Collect the Owls levels will test your strategy to the max - the final few Owls are usually perched somewhere near the very top of the board and can be very tricky to reach!
Here are three strategies worth considering when you tackle one of these levels:
Strategy: Seek and destroy
This is the most obvious strategy - hunt the Owls down with extreme prejudice! When doing this, you want to focus on creating matches that free Owls with as few moves as possible by taking advantage of Owls that are already next to colours that they match with.
Another important part of this strategy is to destroy Owls that are as high up the board as possible. Focus on matches that increase the chance of Bubbles falling into the Vortex to make the board move up and reveal more match possibilities.
Be sure to use any special orbs as efficiently as possible.
The seek and destroy method is best used in simpler levels, especially Golem levels – as long as you pay attention to Golem patterns and maximise creating matches with chains of Golems.
It can also work well with levels that contain Spider webs, but it is more effective if the Owls are at the centre of the Spider web.
Strategy: Rope-a-dope
When a level is a little more devious and contains a mixture of Golems, Spider webs, and Black Bubbles, it can be useful to simply ignore the owls for as long as possible.
With the Rope-a-dope, you actively avoid destroying the Owls until you have no choice. The focus is on getting to the top of the board as quickly as possible and destroying obstacles. Aim high, aim true and focus on knocking branches of Bubbles into the Vortex with as few moves as possible.
It might sound crazy but there is method to the madness! By destroying the Bubbles an Owl is perched on, the Owl will fly away and find somewhere else to perch. In these situations the Owl tends to fly to Bubbles or other Owls of the same colour. The more Owls you have looking for new homes the greater the chance that they will all clump together. Like the old phrase goes, “birds of a feather, flock together”.
This method takes advantage of gathering larger chains of similar coloured Owls and Bubbles which you can then clear with a cleverly placed Bubble. It also means once you get higher up the board, you will be less likely to be left without potential match options.
Word to the wise: keep an eye on your move counter and the number of Owls left on the screen in order to strike at the right time!
Strategy: Nothing to see here…
Sometimes it is best to ignore the Owls and play the level as if they weren’t there. This may seem like strange logic but many players have found that by simply getting into the “clear the Bubbles” mentality, great results follow!
Good luck!
