Welcome to my guide of Luxor Evolved! This game will take you down easily without guidance (unless you really know what you're doing mid-game), especially on the harder levels of difficulty. (I find it to be particularly easy, even with Elite Mode.) Below is a set of strategies you will need to succeed in beating this game.

If you have played Zuma or another Luxor game, you know what to do.

Otherwise, if you are unfamiliar with this game, Luxor involves chains of spheres accompanied by a pushing scarab threatening to reach the pyramid(s) at the end of the path. Your goal is to eliminate these spheres by matching 3 or more of the same color side-by-side. At the bottom of the screen is your shooter, with the top sphere resembling the current color and the ones below it resembling the one that is next.

Move your mouse left and right to move your shooter, and left click the mouse to fire. You can also swap the spheres to another color by pressing the right mouse button. Catch items by simply moving the shooter to where the item(s) will fall.

There are four difficulty, or skill, levels to choose from, with each having an effect on scoring.

Casual Mode is for beginners, with unlimited lives. However, scoring is halved and treasures replace Heart coins.

Normal Mode takes things up by one notch from Casual. Scoring is normal, with Heart coins available as a drop. Lives are limited, however, starting from this difficulty level, starting with only 2 Extra Lives.

Hard Mode takes things up another notch, making gameplay a bit fast and speedy. On the bright side, scoring is doubled all throughout.

Elite Mode cranks up the difficulty to 11. Be prepared for extremely quick decisions. Scoring is tripled all throughout this skill level, and a big payout awaits should you make it out with many lives intact. This mode is not available until Hard is cleared.

Stages 1, 3, and 4 are all normal maps, but here's the rundown of all types:

Stage 1 varies and is often the easiest; just take it down like normal.

Stage 2 is a survival mode called "Pharaoh's Challenge": you must survive the map within the period of time without allowing any spheres to breach the pyramid. Clearing this map awards a bonus and a Bonus Round (similar to Luxor 2 but with power-ups only).

Stage 3 is often the killer stage; everything is as fast as the speed of light. Be prepared to make uber-fast decisions.

Stage 4 varies; it can have long chains or short and fast chains. Again, be prepared.

Stage 5 involves two pyramids instead of one. Don't stop shooting accurately and making matches or you're in trouble. Later on, it becomes a gold mine for collecting Ankh Coins, so keep that in mind.

Stage 6 is the boss battle of one of the Mechs; they have a scarab within their bodies as well as a device that can spawn other scarabs in an attempt to breach the pyramid. This is similar to Crossing the Nile in Luxor 3 and Quest for the Afterlife (in which there are chains crossing from one side to another). Once the chain is destroyed from within, shoot the boss in the face to destroy it.

Secret Stages: I'm not telling you... ;)

Levels start out slow at first (sometimes...HINT: 6-3 is one exception), but once you start making matches and shooting accurately, things will start to heat up. The music will start to intensify and the spheres' speed will kick up a notch. At the fastest speed, be prepared to make some really fast decisions.

(But that music is so amazing, especaially on levels 2 and 3 of each stage...)

3 is the magic number in Luxor because 3 matches in a row spawns a power-up. Unlike 3 and Quest for the Afterlife, spawns are completely random. But as you play, they'll become more useful as they are upgraded from level to level.

Reverse: Back the chains of spheres go.

Slow: Slows down the spheres.

Stop: Stops the spheres for a short time.

Lightning bolt: Fires a lightning bolt vertically across the screen, destroying any sphere in its path.

Fireball: Destroys speres within its radius.

Wild Ball: Acts as any color; can destroy spheres with two different colors next to each other when matched.

Paint Ball: Changes color of spheres within its radius.

Dagger: Set amount of shots to destroy one sphere each.

Missile: Set amount of shots to destroy a few spheres at a time.

Scorpion: Comes out of the pyramid and destroys a set amount of spheres, and can even penetrate through scarabs to destroy even more.

Poison: One poison ball can affect many surrounding spheres and destroy them.

Freeze: One shot temporarily freezes some spheres in a chain and ultimately stops the entire chain. Shoot another sphere to destroy the frozen balls (or an incoming chain can do so, too.)

Smart Bomb: Destroys a set amount of spheres.

Color Bomb: Destroys all spheres of that color.

Black Hole: Sets a black hole at a distance from the closest chain to the pyramid and destroys anything that touches it. Can explode to destroy even more.

Sorter: Sorts a set number of colors.

Match Hints: Highlights the matches for you.

Lazer: IMMA FIRIN' MAH LAZER! (SImilar to Lightning, but can be moved to destroy many more spheres.)

Chain Lightning: Bolts of lightning destroy some random spheres when fired on a sphere.

Lightning Storm: Destroys spheres one by one, more than likely picking off spheres with only one color instead of many aligned together.

Meteor Strike: Similar to Lightning Storm, but picks off many groups of spheres instead of one at a time.

As you play, you'll unlock what are called "Super Power-ups" when defeating bosses. Some will drop normal power-ups, but others will present:

The Force of Sekhmet: Unlocked after the 1st boss. Unlimited fireballs for a set period of time.

The Incarnation of Horus: Unlocked after the 3rd boss. Unlimited lightning bolts for a set period of time.

The Aspect of Ra: Unlocked after the 6th boss. Unlimited lazers for a set period of time.

To activate these power-ups, you will need to collect their respective shards (6 for each). Targets will appear throughout each map for you to shoot.

Spheres are worth 100 points, multiplied first by difficulty level and then how many spheres are matched. Combos add 100 points starting on your first power-up of that combo and continues with each combo. Chains multiply the total sphere score of that match for x2, x3, etc. the normal score. (Hard to explain; look back at old Luxor videos to see what I mean.)

Quick matches often occur when making one successful shot after another, most common with having x2 or x3. This will multiply the score of that particular match.

Accuracy Bonus: 100 points per 1% accuracy times difficulty. 100% Accuracy awards 50,000 points, again depending on difficulty multiplier.

Treasure: Varying between 250 and 4,000 points(?), depending on both difficulty and scoring multipliers.

Ankh Coins score 250 points x difficulty x score multipliers.

Multipliers: Keep reading...

These are where the points come from. Don't believe me? Try playing a level while continuously getting Bonus Multipliers, shooting quickly and accurately simultaneously. Sound impossible? Keep doing this, and you'll see your scores skyrocket. Miss just one shot, wait for a period of time, or let a sphere of a chain destroy a scarab closer to the pyramid and your multiplier disappears.

How multipliers are gained is unknown to me, but just keep shooting accurately and quickly.

Hopefully these will help you become better Luxor players and overcome the Elite difficulty. Trust me, after many plays, it will certainly be a cakewalk.

Thanks for reading, and keep blasting!

http://www.twitch.tv/pinballwiz45b/c/5846937