One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! Is Bandai Namco’s latest puzzle game on Android and iOS platforms. Though it is already the sixth game published by Bandai Namco based on the popular anime and manga franchise, it is the first ever to be designed as a puzzle game. Like most of Bandai Namco’s hit titles under its 72-strong app portfolio, which includes Black Clover Phantom Knights, Sword Art Online Alicization Rising Steel, and Digimon ReArise; One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! is at a good start considering its top 100 chart placements and overall user reviews.
Join Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, and the rest of the colorful cast of characters in One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! as they take on a unique adventure packed with a wide variety of challenges that test your wits and skills. One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! is no ordinary match-3 puzzle game as it comes packed with extraordinary variants along with RPG elements in the form of team composition, enhancement, and synergy. If you are a fan of long-running manga and anime series, enjoy match-3 puzzle games, or both, then you should definitely check this game out.
One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! offers plenty of new features and game mechanics even for experienced and veteran match-3 puzzle enthusiasts. It may seem like a lot to take in initially but the expansive tutorial provided at the start of your adventure, as well as the information within each window, covers all the basic mechanics as far as solving puzzles and defeating enemies are concerned as well as setting up your team for each new challenge ahead.
Overall, One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! is still pretty easy to pick up and play, though mastering each trick and tactic can be a challenge. If you find yourself stuck in a particular level, or simply looking for ways to improve your gameplay, then be sure to read our One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! beginner’s guide. Our compilation of simple yet effective tips and strategies will certainly help you completing each level!
1. There’s No Need To Hurry
Just like the manga, which is still running and already well over its 800th chapter, there is no need to hurry up in playing One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! to solve each stage’s puzzle. While the initial levels are a breeze to finish given that it is part of the tutorial stages, you are very much free to take as much time as you need on the levels you engage in after the tutorials.
As numerous match-3 puzzle games often employ time pressure as part of challenge in solving puzzles, along with the general idea that finishing a challenge faster always leads to earning better rewards or so, a lot of players naturally have an almost uncontrollable inkling to start swiping away and matching 3 gems, fruits, or in this case, Bonbons, as soon as the level starts. This approach, however, is not the best way to get the best results in One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! or any match-3 puzzle game for that matter.
In as much as the tutorial may make each level seem linear and very easy, there are a lot of challenging levels that come in the game earlier than expected. While a quick approach towards matching bonbons may still get you to clear a few levels easy, perhaps by sheer luck even, it will not always be the case especially on harder stages. As such, it is important early on to take some time and look at each possible move before you swipe away.
Some stages maybe a bit more delimiting as far as possible moves go, but given that One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! holds a variety of special Bonbons, along with special abilities of your characters, there will often be more than one way to go about making each move to make progress in a level.
Making it a habit to look into the whole puzzle in its entirety and assessing each possible move will always yield better results for you. It may require a little more patience but what some players may lack, as far as keenness of eyes is concerned, can be compensated with a little more time to scan through the grid of tiles. There won’t always be a better move that cuts above the rest, but still, having more options to choose from before making that decisive swipe can go a long way.
2. Match More Than 3 Bonbons As Much As You Can
The match-3 puzzle genre often presents the idea that the way to go at solving puzzles exclusively results form only matching 3 tiles. Contrary to that being exclusive means of progressing in the puzzle, however, matching 3 tiles is the bare minimum. In almost every match-3 puzzle game that exists, there are typically additional bonuses you get out of matching 4 or more tiles together.
One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! is no stranger to the concept of matching more than 3 tiles together. Whether it’s 4 on a straight line, 5 on an “L” or “T” shape and so on, looking for ways to be able to do so results in special tiles or Bonbons that can help you clear a stage faster, if not earn you higher points. The hard part, though, is that these instances are hardly available outright and may require some setting up to accomplish.
In any case, be sure to exercise some patience to search for possibilities of unlocking these combinations as doing so will definitely be rewarded well moving forward through the puzzle. On top of generating the special tiles that have powerful effects, swapping them together also triggers unique abilities. Be on the lookout for these and strategize as well around utilizing them to ensure your victory on the current puzzle.
3. Form A Well-Rounded Team
One of the unique elements in One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! that sets it apart from a purely match-3 puzzle game comes from the characters you collect and use in each stage to combat enemies and bosses with every tile match you accomplish. Each character holds unique traits and skills that aid you in clearing puzzles or dealing heavier damages to the enemies you need to defeat. As such, careful selection and investment in the right characters for your team can go along way.
You will have a team of 3 units and a full roster of more than 60 characters to collect. There are rarity levels that may influence your selection of team members in addition to favoritism especially if you are a fan of the series, or at least some of its characters. However, a more effective approach towards creating a team is taking into consideration the skill that each one has and how it can help you in several scenarios.
For starters, each character either has a damage skill type or support type and you while you are very much free to choose characters with any mixture of these skill types, having one that does damage and having 2 supports is best for starters. Support characters typically help you in clearing puzzles and comes in a wide variety of forms. To be sure, read through each character description by tapping on the “Bonbons” icon at the bottom of your screen, and selecting the Team banner.
One important thing to keep in mind as well is that while higher rarity characters do have better stats and skills to begin with, the easiest way of ranking up each character’s skill is through obtaining several copies of the same character. This means that while you may want to bank on 4-star heroes that you obtain, you may have several 3-star Bonbons that have grown stronger as a result of their higher level skills.
Each Bonbon or character can also be leveled up with the use of Berries that you obtain just about anywhere and serves as the most basic currency in the game. While you may seem to amass a good amount of these early on, though, the exponentially increasing costs of levelling up will make it difficult for you to consistently upgrading all your 3 characters. As such, it is important to play with and bank on a fixed team as early as possible, one that can take you through different varieties of puzzles and battles.
Beyond each character’s skill, be sure to take note of each one’s team link skill, which only activates when the team link conditions are met. Team link conditions exclusively rely on the team members’ types, which can be seen at the lower right icon of their portrait. Though it is a bit more of an advanced way to set your team up, having a good mix of Bonbons that have skills to support you across various challenge types will be more synergistic with active team link effects.
4. The Hint May Not Always Be The Best Move
It can be difficult to ignore the dimly glowing trio of tiles you will constantly see while you ponder at your next move in any puzzle. As much as the “free tip” is appreciated, though, it can likewise dissuade you from seeing and considering a better option, or better options, as your next move. In some cases, the existence of hints altogether prevent you from taking as much time as necessary to consider all possible swaps within the current puzzle and as helpful as it can be to some beginners, it should not be allowed to lull you into thinking that what it offers is actually the best possible move to make.
For best results, your mindset right from the start is to see the hint simply as a tip for a possible move and continue to search for better ones across the puzzle. Think of it as a mere random suggestion, which may be the best possible move in one instance and may be the worst in others.
Relative to this, and given the multitude of objective variants that make most puzzles in One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! an exciting one, hints do not always coincide with the best possible moves in support of clearing the stage’s objectives. While you can get away clean for succumbing to the temptation of always going for the hint in the earlier levels, doing so will most likely make you miss clearing some puzzles later on.
5. Always Think Several Moves Ahead
In relation to matching more than 3 tiles within a puzzle and generating special ones, it may still happen that simply going for a 3-tile combo will be the better option in select cases. This is because as an expert match-3 player, you should not only consider your current move, but instead think several steps ahead as to the outcome of the move you plan on making. Simply put, matched tiles vanish and as the tiles above them drop down, new ones emerge from the top of the screen.
With a good understanding of this basic game mechanic in mind, you can have a good idea of how the next frame of tiles will look like after you execute a match and with it, comes a mental image of whether or not you can make something out of your current move’s outcome. It may take a while to practice this skill in mind but the rewards you can get out of it can help you in numerous situations. Additionally, planning succeeding matches or at least picturing out the impact of the match you are about to do can trigger some combos that will not just earn you huge points, put can possibly trigger the generation of one or several special tiles.
Relative to taking as much time as you need before executing a move, therefore, make an effort to do your best in predicting the outcome of each possible move, and decide better based on the overall effect of those consecutive moves. Again, you can freely choose a simple match-3 move with this in mind, if its impact will trigger a combo that depletes more tiles or earns you more special ones as a result.
6. Prioritize Bottom Tiles When All Options Are Equal
While there will be some instances where one match option will be evidently better than the rest, it cannot be helped that some move available for you to make are each equally effective. Examples of these are when you only have match-3 possible moves and each one will not likely trigger any combos or other effects that sufficiently makes them better than the other options. In such cases, always go for matching tiles at the lowermost area of the puzzle.
The reason behind this preference banks on the upcoming tiles that drop down from above the screen, as an effect of the elimination of the tiles you will match. While there is no way to know what tiles will be dropping down from the screen, choosing to match a set at the bottom of the puzzle will influence more movement from among the remaining tiles. If luck is on your side, then the new tiles that dropped down may trigger a combo. If not, then there is nothing to lose as each matching option is, again, equally effective in this scenario.
7. Accomplish Missions For Extra Rewards
In as much as you receive plenty of rewards in One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! for completing levels, more can be earned via completing missions. At the start of your game, be sure to check the missions icon at the bottom of the main screen to view each mission. Both daily missions and extra missions are in line with the usual activities you engage in as you play the game and as easy as some of the objectives here are, chances are that you will accomplish numerous feats without even knowing them.
There are 3 daily missions you can accomplish for easy resources and the extra missions serve as milestones that you reached based on your overall progress in the game. Let the list of objectives you see in both tabs serve as your guide towards engaging in activities you may have missed in your daily playthrough.
8. Add As Many Friends As You Can
As much as you can get to play and enjoy One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! all on your own, having friends to play with grants extra perks to boost your progress in the game without any drawbacks whatsoever. Friends can send stamina to one another and while you may have a plethora of in-game energy at the early part of the game, you will soon want more of it to play longer.
An even better perk to get out of having friends is the “Call a Friend” feature that enables you to use a friend’s skill in combat. Although it requires consuming transponder snails or rainbow pearls to do so, it can be very helpful especially in challenging levels.
You can check the friends icon below the main screen for player invites and you can likewise share your friend code via some social apps. Don’t hesitate to make new friends to support you in earning free stamina and help you in combat as there will be so many challenges ahead in the game that will make you appreciate each and every one you make.
That covers all the tips and tricks we have for One Piece Bon! Bon! Journey!! players. We hope that after reading this guide, you have gained some new knowledge that you can readily apply to your subsequent puzzle-solving runs. If you want to share some more tips or strategies you discovered in the game on top of what we have already discussed, then let us know through the comment section!