Linkz!

Linkz swaps tiles for coins and cuts the palette down to two colours, which makes it look far simpler than it plays. Absolutist gives you a board of coins in those two colours and asks you to match them in a triangular shape to take them off.

The triangle is the whole puzzle. A pair is not enough here, so the board has to be read as groups rather than as twins, and a coin that would happily match its neighbour is useless until a third sits in the right place. Working the levels through means clearing every coin, which means never leaving one stranded where no triangle can form around it. The same section of the catalogue also holds the Deluxe 2 layout.

Absolutist has been making board puzzles for a long time and the pacing shows it: the arrangements ask for a plan, and the studio’s own advice is to be quick with your strategies and finish every level. The build sits in an even 800 by 600 frame and takes taps as well as clicks. The rules behind it are laid out in What Is Mahjong?.

1. Look at the two coin colours on the board and pick the one with a workable cluster.
2. Match coins of that colour into a triangular shape to clear them.
3. Work outward so the remaining coins keep enough neighbours to form new triangles.
4. Clear every coin to finish the level and unlock the next arrangement.

• Plan the triangle, not the pair — in Linkz a matching neighbour is worth nothing until a third coin completes the shape.
• Do not strand a single coin — one coin left alone in a corner cannot form a triangle, and the level stalls there.
• Alternate the two colours — clearing one colour hard leaves the other spread too thin for triangles to form.
• Absolutist boards reward patience — these arrangements are logic puzzles first, so read the whole 800 by 600 grid before the opening move.