This is the ultimate walkthrough for our game DragonScales 6: Love and Redemption, written by our friend and guru Match 3 player Kathy Lew (SynthpopAddict)
This game features the last part of the story which began back in DragonScales 2. DragonScales 7 has a completely different story attached to it. If you didn’t play the coliseum mode of DragonScales 5, Ribeus the dragon is Zarya’s friend now because she defeated him in battle in the coliseum mode of the previous game. (Just in case you were wondering, as Ribeus was not friendly at the end of the tale in the last game if you only did the adventure mode.)
Instead of a shop with powerups like most of the rest of the DS series, this time several of the storyline characters are your helpers. Hover the cursor over the question mark near their picture to tell you what their ability is. After calling on someone for help, they’ve got to recharge for a while. The gold you earn while playing is used to improve the characters’ abilities or speed up the recharging.
At the end of every level, you get to play a tiny minigame of “picking the box”. If you happen to click on a box with gold hiding underneath, that gold gets added to your stash. The game makes it sound like only 1 box has gold in it, but as often as I get the 300 coins in this game, it looks more like 2 of the 3 boxes are loaded.
Greedy’s Chamber minigame: This is a luck-based guessing game of trying to uncover only the multiplier icons hiding somewhere under the 9 circles to try to get more gold. Check the bottom of the screen for the complete selection of what’s hiding underneath the circles. The vertical “slot machine” in the far left column gives you a few more coins depending on what icon comes up when you click on the rapidly changing icons. I typically bet the max 500 coins in the starting screen and then look at the bottom of the screen to see if it’s a good board or not. If it’s mostly the bad guys under the circles, simply click on the 3 icons of the “slot machine” to get a bit more money, then click Withdraw. Otherwise, guess on the circles and if you happen to lose some money, click on one of the changing icons to try to bump your money back up a little. When your odds are 50-50 or worse, withdraw, but don’t forget to pick the 3 slot machine icons before leaving. I always liked Greenie Greedy the best of all the enemies in the DragonScales games and have to wonder if he’s still thinking “Mom, are you there?” if you beat him at his game here by winning money!
It’s not possible to fully upgrade all your helper characters in one run through the game, unless you win the lottery in the Greedy’s Chamber game a few times. Typically, if you want everyone at 100% upgraded, you’ll have to play through the game at least 1.5 times. The “Power Chamber” only appears when you have enough gold to upgrade someone’s ability.
“Lucky Gold” levels: There is a spot somewhere in each of these levels which if you match over, awards you several coin bags. The spot is picked randomly every time, so really is a matter of luck! Thanks IKIGames for telling me that all the lucky gold levels are: 1-8, 2-3, 3-3, 3-8, 4-3, 4-4, 5-7, 6-1, 8-3, 12-4. One of the in-game trophies is for finding the hidden coin bags in at least 2 of these levels.
Locks and keys levels: Collect a key by matching over it, then click on a lock to use a key. Some levels have more keys than you need. Get all the keys anyway because you’ll need them later. One of the in-game trophies is for unlocking every lock.
Battles: There are 2 types of battle levels. Both are similar to the battles in DragonScales 2, where you make enough matches until all the enemies in the lineup have had their energy bar completely depleted and/or all the arrows on the board are gone. The only way you can lose a battle level is by running out of available moves to make in the playfield. Making larger or multiple matches with one move is more efficient and randomly triggers a “critical” attack, which removes more of an enemy’s energy bar.
1) Regular battle level: Get rid of all the enemies by depleting their energy bars with matches.
2) Boss battle level: Make matches over the arrows on the playfield to fire them at the boss until all the arrows are gone. Some bosses have regular enemy buddies where you have to deplete their energy bars, but the main focus is still to eliminate the boss by firing all the arrows.
Finishing the game unlocks 2 new play modes, Royal and The Pit. In Royal, you are replaying the game, but with a goal of trying to beat your previous best time for playing each level. The Pit is endless battles in which you must try to get rid of all the opponents before they have attacked you too many times. The number of attacks allowed before you forfeit the battle decreases the longer you play in the Pit. There are in-game trophies associated with beating enough best times in Royal and winning enough battles in the Pit. Unfortunately, there is no way to simply restart the basic game once you’ve completed it (i.e. reset all your progress completely) in a player profile; you have to make a new player to truly “start over”.
Tips and WT for hard levels
1-8: Lucky Gold level.
1-10: First boss battle. The number near the top left in all boss battles is the attack countdown showing how many moves you have left before a boss attacks you. This guy isn’t a problem since the 2 arrows are easy to reach.
2-3: Lucky Gold level.
2-4: In this battle, click the guy at the bottom because he’s the strongest enemy so your attacks will be directed to him until he’s gone, then you can knock off the easy other 2. Does anyone else get an extreme kick out of seeing the flying fruit which appears after you beat some enemies? Isn’t that just about the last thing you’d expect after beating someone up? Too bad you can’t collect the coin bags flying out after some other enemies are defeated.
2-5: First level with a star. There are no hidden stars in this game as there were in other games of the series. You still get an in-game trophy for collecting all the stars.
2-6: Use the first key on the lock by the blue patterned scale, otherwise the level’s impossible to finish.
2-8: The enemy on the bottom is the strongest one, so focus your attacks on him before the others who are all equally easy.
3-2: There’s one extra key here, but get it anyway because you’ll need it later. If you forgot to pick up the extra key, you can replay the level at any time.
3-3: Lucky Gold level. Even if you have the extra key from 3-2, get the key in this level too.
3-4: Get that key.
3-5: If you’ve collected all the keys available from the earlier levels, you’ll have the key needed to reach the star.
3-7: Pick up that key for a later use. The only way to get the star is to ask Ribeus for help several times, because there’s no other way you can get a match set up.
3-8: Lucky Gold level. No locks here either, but get that key anyway.
3-9: There’s another “extra” key in this one to collect for later.
4-2: One of the “extra” keys from chapter 3 is needed to get the star.
4-3: Lucky Gold level. The enemy isn’t that intimidating if you put the stones into a corner and keep piling them up there to leave working room elsewhere.
4-4: Lucky Gold level. Another place to use one of the extra keys, as the star can’t be reached otherwise.
4-5: Do like the game prompts you and select the mage as the enemy to focus attacks upon. Try to get larger or combo matches. Ryo doesn’t have much attack strength yet, so if you ask him for help, do so when the mage’s energy bar is nearly gone. The stone enemy is super easy.
4-6: Put pink onto the highest reachable spot of the column with the arrow so there’s at least a setup for the pink patterned scale. If you put pink into both the highest spot and the spot below, the patterned scale will match out when the arrow is tripped.
4-7: Although you’ll still have a key to spare for the lock assuming you’ve been picking up all the keys to this point, it’s worth it to get through all those rocks and trip the arrow to reach that one key in the bottom left for a later use.
4-9: Pick one of the mages and eliminate him, then pick the other mage and do the same. Use Meow to instantly kill one of them if they are being too much a pain with giving themselves back energy.
4-10: Meow can’t do anything with bosses, and Ryo is unavailable for this battle, so you’ll have to beat the boss yourself. Fortunately, the arrows aren’t that hard to reach.
5-1: While Jagos is introduced to your helper lineup here, his ability only comes in handy on battle or flood levels, where he will increase the amount of moves you have left on the enemy attack or flood meter so you either don’t get attacked as much or else it takes longer before extra scales are added to the bottom in flood levels. Your last spare key is needed to get the star here. Don’t worry about the flowers in the corners as you’ll get so many extra flowers in the scale sets that you really want to focus on collecting the star if you’re a completionist.
5-3: The black spaces can’t be removed and you can’t put anything on them, so work around them.
5-4: As with the stone enemies earlier, put the black scales into a corner.
5-7: Lucky Gold level. I pick the enemy on the top of the column to attack first since the black scales she makes are a bother.
5-8: Here’s how you get all 3 keys to not lose the “all doors opened” trophy.
1) The color you put onto each bomb MUST match one of the color-specific spots around it. As an example, the bomb on the left has pink- and blue-only spots next to it. So you have to wait for a scale set with pink and blue next to each other and put one of those colors onto the bomb and the other color onto the color-specific space. This leaves you the other color-specific space to create a setup for exploding the bomb. Use the open area on the right for discarding scale sets which don’t work for setups on the bombs, and match out stuff on the right every so often to keep some room open.
2) Explode both bombs.
3) Collect the 2 keys which became accessible.
4) Click the lock above the arrow, then trip the arrow.
5) Pick up the last key.
6) Click the locks blocking the patterned scales and you can do the rest.
6-1: Lucky Gold level.
6-4: Avoid matching out the flowers in the beginning and instead clear out the rocks so you can reach the patterned scales at the bottom. Removing those scales first will make dropping the skulls out easier.
6-5: The colored eye enemies are introduced where only matches of that color will hurt them. You do not have to select anybody in this battle because any time you make a color match which can do some damage, that match will automatically be directed at that enemy.
6-7: Keep your attacks focused on the first guy, because the friends he brings in are wimps in comparison. Finish clearing out the weak guys after the main enemy is gone.
6-9: I work on clearing the top enemy before the bottom one.
6-10: Work on firing the arrow in the upper left first, because it has 2 “unplayable” spots by it already. If Danielle happens to turn the only regular spot next to that arrow into an “unplayable” one, you’ll have to restart. Then get to whatever arrows have “unplayable” spaces close by, so they don’t end up being completely cut off.
Chapter 7: All the levels of this chapter except the last one are “pop to match” where you click on a cluster of at least 3 to clear them. You’ll need Ribeus to remove pesky singleton scales every so often so the skulls will fall out. These levels can be done without Ribeus’ help, but it’ll take a long time…then again, if you’ve had a hard day and just want to chill, try these boards for a relaxing experience of just mindlessly clicking away! You can’t lose these levels as the game will always give you at least one available move.
7-10: Put the black scales off to the side or otherwise away from the arrows and regular scales.
8-3: Lucky Gold level.
8-10: Since it’s a gravity down level, get the arrows in the bottom corners first and work upwards.
9-1: I switch gravity to upwards at the start to make getting the star easier (the other scales not on the star will go up), clear out the other scales in the column with the star, then switch gravity to down so the matching scales can be dropped down the column.
9-2: Start with downwards gravity so you can drop blue down the far left column and pink down the far right column while having the gravity split the scale sets so the other scales fall into the bigger center area. Make sure you don’t clear the red patterned scale on the bottom yet. After the patterned scales on the sides are gone, switch gravity to upwards and put something onto the star. Clear the blocking scales from the far left. Get the green patterned scale while you’re at it. Then switch gravity back to downwards so you can once again drop the matching colors down for the star before removing the last patterned scale.
9-3: Start with no gravity so the star is easy to get, then switch to gravity down.
9-4: Those patterned scales on the right are a bit tricky.
1) Start with no gravity and get all the patterned scales and minion tiles in the large, open area.
2) The 2nd column from the right has 3 regular spots above the pink patterned scale. Place pink on top of the pink patterned scale.
3) Switch gravity up so the scales on the bottom match out the pink.
4) Switch gravity down. Put green onto the top spot of the 3 spaces of the 2nd column from the right to match the green patterned scale.
9-5: I like to start with no gravity and get the patterned scales, then change gravity to downwards for the star and minion tiles. But that may just be me, as you could also do this completely without gravity.
9-6:
1) Get all the patterned scales and minions you can from the big area on the left with the default no gravity.
2) Change gravity to down. If the blue patterned scale and green minion tile are still in the bottom, drop the appropriate colors down the “unplayable” spots or otherwise around those items to match them out.
3) Wait for a scale set with red in the middle. Drop the red on top of the red patterned scale in the 4th column from the right; the other 2 scales go to the columns on either side. Then wait for a scale set with red on the end and drop the red into the 3rd column from the right to get both the patterned scale and minion simultaneously.
4) Turn gravity off. Collect the lower of the 2 red patterned scales in the 2nd column from the right.
5) Switch gravity to up so the extra scales you’d placed while working on the red patterned scale in step 4 clump together and clear out these blocking scales.
6) Collect the remaining red patterned scale from the 2nd column from the right. The upwards gravity will eventually give you access to the green patterned scale on the far right, so get that next.
7) Switch gravity down and get the pink patterned scale (you will most likely have to clear blocking scales out first).
8) Switch gravity up, clear any blocking scales as needed, and get the blue minion in the corner by using scale sets with blue on the end to drop the blue in the 2nd column from the right.
9-7: Use no gravity at the start and get as many of the patterned scales in the middle as possible. When you start running out of working room, switch gravity to up and collect the patterned scales and runes from the top. Switch gravity to down and get the patterned scales and runes from the bottom. You should be able to get any patterned scales left in the middle while working on the others during this process.
9-8: Don’t sweat the flowers already on the playfield that much because you get plenty of flowers in the scale sets to fulfill the flower goal. I don’t use gravity for most of the level until there’s just the green patterned scale remaining on the top right corner. Switch gravity to upwards for that last scale.
9-9: Use no gravity for the majority of the board; when only the patterned scales at the tops and bottoms of the columns are left, switch gravity up or down for those.
9-10: This battle’s sneakier than it looks because it’s extremely easy to completely block off one or both of the arrows on the right. Keep the 2nd column from the right clear. I use no gravity at the start and get the arrow on the bottom right first, then get the other arrows in the open area on the left before switching gravity up for the arrows at the tops of columns. The boss actually helps you as much as she hinders, as her attacks of removing scales can sometimes be useful.
Chapter 10: Blue mages don’t just add energy back to their own energy bar, they’ll heal everyone in the lineup, so focus your attacks on blue mages before anyone else. Meow’s attacks are random, unfortunately, so if you ask him for help, no telling which enemy he’ll take out.
10-5: Work your way from left to right, using the singleton space in the 5th column from the right as an access point to the patterned scales on the right. It’ll get a lot easier once you’ve cleared a few patterned scales out.
10-6: Same strategy as for 10-5, except now you work from right to left.
10-7: Yikes. Work from right to left, and use the singleton spots to split scale sets while making setups on the patterned scales below as you reach each singleton spot. It can be done without using the helpers, but will take a lot of work clearing out the blocking scales at the singleton spots. Don’t clog up the narrow sections in the middle.
10-9: Pick a patterned scale to clear out based upon what colors you’re getting at the start and work from there, making sure you drop out the skull associated with that scale before getting to another set. This level is a lot harder than it looks.
10-10: Try to cover as many of the arrows with scales as soon as you can, because if the boss turns the spots next to them into the “unplayable” spaces before you can get a scale onto the arrow, you’re out of luck and will have to restart.
Chapter 11: These are “flood” boards in which you need to use the cascades strategically. When the counter goes to zero, more scales will be added at the bottom. The stack may touch the top of the playfield, but if it goes past that, you’ll have to restart. Fortunately, the powerups are enabled in this DragonScales to make things more bearable, and instead of having to drop out skulls as in earlier games, this time you only have to clear the minion tiles so it’s a lot easier.
11-8 and 11-9: Set up a red match in between the 2 minions in the center early on. Jagos’ ability to add extra turns to the flood meter really comes in handy on this one, as is Ribeus removing a scale blocking a match. Use Meow to insta-charge everyone if necessary.
11-10: Get the arrows from the bottoms of the columns first, so you can use the empty spaces to dump the stones the boss gives you every so often.
12-2: Trip only the arrow on the bottom of the playfield! If you trip both arrows, the runes on the bottom right will be impossible to reach.
12-3: On the far left column, there are 3 runes below the red patterned scale. Clear the middle and bottom runes. Then you must use red to remove the rune immediately below the red patterned scale (match both this rune and the patterned scale together) because the red patterned scale is otherwise impossible to reach.
12-4: Lucky Gold level.
12-5: Get the patterned scales before gathering flowers.
12-6: Put pink onto the rune next to the pink patterned scale in the “island”, then trip the arrow. You’ll then be able to reach the pink patterned scale. The bottom left is a bit tricky, but as long as you remember to pair up like colors while keeping the downwards gravity in mind when placing scales, should be OK.
12-9: Pick the mage first, then the purple alien. The other 2 enemies are easy.
12-10: Focus on exploding the bomb at the bottom of the 5th column from the right first, then explode the bomb in the top right, and finally the bomb in the bottom right corner. Then go for the arrows on the bottom left and then the others. Keep your attacks focused on the Dark Empress even though she will call for reinforcements. The other guys aren’t that tough after she’s gone.
Chapter X: I’ve always wondered if someone developed a case of triskaidekaphobia, or else this chapter’s name was an oversight. The moving columns or rows from DragonScales 4 were brought back for a few levels here. The trick to getting things on the “conveyor belt” is simply to make a setup in the nonmoving area next to the “conveyor belt” and then when a target item shifts into position with the setup, match it out.
X-2: Don’t worry about the skulls, just focus on the runes and patterned scales and most, if not all, of the skulls will drop themselves.
X-3: Work on dropping red and blue down to the patterned scales on the bottom right first, then make the setups to get the patterned scales on the conveyor belt.
X-5: The bombs must be exploded only when they are in a column containing brick walls. If you accidentally set one off somewhere with no bricks, you’ll have to restart. Make your paired scale setups below the “conveyor belt” and try to keep the upper spaces clear to prevent that from happening. Blow up all the bombs before worrying about the star.
X-6: Put red in the space above the red patterned scale in the “island”, and red into the single space above the gap in the column with the arrow. Trip the arrow to match that patterned scale.
X-7:
1) Put blue onto the arrow and then trip it to get a patterned scale at the same time.
2) Pick a color which is not blue and drop 2 of it into the lowest 2 spaces of the far right column. Make sure you do NOT clear this pair out with a match!
3) Drop blue into the 3 remaining spaces of the far right column to match out the blue patterned scale above. The skull will fall atop the 2 paired scales you placed in step 2.
4) Clear the blocking scales and match the paired scales to drop the skull out of the far right column.
5) The rest is easy.
X-8:
1) Put pink into the single space under the gap of the 3rd column from the right.
2) Put green into the single space under the gap of the 5th column from the right.
3) Trip the arrows to match the patterned scales in the “islands”. You can do the rest.
X-9:
1) In the 4 columns on the left, clear out the patterned scales on the bottom, then clear any scales left in those columns with skulls. You’ll end up getting the star while working on this.
2) Get the green patterned scale on the bottom of the 6th column from the left by dropping 2 greens down the 5th column from the left.
3) Put pink onto the single spot below the gap of the column with the arrow, and the other 2 scales of the set into the spaces to the left. Do not remove the pink scale.
4) Wait for a scale set which is blue, something, green. Drop the blue down the 2nd column from the right and put the something onto the arrow and the green to the left. You now have a setup for the blue patterned scale in the bottom right corner as well as the green patterned scale near the top.
5) Wait for a scale set which begins with the color you have on the arrow and has green in the middle. (If the game isn’t cooperating with you here, ask DragonPhant to give you a customized set fitting the pattern.) Put this set so there’s a setup for tripping the arrow and the green patterned scale is matched out. This drops a skull.
6) Using the empty spaces on the left, trip the arrow to move the pink scale you’d placed in step 3 down by the pink patterned scale in the “island”.
7) In the 3 open spaces of the 2nd column from the right, drop a scale set which is blue, something, pink with the blue on the lowest space to get both the pink and blue patterned scales.
8) Now drop a scale set with red on the end where the red is on the highest spot of the 2nd column from the right. This gives you a setup for the last patterned scale. Match it out to drop the last skull.
X-10: Despite the game playing that dark track from the difficult battles of DragonScales 5, this last battle isn’t actually all that bad, just takes a while as the dragon only removes your scales but doesn’t do any other attacks.