Q04B — Snake!
Snake! allows you to fall backwards, like Cueball did in frame 1739. In other words, it lets you undo a move.
How Earned
"Snake!" is earned by achieving a score over 30,000 points. If you are playing while the necessary score is reached, the game should display "EARNED BOOST ''SNAKE!'' ; READ OPTIONS & INFO FOR INSTRUCTIONS"
What It Does
Once enabled by following the link below, this boost adds a circular icon with a picture of a snake. You will also see a number indicating your Snake! Credits. These credits allow you to undo a move that you have just taken.
You earn one Snake! Credit for the first 30,000 points, and another for every 10,000 points thereafter. The counter gets saved occasionally, so if you reload the page, or go to Options and return, it may take a few hundred more points to earn a credit. When you score a lot of points at once (such as by making a Chateau d'If tile, which is worth 32768), it will take a few more moves to accumulate your earned credits. Messages are displayed one at a time, and credits are earned one at a time; sometimes the messages will lag a bit behind; but the number on the Snake! icon always changes immediately.
To use a Snake! Credit, click/touch on the Snake! icon so that it is "glowing":
You'll see a message: "SNAKE IS READY TO STRIKE! TOUCH/CLICK THE 'Q04B' TITLE TO UNDO A MOVE." If you then touch or click on the Q04B title, the game will undo your last move. All the tiles will flash simultaneously, and a message says "SNAKE!!! LAST MOVE UNDONE.". If you change your mind and decide not to undo, you can touch/click the Snake! icon again, and it will return to the normal un-glowing state and a message "SNAKE! CANCELLED." indicates this.
You cannot undo a move if:
- You have taken no moves since loading (visiting) or reloading the game page,
- You have run out of Snake! credits,
- You try to go back more than 7 moves from the most advanced point.
To illustrate what is meant by "the most advanced point", here is an example: If you start playing and make ten moves, you are at the 11th position. If you have enough credits, you could undo 7 times, which gets you back to 4th position. If you then make three new moves you are at the 7th position (different from the "old" 7th position). At this point you can undo three times (using another three credits) to get back to the 4th position, but you cannot go back further because the "most advanced point" is still 11.
Undoing and re-doing the same move multiple times uses up multiple Snake! credits.
When "Snake!" undoes a move, it restores your score and the grid configuration, but it does not restore your Best Score, "badges" (little icons signifying tiles you have made in this or previous games), earned boosts, credits for other boosts, etc. If you form a big tile which gives you credits (for Snake! or for any other boost that has credits), then use Snake! to undo, then re-form that big tile, you will not get more credits the second time.
Snake! credits are valuable, particularly for those who play by a strategy that involves taking occasional risks. If a move is likely, but not guaranteed to work, you can try it, and in the unlikely event that a Cueball tile is added in the worst possible place, use Snake! to un-do the move and try again.
Snake! credits can not be carried over to a new game: you can't take 'em with you. (Earning credits is considered "part of the game", so if you start a new game, you start earning credits from zero). However, you retain the boost itself, and you'll earn your first credit when you reach 10,000 (you don't need to wait for 30,000).
This page was written in the "embarrassingly readable" markup language RHTF, and was last updated on 2014 Aug 03.
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