LINE Play 101: Drop Drop

LINE Play
     This is part of the LINE Play 101 series of updates.  Each update covers a specific section of the LINE Play app.  Please read the LINE Play review for more information about this app, before reading this post.

How to and Why to play: Drop Drop
     Most people ignore the mini games on LINE Play or just don't realize they are there.  And of the people who ignore them, many don't realize just how useful they can be.  Allow me to elaborate...
     The mini games allow you more opportunities to earn gems as well as special home and avatar items that are only available through the mini games.  Drop Drop often has the special items changed every few months.  So you have a limited chance to obtain these special items.
     Let's go over the basic Drop Drop daily quests, current events and treasure boxes.
     To the left you will see the daily quests for the Drop Drop game.  Getting 100 combos in the game (your games add up, you don't need to obtain the combo in a single game) earns you 500 gems every day.  Stacking 200 blocks over a series of games earns you another 500 gems every day.  Completing both of these is an extra 1000 gems every day.  These are easily completed in under 10 games, even for newbies.
     There are currently 3 quest evens.  Scoring 2 million points (Most be completed in a single game), and laying 77 games (Completed over a series of days).  The 2 million quest earns you a treasure box, the 77 plays quest earns you 1k.  Each of these can only be completed once.  The last event happening is the most useful.  You get one chest for every game you play.  If you finish a game, you get a chest, and an extra chest for playing.  If you lose a game you get a chest just for playing.  I like to just lose on purpose several times a day just to get the chests quickly, when I have no time to play.
     Why would you want a treasure chest?  Well, because they are full of great items... and not so great ones.  To the right you can see the current items available in the chest.  Along with these limited edition items you can also get between 40 and 500 gems, in game items (Boosts), experience (To level up in the game), and extra coins (One coin = one play).  You can get several thousand gems in one session, if you are lucky.  Your score has no affect of the treasure boxes.  High scores or low scores have the same chance at getting something good.

     How to play

     The events button at the bottom left shows you the available quests and events.  the button at the bottom right shows you the current house and avatar items available in the treasure chests.  Top left shows your current level and how close you are to leveling up.  You can pay gems to level up, but leveling up is fast and easy.  Don't waste your gems, really...  Top right is the option menu.  You can toggle the sounds and visual effects here.  I keep my effects turned off to avoid any lag.  The effects are little animations in the background of the game.  They aren't really needed, so don't be concerned about turning them off.
     To start, push the big red button!
     To the right you can see the next screen.  This is your chance to use boosts before beginning your game.  In the beginning, you wont have any.  You obtain the items from treasure boxes.  You can also buy boosts but don't.  It is a complete waste of gems.  The treasure boxes will supply more than enough, as you can see from my screen shot.  They will always be turned on automatically.  So make sure you turn them off before you push PLAY, unless you want to use them.  Yellow is on, white is off.
     Your coins at the top are your available free plays.  If you are out of coins it will still allow you to play, but it will charge you 500 gems.  So be careful!  Do not waste your gems.  It takes about an hour for each coin to regenerate.  You can also get extra coins from treasure chests and quests.  When you level up it will also replenish your coins.
     Before we go into the game play, I will go over each of the boost items.  Starting at the top left and going right: 1. 10% score boost at the end of your game, after the level boost is added.  Use this for higher scores.  2. Begin the game with 5 hot blocks.  Hot blocks always stack straight and there is no wait time.  Just tap quickly until you're out.  It gives you a quick burst of points and ups your combo.  3. Guide remains longer.  You will always have a guide to help you stack your blocks straight, but it goes away at the beginning of the game.  This boost keeps the guide there a bit longer.  4. The magnet can only be used once per game.  It stacks blocks straight if you stack it crooked.  After it saves one mis-stacking, then it is used up.  This allows you to not break your combo after your first mistake.  On to the second row: 1. Saves one drop.  Meaning if you miss the stack completely and your block falls, it will fly back up.  Again, this item can only be used once per game.  So don't miss twice.  2. Plus 10 seconds... Pretty self explanatory.  It gives you a little extra time to play.  3. The balloon won't change speed.  It will also have a happy face and a hat on.  When you get a higher combo the speed normally increases.  Losing your combo drops the speed.  However, with this item, the speed is always the same.  It helps you with timing.  4. Double experience.  Whatever experience you get at the end of the play is doubled.  Use this to level up faster.
     Onto the game play!
     You will tap the screen to drop the first block.  The blocks are different colours, but ignore that.  It is just aesthetic.  The different characters serve no purpose.  The only exception being the tall blocks should count as 2, which helps you create a taller stack, and the red hot blocks will always stack straight, and the balloon will not move position.
     Now, if you are trying to auto quit to collect chests quickly just set down the first block and when the balloon moves to the side, quickly tap 3 more times to drop the next 3 blocks off the screen.  This will exhaust your 3 lives for the game.  You will see an option to continue to play for 500 gems.  Do not use 500 gems to keep playing!  just close the question (X) to quit the game.  You will then get a low score, no experience and your chest.
     If you are playing to win just watch the balloon and time it.  It slowly drifts left to right.  The guide at the beginning will show you where you need to drop it to create a straight stack.  The straighter your stack the higher your score.  If your block is dropped too far to either side, even though it is on the stack, your combo will break.  The better your combo the more score bonus you obtain, as well as the faster the balloon travels from side to side.  The lower your combo the lower your score bonus and speed.  Breaking a combo removes the bonus and puts you back to the original slow speed.  The slow speed means it will take longer to get to the center for you to drop the block.  This means your overall score will be lower, because you wont be able to stack as many blocks.  A good game stacks at least 60 blocks.  If you retain your combo through the whole game, you should have around 1 million points.  The higher your level, the more bonus points will be added to that score.
     If you see a bomb, do not stack it!  Drop it off of the screen.  Dropping a bomb onto your stack will remove one of your hearts.  When all 3 hearts are exhausted, it is game over.  The screen will always be dark when the bomb appears.  So even if you aren't paying attention to the block you're holding, you will know when you have a bomb.
     If you keep your hearts, at the end of the game the hearts will be turned into extra blocks.  Each hearts is one block added to the top center of your stack, upping your height and combo count.
     When the game is over you will get your score, bonus points and experience.  Your best score will always be listed at the top of the screen.  If you get a new best score, you get a bonus treasure chest.  Leveling up also gives you a bonus treasure chest.  Plus one chest for getting to the end of the level (Not dying), and one for playing.  Plus some events and quests earn you a chest.  This allows the opportunity for up to 6 chests per game if you are lucky.  If you are unlucky, just one.

     Above you can see some of what you get inside the treasure chests.  You also get one treasure chest at the end of each week if you ranked highly among your friends.  If you have few or no friends you will always get one of these... unless you didn't play that week.
     That's it!  Now you know the benefits of playing this mini game as well as how to play it and how to get the higher scores.  If you have any questions or advice, feel free to add a comment!
     I shall be doing tutorials for the other mini games in LINE Play as well.  I shall not be doing tutorials for the Japanese only fishing mini game.  Nor shall I do one for the Gold Rush game, since it doesn't give you any gems.  I consider that mini game to be a waste of time.