What Is Treasure Hunt Mode?
Treasure Hunt is one of the game modes, or ‘mini games’, in Gems of War, available from the ‘Games’ menu at the cost of one Treasure Map. These are easy enough to get (especially if you farm them using a Troop like Tyri or Marid), but once you have them, is Treasure Hunt worth playing? Many high level players will tell you that the rewards aren’t worth the time it takes, and they’re right – for them. But at low level especially it can provide some very useful extra resources. Personally, I still play it even though the returns are low, simply because I enjoy it. I think that’s partly because it reminds me of the original Puzzle Quest. It’s also very streamlined: no Troops, no Spells, no Heroic Gems. Just the player vs the board.
How To Play Treasure Hunt
When you start a Treasure Hunt game you’re presented with a grid made up from three colours of token and a number of money bags. You start with a limited number of turns and each move usually costs you one of those. However if you match 4 then the move is free; if you match 5 then you actually gain an extra turn. When the counter hits zero, it’s game over. The number of turns you start with is 8 by default, this can be increased by Guild bonuses- one of the many good reasons for joining one.
A big difference between this mode and normal gameplay is that when you make a match, not all of the tokens involved disappear. Instead, the one you matched remains but is upgraded to the next higher level: Red Stars -> Blue Cups -> Yellow Crowns -> Money Bags. These then level up through the different chests until you reach the Vault/Safedoor. This highest level of token can’t be moved or matched.
Knowing these upgrades should allow you to plan some nice combos, but that’s too much for my ageing brain!
Rewards
Once you run out of turns, all the tokens on the board are turned into reward loot. Colour tokens just give gold, all Money Bags and higher have the possibility of giving better rewards – the graphic on the right hand side of the Treasure Hunt screen shows you what.
In addition, you also receive one random Traitstone for every 15 turns you lasted. The turn count and current Traitstone bonus count is shown at the top of the screen during the game. At low levels, these can be extremely useful.
Treasure Hunt Hints and Tips
The ‘best’ move is highly context dependent, however this is the rough strategy I normally use in the absence of any other factors:
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Look for 5 token matches first. In the unlikely event of there being more than one possibility, go for the one nearer the top of the board. Don’t miss ‘corner’ matches (like the corner 5 of Yellow Crowns shown here) and ‘T-Shape’ 5 matches.
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Look for 4 token matches. As with 5 token, go for the ones higher up first. Why? Because matching a lower four group might ruin a higher four, whereas the reverse is far less likely.
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Now you’re looking for 3 matches. This time, start with the ones at the bottom of the board: you want potential cascades, either this turn or next. Some people like to start with low value matches first then higher ones (Red Stars, Blue Cups, etc in that order). Other people like to start with the higher level matches first then work down. I’ve used both approaches and haven’t found one better than the other. The important thing seems to be to pick one at the start of the game and stick with it.
As always, that’s what works for me – it might not be the best strategy for you.