FAQ

These are the most common questions that I have received, been moved from the level up table on the original blog, because the discussion there became too long, as well as providing a explanation to common problems that people search for (both on Forums and Comments). Headers in Cyan applies to the old island only, those in Yellow applies to the new island. If you have any other questions not mentioned here use the Contact link on the left (This will message me directly, not Popcap), or use the 'Message' tab on the Zuma Blitz Page (note you are not guaranteed a response). See also: Known Issues (Zuma Blitz Page)

Coin Flipping

(Classic) It should be 50/50 chance according to many users, but this fortunately can be rigged to ensure you always get the free life once a day. (Note that when you flip the coin, if it's the first time you hit a skull (no revive) your first life restore is free* but is 15 idols afterward.

Buy Treasure or Powers Early

Treasure slots can be bought when you click on a locked slot before you stop the treasure chest wheel.

Powers can be bought by going to your powers and clicking on a locked powerup. You can only buy first-tier powers, but they will persist through mastery.

Powers bought in the new version also includes upgrades, but requires cash.

Slow (and possibly random) leveling?

The XP bar on the top right is an approximate percent, not an exact one. The approximate number of games to play to advance one level is a bit more to your current level past lvl 51. (ex. I'm at level 70, it takes around 80 games to level up. every 4 of 5 games I play it goes up by 1 percent.)

To determine how much percent XP you earn in one game, take your current level, multiply by 4, and divide your XP earned by that number. Round up / down to see what XP you get. From the above example, 350/280 = 1.25, so you will earn either 1 or 2 %.

Level Grinding

You will get a base 100 XP for surviving the timer (and 50 if you don't), even if you don't do anything. Knowing this, it's possible to put minimal effort and get around approx 100 XP per minute - with sufficient lives you could level up once per hour. Since you only get XP for techniques (gap shots, fruit, curve clears, hot frog) it's viable to do this if you have no 2x XP potions and a lot of lives left. Don't complain about getting low XP per game compared to the other island - the XP requirement for each level has been considerably reduced.

Purpose of Spirit Animals when upgrading

They're just trophies, like star medals from bejeweled blitz. They are sharable for 2,500 mojo however. The value for the gold spirit animal is acutally 1000000 (one million) to promote, not 10,000 so don't expect to pass it.

Locks in Shop

Placeholders. They're probably more special abilities in the shop that might be in a future release of the game. There's nothing behind those locks (for 9+ months), would you prefer them to be blank spaces instead?

Added by BlueViper02: There is nothing behind the locks :) That's just generic coding. The shop is controlled via an xml file, so they can add/remove/rearrange items without coding. Not saying they won't add something, though I can't think of what it could be.

Don't Want Name on right side

(Ticker bar has been removed, but for reference) Also known as the game bar, where it tells you who is playing which game. If you hover over the post saying that you're playing a certain game, a small 'x' will pop up on the right hand side. a small window will pop up left to it, with a square on the top-right of that window when you hover over it. You can choose to remove the post or not show anyone that you're playing the app.

Full Screen?

Possible, but NOT recommended until they optimize it, since you will experience severe lag on almost any pre-built consumer PC, and it might be more difficult to fire balls in different directions. If you still wish to do so though, you can (at least on firefox and the latest version of IE) zoom in until you notice part of the game is missing. Please note that the quality of visuals (except text) will not improve.

Slow Game / Freezes

It's probably more computer-spec than browser problem. Low end laptops or computers are usually not fast enough to run the game smoothly. There are no real workarounds for this one, although you can try closing down as many tabs/programs as possible to try to improve the framerate.

Best Powers?

Multiplier / Time balls are a must. The third is depending on what you aim for: Epic Fruit (if fruit is easy to reach), Hot Frog (If curves can be cleared easily) or Warp Speed (If you find it hard to get double gaps). Personally I have tried games without a multiplier but it never seems to get high scores.

Level Up Cap Increase?

(in my opinion) Balance issues - the way the powers were introduced were specifically designed for a lvl-80 layout - by increasing it, you'd have to introduce powers or upgrades superior to lvl 70ish stuff, other powerups introduced might not be suitable on that lvl, etc.

But if we restructure the leveling up process (give upgrades at different levels) users will have no idea what powerups they have available - first they have timelord, now they don't. The only solution at that point is to either reset everyone's level to 1 and compensate levels gained with mojo/idols or introduce the 100 lvl cap on the next level of mastery. The former is what Kroakatoa Island does when transferring.

My proposed ideas for 20 additional levels would include:

Extra Permissions

Occurred in January 2012 with the merge to EA. It basically allows the game to publish new high scores / achievements onto the game ticker (which hasn't been implemented right now). You can't remove this permission but you can limit who sees these posts under App Settings.

No Daily Spin

Access it manually on the upper right hand side via the 'daily spin' button after the game loads - after you reach level 9. The spinners collected in-game from Kroakatoa Island use the same spin except you are limited to prizes on the right side.

Black Screen when starting game?

Try turning off any ad-blocking software (at least for the current site if possible) - this usually solves most cases.

Frog sluggish?

Increase your mouse speed - the screen is larger so your frog seems to respond around 30% slower when moving the mouse normally compared to the previous game. (Not the same as the game locking up)

Extra Lives

Comments from the ZB Page and forum posts made it necessary to have this section. See a number with extra lives below "Start Game"? Once you run out of free lives, your next click on 'Play' will automatically use up your extra lives. Consider this like "If you run out of hearts, you will automatically eat a cocunut in your stock when starting another game".

Unlock in x Stars

When you try to unlock a power, it says 'unlock in 70 stars' or something. This indicates you hacve 70 stars (levels) left to go before you unlock. It should probably say 'Unlock at...'

Bundles Clarification

The Cafe Sampler actually gives you five of each of the first ten released food items, for a total of 50 food items bought and in your inventory. No ripoffs here unless you don't use them. (They should post a link for a free bundle of newly introduced foods if they really want to do this.)

Link Redemption

Any coin link you click on gets redeemed the minute the hourglass (or the game) pops up - it is not necessary to click on the 'ok' button when it says you received a gift to get your coins. However, any spirit animal link you click will overwrite the previous Spirit Animal opportunity. (Careful when using a collector like Game Gift Finder or SGBC to collect - you might accidently collect all your spirit animal opportunities at once and you can't recollect.)

Gift Redemption

Coins are redeemed right away when you accept the gift. It might be the case for food and powers, but if they aren't showing up when you choose powers/food, refreshing the page might do the trick. Note: Some gifts may show right back up in your inbox after you accept them - you can click accept a second time but you won't get the extra food item/power from that gift.