Builder's Block is puzzle game from Taito, published for the Sony
Playstation in Fall '00 by Jaleco. This FAQ covers only the US
release of Builder's Block for the playstation, though certain parts
may be relevant to the arcade version or to other systems.
Game play consists of shooting colored blocks across the field of
play, attempting to connect like colored blocks to form large
buildings. Buildings are constructed similarly to the way power gems
are constructed in super puzzle fighter, except that cities are square
- 2x2, 3x3, etc... The largest building size is 7x7.
In addition to creating buildings, buildings (or groups of
buildings) can be destroyed by placing a block on a diagonal of a like
colored group. When buildings are destroyed, prizes will be left
behind according to the size of the building and the game mode.
There are three modes of play in Builder's Block: puzzle mode,
battle mode and arcade mode. Puzzle mode is a 1 player quest to build
12 cities across the various continents and increase the population of
the planet. Battle Mode is a 2 player game where players build
buildings trying to collect as many coins as possible. Arcade mode is
a 1 or 2 player vs. competition where players build buildings to
attack the other player by causing his playing field to fill up.
The goal of puzzle mode is to build the population of 12 cities
scattered over the globe. The first 6 cities are available for play
immediately, the remaining 6 become unlocked only after reaching
certain goals in the game. The twelve cities are: Maroon Forest, Good
Luck Field, Hillside Village, Mount Base, Gechtmogiv, Plus Wisteria,
Riverfront, Shach, Bang Ceng, Blackwood, Shing Shee, and Le Hikat.
Building each city consists of building buildings over 6 stages of 3
fields. Each field has a challenge of building a building of a
certain minimum size. Once a building of that size or greater is
created, a clear symbol will appear. Hitting the clear symbol ends
the stage.
2.1 - Scoring
Your population increases for each building you create. After you
complete a round, a population bonus is given. There are three
bonuses: difficulty, retry and advanced.
PUZZLE
TYPE BONUS
------ --------
A 10000000
B 5000000
C 2000000
D 1000000
E 300000
[NOTE: add chart of puzzle types for each city here]
2.4 - Retry bonus
The retry bonus is based on the difficulty of the puzzle and the
number of retries used to complete the puzzle. (M = million,
K=thousand)
0 1 2 3 4 5+ <-- number of retries
---- ---- ---- ---- ---- ----
A 10M 5M 4M 3M 2M 1M
B 3M 1M 800K 600K 400K 200K
C 1M 500K 400K 300K 200K 100K
D 300K 100K 80K 60K 40K 20K
E 100K 50K 40K 30K 20K 10K
2.5 - Advanced Bonus
An advanced bonus is given if you construct a building larger than
the size required by the puzzle. (For example, a construct a 6x6 building
when the challenge was to construct a 4x4 building gives an +2 bonus)
BONUS POPULATION MESSAGE
----- ----------- -------------
+0 0
+1 10 million wonderful
+2 30 million excellent
+3 100 million unbelievable
The +3 bonus is very difficult to achieve. The maximum building
size is 7x7, so this bonus can only be achieved for a puzzle challenge
of 4x4 or smaller. The total number of each type of bonus is not yet
known, but the following is a list of known achievable +3 bonuses.
(please send others if you know of them)
CITY ROUND
---------- -----
Maroon Forest 5-3
Hillside Village 3-1
Mount Base 3-1
Gechtmogiv 4-3
Wisteria 1-3
Riverfront 2-3
Shach 3-2
Bang Ceng 2-3
2.6 - City Goals
After completing all 6 stages of a city, the total population of the
city will determine the type of city you created. This ranges from a
small village to a large capital. The following are estimates of the
population needed for each city type.
POPULATION CITY TYPE
---------- ---------------------
400M Level 6 Capital
350M Level 5 Metropolis
300M Level 4 City
200M Level 3 Town
100M Level 2 Village
0M Level 1 Small Village
2.7 - Population Grade
After each level, you receive a grade based on the total population
of the globe. The following population ranges are estimates, and will
be refined in future version of the FAQ.
GRADE POPULATION
------ -----------
A+ 3B +
A 2B - 3B
B+ 1B - 2B
B 500M - 1B
C+ 100M - 500M
C 25M - 100M
D+ 6M - 25M
D 2M - 6M
E+ 1M - 2M
E 0 - 1M
2.8 - Unlocking Cities
Cities 7-12 unlock only when you reach certain goals in the game. I
don't yet know what these goals are, but will document it when I
figure it out.
2.9 - Techniques
Hints are available in the game for each puzzle, which makes
completing most puzzle fairly easy. Achieving the advanced bonuses
requires a little extra effort. Building large buildings requires a
lot of space, so it is important to keep the playable area of the
field as large as possible.
The main trick is in carefully manipulating the scroll counter. The
scroll count is indicated by the small blue triangles in the left side
of the screen, which tell you how many blocks you can send onto the
playfield before the field is advanced one.
The scroll counter is reset when you achieve the puzzle challenge
goal and is additionally reset the first time you build a building of
each size greater than the puzzle goal. For example, if the challenge
is to build a 4x4 building, your counter will be reset when you create
a 4x4 building and reset again if you make a 5x5, 6x6 and then 7x7
building. Don't waste pieces by reseting the counter before it is
just about to run out. If the scroll count is 3 and you are 1 piece
from a 5x5 building, use the extra 2 pieces to begin working on the
6x6, then reset the counter by creating the 5x5. If you are lucky
you may be able to complete the 6x6 before the new scroll counter
expires. Etc... Careful management of the scroll counter is the
way the achieve higher bonuses.
This FAQ was created by Norman Richards. (orb@cs.utexas.edu)
Corrections, additions and comments are are gratefully accepted and
will be credited accordingly.
This document is copyright 2000 by Norman Richards. You are free to
distribute it under the terms and conditions of the open content
license. The OPL is available online at the open content website.
(http://www.opencontent.org/) Please take a moment to visit the open
content website and support open content by releasing your documents
as open content.
