Discover the 'Elegant Solution' for Lumines Remastered. Learn how to create a stable block pattern to unlock everything, even if it's a bit boring!
Alright, let's talk about something that's been a real head-scratcher for a lot of Lumines players: finding a truly 'ultimate' way to play. The game is just that good at defying simple solutions!
I remember trying all sorts of things when I first got into Lumines, even sketching out patterns on graph paper. I thought I'd cracked it with something I called 'the elegant solution,' but nope, it turned out to be neither elegant nor a true solution!
But hey, the quest for that perfect strategy continues. I've heard from other players who've also been digging into this, and one person, Casey Whitelaw, even wrote a program to find 'loops' of blocks. His blog (www.caseyporn.com) has some really insightful stuff if you're a deep-dive Lumines fan. He even sent me some thoughts:
I really enjoyed your FAQ on Lumines, thanks very much. It took me a while to find it, and I thought I might have to write it myself, so I was very glad when I read it! The most interesting thing for me was the solution you proposed for dealing with deuces in a loop seperately to the other pieces, nice thinking. Anyway, I wrote a program to find loops like that for all the pieces, turns out that there's space for a loop for each block-type. I wrote it up on a web page: [link to his page] if you're curious. Cheers, Casey
Honestly, Casey's effort is super impressive. His program is similar to one I tinkered with, but likely way more efficient. I'm bringing some of my older notes back here, from a previous version of this guide, just to show you one way people have tried to 'solve' Lumines. It actually worked for a bit, keeping things stable up to around 25,000 points. The trick was managing the 'timeline' – when you drop blocks relative to the sweeping line – and getting decent 'destroyer' blocks. It wasn't exactly thrilling gameplay, though, and honestly, it felt like more work than just playing the game normally!
This is really for the absolute hardcore players out there, the ones who want to see every possibility. Looking back, it seems a bit wild, but I'm leaving it in here as it was. I guess I really did think I'd found 'the' solution back then.
The Elegant Solution
It took some serious effort, but I eventually figured out a way to kind of 'beat' Lumines. It's pretty boring, and you miss out on all the cool, clutch saves and massive combos you get in a 'real' game, but it's surprisingly effective for unlocking content. Your score will climb slower because you're not chaining those awesome combos, but you can always go back to playing normally once you've unlocked everything using this method. It does take some skill to stick to the pattern and nail the timing with the sweep line, though!
A. Elegant Solution Overview
The main idea is to build a specific pattern along the very bottom of the grid. You're aiming for something like this, using three different block types:
Pattern 1:
Imagine the grid. You want to create a solid block of 'XX' pieces across the bottom, leaving gaps in specific spots. Here's a visual:
----------- ----------- ----------- |XX|XX|XX|XX| | | | | |XX| | |XX| XX|XX|XX|XX| | | | | |XX| | |XX| --+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ --+--+--+--| XX| | |XX| |XX|XX| | | |XX|XX| | XX| | |XX| |XX|XX| | | |XX|XX| | ----------- ----------- ----------- XX| | |XX| |XX|XX| | | |XX|XX| | XX| | |XX| |XX|XX| | | |XX|XX| | --+--+--+--+--+--+--+--+ --+--+--+--| XX|XX|XX|XX| | | | | |XX| | |XX|
This shows the basic structure you're trying to achieve at the bottom. It's all about carefully placing blocks to create these repeating sections.
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