This is a partial walkthrough covering all the tricky levels of DragonScales 2: Beneath a Bloodstained Moon. This guide is written by our friend and guru player, Kathy Lew (SynthpopAddict).
The first 3 chapters are easy, except for 3-12 which has a small tricky section at the bottom. Don’t spend too much time thinking about where to place the scales, just focus on finishing the goals displayed at the bottom of the boards as quickly as you can so you can earn the extra gold for beating the default “best time” which will be shown in the end level dialog. Save the gold for the second half of the game because you’ll need it for using powerups. If you’re seriously allergic to using powerups like I am, MOST of the game can be done without resorting to them, but you’ll have to replay quite a few levels once you get to chapter 6 onwards. There are 3 boards which I don’t think can be completed without some extra help. The final chapter of the game is easy compared to the 3 chapters which came before it, so don’t panic if you don’t have much gold left by the time you reach 90% completion.
You can skip a minigame by clicking on the X in the top right corner, but even though you don’t get a ton of gold for playing them, helps to get all the coins you can for later.
The minigame with a slot machine sort of flashing icons, just click on the icons…you can’t time this one with how rapidly the pictures change. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten 3 of a kind in it ever.
Coin catch minigame: You only need to move the cursor over a coin to collect it. I find it’s easier to get the coins when they are still moving up, and wiggling the cursor a tiny bit in an up-and-down motion around the coins really helps. Try to touch the green joker character who appears somewhere in the middle of the game too as he’ll give you an extra 10 coins.
While coin bags are optional for collecting in the game boards, they’re useful for adding to your gold coin stash. If you replay a level which has a coin bag in it, the coin bag comes back so you can keep collecting it over and over for more gold.
The boss battles in DS2 aren’t really “battles”, but practice sessions for creating bigger matches which will win the boards faster. Mastering this is important for some of the later installments of the DragonScales series, where the battles are actual hit-point based challenges. The only way you can lose a DS2 battle is if you run out of available spaces on the playfield to place more scales. But I find the commentary from the bosses hilarious! Don’t bother with using the chains powerup or the Fury Storm attack powerup as they are a major waste of gold. The bosses don’t play all that intelligently even in the coliseum mode.
3-12: The bottom section with the green patterned scale is tricky. The first scale set to be placed in the bottom underneath the blue-only space must be something, green, blue. Put the “something” color into a corner spot, then the green goes next to the green patterned scale, and the blue will be above the patterned scale. Then put a blue scale into the blue-only space, and match out the blues. This clears out the space above the green patterned scale. Now place a scale set which is green, blue, something into the bottom section to get that patterned scale. Use the other areas of the board to discard scale sets which don’t have the correct colors in the right order (you’ll end up clearing out the other patterned scales first), and keep matching in the more open areas so you don’t run out of working room while waiting for the right colored sets to go into the bottom.
4-6: This one is a major case of what I call “building in, clearing out” constantly to reach that rune on the bottom right. Since you only ever have one of a color in a scale set, you have to match out all the other stuff in the way and work for a while before you can get to the bottom right corner rune.
4-15: This one is a lot like the bottom section of 3-12, except you’ve got to use the same strategy for the entire playfield now with having to create paired tile setups all the time. As long as you don’t get the colors too mixed up, should be OK.
5-10: Try to get the 2 runes on the top right first, then the ones on the bottom right because those are a royal pain to reach.
5-15: This one’s a pain not just because of how you have to make the setups using the arrows, but because it’s such a small playing area. You must regularly clear out blocking scales with matches in the open areas while setting up the blues. The Ray powerup is useful even if it might get rid of some of the blue scales you set up as it takes a lot of luck with getting just the right colors in the right places otherwise.
1) Put blue onto the arrow in the 4th column from the left and use this for a setup to clear the blue patterned scale in the 3rd column from the left.
2) After the spaces move on the left side, put blue onto the singleton space highest up in the 4th column from the left and do not clear this scale out.
3) Put blue onto the highest space of the 4th column from the right and do not clear this scale out.
4) Trip the arrow on the bottom.
5) Trip the last arrow in the center which is now accessible. The blue patterned scale in the “island” moves down and is matched up with the 2 blue scales you’d set up from steps 2 and 3.
6) Match out that pesky blue patterned scale and get any remaining patterned scales left elsewhere if you didn’t already clear them while working on all the setups earlier.
6-1: Trip the “up” arrow on the bottom. It’s tough to get three of a kind there, but that’s the only arrow you need to be able to reach all the patterned scales. The other arrow is optional, but may help to use it if the bottom section is getting too clogged to reach the red patterned scale as it shifts a space a little higher up close to the red patterned scale.
6-3:
1) Trip the arrow.
2) Explode the bombs to give you a tight, but accessible, path to the red patterned scale.
3) After getting that one pesky scale, the rest is easy.
6-7:
1) Trip both the down arrows on the top right. Do not explode the bomb while you’re doing this.
2) After the spaces move, explode the bomb to remove 2 walls.
3) Trip the rest of the arrows. This will give you a narrow access point to the patterned scale in the center.
6-8:
1) Trip the arrow in the bottom left to raise the bomb.
2) Explode the bomb to clear 3 walls.
3) Trip all 3 arrows in the bottom right.
4) Work your way into the spaces at the top right to explode the bomb in the top right corner.
5) Get the last patterned scale(s) remaining in the playfield.
6-12:
1) Trip the arrow in the left.
2) Explode the bomb in the left.
3) Trip both the remaining arrows.
4) Explode the bomb on the bottom.
5) Work your way to the blue patterned scale.
7-14: Get the arrow cleared out ASAP and leave the top section as empty as you can early on. Otherwise, getting to all those patterned scales is next to impossible without trading a lot of gold for powerups. When you get to the last 3 patterned scales, wait for a scale set of yellow, pink, something, something to place into the tiny area for a setup before clearing out the blocking scales.
8-10: I really, really hate having to use powerups. But I’m pretty convinced you can’t do this one without them because I tried for hours and the best I could do was clear 11 of the 12 patterned scales before locking the board. Try to get as many of the patterned scales cleared out as you can before using either Ray or Berserk to open the playfield back up.
8-11:
1) Clear the 3 purple patterned scales on the left side.
2) Place purple into the highest spot of the 5th column from the left (this is the singleton overhanging spot). If you can clear out the blocking scales around this purple and put another purple next to it, even better, but that’s seriously freaking hard.
3) Trip the arrow.
4) Clear the blocking scales to reach the remaining patterned scales and coin bag.
9-6: Trip all the arrows. Even though all the runes are reachable as is, using the arrows makes it easier.
9-11: Explode the bomb on the left first, then whichever of the other 2 is easiest to reach next and then the last one. This board has so many corners you’ll most likely still need to use Ray or Berserk to get through it.
10-10:
1) Trip the arrow in the bottom left, but do not explode the bomb.
2) After the bomb is lowered, explode it.
3) Work on getting the rune out of the bottom right corner. You’ll have to trip the arrow which is in front of it first. Do NOT trip the other arrow which is a little higher up in the playfield or the level will be impossible to complete!
4) After you have collected the rune from the bottom right, trip the last arrow to move the bomb up to the correct location for clearing out the wall.
5) Explode the bomb.
6) Finish collecting the runes.
10-12: Trip the arrow on the left first to make getting the blue patterned scale in the bottom left easier to reach, then explode the bombs. Trip all the other arrows to get to the red patterned scale in the bottom right.