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This is an updated version of motosan's original Hexic FAQ, posted on the xbox.com Hexic forum in March, 2006.
Index
Hexic HD Frequently Asked Questions
Introduction
This FAQ is intended for players who are interested in Hexic, or otherwise new to the game. Some of the information below is presented in the game's Rules and Tips screens, and beginners are advised to read these screens to see pictures of the principles involved in game play as well as the tiles and other game pieces. This FAQ answers many questions that aren't covered in the game's help screens, and then directs readers to advice on some more advanced techniques here at Hexic.info.

Q: What is Hexic HD?
Hexic HD is the Xbox Live Arcade game that comes free on all Xbox 360 harddrives. It was created by Tetris creator Alexey Pajitnov, and has been redone in HD for Xbox Live. Hexic is also available as a free MSN game. The controls are different since the player uses a keyboard instead of a 360 controller, and of course there are no Achievements, but the game itself is essentially the same.

Q: I want to start playing — Where do I find the game?
A: To play Hexic HD on the Xbox 360, go to the Dashboard, select the Games tab, then scroll down to Xbox Live Arcade and select that. This will take you to the Arcade section, and you will see any Arcade games you've purchased and any free demos you've downloaded from Marketplace. Since Hexic comes free on 360s sold with the HDD, you should see Hexic there. Use the link in the answer above to find Hexic in the MSN games space.

Q: Do I need to have a Live Gold account or be on the internet?
A: You don't need either—in fact, if you just got an HDD xbox 360 and haven't purchased any games yet, Hexic is the only thing you can play! You just need to create a profile, then sign in and look on the Dashboard for Hexic as explained above.

Q: Can I get Hexic back if I accidentally delete it?
A: Yes, you can get it back if you have deleted it. What you need to do is to call Xbox support and they will ask you some questions that you need to verify. When that is done they will give you a code which you type in to the redeem code field at marketplace. After that you will be able to download it again. More info can be found over at the official Hexic forum on Xbox.com

Q: How do I play Hexic?
A: The Hexic game board is composed of 10 staggered columns of hexagonal tiles. The basic move in Hexic is to grab a trio of tiles and rotate them clockwise or counter clockwise so that three tiles of the same color touch. This is called a Combo; the three combined tiles disappear, earning you some points, and causing three new tiles to fall from the top to fill up the board again.

Q: Is Hexic that simple?
A: No! Hexic becomes a complex game because as you progress, other types of tiles with unique qualities either appear by themselves or are created by the player.

Q: What are the types of game pieces and combinations in Hexic?
A: They are as follows:

  1. Hexic Tile: The normal tiles are different colors (red, yellow, light green, dark green, blue, purple, and magenta).

  2. Starred Tile: This is a colored tile, but it has a star outline on it, and it has several qualities that make it much different from a normal tile.

    • Combining a starred tile with normal tiles of the same color gives you more points.
    • A starred tile can be comboed with two other starred tiles of any color for even more points.
    • When you combine a starred tile with a bomb cluster, the bomb is removed, as are all other tiles of the same color.
    • A starred tile is also a score multiplier when used in flower clusters (more on that below).

  3. Bomb Tile: This is a colored tile that includes a bomb and a counter. To remove a bomb, you must combo it with two other tiles of the same color. If you do not do this before the bomb's counter reaches zero, your game is over.

  4. Silver Star: When you surround a game piece of any color or type with six tiles, each of which is the same color (for example, if you surround a red tile with six green tiles), the six surrounding pieces disappear and you create a silver star.

    • The silver star can be rotated as any normal tile in a three-piece group, but it also lets you select the six pieces surrounding it and rotate them as a group. This is one of the most powerful moves in Hexic and the fundamental tool for getting high scores.
    • When you have made two silver stars, you can place one next to the other and use them as a pair to ‘walk' around the board (more on this below).
    • You can surround a silver star with six pieces of the same color just as you did to create the silver star: when you do this, a second silver star drops from the top of the board in the same column as the original silver star.

  5. Star Flower: This is what we call a Hexic piece surrounded by six same-colored pieces. You only see star flowers for a moment, though, because they disappear as soon as you create them. Making star flowers is a fundamental part of Hexic scoring strategies (more on this below).

  6. Black Pearl: When you create a star flower of silver stars, you create a black pearl instead of another silver star. Pearls have their own unique qualities:

    • Pearls cannot be removed from the board.
    • There are two types of pearls: one grabs three adjacent pieces in the shape of a Y, and the other type grabs three adjacent pieces in the form of an upside down Y. Both are very useful for moving tiles in certain situations.
    • Pearls can be used to end games, either by creating a 3-pearl combo, or the grand daddy of them all, a black pearl star flower, also called the Grand Pearl Pooh-Bah.
Q: Are there different game modes in Hexic HD?
A: Hexic has three game modes: Marathon, Timed, and Survival.
  • In Marathon, you work your way through the levels at your own pace, and the game ends when one of three things happens: you are unable to remove a bomb in the allowed number of moves; you make a 3-pearl cluster; or you make a 6-pearl flower.
  • In Timed, you must work quickly to make combos before your clocks runs out. Making combos of different types puts time back on the clock, or extends its capacity.
  • In Survival, you work through 50 levels trying either to clear the board of pieces, or survive until level 50. Unlike in the two other modes, in Survival comboed tiles are not replaced with new tiles from the top until you can longer make any combos. Then the level is over, remaining tiles are locked in place, and new tiles fill the board again to begin the next level. Locked tiles can then be unlocked by becoming parts of live tile combos or by making a star flower.
Q: Does Hexic HD have multiplayer modes?
A: No.

Q: Are there leaderboards?
A: Yes, for all three game modes, which you can sort by top scores, friends' scores, or where your own score falls on the overall board. You can view the current Xbox Live leaderboards here at Hexic.info.

Q: Can I save a Hexic game?
A: Sort of. You can stop a Hexic game at any time by pressing Start. You can then exit the game in progress and even quit Hexic. When you restart Hexic, you will be asked if you want to resume your game in progress. If you say Yes, you will return to the exact point where you left off. CAUTION: if you want to preserve a game in progress, make sure to exit the game and quit Hexic. If you just turn off the 360 or otherwise interrupt a game in progress without exiting back to the main menu, Hexic won't save your progress and your game will be lost.

Q: I find it difficult to distinguish one color from another. Is there anything I can do?
A: Yes. Hexic allows you to turn on Patterns, which are symbols superimposed so that each colored tile has a corresponding symbol, which many players find this helpful. You can turn symbols on in the game Options. Sadly, patterns do not show on bombs, though.

Q: How many Levels are there in Hexic Marathon?
A: There are seven levels. Each level has an increasing number of combos required to move to the next level:
    Level 1 - 50 combos - no bombs, no multipliers
    Level 2 - 60 combos - multipliers begin
    Level 3 - 70 combos - bombs begin
    Level 4 - 80 combos
    Level 5 - 90 combos
    Level 6 - 100 combos
    Level 7 - Unlimited—play until a bomb, pearl combo or pearl flower ends the game
Q: What are MMCs?
A: Massive Multiplier Combos are complex arrangements of normal and multiplier pieces that combine to make huge scores when triggered. See below.

Q: Is there a guide to making high scores?
A: Hexic.info has several scoring guides: RFG Scorpi's Original Scoring Guide and Xraf's Advanced Scoring Guide. The first shows how to use the 4 x 4 grid to build six-multiplier star flowers and score 1,120,000 points at a time. The second discusses how MMCs can score much larger numbers with a single move.

Hexic HD achievements
25 G - Grand Pearl Pooh-Bah
Create a flower with Black Pearls.
Can easiest be achieved by using a complete grid system.
25 G - Millionaire Extraordinaire
1,000,000 Total Points.
Can easiest be achieved by using starwalking and parts of a grid system.
25 G - Hexic Addict
End 100 Games, counted over all game modes.
If you have patience you will get this one.
20 G - Big Cheese of the South Seas
Create a Black-Pearl Cluster.
Can easiest be achieved by using a complete grid system.
20 G - Marathon Mogul
150,000 Points in Marathon mode.
Can easiest be achieved by using starwalking and parts of a grid system.
20 G - Tick-Tock Doc
75,000 Points in Timed mode.
Can easiest be achieved by using starwalking and parts of a grid system.
15 G - Oyster-meister
Create a Black Pearl.
Can only be done in Marathon and Timed mode. Use starwalking or a grid to make it easier.
15 G - Survivalist
Beat Survival mode.
Either clear the board from all pieces or complete level 50 in Survival mode on any difficulty.
15 G - Flower Child
Create a starflower.
It is easiest to look for a spot that has all three bottom pieces in position and continue from that.
10 G - Collapse Master
Make 5000 Total Combos over all game modes.
This can be done in any gamemode and all you have to do is to cluster random pieces on the board.
5 G - Star Gazer
Multiplier/Bonus-Star Cluster.
Combine three, or more, multipliers/bonus pieces in the same cluster in any game mode.
5 G - Cluster Buster
Make a total of 25 combos.
This can be done in any gamemode and all you have to do is to cluster random pieces on the board.

Hexic Notation
It is useful to have to describe positions and moves on the Hexic board, so here is a notation scheme that allows us to do just that.

For the Masters grid
  1. Any individual spot on the Hexic board can be referred to by its column and row, starting at the top left, which is 1-1, and ending with 10-9 in the bottom right. The Masters Grid, or MG, uses silver stars to nullify five spaces as follows: 1-3, 1-6, 10-2, 10-5 and 10-8. Only two spaces of the MG are not functional and not filled with silver stars, those being 10-1 and 10-9.



  2. Hexic has seven colors as follows: yellow, blue, purple, light green, dark green, magenta, red. Colors can be abbreviated with Y, B, P, LG, DG, M and R.

  3. There are 20 functional star positions on the Masters Grid. Each is referred to with a capital S and a number, S1, S2…S20, where S8 is the last silver star in the second row from the top. Note that the non-functional silver stars listed in point 1 are not referred to with S-#.



  4. Pieces attached to the 20 silver stars can be referred to after a colon by position around the silver star, starting at the top and counting up as you move clockwise around the star, where S3:4 is the bottom piece in the flower.



  5. A range of pieces around a grid star can be referred to with a hyphen, S4:4-6.

  6. A Clockwise rotation can be abbreviated with CW.

  7. A Counter-Clockwise rotation can be abbreviated with CCW.

  8. Multiple rotations of the same selection can be indicated with the number of rotations after CW or CCW, such as S4:2 CWx3.

  9. A simple three-piece selection will always have one piece above the other two pieces, and thus can be indicated by first naming the uppermost piece in the selection and the direction of the selection as L for left and R for right: 5-4L.

  10. If the writer wishes to warn of a potential combo, he or she can place an exclamation point after the move: S2 CW!

  11. Since it is at times useful to make clear we are discussion a Pearl rotation, put (P) to note this. S1:3(P) CW.

  12. When something important has been accomplished, note this in brackets: S2 CW [new pearl created]

  13. When referring to a silver star, we assume a rotation instruction means to use the silver star as the center of a star flower unless the silver star's position is followed by an L or an R, which indicates the silver star is part of a 3-piece combo. So 4-8 CW means to select the flower around the silver star at 4-8 and rotate the flower CW. 4-8R CW means to select the silver star and the two pieces to its right and rotate the trio of pieces only.
A similar system can be used for the 4 x 4 grid with the following differences:
  1. There are 16 star positions on the 4 x 4 grid. Each is referred to with a capital S and a number, S1, S2…S16, where S5 is the first silver star in the second row from the top.



  2. The rightmost row is not used once it has been blocked off with alternating pearls and silver stars, so these positions are generally not needed when referring to moves.