Puzzle Strike How to Play & Review

Puzzle Strike is a chip-based vs deck-building game.

Title: Puzzle Strike

Year Published: 2011

Designer: David Sirlin

Publisher: Sirlin Games

Players: 2-4

Game Time: 20 Mins

Set-up Time: >5 Mins

Ages: 10+

Theme: 2D Fighting Games

Mechanic: Deck Building

How to win: Have the fewest chips in your Gem pile when a player is eliminated

Game Description

Puzzle Strike is a card game played with cardboard chips instead of cards that simulates a puzzle video game such as Puzzle Fighter or Tetris.

It’s a deck building game, which means you build your deck *as* you play the game. Every game is different because the bank starts with a different set of chips each time. Also, there are 10 characters to choose from in the base set, each with different game play. Between all that, there are over 411 MILLION starting conditions in a 4-player game, and even more if you include the expansion.

Puzzle Strike Set Up

Each player takes a screen and a game board along with 6x 1 Gem Chips and 1 x Crash Gem.

Each player also chooses a character and puts that character’s 3 special chips into their bag, along with the other basic chips making a total of 10 chips.

The bank is made of the following…

In every game, these are added to the middle of the table…

• The rest of the 1 Gem Chips
• The 2 Gem Chips
• The 3 Gem Chips
• The 4 Gem chips
• The Combine Gems
• The Crash Gems
• The Double Crash Gem
• Wound Chips

Then 10 random stacks of the other chips are used to make up the rest of the bank.

Puzzle Strike Game Play

Gameplay is over 4 phases following the pattern A -> A -> B -> C

A – Ante

Put a 1 Gem from the bank into your gem pile

A – Action

You can play ONE action Chip

B – Buy

You MUST buy at least one chip

C – Clean Up

Discard any chips you drew this turn and draw 5 more

End Game

If a player has a Gem pile totalling 10 or more at the end of their turn the game ends. The player with the smallest Gem Pile is the winner. In the case of a tie, those players take one turn each until the tie is broken.

Puzzle Strike Round-Up

This is essentially a deck-building game. But, there’s so much other stuff happening you can’t JUST call it a deck-building game.

The Ante phase is just a way of getting Gems into the game. You Ante 1 per turn. As the game goes on and stacks are depleted from the bank, the Ante goes up. Where X is the number of players if that many stacks are depleted the number of Ante is increased by 1. So in a 4-player game, when 4 stacks are depleted the Ante increases to 2, 5 stacks is 3, 4 Stacks is 4.

This means as the game goes on it rapidly speeds up and stays interesting.

The Action phase is interesting. You only have 1 action so use it wisely. Some action tokens allow you to take more actions so chaining these are important. The whole point is to ‘Crash’ the Gems in your pile into someone else’s. They can counter crash which uses Gems in their gem pile to Crash into yours removing Gems from the game (Reducing both player’s piles)

Getting a balance of chips that give you extra Actions, chips that allow you to Crash and Block, Draw Chips, and Bank Chips which give you money to spend AND allow you to manage your Gem pile is the key.

This shows it isn’t just a normal deck builder.

Buying Phase

The Buy phase is where you have to make these choices.

You HAVE to buy so if you don’t have any money to spend you take a wound token which does nothing but takes up room in your ‘deck’.

Even the Clean Up phase is something you need to pay attention to.

You can Bank Chips if you played the relevant action in the Action phase meaning you can put unplayed chips in your hand to one side before drawing. This is KEY to building a good strategy.

The downside is experienced players vs new players… With the way, you NEED to build a deck to win a lot of players buy Crash gems early or do not have enough money to gain chips.

Also, new players Counter crash far too often. Counter crashing removes Gems from the play area and sometimes you need more Gems in play to get to the game end, especially if you’re ahead.

Puzzle Strike Rating

It’s a fun game, as long as everyone knows what they’re doing. There’s a lot more to it than just trying to keep your own Gem pile down. When you’re in the lead you NEED gems in play so counter crashing isn’t something you always want to do.

I give it 5/10

Initial Puzzle Strike Thoughts From Tabletop Day 2013

I do like deck-building games and I like that this doesn’t use cards and simulates Puzzle Fighter, that’s different.

It got off to a slow start but soon gathered pace. It got quite exciting towards the end but in both games using the basic set-up the same player won and the same player lost.

I think the balance of the games suffered from one person not buying enough Purple and people not buying enough Gems in general.

We played one more game at the end of the night with a different set-up. I lost.

I really liked playing it. I’m not a huge fan of PVP games unless they are indirect, such as Penny Arcade but in this case, there is usually one target you have to Crash your gems at.

Tactically it’s great, the gameplay is great, and components are great. Love it, and can’t wait to play it again.

Fave 5 Puzzle Strike Characters

Puzzle Strike is a great vs deck-building game using chips that bring Puzzle Fighter to the tabletop.

One of the best things about the game is the character you choose to use means you have to play the game very differently.

This is my Fave 5 from this set including a brief look at each of their 3 special chips.

5 – Valerie

One chip gives extra actions. One draws a chip and crashes a gem. One lets you choose two out of 4 actions.

The extra actions and variety in this character make her great to use.

4 – Argagarg

One gem slows players down when combining gems. One deals out wounds. One acts as a shield.

Stopping players combining gems unless they discard a chip and putting wounds in their deck really slows them down. The Bubble Shield protects you which is great.

3 – Grave

One gives you the option of 1 out of 3 to choose from. One allows you to upgrade a chip. One lets you draw 2 chips but can also be used as a Counter Crash Gem.

This guy is pretty quick. Two of the chips give you an extra action of any type, one can be used as an emergency counter crash gem. You can also trash a chip to gain a chip costing 2 more than the trashed chip… love it.

2 – Midori

One lets you raise the value of your ante to stop your chips being countered. Another lets you trash a chip to gain a 2 chip. One lets you upgrade a chip if an opponent buys an expensive chip.

The Dragon Form, which lets you ante 1 higher than normal but stops your chips from being counter crashed is great. It helps you control the game a little and is immensely powerful.

1 – Jaina

One lets you ante a chip to gain more actions and draw a chip. One is a double crash gem and you gain wounds. One lets you trash a wound to gain an action and add a wound into opponents gem pile.

Danger Zone!

It’s a big risk to play but with massive rewards. Gaining wounds to Double Crash and using the wound to gain actions and add gems to opponents gem piles is great.

Big risks but worth it. Really fun to play.

Jesta ThaRogue