Official:Weaving
Weaving
Weaving is one of Puzzle Pirates' handful o' crafting puzzles that are required to produce goods that are sold from shoppes. Other puzzles that are used to provide labor for shoppes include Alchemistry, Blacksmithing, Distilling, and Shipwrightery.
Crafty pirates can use the Weaving puzzle to produce orders of cloth for a Weavery. This is done by using a reed to push thread pieces from the top of the loom play area down into matching groups of 4 or more. This will weave these pieces into your finished piece of cloth and allow the batten to continue pushing pieces down the board, possibly leading to high-scoring combos!
The Weaving session ends when the piece of cloth in the upper left is completed, so be sure to match and chain as many groups of pieces as possible before that happens!
Controls
You can slide the shuttle left or right with the mouse or arrow keys. Click the reed or press Space to 'batten' the pieces down the board with the reed. The reed will stop moving when it can no longer push any pieces down, but if the obstruction is cleared out of the way by including it in a complete group of four or more pieces, it will continue pushing downward, possibly forming even more groups!
Thread pieces are not affected by gravity, meaning that if they are not pushed all the way to the bottom of the board, they will stay put on their current row. Use this to your advantage by 'floating' a few pieces in an advantageous position to set up a combo!
Scoring and Combos
Excelling at Weaving requires the creation of chains that clear multiple groups of pieces at once. To do this, you need to take advantage of the fact that the reed will stop pushing temporarily when it hits a line of pieces. By setting up a group of four or more that will break when your reed reaches it, you can make certain that any pieces that it shifts further down once the obstruction is cleared complete a second group, and maybe a third group, and beyond!
You will also occasionally come across particularly shiny thread pieces. Including these in a clear before they lose all their shine will snag you bonus points!
Weaving Strategy
The most important thing to remember about Weaving is that, unlike other Y!PP puzzles like Sailing and Swordfighting, the pieces will not naturally fall to the bottom of the board: they will only move if pushed by the reed. It may take some time to get used to pieces floating by themselves, but that is necessary for setting up and launching large, high-scoring combos.
When the bolt in the upper left is completely filled up, the puzzle is not quite done: any remaining extra groups in your last clear will still be scored. Plan your moves carefully to get as many breaks in as possible with your last push of the reed, as the extra points for this bonus work can really add up.
