Gridland/Walkthrough

Walkthrough
The game begins with a daytime cycle. Begin matching resources. If a particular tile type seems scarce, then prioritize vertical-line matches.

Observe the heart/health meter to the left. During the daytime, health will decrease (due to hunger) with each turn. Replenish health through food tile matches.

During the daytime, aim to chain as many matches together per turn, to most efficiently fill resource blocks. In the later game, when 4+ matches are more scare, prioritize matches closer to the bottom of the screen, which will shift more tiles and cause more potential chain matches.

At first, there will only be three types of resources available, so there is no need to avoid matching any particular type of resource. As new buildings are built, new resources/tiles will be added to the grid.

Once all 5-6 resources are in play, daytime matching in the afternoon can have large effects on nighttime survival. Because each kind of resource converts into the same type of nighttime tile, it can be possible to end the day without enough possible sword and shield matches to use against enemies. To avoid this, focus on matching food, brick, and knowledge tiles in the late day, and avoid matching stone or wood.

In addition, building meters can require a specific level of resource, causing building block bottlenecks. For example, targeting red brick per above to optimize nighttime tiles may cause the brick meters of all buildings to fill up before any of them can be upgraded (still requiring more stone or wood blocks). The storehouse will begin to fill with completed red brick blocks that the stick figure will not remove. For this reason, in the middle to late game, focus on matching wood and stone early in the day.

During the nighttime, avoid chaining together matches, as that will either remove sword/shield tiles that could be needed later in the night, or it will spawn multiple enemies, all of whom can attack the stick figure, while the stick figure can only attack one enemy at a time. As such, prioritize horizontal 3-tile matches towards the top of the grid.

However, it may be useful to prioritize vertical matches only if to increase the chance of getting new sword and shield tiles that can be matched with tiles lower on the grid.

Enemy tiles are upgraded along with building upgrades. As enemies always provide the same amount of experience, if possible prioritize matching weaker enemy tiles to conserve sword/shield meters. In particular, there is usually an enemy available that dies in 1-2 sword hits without damaging the player, for extra shield conservation.

Due to the benefits of gaining experience for leveling, it is not recommended to use crystal bonuses to escape the night unless in fatal danger. However, if the equipment and enemy levels are badly mismatched, it may be practical to prioritize 4+ matches of the needed resources to spawn many crystals, then keep escaping the night and then immediately replenishing the bauble bonus with a crystal match, until the blacksmith is upgraded.

Endgame / Dragon
The lich (spawned by matching mana shards) may drop a treasure chest that contains a dragon medallion, a new item type available only during nighttime. Clicking the medallion will summon the dragon. It's a good idea to spend however many cycles to maximize sword and shield upgrades, as well as items, before fighting the dragon.

Other than the sword and shield, all other tiles will be converted to dragon tiles. Matching dragon tiles will cause dragon attacks. Otherwise, fight the dragon just like other enemies. Match sword and shield tiles to replenish their meters, use items as necessary, until the dragon health is depleted. At this point, game statistics will be displayed. The player can choose to either continue on the same game (fight more liches and dragons, continue to level up and add to the heart meter), or start a New Game+.

New Game+
In New Game+, buildings, resources, and equipment are reset. The player's day count and nighttime level are carried over.