Amblestead level secrets: shell plates, a walking board and last light

Most of what makes an Amblestead level tick is right there on the board, but a few rules only show up once you look closely. At the top of this post is level 8, Mayor’s Corner, where the board is the corner itself, an L shape, with shell plates set into its floor. Some are still dull, two are wet and shiny, and three have already turned gold.

This Tuesday: how those plates work, what happens when the board starts to walk, and what the game does when the daylight runs out.

Shine first, then set

Shell plates are special cells on Amabel’s shell, and on some levels the goal asks you to set a number of them. Mayor Barty introduces them on level 8: “A plate shines when you clear a piece on it.”

A plate has three states. A dull plate has a dashed outline around its cell. Clear a piece on it, and it turns wet: glossy, with a bright rim. Leave a wet plate alone for one move, and it sets for good, a warm gold that counts toward the goal. From then on, nothing can undo it.

The catch is the moment in between. Clear another piece on a wet plate before it has set, and you scuff it back to dull. A plate can only be touched once per move, so one long chain of matches can’t wet it and scuff it in the same go. The next move can, though. On Mayor’s Corner, all 10 plates have to set within 22 moves, so where you play matters as much as what you match.

A close view of a hex board on the Warm Roofs level in Snow Pass, set against a pale blue winter sky, snowy mountains, small blue fir trees and white snow mounds; the board has a copper-brown rim and dark purple cells full of pieces: orange clay tiles, golden reed bundles, pink wool skeins, teal cogs, pale blue glass panes and two round white snowballs; in the middle rows four plates have set to warm gold under a pink wool skein, a teal cog, a reed bundle and one of the snowballs, one plate under another wool skein shines wet and lilac with a bright white rim, and two plates around a reed bundle and a cog still show only a dashed outline — Searched: “how to make gold.” Clear a piece, then wait a turn.

Plates come back all along the road. In Snow Pass, the third chapter, they run across the Warm Roofs, and the snowballs that fall onto the board can land on them too.

The board that walks

Amabel is walking to the sea, and from Red Canyon, the second chapter, some boards walk with her. She explains it herself: “Every few turns I take a step.”

Every few moves, the whole board shifts one column to the left. The column on the far left stays behind on the road, and a new column walks in from the right, with the low thump of Amabel’s footstep. A walking board is always a full rectangle, seven columns wide and eight rows tall, and 15 of the game’s 60 levels walk.

You always get a warning. A round badge with a turtle footprint counts down the moves to the next step, and the column that comes next waits just past the right edge, drawn half see-through, so you know what it brings before it arrives. Sometimes that’s a special piece.

The Echo Horn level in Red Canyon in the middle of a step: a tall rectangular hex board with a copper-brown rim fills the left of the picture against an orange sky, flat-topped red mesas, a stack of round rocks and a stone arch at the right edge; the whole board is sliding one column to the left, so the pieces of its leftmost column, teal cogs, golden reed bundles, orange clay tiles and a pink wool skein, are cut off at the board’s left edge as they leave; in the middle rows, plates mark the shape of a horn, three of them set to gold under a reed bundle, a wool skein and a glass pane, the rest still outlined with dashed lines around cogs, glass panes, reed bundles and wool skeins, and just past the right edge a column of faint, half see-through cells waits to walk in, with two faded Keystones in it, cream discs with a wedge-shaped stone, one above the other — Search: “does the board move in a match puzzle.” Every few turns.

Whatever stays behind is gone. Pieces in that left column don’t count toward the blueprint, and a special piece left there is lost, so it’s worth firing it while you can. Plates walk off too. The Echo Horn, the last level of Red Canyon, draws a horn in 12 plates, but the goal asks for only 11. That leaves room for the first plate of the tube, which walks out on move 8.

One thing works in your favor. Lichen, the gray crust that turns pieces to stone, counts as cleared when its column walks away.

When the daylight runs low

Amblestead has no timers and no lives. Your moves are daylight, and a little sun sinks on a dial as you play. In the last five moves, the whole scene dims a bit more with every move, until the sky takes on the color of dusk.

The Sun Awnings level in the Glass Desert as dusk falls: a tall hex board with a notch in its top edge stands left of center over sand dunes with pale glass spikes and tufts of dry grass, and the whole scene, sky, sun, sand and board, is dimmed under a dusky brown veil, the big desert sun faded to a pale disc with soft rays; on the board, seven plates in the middle rows have set to gold under golden reed bundles, pink wool skeins, teal cogs and an orange clay tile, one plate under a glass pane still has its dashed outline, and a little higher up a few cells glow reddish brown with fine cracks, the hot stones — Search history: “sunset time today,” then “3 more moves.”

If the daylight runs out while you’re close, the game offers Last light. “Close” has an exact meaning: what’s left is no more than 15 percent of the whole goal, or 3 items, whichever is more. A sheet says “The sun lingers on the shell” and offers 3 more moves, free, once per try. You can also pick Let dusk fall and end the try.

If dusk does fall, nothing is lost, and the next try starts on a fresh board. Lose the same level twice, and Delva leaves a Keystone on the board for your next try. Lose it four times, and your friends lend their tools: every booster you’ve unlocked is free to use on that level.

That’s the whole list. Losing never quietly makes a level easier or harder behind your back. The only help is the help the game tells you about.

Chapter 1 of Amblestead, with Mayor’s Corner and its first plates, is free to play in your browser at amblestead.com. The full game, all six chapters and 60 levels, is $4.99, paid once. More about the game is on its Amblestead page.