Achievement Guide

[dogboy12]

Chain Gang 15 Score a 3x chain in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

Chain Master 15 Score a 5x chain in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

Unchained Melody 20 Score a 7x Chain in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

Use bombs, slo-mo, and the scroll option efficiently. A good strategy is to let the blocks stack up fairly high and prep the blocks for chains. Then start off the chain with a bomb and readjust the blocks as needed to continue building up the multiplier. Using the slow motion helps a lot when your having a hard time continuing the chain.

Chain Monster 20 Score a 24x chain in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

Getting a 24x chain is very difficult in this game. Practicing setting up chains is a good way to get used to creating longer chains. Again; bombs and slo-mo are very useful tools. Looking at the recorded plays of the top players on the leaderboard helps a lot as well. The top players get unbelievable chains such as 50x.

A very useful link by a different user:
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/f...ad.php?t=56705

Self Restraint 15 Get to speed level 7 only making 3 of a kinds and no chains

Only get 3 of a kinds and watch the falling blocks and the one right underneath it. I suggest getting this achievement in the very beggining as chains would not come naturally when you have just started playing this game. Stay calm and be observant.

Pack Rat 15 Unlock all 11 in-game themes

Save up points and buy each theme at the poker smash store. 2,053,000 points is needed to unlock all 11 themes. (thanks to d3r1v3d and Otisbum)

Score of the Gods 30 Score 1,000,000 points

Score one million points in one action mode playthrough. As you progress through the match, later challenges will give you 200,000 points. Although you can get more points for the later challenges, it also becomes much faster. This is usually where one can hit the red "game over" line. Using bombs when confused or stuck stops the movement of the blocks and provides openings so you can continue on with the game.

Champ 15 Win 1st place in a player match or ranked match

There are very few people playing multiplayer and many of them are very good. If you can't do it or find anyone, ask a friend or a x360a users.

The Thinker 10 Unlock all puzzle groups

The puzzles are in groups/sets. The ones locked are in chains. If you progress through the puzzle mode you will unlock the sets.

Challenge Hand 10 Make a challenge hand in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

Very easy and straight forward. Do the thing that the challenge table on the side tells you to do, and BLIP: you get the achievement.

All Hands 20 Make every possible hand in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

Do all the possible hands to destroy the blocks.
These are the list of hands you need to get: 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, 5 of a kind, full house, straight, flush, six flush, seven flush, eight flush, nine flush, and straight flush(you can see this in your results after a game of action mode.)

Triple Smash 15 Make three chains at the same time in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

You need to setup your lines so you can plant three bombs to get a chain for each bomb at the same time, and you get a triple smash. For example a setup would be like this:

JQK J=Jack K=King Q=Queen B=Bomb
JQK
BBB
JQK

Remember the bombs have to explode almost at the same time. So quickly lay out your bombs, and watch the fireworks go off.

If you don't understand, the how to play in the game well explain what a triple smash is.



Any questions, fire away. Any tips or mistakes you notice, tell me. I'll try updating when I have time. Thanks and enjoy the game!

There's also another strategy guide that's under construction right now by Otisbum. Check it out here:
http://www.xbox360achievements.org/f...ad.php?t=57430

[Shinobi273]

You did a nice job on this, it is unfortunate that due to skill limitations that there is an unattainable achievement. It's great to see new users contributing such quality work.

You will need to come back and offer some more in-depth strategy suggestions, for Self Restraint especially.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Otisbum

@Shinobi: All of the achievements are possible to get (though there are glitches at the moment for some people). The x24 combo is indeed hard, but nowhere near impossible. Plenty of people have it, and some people even get over x60 combos.

Ah well, I didn't know how hard this game was or what. I do agree that it needs some work. Guides should make it as easy as possible to get achievements in a legit fashion. Perhaps someone who has all the achievements will make suggestions to get this completed as a joint effort. Dogboy12, don't stop, keep trying to improve this.

[Otisbum]

Originally Posted by My previous post

Don't take this personally, your tips and descriptions seem kind of lacking. You're also very unclear with the meanings of some of the achievements.

Again, don't take it personally, but you don't really seem to have enough experience with the game to be doing a complete guide.

@Shinobi: All of the achievements are possible to get (though there are glitches at the moment for some people). The x24 combo is indeed hard, but nowhere near impossible. Plenty of people have it, and some people even get over x60 combos.

----------

Originally Posted by Shinobi273

Ah well, I didn't know how hard this game was or what. I do agree that it needs some work. Guides should make it as easy as possible to get achievements in a legit fashion. Perhaps someone who has all the achievements will make suggestions to get this completed as a joint effort. Dogboy12, don't stop, keep trying to improve this.

No worries.

Yes, it could use a lot of work. I recommend that a mod lock this up and that you start over completely with it, Dogboy. You should get as much experience with the game as you possibly can, and learn the strategies and what the achivements actually mean.

And at the risk of sounding like an ass, even though I don't have all the achievements I think I can make a guide can address even the achievements that I don't have. I think that I've played enough of it to write a comprehensible guide, but please no one take that as an egotistical statement. This is one of the first games that I actually know a wee bit about.

As for the joint effort comment, I think that'd be great. I'd be more than willing to help Dogboy out this weekend and get something put together, but he really should play the game more to get a feel for it first.


Sorry if I sounded egotistical or harsh in any of the above, I really don't mean to.

[Krazie]

This does indeed need a lot of work. We want the best possible guides, and quite a few of these don't even have exact clarifications. Beginning your descriptions with "I think" doesn't really give us a lot of confidence, lol. Work harder on it, get some help, and make this guide as good as it can be, because it definitely needs quite a bit of work still

[dogboy12]

Oh no problem man...I want constructive criticism. I jsut wanted to experiment you know? Not start with a giant 1000/1000 game, but start with a small 200/200 game. I'll probably start over from scratch cause im getting to know this game better everyday, but until a mod locks this up, I'll keep on updating! Oh and actually yeah working together sounds cool!

[dogboy12]

The Thinker 10 Unlock all puzzle groups

The puzzles are in groups/sets. The ones locked are in chains. If you progress through the puzzle mode you will unlock the sets.

Sorry about my crappy guide, but as I posted above I'll keep on updating till the mods lock this down.

This fragments included in the guide above now...

[Krazie]

Edit your first post with any additions you're making as well. Until someone comes up with a better one, we'll let you have it, so make sure not to let anyone beat you

[dogboy12]

K...ill do that on the next update...or maybe I'll move that one now...should I?

[Krazie]

Originally Posted by dogboy12

K...ill do that on the next update...or maybe I'll move that one now...should I?

Of course, we want the entire guide in the first post, please

[TheWings977]

Good Job! I don't really like this game though.

[benbam87]

Nice start I am just starting this game so if I get any tips Ill def give you a shout

[DanteintheDark]

the best tip for getting the multipliers is to watch the videos in the leaderboard.

[Otisbum]

Good to hear you're learning more each day, it's a brilliant game.

If there are any achievements that you have no clue about, just let me know and I'll write up a little something for you.

I'd be more than happy to offer some assistance, especially if it helps you understand the game more. I'm overly obsessed with it.

[dogboy12]

Cool! Ill post up a list of the moves for All Hands Later...

[Otisbum]

I'll see if I can find the total amount of money needed to buy everything in the store, and then all the stages separately.

[dogboy12]

Awesome!! Yay teamwork...and I'll probably link the other guy's chain strategies after I read it...ACTUALLY it's ur post GASP so u mind if I bring that over here? (it's on the chain strategy topic)

[Otisbum]

It's really big, so you probably shouldn't bring it into the thread, you can link to it if you want though.

I'll be putting together a separate thread for strategies eventually anyway, so when I do that we can link it here.

[dogboy12]

Ok, so I'll put up that link temporarily, and you can tell me when you get the "official" one up!

[Otisbum]

Probably won't be for another couple weeks, but yeah I'll let you know.

[d3r1v3d]

I added it up, and it seems like you need 2,053,000 points in order to unlock all 11 themes in the Poker Smash store. Not too shabby.

[Otisbum]

Sweet, dogboy can put it up there when he gets the chance, and I'll verify it later today.

Thanks.

[Schloob]

Unless it is glitched, you need to update your All Hands achivement as you do not need to get all the smash hands as the achivement unlocked for me last night and I do not have the quad, mega or insane smash. You only have to get the "ACTUAL" hands that you would be able to get in actual poker it appears which makes complete sense actually. The hard one of these being the straight flush which I finally got last night.

[Otisbum]

Yeah, the only one I have left to get is Straight Flush. I figure if I play enough this weekend I can get it, but I don't want to since I can't unlock achievements on it due to a glitch. I'd hate to finally get the hand and not get the achievement too.

[KabuKiArcade]

I can offer some tips here myself -


Self Restraint 15 Get to speed level 7 only making 3 of a kinds and no chains

This is not that easy, as many times you might accidentally make a Full House or Flush. I unlocked it in about 6 tries - I found it easiest to never let the cards get too high. Always try to make combos with only 3 rows, and you don't have to worry about accidentally making a hand on the 4th line. By the time you get to speed level 6, you may have to use slow mo to keep it at 3 lines.

Pack Rat 15 Unlock all 11 in-game themes

This is correct, all can be bought in the store and you will eventually accumulate enough chips over time, even if you fail miserably at the game your points carry over.

Score of the Gods 30 Score 1,000,000 points

From what I read, this must be done in one game. The protip given was that on the higher speed levels, the challenge hands give upwards of 200,000 points alone, so they are probably key to getting this.


The Thinker 10 Unlock all puzzle groups

You can buy the solutions to the puzzles in the store, and they do not affect the achievement in any way.

Challenge Hand 10 Make a challenge hand in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

Pretty much what is written above, when a challenge hand appears on the right side of the screen, complete the challenge and this will unlock.

All Hands 20 Make every possible hand in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

This was a lot easier than I thought it would be, I got it in about 10 minutes. Since I had been playing for a while, I already had 3 of a kind, 4 of a kind, 5 of a kind, flush, and full house. To make the other hands what I did was start a new action game at level 1, push up the rows a bit with LT, and look for a suit that appeared in every row. Then, I would make ONE hand - such as six flush - and immediately fail the game by holding LT. Then start over and make the next hand again at speed level 1 on a new game. These hands are over the lifetime of your game, so you do not have to get them all in one game. Obviously straight flush was the hardest, my advice to you is try to make it vertically as you can pop pieces in and out whereas horizontally pieces will get in your way.

Triple Smash 15 Make three chains at the same time in Action Mode, Timed Mode or Custom Playlist Mode

This one was way harder that I thought it would be. Basically you are looking to set up something like this:

K Q J X
K Q J X
A A X A
K Q J X

Where X is any card (so long as it does not make a chain with what is already listed) - so in my example above in the 3rd row changing the X and the A at the end will make a three of a kind of Aces, and then the row will drop and you will make KKK, QQQ, and JJJ all at the same time - exactly as the icon for this achievement shows. Be careful, the first time I tried this my third row (AAA in my example) made a full house, which caused me to make a flush in the 5th column thus netting me a 'quadruple smash' which unfortunately, does not qualify you for this achievement.

[Otisbum]

Excellent guide.

[dogboy12]

Wow my guide is growing everyday...thanks for all the tips and info guys!

[Otisbum]

Technically it's a group effort, but yeah.

And I just got the Straight Flush, and as I predicted, no achievement. Hopefully they fix this soon.

EDIT: And yeah, It's 2,053,000 points for all the stages.

[dogboy12]

Maybe you need the smashes?

[Otisbum]

Smashes don't count; like I said earlier, it's a common glitch that seems to happen once you get the Triple Smash achievement.

Plenty of people have said they can't get any more achievements in the game after they get Triple Smash. It kinda sucks.

[Schloob]

What I actually meant by glitched was I thought perhaps I should not have gotten the achievement since I had not gotten all the hands that are atually included in this game. Sorry to hear that you got the straight flush finally and it did not unlock, guess I got lucky then.