GAMES ROOM - Shidi
had a hard time figuring out the subtle nuances to Neggsweeper, but many bored
Windows-users may well be familiar with the game as... um... *cough*Minesweeper*cough*...
however, newbies and veterans alike may be glad to exchange strategy for this
potentially maddening game.
There are four types of spaces in Neggsweeper:
- Uncleared--marked with a greyed Negg. The goal of Neggsweeper is
to clear all of the spaces that do not contain Red Neggs.
- Empty--cleared, and completely blank. These spaces are always at
least two spaces away from any Red Neggs (including diagonally).
- Numbered--cleared, containing a number from 1 to (potentially) 8.
These spaces are next to Red Neggs in at least one of the eight directions.
- Red Negg--avoid these at all costs!
You will quickly familiarise yourself with these types, as they
will become second-nature to you with repeated play. The prize for clearing
the board is Neopoints equal to the Jackpot, which is one point per space cleared
plus any incidental bonuses. Of course, you don't win a single Neopoint if you
trigger a Red Negg.
Gameplay:
What to do? There are so many possibilities starting off! At heart, however,
Neggsweeper is a puzzle game, despite relying heavily on chance... like most
of the other games on NeoPets do but what else can you do? You can't deduce
where the Red Neggs are without any leads, so click away--you have to start
somewhere, even if it's luck of the draw where you start. If you're lucky, a
large section will open up and you can work from there. If you're unlucky, you'll
only get a lone numbered space opened up and you'll have to repeat the process,
running the risk of triggering a Red Negg.
An example of a good starting move ("O" being uncleared Neggs):
| Before |
After |
| O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
| O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
| O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
| O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
| O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
| O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
| O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
|
| O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
| O |
O |
2 |
1 |
2 |
O |
O |
| O |
2 |
1 |
|
1 |
2 |
O |
| O |
1 |
|
|
|
1 |
O |
| O |
2 |
1 |
|
1 |
2 |
O |
| O |
O |
2 |
1 |
2 |
O |
O |
| O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
O |
|
You may wonder why that is--sometimes you'll get a huge area opened up,
and sometimes you get just one space. Well, the way space-clearing works
is if you click on an empty space, that will trigger all of the surrounding
empty spaces to open up. This action also triggers the numbered spaces adjacent
to these empty spaces, so the empty spaces will be surrounded by a perimeter
of numbered spaces. You get bonuses for clearing spaces in this way, incidentally--the
more spaces cleared, the higher the bonus! (The other way to get bonuses
is by random event, by clicking a special Blue Negg hidden somewhere in
the board.)
Clicking on a numbered space, on the other hand, will only clear that
space; this is so the game is more challenging. In no case will a Red Negg
ever be exposed, unless you click on the Red Negg itself (thereby losing
the game).
...so you have a fair chunk of the board opened up now, by some means.
What next? Well, this is where the numbers come into play. All of the numbers
are related to adjacent numbers--remember that the number in any one space
tells how many Red Neggs are next to that space, and adjacent numbers can
have up to four spaces in common.
An extremely simplified example of how this works:
Where is the Red Negg? If this represents the entire playing field, the
answer is obvious--it's the uncleared Negg.
On to more practical examples:
Can you find the Red Negg(s)? Try to work it out for yourself before reading
on. Remember that the numbered spaces may have an adjacent Red Negg in common.
If you are still stumped, remember that there are eight "adjacent" spaces
to any one space, like so:
All of the empty spaces are adjacent to the center.
With this in mind, if a Red Negg were on either end of the uncleared row,
there would be at least one "1" without a Red Negg near it, which would
be wrong. If there were Red Neggs on both ends, then the "1" in the center
would be wrong. Therefore, there is only one Red Negg, in the center ("X"
being the Red Negg).
The hyphenated spaces in this example would become "1" spaces. However,
as these examples can be used to identify patterns on larger playing fields,
the numbers could easily be represented by almost any other number--therefore,
for purposes of this article, hyphenated spaces will only indicate spaces
that need to be cleared.
Gameplay will be somewhat easier than the example patterns I've provided,
as the game will have a counter noting how many spaces still need to be
cleared ("Remaining").
Now try this one:
Uh-oh. There's two Red Neggs now?
This isn't much more difficult than the previous example. Just work it
out: if there was a Red Negg in the center of the uncleared row, then there
would be no place to have a second Red Negg without contradicting at least
one of the numbers. Therefore, the Red Neggs are at both ends of the row.
If even these simplified examples are giving you a hard time, that is why
the game provides flags for you to use to visualise where the Red Neggs are
(hold Control or Shift while clicking on a space to place or remove a flag).
That way, you can take each individual space into account and see whether a
possible Red Negg placement contradicts what the numbers tell you. Personally,
I don't use them, but I've played the game a few too many times.
More!
Oh, no! This is getting really hard! ...but again, test where the Red
Neggs could be, using trial and error--work it out on paper, if you need
to do so. Red Neggs on either end of the row will lead to a contradiction;
therefore, the Red Neggs must be in the center.
You may choose to note--and take advantage of--certain symmetrical properties
of the game. Symmetry in numbers will result in symmetry of Red Neggs especially
along long rows, as in these examples.
Sometimes, it's all a matter of counting.
Looks tough, doesn't it? But look again--the center number states that
there are three Red Neggs adjacent to it. How many uncleared spaces are
adjacent to that space? Three!
Let's add an extra dimension now:
This is a pattern you will find quite often. When a Red Negg is isolated from
other Red Neggs, this pattern will usually result. However, note that there
is one space that claims to have as many Red Neggs adjacent to it as there are
uncleared spaces adjacent to it (the upper right corner "1")
Take precaution to note the resulting values of the cleared spaces. Does
that final uncleared space have a Red Negg under it or not? There's no way
to tell from this example alone. If the resulting digits become "1," then
no, it is a space that needs to be cleared. If the resulting digits become
"2," then there is a Red Negg under it, and the puzzle is solved.
How about this?
This is really a variant of another example with
part of it cut off, but it's easy to figure out by itself, noting the numbers
on the top row. Again, there's no way to figure out just from the example whether
the isolated space has a Red Negg or not, but it is easy to deduce during gameplay
from the resulting number.
A big step up!
This I present as part of a larger playing field--not as a standalone--so
the "?" spaces could literally be almost anything (and are, for purposes
of this example, unimportant). I include this as a pattern I find fairly
regularly, deductions surrounding which may prove useful to you.
| |
|
|
? |
? |
| |
|
|
1 |
O |
| ? |
1 |
2 |
4 |
O |
| ? |
O |
O |
O |
O |
Here are the possible combinations for these:
|
| |
|
|
- |
- |
| |
|
|
1 |
- |
| - |
1 |
2 |
4 |
X |
| - |
- |
X |
X |
X |
|
| |
|
|
- |
- |
| |
|
|
1 |
X |
| - |
1 |
2 |
4 |
- |
| - |
- |
X |
X |
X |
|
The end result of this is that the "?" spaces in the original example,
if they weren't cleared before, should be cleared, and the three Red Neggs
consistently placed in each example should be marked as being such:
| |
|
|
- |
- |
| |
|
|
1 |
O |
| - |
1 |
2 |
4 |
O |
| - |
- |
X |
X |
X |
This may or may not seem very useful to you, but sometimes, even one more
cleared space or located Red Negg can help a lot.
Final lesson!
Remember what I said about Neggsweeper being heavily based on chance? Try
this:
| Remaining: 1 |
|
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
| 2 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
2 |
| 3 |
X |
O |
O |
X |
3 |
| 2 |
X |
X |
X |
X |
2 |
| 1 |
2 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
|
Can't figure it out, can you? The fact is that there are some arrangements
that just cannot be logically deduced. If you happen to come across this
situation early on where you know that one of at least two indeterminable
spaces needs to be cleared, you might as well go ahead and take a guess
right away rather than spending a lot of time clearing the rest of the board,
only to lose guessing at the final Red Negg. It may not seem fair, but there's
really no way to guarantee complete fairness without completely changing
the game... and isn't that what it is, in the end? Just a game?
I hope this has proved at least somewhat useful to you. Hopefully, my long
hours waste--I mean, well-spent on playing this game will be of benefit to you
as well :) If not... well, I tried. Thanks for reading! | 
