A fantasy team combat game blended with a classic match-3, Empires & Puzzles offers incredible tactical depth and lots of teambuilding options. Recruit a band of powerful heroes and use your match-3 skills to power them up and defeat your opponents!

There are a LOT of match-3 games on today’s app markets. While many of them offer silly minigames or a single-player story instead of unique gameplay, Empires & Puzzles is genuinely different from the sea of Candy Crush clones. In Empires & Puzzles, each match you make damages your enemies and powers up your team of heroes. By building the right team, thinking carefully about your moves, and understanding the game’s elemental systems, you can achieve brilliant tactical victories that will leave you feeling great all day.

In many ways, Empires & Puzzles resembles a team-based gacha game like Epic Seven. You collect heroes via “summons,” accumulate resources to level them up, and you form powerful teams by combining buffs, elemental synergies, and support abilities with dangerous damage dealers and tough tanks. The big difference here is how combat works. Rather than taking turns whacking your opponent, watching an auto-battler do its thing, or controlling your units in real-time, your goal is to play a game of match-3 and clear the right tiles to destroy your opponents while also starving them of resources.

There’s a bit of a downside here, of course. While your match-3 prowess is the only thing gating your progress in games like Candy Crush, Empires & Puzzles will often be gated by your collection of heroes. While the game will give you plenty of summons for free, it’s a slow and steady drip that won’t catch you up with the game’s meta or update schedule. The asynchronous PVP raids will put you up against the game’s best heroes fairly often, meaning that you’ll constantly be tempted to spend a bit of money to get the new hot stuff on your team now instead of waiting to get lucky from a summon or training camp.

The flip side is that there is a LOT of content in Empires & Puzzles. You’re not limited by moves in the way you would be in a classic match-3 game. Instead, you’re free to delve deep into dungeons, challenge other players, and even participate in multiplayer activities with your guild. There’s plenty to do in Empires & Puzzles each day, even when you’ve been playing the game for weeks or years.

Empires & Puzzles is fantastically accessible. Many of the PVE modes can be cleared on “auto,” an option where the game does the hard work of matching tiles for you. You can just sit back and let your heroes do the work! Alternately, if you’re a match-3 pro, you’ll be able to use your puzzle-solving skills to get a leg up on your opponents, allowing you to use a weaker team with less powerful heroes and still get by. If you’re stuck, you can level up your heroes, upgrade your troops, change your team comps, or simply spend more time finding better matches on the match-3 board. With so many ways to get ahead, it’s easy to feel like you’re getting better at Empires & Puzzles over time.

Empires & Puzzles has a robust social system with lots of guild activities. If you’re looking for a game to socialize in, Empires & Puzzles will quickly put you in touch with people who enjoy your favorite style of games. For many people, this social system is one of the best parts of Empires & Puzzles, allowing them to make lifelong friends.

Empires & Puzzles is a game that combines gacha-style pulls and resource management with match-3 gameplay. While taking the time to make the best moves in the match-3 board can have some big impacts on your ability to clear certain levels or beat certain raids, the long-term thing you’ll want to concentrate on is making the right gacha choices.

The big thing to realize is that your summons and resources are finite. If you can, get your training camps up and running at an appropriate level to generate the heroes you need. If you’re new and trying not to spend, this usually means TC20 on all three. As far as other summons go, be sure to take a look at the current list of meta heroes to ensure you’re not wasting your pulls. Once you’ve got a hero available, don’t upgrade them until you’re sure they’re worth the resources. Don’t fodder them either, though. It’s a good idea to keep at least one copy of each unit to keep your account safe from future balance changes. 

Are you an Empires & Puzzles fan? Is your guild recruiting? What are the best heroes of each color right now? Let us know in the comments below!