Optimization
This article contains advanced strategies for players already familiar with how to play Magical Drop III. If you are new to the game, we suggest you start with our introduction instead.
Optimizing Your Offense
In Magical Drop, there are two key ways to put additional pressure on your opponent, efficient puzzle solving and refining your chain reaction length. By understanding the theory behind these techniques, and actively seeking to apply them in game, you will find yourself capable of rapid improvement.
Solving Puzzles Efficiently
One aspect of Magical Drop you’ve likely noticed by now is that the game places little or no restrictions on how quickly you can input commands for your clown. This is most apparent in matches against the notorious boss character Black Pierrot, whose clown looks as if it’s teleporting around the bottom of his board.
Should a player find themselves unable to match the raw speed of their opponent, there is still hope. By efficiently solving their puzzle, thus reducing the total number of inputs they need to perform, they can close the gap.
To illustrate this concept, let's perform a quick exercise. Look at the sample board state below and try to determine what is the fewest number of inputs you’d have to perform to clear all the balloons. Count an input as any of the following: moving the clown one space to the left or right, grabbing balloons, and releasing balloons. Once you believe you have the answer, continue reading the next section.
So, do you think you got it? If your answer was eight, you were correct. By popping the green balloons first with the following string of inputs you’ll clear the board as efficiently as possible: grab, right, release, left, left, grab, left, release.
While the above is likely the first solution that comes to mind for many players, there are numerous less efficient lines you could have followed when forced to act in a split second. Popping the red balloons first takes just a single input more, relatively insignificant in the scope of a round. However, choosing to pop the yellow bubbles first would require nearly triple the number of inputs as our most efficient solution.
Refining Your Chain Reactions
Super Puzzle Fighter II One-Hit K.O.
When you look at other competitive puzzle games like Super Puzzle Fighter II, the amount of trash sent to your opponent by creating chains increases exponentially as you build longer combos. String together a combo long enough and you may even be able to knock out your opponent in a single attack regardless of their board state.
However, in Magical Drop this is not the case. Magical Drop only scales attacks up to six times, and even the strongest level is unable to instantly defeat your opponent. Should you continue your chain reaction after reaching the strongest attack level you’re no longer sending more bubbles to your opponent, just working towards reaching your quota.
The chart below lists the various stages of attacks. Take a moment to read it over, taking a close look at how the length of your chain reaction influences the number of rows that would be sent to your opponent.
Perhaps the most interesting thing you may have noticed is that creating a chain reaction of 2 is the most efficient means of attacking. Quickly creating a pair of 2-chains would send 150% the number of rows when compared to a single 4-chain despite requiring less planning and execution. Because of the potency of “2-chaining” many players will intentionally leave gaps in their combos, allowing the counter to reset for the opportunity to generate more offensive pressure.
If we combine this with our knowledge of drop shapes from previous articles we’ll see 2-chaining becomes even more appealing. To understand why, take a look at the comparison of High Priestess’ single 6-chain drop as opposed to a pair of 2-chain drops.
Since early steps in drop shapes tend to have more blank spaces this strategy will allow you to not only send MORE lines, but LESS total bubbles. The double 2-chain pattern is not only extremely disruptive to your opponent’s board state, but makes it much less likely they’ll be able to quickly reach quota.
Combining Our Concepts
While the previously mentioned techniques are both important for improving as a Magical Drop player, you’ll often find them at odds with one another. Our sample board state from earlier is a great example of how applies in game.
As we learned, the quickest way to clear this board would be to move the lone green balloon over one row to the right, then moving your clown back to the left to clear the red balloons. Doing so would result in an efficient four-chain that would send 6 rows of balloons to your opponent.
On the other hand, our less efficient solution, starting to clear the board with the yellow balloons, would set up two easy two-chains and would send 8 rows of balloons to your opponent. But which is the proper course of action? Well, it could be either depending on the flow of the game.
If you are against the ropes, trying to prevent yourself from being forced off the board, the more efficient solution is the preferred method, as it is quick and consistent. However, should you find yourself on the offensive, trying to force a desperate opponent off the board, we’d strongly recommend the latter strategy as the two additional lines could make all the difference.
As you continue to mature as a Magical Drop player, you’ll become more aware of how often these situations occur within a match and rely on your game sense to help make judgement calls of how to proceed.