My bike has gears, and perhaps your car has too. Gears are everywhere in our life. In the past watches had them too. But that my friend, is all not relevant today.

Today we talk about the game Gearz. It looks like a bit a steam engine with gears, a lot of them. A cute steam engine. Let's go and click one...

I walk you through a game of Gearz I played and during our journey tell you all there is to know about it. Let's set our first steps in becoming a successful Gearz player.

The first step is finding a machine and paying it. The game starts instantly after payment. So, be ready, stand or sit nicely close to the machine and zoom in on a somewhat comfortable manner.

When being new to the game, choose a low cost game with a x2 score. Sure, you'll only win twice the amount you paid when winning, but the odds on winning are a lot larger, and the inevitable beginners mistakes don't get punished as harsh as they would on a L$1000 x10 machine.

On top of the game we see that I need 33222 points to win this, I got already 0 points and am in round 01. Below that some things called lights, a 3x3 play board with also lights left of it, and below that a spinner.

The distinction between the spinner and the play board isn't too clear. The bottom row is at a bit a more distance from the row above it. That row is the spinner. If you click it you go to the next round, so don't, at least not yet.

Below that I see that I play for 2x the amount I paid, thus L$20. If I win, I get L$20. If I loose, nothing. )):

On the spinner we see a 6, a wild and a 29. The 6 is also on the play board. That means I got a match. Let's make it, I click the 6 on the play board.

Do not worry: I won't write long texts about each click we make. We'll increase speed soon.

Clicking the 14 gave us another 100 points. Still only 33022 points to make before I am a winner. That is an awesome lot of points, considering that the remaining 7 tiles on the board would only give 700. Luckily there are also other ways to score, e.g. the yummi bonus of 10,000 points that got revealed when clicking the 14.

I am done now for this round. I made both matches, took a smart well-thought decission to go for 14 instead of 13 or 18. I want the next round.

Now I click the spinner (once!!!!!!)  and the game moves to round #2.

Eeekk!!!!

Round #2 is a nightmare. If I was a person using filthy language, I would say it sucks.

This round we see the bare minimum of this guarantee. I cannot match the 10, I cannot match the 15 and on the 3rd column I got 3%. T.h.r.e.e. p.e.r.c.e.n.t.

On my score of 200, 3% is six points. So I got a score of 206 now. I didn't have to do anything to get these 6 points, they are already added to my score. Laughing at me.

Ok, I click the spinner to see what round #3 will bring. It better be good.

This round is slightly better than the previous one. I got a single match to make. It is a wild, so the choice is mine: 13 or 18.

I go for 13, because it is much better that 18, linewise. Now only 24 is needed to make a horizontal line, and with 18 we wouldn't get any similar advantage.

Experienced Gearz players would point out that 13 also has an advantage when the light bonuses start playing up. That is true. However, that advantage goes always hand in hand with trying to make lines, so it doesn't really matter.

I click 13, then the spinner, still a bit upset about round #2, we go to round #4.

Yeah, I clicked too fast. In the 13 we saw for a while a black arrow pointing to the left. That black arrow indicates "If you are looking for the steam bonus, it is on the column left of me".

In my strategy I ignore these arrows. I didn't figure out a way to make them useful for me. I even asked people, but there seems to be no decision I could ever make that should be different due to this knowledge. If you disagree? Chat me up!!

This round, no thinking is needed, I match 4 and 18 and go on to the next round. Gearz doesn't have any feature in wich it sometimes is smart to not make a match. Just match them, the order doesn't matter either.

 

Things start to happen in round #5.

Besides the 2 x 100 points for matching a tile, I also completed a line (the vertical one in the middle, all numbers are matched). Matching a line gives 1000 points.

And, the lights are on.

And, I got 2 matches. 9 and 30. The wild doesn't give much reason to think..only  9 is available.

When the lights are on, always, ALWAYS, first make your matches and then bother about the lights.

So, let's first do the 9 and 30, and then NOT go to the next round. NOT go to the next round. NOT. We still have the lights to deal with.

 After matching 9 and 30 I got my points more than tripled. Watch the board for a sec, I made a horizontal, vertical and diagonal line, each giving 1000 points.

I now can click one of the 6 lights. If I click the lights above a column I get all revealed bonuses in that column. If I click a light left of a row, I get all revealed bonuses in that row.

The light I choose won't be usable anymore the rest of this game.

You get the lights at least once each game, but (spoiler: As we see further on) it can happen more often.

The steam bonus multiplies my score with a value between x1.5 and x3. I do not want to take that bonus now but save it for later. This saving is made very attractive by the second column. Choosing that gives me 13,000 points, way more attractive than already spoiling my steam bonus on a relative low score. 

I get this bonus by clicking the light above the second column. Thus not the column itself, not the spinner, but the light above the column.

Here to the left you see the same explained by the creator of the game. Understanding these lights (and it isn't really hard, is it) is the key to playing Gearz successful.

Each game has only one Steam Bonus. And, that Steam bonus can be very decisive for the game outcome. Use it wise!

OMG, in Round #6 the lights are again on.

A trained player as I am, I ignore that fact fully. I first make my number matches. I match 22. That could reveal another nice bonus, who knows it is x2 (!!) then with the Gearz Bonus and X2..I gonna make a rocking light bonus.

Oh, and notice the score. We are getting somewhere!

Anyways, I match 22 and see what happens.

It now looks like it doesn't really matter which if we choose the leftmost light above the game (4000 points + steam bonus) or the middle row (steam bonus + 4000 points).

But it matters a lot. Choose the leftmost light and you get first 4000 and then the steam bonus (thus also the 4000 points multiplied) where as with the middle row you get the 4000 after the steam bonus.

And it matters even more. Choose the leftmost and you get also a nice shot to take later also the right most. Including the 500 points and who knows what lays beneath the 24.

Thus I click the light above the leftmost column. Curious what the steam bonus will bring. It could be x1.5, it could be x2, or x2.5 or in best case x3.

My smart brain already calcuated lightning fast, whatever it is, it is more than needed to beat that 33222. Clicking the light in the leftmost column is a sure win. YAYYYYYY!

There, this is how the game looks like after I clicked the light of my choosing.

The Steam Bonus gave me 2.5x my score. Thus the 18806 I already had, plus 4000 and then all that summed up and multiplied by 2.5.

Having won already in the 6th round isn't half way or so, the game only lasts 7. (Although that could be more, there are also extra round bonuses, but I didn't get one)

Extra round bonuses could be very attractive, each round you'll score at least something, and you got an extra chance to get these lights burning.

Anyways, already fully happy I click the spinner and go on to what will be the last round.

Oh, f**k it! The lights are on again. I also got a 3% bonus, which is a nice amount extra since I already had such a high score, and a wild to match the last number on the board.

It is a no-brainer that that light will be used for the rightmost column, but let's first match the 24.

YES! First the 24. Not first the light. You would then not collect the bonus below the 24 (if any) and ...that could also be a x2.

Ohh gee, if it is a x2, my score goes far over 100K.

My mouse moves to the 24, fully happy, already long time forgotten the bad round #2, I click it.

A lot of points!

The 24 gave 100 for the number match,

but also 3 x 1000 for completing lines (a horizontal line, a vertical line and a diagonal line),

and on top of that 10,000 points for clearing the entire board.

The 4,500 I will get for collecting the last light bonus doesn't feel much anymore.

I click that light, hit the spinner for a last time and come to the end of yet another game, won by Morenda. Direct after the spinner click L$20 flows to my account.

The machine releases some steam, it does that after every win. If you see them steam, someone won.

Our game came to an end. What you learned?

* Make sure you play all your matches,

* Play the wilds wise, consider diagonals,

* Do always your number matches first, and then your light bonuses. Always!! Not almost always. Always.

* Pick these light bonuses wise. Take into consideration they might come again. Getting that steam bonus or not plays a big role in these considerations. You can only use it once, and if you don't use it now, you might end up not using it at all, but if you use it later, it will be more. But if it would be enough now, and later perhaps never comes...it can drive one crazy. Just use common sense on this one.

 Thus a match gives 100 points, a line 1,000 and full board 10,000. Rather easy to remind.

Each round there is some score to gain. Even if it were only that silly 3% as we got in the second round.

Use  these lights as the last move of a round, as you see on the picture, it is not only me telling you that but also the folks at Sunset Labs and Rabbit's foot gaming. And they made the game, so they could know.

Everywhere I have Gearz machines, you'll also see the sign  as shown here to the left. But you might not need them as I already explained you all there is to know above.

Play a few games and you'll get the drill. Gearz is not complicated. If you want complicated games, we got these too, but that is not Gearz. 

Gearz is fun, easy and fast.