How to play Triple Town – Spry Fox Support

Introduction

Triple Town is a strategic puzzle game in the "Match-3" genre. Other well-known games of this genre include Candy Crush, Bejeweled, and Snood. In Match-3 games, the core mechanic is that putting 3 or more of the same object type in a specific configuration (e.g., putting 3 red apples in a row) is beneficial to the player’s performance.

The goal

The goal is to build the greatest town you can! This largely correlates to scoring as many points as you can.

Number of players

Triple Town is essentially a single-player game. Competitive modes exist on some platforms, but the competition consists of competitors independently playing the single-player game and then comparing the results.

The game board

The Triple Town game board is a grid. The standard game board is a 6x6 grid; however, some maps have other dimensions.

Basic gameplay cycle

The game gives you a randomly chosen object (e.g., a Bush, Grass, or Bear).
You choose an empty square on the board in which to place the object. Click that empty square and the object will be placed there.

The above two steps comprise one turn of play. You repeat until the game board is full, at which point the game is over.

In the mobile game, the number of turns is limited. They will begin to recharge over time when you are close to running out.

Matching

The board would fill up in under a few dozen turns if there was nothing else to the game. Fortunately there is more to the game! If you place the object such that it makes a group of 3 or more adjacent objects of the same type (e.g., there are now 3 Bushes next to each other), then all of the adjacent matching objects will consolidate into a single object of a more advanced type (e.g., the 3 Bushes will consolidate into 1 Tree). This frees up space on the board, affording you a few more turns to play before the game board becomes full.

By skillful play (and some luck helps, too), players have made their games last hundreds or even thousands of turns.

Example 1: 3 Bushes make a Tree

Example 2: 3 Bushes make a Tree in a different location

Example 3: 2 Grasses and 1 Bush don't make anything

Object progression

	Grass is the lowest object—nothing can make Grass.
	3+ Grasses consolidate into 1 Bush.
	3+ Bushes consolidate into 1 Tree.
	3+ Trees consolidate into 1 Hut
...	Etc. as per the graphic below.

Combos

Well, what if I placed a Grass such that 3+ Grasses consolidated into 1 Bush, but the newly created Bush is now part of a group of 3 or more adjacent Bushes? Well, then those 3+ Bushes would in the same move combine to form 1 Tree. This is a combo. It’s not worth more points than a non-combo, but it can be very helpful for clearing space.

Special Objects

	An Imperial Bot is not to be placed on the board. Rather, when the game gives you an Imperial Bot, you should click an object on the board whose position you do not like. When you do so, the object will be destroyed (or become a Tombstone if it's an enemy—described below) and the Imperial Bot will be consumed.
	A Crystal is a wildcard that facilitates matching. If you place a Crystal in an empty square, the game will consider whether any type of object placed in that square would have completed a match. If so, the Crystal becomes that type of object and the match is made. But, if no type of object will result in a completed match, the Crystal turns into a Rock.
	A Rock is never given to you by the game as an object to place. Rocks are created on the board when you place a Crystal that doesn't complete a match. You can use an Imperial Bot to destroy a Rock. Alternatively, 3 or more adjacent Rocks make a Mountain...

Enemies

	Sometimes the object that the game gives you is a Bear. Once placed, a Bear moves around the game board—one square per turn—which might interfere with your intended placement of an object on a particular square. Bears can be defeated by hemming them in—a group of Bears that all cannot move will become Tombstones.
	Ninja Bears are like normal Bears in that they move once per turn. However, a Ninja Bear moves by jumping to any empty square on the board. Thus most players consider them more difficult to deal with than normal Bears since they cannot be penned in—they'll just jump out of the pen! The best way to deal with a Ninja Bear is probably with an Imperial Bot. Also, a Ninja Bear with no empty square to jump to will die and become a Tombstone.
	Robin Bear is a little bit complicated. You can learn more about him here. He currently appears only in the Robin Bear map, which is currently available only in the iOS and Google Play versions of the game.
	This is a Tombstone. Enemies that die turn into Tombstones. 3 or more adjacent Tombstones make a Church, 3 Churches make a Cathedral, etc.

Storehouse

In most game boards, one square (shaped like a disk) is a Storehouse space. The Storehouse is an inherent feature of the game board--you cannot create it or destroy it.

The purpose of the Storehouse is that you can put into it an object the game has given you which you’d prefer to play later rather than now. E.g., maybe the game has given you an Imperial Bot but there is nothing currently on the board that you desire to destroy. Put the Imperial Bot into the Storehouse so that you can use it when you really need it!

To put your current object into Storehouse - Click the Storehouse.

If there is nothing currently in the Storehouse, the object will simply occupy the Storehouse square, and the game will give you a new object to place.
If there is something currently in Storehouse, your current object will swap places with it—there can only be one object in the Storehouse space—and you will be asked to place the previously stored object.

To get the stored object out of Storehouse - Click the Storehouse. Your current object will swap places with the stored object. Now you can place the object that was previously stored!
To place the object that you just got out of Storehouse - Click the space where you'd like the object to be placed—just like you would do if the game had given you the object.

Note that an object in the Storehouse will not match with objects adjacent to the Storehouse—you have to take the object out of Storehouse and place the object on the board if you wish to use it to make a match.

Scoring

The scoring rules vary slightly between different implementations of the game, and between different game boards. In general,

You get points for placing an object. The higher up in the progression an object is, the more points you earn for placing it.
You get points when objects consolidate. The higher up in the progression the formed object is, the more points you earn for creating it.
You lose points when you destroy an object with an Imperial Bot. The higher up in the progression the destroyed object is, the more points you lose.
Super objects are worth double the points of a normal object. Super objects differ slightly in appearance from normal objects, as shown below. With some exceptions, a super object is created when the match is made with 4+ objects instead of the usual 3.
versus

Coins

Coins are a virtual currency. You earn coins by playing the game. Some ways to earn coins in the Standard Map game mode are:

During the game you may create a Treasure Chest. Click the Treasure Chest to open it and claim the Coins inside.
When a game is finished, you receive Coins based on how many turns your town lasted.
When a game is finished, you receive Coins based on what level of development your town reached (which is a function of how many points you scored).
When a game is finished, you receive Coins for each Mansion, Castle, or other high-tier structure on the game board.

In the mobile versions of the game, Coins can also be bought with real money. In the computer version they cannot be bought with real money.

In-Game Store

The In-Game Store sells things that might be helpful to a player. You purchase them with Coins. Some of the items you might find in the In-Game Store include:

Imperial Bots
Crystals
Bushes
Undo (Lets you take back the most recent turn you played. Useful if you made a mistake.)
And more!

Please note the following:

You always purchase only a single item from the store at a time. E.g., in the screenshot above, clicking the object in the upper-right corner of the store will purchase 1 Imperial Bot, NOT a pack of 4 Imperial Bots.
The "x4", "x6," etc. that you see on objects in the store is the amount of stock that the store has remaining for purchase.
Most items in the store have limited stock. This page discusses how the In-Game Store's inventory gets replenished.
The Undo function will sometimes intentionally be disabled for 1 turn after certain actions where it would be hard for the game to reverse the action taken.

Winning

Unless you're playing one of the competitive modes, this isn't really a game about winning. It's meant to be played over and over, seeing whether you can do better than the last time. A good analogy might be "endless-mode Tetris"—you play until the game ends, then you start again.

Some tips

When a match is made, the objects will consolidate to the location in which the final object was played. Use this knowledge to ensure that the newly created object will be in a good position to facilitate further matchmaking. E.g., when you place your third Grass to make a Bush, try to do it such that the new Bush is adjacent to a second Bush. Then you can place or create a third Bush adjacent to the first two and make a Tree!
Consider placing objects such that they will barricade off a little pen in which you can place any Bears you get. Then the Bears can be left to wander around the pen without interfering with the rest of your town-building efforts.
The game doesn't purposely give you the object you need. It also doesn't purposely withhold the object you need. It doesn't cheat for you or against you!
The villagers that meander about your town are just decorative. They don't have any effect on the game.