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:
Top Owl Strategy 1: 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 colors that they match with.
Key points to consider:
- Target Owls positioned high on the board.
- Prioritize matches that cause Bubbles to fall into the Vortex, which shifts the board and reveals more match opportunities.
- Use special orbs efficiently.
The seek and destroy method is best used in simpler levels, especially Golem levels – as long as you pay attention to Golem patterns and maximize 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 center of the Spider web.
Top Owl Strategy 2: 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!
Why this works:
- By destroying the Bubbles an Owl is perched on, the Owl will relocate, often to other Bubbles or Owls of the same color.
- This leads to the Owls clustering together, making it easier to clear them all with one well-placed Bubble. Like the old phrase goes, “birds of a feather, flock together”.
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!
Top Owl Strategy 3: 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!