Click on a circle to change the mode. Beginner has no items, and the stack moves down slowly. Normal has items, and the stack moves at a decent rate. In hard, the stack moves down faster and faster as the game progresses, and attack items last longer. When you pick a game, you can tell the difficulty by which difficulty icon the game's box has. There won't be anything for a Beginner game, there's a Radiation symbol for normal, and a skull for Hard. 2> The game room Okay, now we're in a game room. Get ready to party. Step one is to pick a character, or "avatar." Move the mouse over one of the eight Taito figures to see their attack pattern, special items, and special item percentages. The attack pattern is basically what bubbles will be sent to opponents when you attack them. Special items will be discussed in the Gameplay section of this FAQ, and special item percent is how high your chances are of getting a special item. Who you pick is all personal preference; no one character is the best. Next, pick your team. S for solo, and A, B, or C to be on one of those three teams. Click Ready when you're ready to go, unless you created the game, in which case you can click Start when everyone else is ready. If the creator leaves, starting rights go to the first person who joined, followed by the next, etc. The starter is marked with a yellow dot next in their box. If no one else is there, you can click "Single" to play by yourself, but people can join during then. If you get a message box, click OK to go back to the game room. After long last, it's game time. ____________ IV. Gameplay ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ 1> Basic gameplay Before we get into anything else, let's discuss basic Puzzle Bobble gameplay for the 3 of you unfamiliar with the series. You control a pointer that shoots bubbles. You can see the bubble that's about to be shot, as well as the next one up. Left and right move the pointer, while spacebar shoots the bubble. Get 3 same-colored bubbles together, and they burst, leaving the playfield. If you want to succeed in multiplayer, though, you'll want to clear more than 3 at a time. This is done by either shooting a bubble that connects two groups of two, or a group of one and a group of two, or causing bubbles to fall. Bubbles won't just hang in the air, they need something to stick to. Get rid of what they're stuck on, and they'll be forced to fall. You can bounce bubbles off the left and right walls; practice this to make tricky shots. Up and down can also be used as controls, with up bringing the pointer to the center and down bringing it to the far left or right, depending on where it is. When the bubbles all shake, the stack will fall down in two turns, and there will be a new bunch of bubbles on the top. Oh, and don't take too long to shoot your bubble, or the game will shoot it for you. Okay, glad that's out of the way. Let's talk about the screen layout. On the bottom is the chat area, you know how that works. On the right side is your playfield, the use of which has been explained above. The top left contains everyone else's playfields, so you can keep an eye on what they're up to. Your box has messages about attacks, which will be explained... now. 2> Attack modes There are two modes: attack and item. Next to the chat window, there are two long boxes. The one that's all white is the currently selected one, which can be switched with the Tab key. Press the number key corresponding with the player you wish to attack/use an item on, and it will be done. Alternatively, left click on someone's field to attack them, or right click to use an item on them. In addition, there is an ultimate attack called the Critical Attack. Attacking Whenever you clear more than 3 bubbles, all of the bubbles beyond 3 will go into the attack box. So, if you knock off 4 bubbles, one will go in your queue for attacking. Left click on someone, or press their number with Attack selected, to send some bubbles to their field after they shoot their current bubble. A big bubble represents 7. If you have 7 or more, each click will send 7 bubbles, else wise just one. You can send as many over to one person as you want, but they'll only get 7 per turn. Meaning, if you send 8, they'll get 7 bubbles, shoot a bubble of their own, and then get one. If you attack yourself or a teammate, you'll delete that many bubbles instead of adding them. If someone attacks you, and you haven't shot your bubble yet, you can attack yourself to decrease the amount they attacked you with. So, if someone sends you 8 bubbles, and you send yourself 7, you'll only get one bubble added to your field. Items Some bubbles have icons on them. Pop these bubbles to get an item corresponding to the icon, and use the item by right clicking a player, or pressing his number with Item selected. Yellow items are for attacking, while white items are helper items. You can only hold 5 items at a time, and must use them in the order you got them. If you get a sixth... well, you just won't get it. So, if you see something you really want, like a 4-line or Time Attack, clear some space. Darkness (demon): Puts a big demon over the player's screen, so they can't see what's going on. Secret (question mark): Makes it so the player doesn't know what bubbles he's shooting. Lightning (rocket): Makes the player's pointer move far too fast. Chaos (no pointer): Pointer is invisible. Time Attack (clock): Gives the recipient only a second to shoot the next few bubbles. 2-line and 4-line: Makes the bottom 2 (or 4) lines of bubbles disappear instantly. Guide (white pointer): Gives you a guide to where the bubble will go when shot. When an item is used, its effects stay with you until a certain number of bubbles have been shot. This is dependent on the item itself and the difficulty level chosen. Critical Attack You'll attack everyone in play with 14 bubbles if you do a Critical Attack. This is done by dropping at least one bubble of each color in one move. Note that the bubbles must be DROPPED (not exploded) to count. So, if you explode some blues that drop a bunch of bubbles, but none of them are blue, it doesn't count. 3> After the game Once someone loses, they can stay and chat, or leave and get on with their life. If you quit in-game, that's just like a loss, so see it through! Once only one player is left standing, he's the winner, and you know what that means: it's time for another game! 4> Etiquette Okay, you're playing an online game, and you don't want to be a jerk. Here are a couple of things you should keep in mind. First, try not to attack people with under 1100 points if there's someone else still alive. They're still new, let them get the hang of the game. When it's down to the two of you, though, anything goes. Don't flood the chat. That's just annoying. Use coherent thoughts. If someone just won't click ready, ask them calmly to do it before you yell at them. _____________ V. Strategies ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ 1> General strategies First, if you've never played Puzzle Bobble before, practice a few single player games. You'll have to get a sense for where bubbles will go when you shoot them, as a missed shot can screw you good. Saving a few attack bubbles to use on yourself in emergencies is a Good Idea. If the stack is shaking, and you're so close to the bottom that you'll lose as soon as you fire off your bubble... hold it. It's very possible that in those few seconds, someone else could lose, putting you up one place. 2> Items Items add all sorts of strategy not present in previous versions of the game. First, we'll deal with how to deal with an attacker. Mystery: The current and next bubbles you might remember from before you were attacked. They'll remain the same. However, chances are, you're just shooting bubbles you don't know, so put them as high up in the field as possible. Darkness: I hope you remember the general shape of the field, so you can get those bubbles up as high as you can. This is a good time to use a few of your attack bubbles to clear some space, and a great time to use the Guide. The Guide will still work, telling you exactly where your shot will go. Time Attack: Keep your wits about you, man. If someone's attacking you now, the attacks will come quick, so negate them with your own attack bubbles. You might also want to use a 2-line or 4-line to clear some space. Lightning: Just tap left or right. You're seriously limited to where you can shoot; just pick what's best. Chaos: Okay, remember your up key. Hold up until it stops moving, and you're pointed at the center. Then, adjust as you will. Now, some defensive item strategies... 2-line, 4-line: Remember that these will delete lines instantly, unlike your attack bubbles, which take effect after your next shot. These will delete the bottom 2 or 4 lines, no matter how few bubbles are there, so if your bottom two rows have one bubble each, that's all you're getting. Save them for when you've got 2 or 4 complete rows on the bottom, when you're in a real emergency, or when you see a great place for your shot 2 or 4 lines up. Guide: As you might guess, this is perfect for when you need to line up a difficult shot. Don't get too confident in your aim; the best of us can't make them all. That's why there's a guide. Okay, enough about defending yourself. Let's talk about the kicking of the tails of others. While they're all certainly bad to get hit by, the Time Attack is particularly nasty when combined with others... Time Attack + lots of attack bubbles: The best thing to do with the Time Attack item. Since you can only send 7 bubbles per turn... why not speed up Mr. Opponent's turns? That will give him a bunch of bubbles, and no time to figure out how to deal with them. Pure evil. Time Attack + Secret: Rapid fire of bubbles he doesn't know. Time Attack + Darkness: Rapid fire, with no idea of where they're going. Time Attack + Lightning/Chaos: Unaimable rapid fire. Time Attack + one or more of the above items + lots of bubbles: You, sir, are the devil. Unless they're real quick with the attack negation, you've done some serious damage. A great finisher. 3> Play styles While everyone plays differently, there are certain play styles in Puzzle Bobble Online, involving how you attack others and how you defend yourself. A few of these are listed below, but be sure you spend some time to figure out which combination of these styles suits your particular style the most. The Pacifist: Never attacks others, uses all of their attacks to remove bubbles from their playfield. If you're a Pacifist... you might as well be playing single player. The Vulture: Attacks the player closest to losing. When someone's playfield is almost full, he'll inundate them with bubbles and attacks. The Spreader: Attacks all players equally. Not good when one of your opponents is... The Revenger: Saves all his attacks until he's attacked, then returns with all he's got. Kick 'Em When Their Down: Atacks someone who just used up his bubbles, so he's defenseless. Remember, just sticking to one of these will rarely work; figure out your own play style just like any other game. ___________ VI. Closing ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Thanks for reading my Puzzle Bobble Online FAQ. If you have any suggestions, go ahead and email me; just don't ask questions that have been answered above. Look for me in the game as Mkelehan, often in a game called something like "You! Join!" Thanks to: Taito, for making this fine game. Dream come true. CJayC, for hosting the FAQ. Tycho of Penny Arcade, for linking to it. All the fine people who didn't buy Snood for the Game Boy Advance. ...and everyone I've played in the game. Good games all around. Version history: 4/30/02 v.1.3: Fixed Critical Attack, and changed item behaviors to reflect the new patch. Added a new play style. Added something else too... 4/20/02 v.1.2: Added the Critical Attack to the Attacking subsection, and explained the 5-item limit. Added sub-subsections in the Attack Modes subsection. Added Thanks to the Closing section... right above this. 4/19/02 v.1.1: Organized the FAQ a bit better, so it wasn't just a big lump of paragraphs. Added strategies, so it's complete. 4/18/02 v.1.0: First version. Expect a new version this weekend, as I research more. Meaning, I'm going to play it a lot. This guide is copyright 2002 Michael Kelehan. Puzzle Bobble is a trademark of Taito. Distribution of this FAQ is permitted (in fact, it's encouraged), as long as it is kept in its full and complete form. Here's an extra tip for reading this far: how to change the in-game music and sound effects to whatever you want. In the directory where you installed the game (by default C:\Taito\PuzzleBobble\), there's a Data directory, and in that, a Sounds directory. That contains all of the game's music and sound effects, in WAV form. Simply get a WAV of what you want, rename it to what you want to replace, and replace it in the Sound directory. You can have all sorts of fun with those sound effects, but for backgrond music... I'd just turn it off in the game and use Winamp.