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Match Land Guide: Tips, Tricks & Strategies to Make Effective Matches and Complete More Levels

Match-3 games can go from casual and relaxing to downright challenging and even frustrating at times. And somehow, that’s exactly the appeal of popular titles like Candy Crush Saga, Bejeweled, and the like: one moment you’re just happily matching tiles, and the next thing you know, you’re racking your brains for the perfect combination that will give you the most bonuses or the most tiles you can eliminate from your board.

You might not notice it, but you’re slowly being enchanted by the game because every session is quick enough to be enjoyable, but somehow short enough to keep you coming back after replenishing your energy. As you go up the levels, the progression can begin to feel a little more difficult, yet that makes every victory so much more satisfying when you’re always just an inch away from defeat.

Match Land is no different from most match-3 games, at least in the sense of how much fun and challenging it is to play. However, when it comes to the nitty-gritty details of gameplay, there are a lot of things that make Match Land quite a unique experience, its charming, 8-bit retro pixel art style, notwithstanding.

match land cover
It begins.

On the surface, the game looks absolutely adorable, and it’s made even more charming with its playful music, cute sound effects, and incredibly detailed designs. But don’t be deceived by its wonderful and whimsical appearance! Match Land can get pretty grindy because while the basic gameplay mechanics is to match 3 tiles of the same color, there are various other factors that you need to take into the equation when playing.

Battle Skills, Leader Skills, character combinations, bosses, and enemy types are just some of the other things you need to consider when you want to claim those sweet, sweet 3 stars each round. You also have stamina (energy) and currency expenditure, time-limited moves, individual and overall attack power, diagonal matching versus straight matching, and character evolutions to think about as you battle your way through each stage.

Sounds like a lot of stuff for a cutesy match-3 game, right? Don’t worry, that’s what our ’s guide for Match Land is all about! If you’ve been playing Match Land for some time now, you already know that this is the type of game that can’t easily be won without a handful of solid strategies and techniques on hand.

Well, dear player, it’s your lucky day because we’re here to let you in on strategies that will help you match the most tiles, get the best bonuses, build the best combination for your attack team, beat bosses, and gain a ton of rewards to aid your progression and journey to victory!

Matching and Landing

As we mentioned, there are a number of things that you need to take into account while playing Match Land. Before we dive into strategies and techniques, it’s important to know the basic gameplay mechanics and features so you can plan your moves not only in an active battle, but also when it comes to choosing your team and even spending your currencies. This can be a bit lengthy but bear with us, it’s harder to strategize and progress if you’re not familiar with all the aspects of the game.

That said, let’s break down how the game works in several sections:

Shops

match land shop
Don’t listen to the monsters when they complain about turning them into food!

Shops are the first feature of the game that you will often see. Not to be confused with the Daily Market or other Shops like the Arena Shop (more on this later) allow you to collect gold, which is the basic currency. Let’s take the image above for example: as you can see, the Ratty Pies Shop is closed. You can open this (and many other Shops) by collecting enemies that correspond to that specific Shop. For the Ratty Pies Shop, you have to collect 6 blue rats to open it.

Shops can also be upgraded in exchange for spices, which are rewards you can earn from battling. Upgrading a Shop means that you can increase its star level. Each star represents the number of Evos that you can earn from that Shop after you’ve opened it 5 times.

match land ratty pies

Evos are items that you need to upgrade your characters (more on this later). Each Shop will yield its unique kind of Evo. Depending on the character you’re trying to upgrade, you may need more than 1 type of Evo to make this happen.

Apart from earning Evos, an upgraded Shop will also increase your gold rewards. You may collect gold after a certain time period has passed. Each Shop will have a different waiting time. Typically, the longer the waiting time (and the higher the level of the Shop), the more gold you can get upon collection.

Battle Stages

match land misty forest
The first of your pains.

Selecting Battle mode in the opening screen will let you enter a Stage. Each Stage has 5 Chapters, and each Chapter has its own set of Levels. Each Level will have about 3 to 4 rounds and have a corresponding reward upon completion. Completing Levels will also allow you to collect a number of enemies, which you can use to open the Shops.

match land star rating

Levels can be completed with 1, 2, or 3 stars depending on the number of turns you make to defeat all the enemies in a particular Level. For instance, you can complete a Level with 3 stars if you manage to defeat all enemies in just 10 turns. If you go beyond the allotted number of turns to gain three stars, you will only complete the Level with either 2 stars or just 1 star.

match land victory

It’s ideal to complete each Level with 3 stars as this will allow you to access the Quick Loot option. With Quick Loot, you can instantly collect the Level’s reward as well as enemies in exchange for stamina without playing the entire Level all over again. The required stamina to access Quick Loot will vary between Levels. The higher you go up Levels, the more stamina is required to access them. This applies both to Battle mode and Quick Loot, which will come in handy later.

match land quick loot

At the last Level of each Chapter, you will face a boss fight. You will encounter bosses at the last round of that Level. There will be no other enemies present, giving you a chance to focus all your attacks solely on the boss.

match land boss final wave

Upon defeating the boss, you will be able to unlock the next Stage. If you manage to complete all Levels of a Chapter with 3-stars, you can collect a gem bonus at the end.

match land chapter completed

Upon unlocking the next Stage, you will have to battle your way through each Chapter and Level. The more Stages, Chapters, and Levels completed, the more Shops you can open.

Meet the Heroes

match land heroes
Not shown: The rest of the heroes who are actually a lot!

Before going into battle mode, you need to pick Heroes that will make up your attack team. Since matches are made based on 5 colors, Hero characters also have their corresponding colors.

During the beginning Levels, you will be able to build your starter team, which comprises Alexander (Red), Jade (Green), Barrett (Yellow), Primm (Purple), and Fenrus (Blue). Match Land has over 60 Heroes but you will have to unlock the others by collecting their respective figurines as you go along.

Each Hero has their own individual stats, type, rarity battle skill, leader skill, and max level. Depending on your Hero choices, this can affect your overall team power and bonuses during battle. Now rarity and individual stats will vary per Hero character, but there are 4 general factors you need to take note of when it comes to choosing Heroes aside from their color. These are:

  • Type: Each Hero has a “type” or classification. It’s important to know your Hero’s type as some have skills that give heroes of the same type bonuses when selected in a team. The 5 Hero types you will encounter as a beginner include, but are not limited to, the following:
    • Royal
    • Samurai
    • Winter
    • Undead
    • Nomad
  • Max Level: Each Hero also has a max level. This basically denotes both their potential and limitations. If you’ve maxed out a Hero’s level, you’ve allowed them to reach their highest potential.
  • Battle Skill: Battle Skills directly affect your Heroes individual stats. These may give bonuses to their attack, health, or recovery. 
  • Leader Skill: Leader Skills only come into play if a particular Hero is selected as the leader of your team. Each Hero has different Leader Skills that may give bonuses to other members of your team. For instance, one Leader Skill may increase the attack of all Red Heroes. On the other hand, a certain Leader Skill may increase the recovery of, say, all Royal Heroes.

If you’ve managed to collect multiple Heroes, you will soon notice that Heroes of the same color are like higher-level versions of the starter Heroes. However, they do differ in Leader Skills so that does make them unique in their own way. Of course, making the perfect combinations for battle will depend on enemy types and the difficulty of the Levels themselves. We’ll talk more about this later when we get into strategies that will help you select the best Heroes for your team.

Paint With All the Colors of the Tiles

Similar to other match-3 games, the basic gameplay mechanic for Match Land is to match 3 or more tiles of the same color. As mentioned, you will be working with 5 colors. Thus, this is how each tile will look like:

match land tiles
Well, can you?

How your tiles are arranged on the board will be randomly generated by the game. As you can see from the image above, each tile also has a corresponding symbol. Each symbol is directly related to the Battle Skills of Heroes of that same color and how they attack enemies when activated. Battle Skills can be used when a Hero’s Skill bar is filled up. Let’s break down what these symbols mean:

Blue

  • Symbol: Bow and Arrow
  • Skill: Attacks all enemies present with lightning bolts

Red

  • Symbol: Sword
  • Skill: Attacks random enemies with multiple slashes

Purple

  • Symbol: Wand/Scepter
  • Skill: Recovers health by attacking all enemies

Green

  • Symbol: Spear
  • Skill: Stuns 1 enemy for 1 turn

Yellow

  • Symbol: Ax
  • Skill: Attacks 1 enemy with a powerful lightning bolt

Regardless of your Hero’s level, how enemies are attacked upon activating their Skills will always be the same depending on their color. The only difference is how strong each Skill will be based on the Hero activating them.

Aside from these 5 colored tiles, you will also encounter a 6th tile: the white tile. This is what it looks like:

match land white tile

White tiles won’t be able to attack enemies. Instead, they help recover your health when matched.

You may encounter three other tile types in the game. These are:

match land dead and inactive tiles
  • Dead or Inactive Tiles: As you can see, these tiles have their symbols sort of blurred out. This can happen if you don’t include a Hero of a certain color in your party (in this case, green) or if a Hero of that particular color has been stunned. You can still match Dead Tiles but they won’t add to your attack multiplier, and neither can they damage enemies.
match land special tiles
  • Special Tiles: Special tiles are made by matching 5 or more tiles of the same color in a fully connected pattern. Tiles of the same color that are matched separately from this pattern will not be counted, and neither will they yield Special Tiles, unless they have a connected pattern of their own. In that case, you may get 2 Special Tiles of the same color.

Depending on how many tiles you connect, you can have Special Tiles that are Tier I, II, III, IV, and V. The higher the tier symbol reflected on the Special Tile, the higher the attack bonus you will get when activated. To activate Special Tiles, you need to match them with at least 2 other tiles.

When activated, Special Tiles will clear nearby tiles in a cross pattern, with the activated Special Tile acting as the center. Again, the higher the tier, the more tiles it will clear from the board.

match land obstacle tiles
  • Obstacle Tiles: Obstacle Tiles occur when an enemy uses their skill to randomly lock a tile, turn them into bubbles, etc. Obstacle Tiles cannot be moved unless the tiles beneath them are matched. To remove these Obstacle Tiles, you may need to match directly or beside other regular tiles. Sometimes, other Obstacle Tiles may require you to remove them by activating Special Tiles to eliminate them.

Battle Time!

Now that you know the basics about Shops, Stages, Heroes, and Tiles, let’s move on to the basics of battle. Once you’ve selected what Level to play in and have picked your Heroes, you may now proceed to fight enemies and complete that particular Level. Here’s what a typical battle looks like:

match land battle
Oh, the carnage!

Tiles and Heroes are pretty obvious to spot so let’s focus our attention on some other important things that might just have missed your notice. We’ve highlighted them on the image below:

important things in match land

These 4 seemingly small yet significant factors also figure into your gameplay during battle. Let’s take a closer look at each one:

  • Current round: As mentioned previously, each Level has about 3 or 4 rounds. Checking which round you’re in will help you make the best decisions when it comes to matching, using a Hero’s Special Skills, or activating Special Tiles.
  • Number of turns before enemies attack: Attacking in Match Land is turn-based, which means that you get to attack your enemies, but they will return the favor. The numbers above each enemy’s head tells you how many turns you have before they start attacking you. After attacking, a new number will appear on their heads.
  • Health bar: Your health represents the total health of your team, which is dependent on the combined health of all your selected team members. If you get damaged, you can regain health by matching white tiles or activating a recovery Skill from a Hero who has that.
  • Timer: Once you begin matching tiles, the timer, which looks like a rope, will start burning. You can extend your time by making more matches, but once you’ve stopped matching, did not make matches fast enough, or moved a tile into a non-matching position, the timer will burn out and conclude your turn.

Aside from regular battles, you will eventually unlock Arena Mode, which is basically regular battle mode but with different enemies and a different environment. However, the same principles and rules apply. Here’s what a typical Arena Mode battle looks like:

match land arena mode battle
Are you not entertained?!

Additionally, aside from the typical rewards like gold, treasure keys, gems, spices, Hero Tokens, and the like, you can also get Arena Coins, which are not obtained anywhere else. This makes Arena Coins somewhat of a premium currency, although gems are arguably more difficult to obtain.

Arena Mode is shorter and will only be open for 48 hours. It has 10 stages (equivalent to Levels in regular battle mode), and each stage requires a certain number of Skull Keys to be played. You have a maximum of 5 Skull keys to spend, and you will have to wait a couple of hours before you can replenish each one.

match land arena of skulls III

What makes Arena Mode also different from regular battle mode is that each session usually comes with a hefty power bonus that will give heroes of a certain color or type a significant advantage. For instance, in an Arena Mode session, you may get a 2x power bonus for Purple Heroes and a 3x power bonus for Royal Heroes. You will typically see this when you’re picking Heroes for your team.

You might be wondering, how do all these figure into the game? Well, that’s where our tips and tricks come in!

Now that we’ve finished breaking down the basic gameplay mechanics, it’s finally time to get to the exciting part: Strategizing for success!

In an effort to be more organized, we’re also going to segment our tips into sections, namely:

  • Match Strats: This section focuses on matching strategies and how you can generally approach each battle to give you an edge regardless of who you’re facing.
  • Hero Combinations: This discusses ways you can select the best Heroes and find combinations that will work to your team’s advantage.
  • Battle Skills and How to Use Them: This section focuses on the best times to use Battle Skills.
  • You and Your Spoils: How do you get rewards and what’s the best way to spend them? This section discusses exactly that.

Without further ado, here are tips and tricks you may want to consider from our in-depth beginner’s guide for Match Land:

Match Strategies

Turn on Diagonals

match land diagonal matching
Time to put some pizzazz on the matching board.

One vital feature that Match Land has is that it allows players to select whether they want simple straight matching or diagonal matching. Now, straight matching can be a bit easier for beginners as most match-3 games typically apply this type of gameplay.

However, we highly recommend turning on diagonal matching as straight matching typically works better for a huge board. The thing with Match Land is that the board only takes up half the screen and you only have a total of 35 tiles to work with.

Straight matching can drastically limit your move choices, which can affect your attack multiplier. The more matches you make, the higher your attack multiplier, which can defeat enemies easier.

Limited matches may be an even bigger problem if you have Obstacle Tiles or Dead Tiles in play. Because of limited matches, you may need to spend more turns to defeat enemies, thus reducing your chances of gaining 3 stars, that is, if you even survive enemy attacks.

By turning on diagonal matching, you give yourself a bit more elbow room to move tiles and find more matches to make. It takes a bit of getting used to but it’s worth it. You can turn on diagonal matching by going to the game’s settings.

Don’t Always Follow Suggestions

match land suggestions
This ain’t it, chief.

As with most match-3 games, you may get suggestions about where to move certain tiles. Since matching has a time limit, you will often see suggestions before you make a series of matches. While suggestions can be helpful, don’t always follow them!

Keep in mind that the moment you begin matching, the timer will burn out and following a suggested match can potentially lead to a deadlock if you’re not careful. Ultimately, follow suggestions only when you’ve observed that there’s only 1 match that can be made the entire turn because of restrictions or obstacles.

If you don’t like getting distracted by suggestions, head onto the game’s settings to disable this feature.

Plan Your Moves Out

planning moves in match land
You activated my Trap Card, oops, wait, wrong game.

Before doing something, it’s a natural reaction to plan out the steps you will take. The same principle applies to Match Land: before making any moves, try to foresee how you can keep matching continuously until you’ve exhausted all possible matches on the board. Imagine how your moves can affect the board’s arrangement. Here are a few vital questions you can ask yourself as you observe the board and plan your moves:

  • Will you be locking yourself in, or opening up more matches?
  • Is there a way you can connect all same-colored tiles together and eliminate them from the board with a bonus?
  • Would making one match or the other be more effective against the enemy?
  • Should you sacrifice this particular match because there’s a better one you can make at the moment?
  • Is it better to match white healing tiles for this turn or colored tiles for attacking?

Of course, these are just a handful of questions and planning your moves will greatly depend on your battle progress. Additionally, as you try to imagine how your matches can affect the overall movement of tiles on the board, try to see whether you’re potentially setting yourself up for a deadlock not just in the current turn, but also on the next turn.

While you’ve made lots of matches in one turn, it’s possible that you might not make as many in the succeeding ones. Be observant and adapt. Take your time planning. Memorize the moves you want to make.

When you’ve mentally mapped out your move set, act fast but don’t panic! You only have one shot before the timer burns out for that turn. Don’t be afraid to also cut the timer short by making a non-match if your intention is to move a certain tile to a specific position that will give you a better advantage for the next turn or during succeeding turns.

You may also consider moving one tile in a specific location so that when nearby tiles get eliminated on the board, this one tile will form a match with the others that have moved, thus adding to your attack multiplier.

Focus on Specific Enemies

match land enemies
Peek-a-boo, I see you!

During battle mode, you will typically face at least 2 enemies each round. The only time you will be facing 1 enemy is during a boss fight. That said, we recommend tapping on an enemy to focus your attack on them. As seen on the image above, a circle will appear under a specific enemy you’ve focused on. If you don’t direct your attention towards 1 target, the game will randomly distribute your attack among all present enemies for the current turn.

This can seem like a trifle but it’s actually a vital move! As mentioned before, enemies have a number above their heads that indicate how many turns you can make before they launch their attack. As much as possible, it’s important to prevent enemies from attacking you even once.

During the early stages, enemy attacks might not cause significant damage, but the higher you go up the Levels, the stronger the foes you face. It’s not impossible to encounter enemies that can shave off half your health bar with a single strike. Focus on the enemy whose turn will come up the soonest and eliminate them.

But what happens when you’re faced with multiple enemies that will all attack at the same time? Focus on the enemy whose color corresponds with the tiles you’ll be able to make the most matches with, or tiles that have the strongest bonus. If you match tiles with an enemy of the same color, your attack will be more effective.

For instance, blue tiles against blue enemies will cause more damage. In applying this strategy, you may not eliminate all attacking enemies but defeating at least 1 enemy will reduce the total damage you will sustain.

Similarly, you may also focus your attack on an enemy with the lowest health. However, this kind of technique depends on how much health you have, the number of enemies set to attack you in the next turn, or the matches available to you. We still recommend prioritizing enemies that will attack you in the next turn, but this strategy is a good one to keep in mind and apply when all the factors fall in your favor.

Get Rid of Obstacles

match land obstacles
Those pesky bubbles!

The presence of Obstacle Tiles will definitely limit your matching possibilities so eliminate these as soon as possible. You may try to work around Obstacle Tiles, but if you can make decent matches while getting rid of them in the process, all the better.

However, take note of whether or not doing so will give you an overall advantage, especially if the Obstacle Tile you have to remove requires the use of Special Tiles. On the other hand, don’t hesitate to match Dead Tiles if it’s going to give you better matching chances. They might not add to your attack multiplier or do any sort of damage to enemies, but eliminating them from your board will hopefully free up space for more active tiles.

Save Special Tiles for Later

saving special tiles for later in match land
Here comes the big one!

Speaking of Special Tiles, always be aware of what round you’re in to see whether you should save or activate them. As mentioned, Special Tiles have tiers wherein the higher the tier, the stronger their attack and bonus, as well as the number of tiles they can eliminate within a cross pattern. It’s ideal to save higher tier Special Tiles (Tier III to V) for the last round, especially if you’ll be facing a boss.

However, you may choose to activate lower tier Special Tiles (Tier I and II) during the first 2 to 3 rounds to bolster your attack. This can be extremely helpful when you’re facing 3 or more enemies that can be particularly hard to eliminate. Keep in mind that you have a limited number of turns to get to 3 stars so defeating enemies pronto is something that should always be considered.

That said, try to create as many Special Tiles as you can. The only thing you have to be careful with when doing so is that you may unwittingly activate a Special Tile you’ve been saving up for a later round.

Having too many Special Tiles on the board may also force you to activate at least 1 or 2 before their intended use. Overall, it’s ideal to balance their usage so you don’t get deadlocked into activating them ahead of your plans.

Three Stars’ the Charm

match land lost beach
Oh, the pain.

There will be times when you do complete a Level, but not with the coveted 3 stars. This is perfectly fine and a completely normal result. Don’t beat yourself up for it as you can repeatedly play that Level (provided you have enough stamina) until you complete it with 3 stars.

Aside from being able to maximize the Quick Loot option and getting gem rewards at the end of the Chapter, finishing all Levels with 3 stars will make it easier for you to unlock the Light and Dark Worlds.

We’re not going to spoil that feature of the game but suffice it that you need a certain amount of stars to get to that part. Unlocking the Light and Dark Worlds will also allow you to access more Heroes than the roster that’s currently available to beginners.

Trying to finish all Levels with 3 stars can also serve as great practice that can help refine your battle strategies and Hero combinations. If anything, you can still collect enemies and rewards from repeatedly playing.

Hero Combinations

Pick the Perfect Pairs

hero combinations in match land
Let the shipping wars begin!

The typical approach to forming your Hero team is to have 1 color represented by 1 corresponding Hero. This setup makes all tiles active, thus maximizing the amount of matches you can make per turn.

This approach works for early levels but you will soon discover that this isn’t the end-all and be-all of Hero combinations. If you observe some levels, you will notice that there are times when you will face enemies representing only 1 or 2 colors. In this case, it’s a good idea to pick multiple Heroes of the same color for your team so your attacks will be more effective in dealing damage.

Consider this kind of setup when you’re also about to fight a boss. Each boss will represent just 1 color so having a team that effectively corresponds to that particular boss color will make it easier for you to defeat them. In the example below, you can see that we’ve picked 2 blue Heroes in our team to strengthen our attack against the blue mouse boss.

match land blue heroes

However, keep in mind that there will be at least 3 more rounds before the boss fight. Thus, picking an all-blue team may work wonders for this particular boss fight itself, but may give you an extremely hard time during the rounds before it.

We recommend taking note of the enemies you will be facing before entering a Level so you can build a team that will be effective against them. See how many enemies of a particular color you will face so you can choose which Hero colors you can sacrifice for a certain Level.

It’s a good idea to have just 2 pairs of Heroes of the same color and 1 Hero of a completely different color. For instance, if you’ll be fighting mostly against blue and purple enemies, your Hero combination can consist of 2 purple Heroes, 2 blue Heroes, and 1 green/yellow/red Hero.

We generally don’t recommend having 3 Heroes of the same color in a team since colors that will not be represented by corresponding Heroes will give you Dead Tiles. While 3 Heroes of the same color will definitely strengthen your attack, it will dramatically limit possible matches, which can result in unproductive turns. A 2-2-1 setup will give you both an attack advantage and decent matches.

Power Up!

match land power up
Let the shipping wars begin!

If you find yourself entering Levels wherein enemies represent all 5 colors, it’s a good idea to go back to the regular approach, but make sure the Heroes you pick to represent each color are the highest level Heroes you have.

As mentioned, each Hero has their own stats like attack, health, recovery, max level, and power. If you’re going for a “rainbow” setup, take note of how your individual Hero choices affect the total team power. You can see this number when you’re arranging your team before battle.

Each Hero will also have their power indicated below their icon when shuffling your team. It’s ideal to pick those with the largest power number to represent their respective color.

Leading the Charge

match land leader skill
Match Landers: Assemble!

One other important thing you should consider when combining Heroes is their Leader Skill. Opposite to Battle Skills, which are more individualistic in nature, Leader Skills can boost the other members of your team. Let’s take the image above as an example: We’ve selected Geno as the leader of the team, who has a leader skill of raising the health of Royal Heroes by 150%. In turn, this skill will increase Popoi’s health by 150% since he’s a Royal-type Hero.

When arranging your team, appoint a leader whose skill will boost as many team members as it can. You can see which Heroes can be boosted through the yellow arrow that will appear beside their icon.

If you have a preferred leader in mind, consider building your team around that leader’s Skill to make attacks more effective. Supplementing this approach can mean picking team members based on their type or color depending on your chosen leader’s Skill.

Appointing an effective leader will also strengthen your team’s overall power. In case you have more than 1 leader that can boost other members, consider picking one that can give you a higher team power. Keep in mind the appointed leader doesn’t always have to be the Hero with the strongest power. What’s important is that their Leader Skill will enhance as many of your team members as possible.

Battle Skills and How to Use Them

match land battle skills
This is going to be great! For you, definitely! For the enemy, not so much.

Aside from planning matches and Hero combinations, knowing when to use Battle Skills might just be your ticket to victory. A Hero’s Skill is ready when the meter above their icon is filled and the icons themselves are glowing. This meter is filled whenever you match tiles of a specific color corresponding to a Hero. You can activate a Hero’s Skill before making your first match for the turn. Here are two vital tips when using Battle Skills:

Got Offense?

Offensive Battle Skills are usually performed by red, blue, and yellow Heroes. All these are focused on attacking enemies. The differences between them are how many enemies they attack and the kind of attack they perform. Since all these are offensive Battle Skills, we recommend activating them immediately when available for use.

Activated Battle Skills don’t count as turns so it’s similar to having an extra attack move without having to match tiles. Using them at once will certainly save on turns and can make short work of foes.

Perhaps the only time you should delay activating offensive Battle Skills is if you’re saving it for a boss. Otherwise, use them as soon as you get them so Heroes can recharge their Skill bars quickly. 

Is It Time to Heal or Time to Stun?

Other than offensive Battle Skills, you also have healing and stun skills, which are performed by purple and green Heroes respectively. Unlike offensive Battle Skills, healing or stun skills are more effective when timed right. This means you can hold off using them depending on the situation.

For instance, healing skills are best used when your health bar is significantly drained. Refrain from using them when you still have full health or have sustained very minimal damage.

The only time healing skills can be used even without a damaged health bar is, ideally, when you’re in the last round with enemies that have extremely low health and who are likely to be killed by that healing skill. This move will save you a turn, which you might just need to complete the Level with 3 stars.

The same goes for stun skills: use them on an enemy set to attack in the next turn. This will delay their attack, giving you an extra chance to completely eliminate them if you haven’t already. If you have more than 1 green Hero in your party, don’t use all their stun skills at once unless you also have more than 1 enemy that will attack in the next turn. If this isn’t the case, save your extra stun skills for a more opportune time.

When delaying Battle Skills, don’t forget to activate them before a turn! It’s easy to overlook these Skills when you’re too focused on planning your moves. Always check if you have available Battle Skills before spending your turn. Keep in mind that their meter will recharge only after they’ve been used.

You and Your Spoils

match land daily reward
What goodies does this chest have for you?

In the beginning of this guide, we’ve already mentioned a few of the currencies you will encounter while playing. Before we get into our earning and spending tips, let’s have a quick summary of the currencies and rewards you can get from playing:

  • Gold: The basic currency used for most transactions, such as buying items from the Daily Market.
  • Gems: Premium currency that can be used to get more turns, speedups, instantly refreshing waiting times for rewards or gold collection in the Shops, or buying more gold from the Gold Shop.
  • Arena Coins: These can only be used in the Arena Shop and are gained through fighting in the Arena of Skulls.
  • Spices: These are obtained through battle and can be used to upgrade Shops.
  • Treasure Chest Keys: Gained at random through battle. Earn 3 gold keys and you’ll be able to open a treasure chest.
  • Evos: Reward used to evolve Heroes. This can be earned from opening Shops or are bought from the Arena Shop.
  • Hero Figurines: These are items that can be gained as rewards or bought from the Daily Market or Arena Shop.
  • Hero Tokens: These are used to upgrade a Hero’s level. You can gain Hero Tokens as battle rewards, or purchase them from the Daily Market and Arena Shop.
  • Stamina: Extra Stamina can be gained as rewards or bought in the Arena Shop.
  • EXP: Experience points are gained through battle, collecting gold from Shops, and upgrading Heroes. If you manage to gain enough EXP, your player account will level up. Leveling up will give you a +1 to your overall max stamina, a full stamina refill, a treasure chest key, gems, and an overall attack bonus.

Now that you know which currencies and rewards you can get, how are these going to help you progress through the game? Are they even worth getting? What’s the best way to use them? Not to worry because we’ve got that covered.

Open All Shops If You Can

opening shop in match land
Open for business!

As mentioned, opening Shops will require you to collect enemies that bear the same color as that particular Shop. You can do this through battling as long as you complete the Level, regardless of how many stars you earn.

By opening multiple Shops (or all of them if you have enough stamina), you can gain a ton of gold once they’re ready to collect after a certain waiting period. Early shops like the Blob Soups Shop or Mushy Buns Shop will have a shorter waiting time compared to Shops that you will unlock much later.

If you have limited stamina but want to open Shops, prioritize those that have longer waiting times, especially if you’re going to let the game idle for a while. On the other hand, you may choose instead to open Shops that are close to collecting Evos. Evos can be earned after opening a Shop 5 times.

Save Your Gold for Hero Upgrades

match land hero upgrade
Properly funded and trained.

So now that you have a lot of gold from opening Shops and going into battle, what are you going to do with them? Where do you spend them? Should you just hoard them instead?

Since gold is the most basic currency, there’s certainly a handful of stuff that you can buy with it, but we highly recommend investing them for Hero upgrades instead. Upgrading a Hero’s level will not just require Hero Tokens but also gold. Hero Tokens are relatively easier to gain compared to earning and saving up gold.

Thus, focus most, if not all, your gold reserves to upgrading your Heroes. With higher level Heroes, you get to complete Chapters faster, which will also allow you to unlock more Shops from which you can earn, you guessed it, more gold.

Quick Loot Like Crazy

quick looting in match land
But what would you do if the loot was quicker than you?

We’ve briefly discussed what the Quick Loot option is in the early part of this guide, but let’s go into a little bit more detail in this section. This feature is basically your ticket to getting items in no time provided the Levels you’re looting them from have been completed with 3 stars. But since you’ll be spending stamina on Quick Looting, which items should you focus on? Here are 3 of the most important ones:

  • Spices to upgrade Shops
  • Hero Tokens to upgrade Heroes
  • Enemies to open Shops

With the exception of enemies, the other two items indicated in the list above can also be purchased from the Daily Market or the Arena Shop, but why would you spend a dime when you can simply get them from accessing Quick Loot?

Quick Loot is actually pretty helpful in that you only spend stamina to get the items you need. The only caveat is that after using Quick Loot, you need to fulfill a waiting period before the specific reward you’ve obtained will be refreshed from the Level you just looted.

Since Quick Looting spends stamina, we recommend using this feature when you find yourself having difficulty in battle. You can perhaps spend half your stamina on Quick Loot and the other half in battle. You can also choose to simply Quick Loot levels with all of your available stamina if you feel you haven’t upgraded your Heroes enough for them to weather a fight.

Watch Ads for Stamina

match land stamina
And now, a word from our sponsors…

Speaking of stamina, one way you can gain them is by watching ads. The amount will be quite small but watching ads in exchange for stamina means you get to save your gems or Arena Coins for more important purchases instead of spending them on stamina bottles. Of course, watching ads can feel tedious, but it’s the free option you can pursue. Otherwise, you will just have to wait for your stamina to replenish.

Clutch Your Pearls, Er, Gems

restoring health in match land
Is it worth it? Depends on how close you are to winning…

Hold onto your gems like there’s no tomorrow! The temptation to spend them can be real: after all, gems can give you loads of gold, speedups, stamina, and can even, gasp!, resurrect you in battle with full health! But clutch these shiny little stones for the treasure that they are.

Despite their many uses, gems can be extremely hard to obtain and save up for. This is why we recommend using them only when it’s absolutely necessary. When is this, you might ask? Well, it’s only during very specific situations:

  • When you’ve died in battle but are in the last round, and still have enough turns to gain 3-stars after completing the level. Preferably, you should have just 1 or 2 enemies left, both of whom have already taken significant damage.
  • When you’ve died in battle but are about to kill off a boss for the first time, regardless of whether you’ll earn 3 stars or not. Defeating a boss, even with 1 star, will unlock the next Chapter of a Stage and open up a new Shop.
  • When you’ve died in battle and are at the last stage in the Arena of Skulls. It certainly beats waiting for hours just to replenish 3 whole Skull Keys to access the stage again. This becomes an even more pressing matter when the Arena of Skulls is set to close in a few hours.

As you may have noticed, we only recommend spending gems as a means to resurrect your fallen team. Anything else can be considered an unnecessary expenditure of this currency. Resurrection will cost 100 gems, which is a pretty steep price. If you fall in battle again and want to resurrect, the gems needed to do so again will double in amount. Thus, if you do decide to resurrect and spend gems, make it count!

Spend Arena Coins on Evos or Figurines

match land arena shop
Collect them all!

Arena Coins may not be as difficult to obtain as gems but you still have to be wise about where to spend them. Now, the Arena Shop offers various items that are all useful for progression, but we recommend focusing purchases on Evos or figurines.

As mentioned, Evos will be instrumental in evolving your Heroes and increasing their max level cap. Figurines, on the other hand, can unlock a particular Hero when you’ve collected enough of them.

But why should you focus Arena Coin spending on these 2 items and not others? Here’s our rationale:

  • While Evos can be obtained from Shops, it admittedly takes a while, and some Evos might not even be available to you if a particular Shop hasn’t been unlocked yet. In the Arena Shop, you may get higher tier Evos and save them even if you don’t unlock other Shops. This puts you in a better position to evolve Heroes and strengthen your team.
  • Figurines can be obtained by unlocking treasure chests or paying for them with gold, but the rewards you can gain from these chests are at random and the Heroes offered in the Daily Market are of a lower rarity.

    At the Arena Shop, you can purchase figurines for Epic or Legendary Heroes, though they do come at an extremely high price. However, when you’ve managed to actually amass enough figurines for these high-tier Heroes, they will be a massive boost to your team combinations.

With that, we end our in-depth guide for Match Land! Hopefully, you’ve learned a thing or two about how you can make more effective matches and progress through the game without breaking much of a sweat.

Because it’s a challenging game, the tips and tricks you can share in our comment section below will always be welcome! Now you’re ready to fight enemies, defeat bosses, and build the Hero team that’s a match made in retro pixel heaven!

Xavier

Friday 6th of January 2023

Nice detailed guide! Great to hear from someone who has the same experiences, and enthusiasm playing the game as I do. I'm at the stage of waiting for getting some legendary 7-star heroes. Some of your tips are awesome principles for my future's grinding on the game.