Bejeweled Stars Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies

Tired of losing hearts because you can’t get past a certain level in Bejeweled Stars? We’re here to help you maximize your playing potential.

Last week, EA finally took Bejeweled Stars out of its soft launch status and released it on iOS and Android devices to a wide international audience. Presenting a new approach to the famed Match 3 series of games, players must complete the objectives that each level provides, earning them up to three stars. These stars help form constellations that, once formed, provide players with power-ups to help them complete future levels and daily challenges.

Differing from the tried and true methods of the past, Bejeweled Stars offers a scaling difficulty that can have you stuck for long periods on one level, only to soar through the next three or four on your first try. Things like masses of butterflies trying to escape at the top, pesky stone tiles needing power-ups to destroy, and currents moving your pieces around the map means you will be using up your five refillable hearts faster than you think.

To avoid repeating very fixable mistakes, here are some winning strategies to employ for the next time you play Bejeweled Stars. This guide assumes knowledge of how to complete each style of level objective (clear crystals, stone, butterflies, etc.).

Take Your Time

For most of its history, Bejeweled gameplay relied on knowing the patterns of matching three, four, or five gems in a row as quickly as possible to keep up a frantic pace of points. Going slower meant losing multipliers, bonus points and other negative effects, keeping your score attempts rather low.

In Bejeweled Stars, however, time is on your side. The entire field is in play and will stay so as long as you do not make a move. Because of this, you can effectively try to set up certain matches ahead of time, while picking the move that seems right for you.

Moving the white gems to make a T, forming a star gem, might seem like the smart move, but look over to the green pieces on the right. Matching five in that line will form a hypercube, which will remove all gems of the type it swipes with.

But hold on; there are even more opportunities for using a hypercube than that. If you combine a hypercube with a flame gem (four gems formed in a line or box) or a lightning gem, every single gem of that color will also turn into a flame or lightning gem. Furthermore, if you combine two hypercubes together, every single gem will be wiped from the map, making it that easy to complete any level objectives with entry-strength crystal or stone tiles.

When in doubt, think it out. Use the lack of time restrictions to plot out your course of action.

Prioritize Your Coins Efficiently

When you first start up Bejeweled Stars, you are given 300 coins as a freebie to help understand how the game’s free-to-play system works. You can use them to add five more moves at the end of a failed level to try and successfully finish the level, refill your life count, buy rare charm chests, quick-load Super Gem creations and a host of other player boosts.

At times, you can earn some coins by earning stars to complete constellations, receiving coins as a reward. EA might be fair enough to offer them as a daily challenge reward one day. Most of the time, however, you have to pay exorbitant fees to replenish coins, including $2.79 to get just enough coins (110) for five full hearts’ worth of return (100 coins) and a maximum of $69.99 to receive the “best value” of 3350 coins.

Therefore, you should be very careful in how you use your Bejeweled Stars coins. If you’re stuck on a level after a couple of tries, do your best to hold out until you’re close to finishing the level’s objectives after clearing out your total hearts at least once. If you’re one swipe away from a truly difficult challenge, then using 50 of your coins to buy back the opportunity to win won’t feel as terrible as using 100 coins to refill your five hearts, only for you to lose after those five attempts.

Bejeweled Stars is possible to beat without ever paying a dime, so make sure you’re paying as little as possible to get the most enjoyment you can. As a last resort, you can sign into your Facebook account and pester your friends for free power-ups and hearts. But really, do you want to be that person?

Maximize Your Free Move Potential

Later on in Bejeweled Stars, you will encounter levels that allow you to move clouds full of gems, allowing you to focus which side of the field you want to clear out first. Moving the clouds, however, acts a free move, and any resulting matches that fall don’t count against your level limit.

Use this knowledge not only to set up power gems for use in destroying objectives, but also try moving the clouds about each level just to maximize your points potential. Even if you line up just a three-match every other turn, those thousands of points will add up, perhaps pushing you to that three-star finish at the end of the level.

Not only that but any crystal, butterfly or stone tile cleared as a result doesn’t cut into your turn total. With certain levels requiring the min/maxing of each turns with a very limited leeway to screw up a turn, using clouds or any method to clear gems without using a turn is extremely beneficial.

Finally, don’t be afraid to use your special powers in order to beat a level. If you lose your five hearts on a level where you can’t take out a stone tile in a tough corner, use the hammer to take it out. If you can’t burn through enough Power Gems to complete the objective, start with a few extra to help turn the tide. It’s all about progression, so do what you can by using your resources.

Keep Up To Date With Tasks, Such As Powers, Daily Challenges & More

As Bejeweled Stars is a freemium title, there are certain tasks to accomplish that will help maximize your playing potential for the hundreds of levels ready for completion.

One of the first things you should be doing is to use those SkyGems you’ve been collecting and put them to good use in the Skylab. Using a combination of certain SkyGems will help you create special powers that will help you clear objectives when playing difficult levels. Each power takes a certain amount of time to create, with some taking hours (or seconds if you spend unnecessarily large amounts of coin). If you have lots of SkyGems at your disposal, make sure you’re collecting the created gem and preparing the next. Who knows when one Flame Swapper will mean the difference between “Game Over” and “You Did It!”?

Next, make sure you’re hitting your daily tasks. Each day you get one free treat to feed the Surprise Chicken, which often nets you a few free SkyGems. Other important tasks include earning daily charm stamps by answering your friend’s daily riddle. After seven answers, you can unlock a bonus prize.

Most important of all is to take a shot at the Daily Challenge. Each day, you can attempt to complete a unique level that offers varying rewards. Power boosters, rare SkyGems and more are up for grabs, with a grand prize going to those that complete seven total. Not only are those power-ups useful for your level progression, but you can also learn some new techniques presented from those daily challenges.

Know When To Cut Your Losses

There are countless times in Bejeweled Stars that you can feel like a win just isn’t a win. Getting zero stars after completing a level has got to hurt a little bit, but always look at the bright side.

Even in losses, any SkyGems collected will go towards your total, allowing you to create special powers like Scrambler, Flame Swapper, Flutter Gust and more. If you see that you’re going to lose a level in a way that is beyond saving, perhaps the best method to scrape away with a lasting resolve is to take any remaining SkyGems on the playing field. That way, you can turn that L into an eventual W by using those by using those created powers the next time you play.

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If it takes a while to beat the level and you still have zero stars to show for it, save your potential lost hearts and come back to the level at a later time and try to make up for lost stars there. During that time, you may even learn a new technique, skill or SkyGem power that was previously unavailable to you at the time. Once you return, not only are you a more skillful Bejeweled Stars player due to experience, but you may just have the right technique or power ready at your disposal to earn those three stars and get closer to another self-sustaining constellation.