How to Play

In the game, you are faced with a grid of tiles, each displaying a symbol such as a Geb or a tree. To score points in the game, you must line up three, four or five of these tiles by changing their positions; this is achieved by clicking on one tile, then clicking on an adjacent space to which position you wish to move it. You may not move a tile if, by moving it, a row of tiles is not completed. If the completion of one combination results in the completion of one or more other combinations, cumulative bonus points are awarded.

The game has a time limit, shown by the egg timer on the right-hand side of the screen. The more points you score, the slower the timer goes down. A period of non-activity will cause the timer to speed up. You gain about a second for each combination you complete. You can pause the game at any point by clicking the egg timer, and you can subsequently resume play by clicking on the black screen that appears.

There are three settings for the game. Easy Mode has fewer squares in the grid, but also uses fewer symbols. It also gives fewer points. Hard Mode uses all of the symbols, and houses a larger grid. This setting also gives out more points. Zen Mode uses the same grid and symbols as Hard mode, but has no time limit; however, each combination scores only a single point. If you are new to Sutek's Tomb, I suggest first playing a couple of games on Easy Mode to familiarise yourself with the game. For the purposes of acquiring the 2000 points needed for the Sutek's Tomb avatar, Hard Mode is the best to select.

Special Tiles

	The bomb, if dropped more than two rows as a result of another combination, will explode, taking out all of the tiles above it in its column. This scores points, and three, four or five bombs can be lined up to make a combination in its own right.
	The Lucky Coin acts as a wild card, and thus can be used in place of any tile for the purposes of making a combination.
	Other tiles may come into play, such as Sutek's Ankh or a suspicious looking beetle. If you manage to get one of these to drop to the bottom row of the grid, it will take out all of the tiles in its row or column.

Codes for Sutek's Tomb

To receive a time bonus of thirty seconds, to a maximum of sixty seconds, at any point in the game, type plzsutekcanihavemoretime into your keyboard. You may do this only once per game. To have the game show you the next available move, type pyramibread into the keyboard. You may do this as many times as you wish during the game. The picture shows this code in action.

Key Concepts

Use the extra time code when the timer is around fifteen seconds from finishing. It is important not to use the code to receive extra time too early, as the maximum time you can have is sixty seconds: if you add the time too early, you will not receive as much as you would do otherwise. The picture shows when I suggest that you type the code, plzsutekcanihavemoretime, into your keyboard to receive the extra thirty seconds. If, when the timer is here for the first time, you have not yet scored 700 points, I suggest that you restart the game, as there is little chance that you will achieve 2000 in the time remaining.
Always be looking for the next combination. As soon as you have completed one combination, be on the lookout for the next one. Do not concern yourself with the number of bonus combinations that you receive, or watch the tiles that next appear, but search for the next place that you can score points. New combinations are likely to be possible close to the area win which you have just completed a combination, because the tiles there have been changed. The picture shows an area of the grid where six different moves could next be taken. See if you can spot them all.
Try not to spend time planning ahead, or setting up bonus combinations. For the purposes of accumulating enough points for the Sutek's Tomb avatar, do not worry about planning ahead. Just focus on finding simple combinations of three tiles, and some bonus combinations will occur anyway. Saying that, however, if you can see an obvious route to take, perhaps swapping two tiles to make two adjacent combinations, by all means take it.
Use the Lucky Coins. For the purposes of achieving a score worthy of the Sutek's Tomb avatar, feel free to use the Lucky Coins that appear. The temptation to save the Coins for later on can be great, but remember, you are against the clock, and the combination you can see with a Coin may be the only possible move at that point. Searching for another combination also wastes time. An example can be seen in the picture. In this situation, you should use the Lucky Coin to make a combination with the ochre Gebs instead of taking time to look for another combination. Remember that the longer you take to make a combination, the quicker the sand will run from the egg timer.
You cannot make a combination from an L-shaped bunch of three tiles in one move. This may seem obvious when you think about it at the moment, but you would be surprised how many seconds you can frantically waste in mid-game when you see this pattern. If you remember that there is no combination to be gained from this, your eyes will sweep past it when you are playing, leaving you more time to find a real combination. An example can be seen with the ochre Gebs in the picture.
You cannot make a combination from a diagonal line of tiles in one move. This is similar to the above concept, and should be noted accordingly. An example can be seen with the pink hexagons in the picture.

Have a Go

Try to spot the next moves in the situations below. These circumstances are typical of what the grid may look like half way through a game of Sutek's Tomb on hard mode.

ZincTheFrogFromMars's Guide to Sutek's Tomb last updated:
11.27am BST, Thursday, 27th July, 2006

also by willthehutt