Seeing five matching gems together is not the same as finding a five-gem chain. HexMatch asks you to draw one continuous route through neighboring hexagons without reusing a gem. The order matters, and a rainbow does not remove every restriction. This guide follows a constructed five-gem example so you can check a path before releasing. It is a teaching diagram, not a screenshot or a guaranteed board in your next run.
Start with a traceable route
Press a gem and drag through adjacent matching gems. Release a chain of at least three to clear it; one or two gems do not score. Each ordinary color has a shape mark to help distinguish it without relying only on hue. The selection numbers show the order you have drawn, and the status reports the points a valid release will earn. To shorten a route, move back to the immediately previous gem. You cannot jump across an empty cell or reuse an earlier gem to collect a different branch.
A rainbow can join a chain of one ordinary color. Starting on a rainbow leaves that color undecided until you touch the first ordinary gem. After the chain has become blue, another rainbow can extend it, but an ordinary coral gem still cannot join. Bombs are separate objects to tap when the board is ready, not ordinary gems to drag into a chain.
A five-gem example, including one rainbow
The five route cells are consecutive neighbors. For an exact description, their hex coordinates are (-2,0), (-1,0), (0,0), (1,0), and (2,0). The coral neighbor is at (1,-1). You do not need coordinates to play; they make this teaching arrangement unambiguous.
- Start at blue 1 and move to blue 2. The chain's ordinary color is now blue.
- Move through rainbow 3. It is allowed, but it does not change blue into “any colors together.” Ignore the coral branch above it.
- Continue to blue 4, then blue 5. Each move crosses one shared hexagon edge and no cell repeats.
- Release. Five gems score 120 points and create a bomb initially at the third selected cell, the rainbow's former position. Wait for gravity and refill, then locate the bomb again because it may have moved.
The tempting wrong turn: 1→2→3★→coral is not a mixed-color chain. Adjacency is necessary, but the coral color still conflicts with the blue already chosen. Likewise, a branching group cannot be collected by passing through its center twice.
Use the actual score thresholds
| Gems in the chain | Points | Creates a bomb |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | 30 | No |
| 4 | 60 | No |
| 5 | 120 | Yes |
| 6 | 300 | Yes |
| 7 or more | 600 | Yes |
Extending a valid four-gem route to five raises its immediate score from 60 to 120 and leaves a bomb. Seven and eight gems both score 600 on release; the extra gem changes which cells you remove, not that table's top reward. A longer route is therefore not automatically the best move for every board. Check the position you leave behind and whether a difficult-to-reach area needs clearing.
Understand bombs and the rising board
A bomb clears occupied cells within two hexagon rings and awards 20 points for each destroyed tile. Its own occupied cell counts. It is not simply a straight row-clear. The number of points depends on occupied cells in range, so a bomb near an edge or empty area can score less than one surrounded by tiles. Count the neighborhood rather than assuming every explosion pays the same.
After ordinary clears, gems settle along the board's slanted columns and refill while leaving the top of each column open. Every eighth completed chain triggers Rising Tide and also spawns a rainbow. The tide shifts columns upward and adds tiles below; if an occupied top cell would be pushed out, the run ends. The countdown tells you when that check is coming. Bomb taps are not additional completed-chain turns, and their explosions have their own scoring.
The hint searches for a traceable four-gem path, or a three-gem path if needed. Follow its numbers in order; it does not claim to find the highest-scoring route. When no valid match remains, use the offered shuffle to rearrange colors. Reassess after a refill instead of assuming a route from the previous board still exists.
Practice: what does a six-gem chain score, and where does its bomb first appear?
It scores 300. The bomb initially occupies the fourth selected cell, because the game chooses the middle index rounded down when counting from zero. Gravity can move it afterward. Reversing the same six-cell path changes which of the two central cells is selected.
Try checking the complete route with your eyes before dragging. Play HexMatch