This page details advanced strategies that any player must learn if they want to beat the most difficult levels in this game. The point at which you must start using these strategies will be a little bit different for everyone. I’d recommend not reading this page until the game starts to become difficult for you to continue progressing. I say that because I think the easier stages of the game will be a lot more enjoyable for most players if you simply play them how you naturally would without having to worry about or focus on any of these advanced strategies. That being said, the moment the game starts to feel difficult at all for you, feel free to come back to this page and learn how to become an expert Luxor 2 player. See you then.
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Save Abuse:
At any point, you can pause the game and exit, and the game will save your progress for next time. You can even do this in the middle of a level. When you get to the more difficult levels, you can abuse this feature by periodically saving and quitting when you’re in a good spot and you’ve made some progress. Then resume your game, and if you end up losing, you can return to the dashboard, restart the game, and you’ll be back to where you were the last time you saved your game. The only downside is that it takes around 15 seconds each time you save, and you can only have one save state at a time, so if you’re in a risky position, you might want to avoid creating a save state. Since there’s not much downside, it’s up to you how frequently you’d like to save. Personally, in each playthrough for stages 10 and later, I started saving after every level when I was returned to the map. During stages 13 and 14 I started saving once or twice per level. During the Challenge of Horus, I was saving multiple times per level.
Please be aware that every time you dashboard the game, there is a very small chance (<1% chance) that your save file gets corrupted. This has happened to other TA users and it even happened to me, so I can confirm that this is real. For this reason, if you plan to use this strategy, it is recommended to backup your save file at the end of every session by either using a USB imaging tool or copying your save to a different memory device in Xbox 360 settings. Unfortunately, for Xbox One players, there is not a very easy way to backup your save. For this reason, you may want to consider playing this game on an Xbox 360 if you plan to use this trick.
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Creating Twos/Powerup Farming:
It might be tempting to create matches of three as quickly as possible to shorten the line as fast as possible. This, in fact, does not work, and you will not be able to beat Luxor 2 on any difficulty if you don’t employ the strategy of powerup farming (aka “creating Twos”).
We know that we get a powerup every time we get a combo of three. We should absolutely take advantage of this by creating many sequences of pairs of orbs of the same color (i.e. two orbs in a row of the same color). Once we’ve prepared enough Twos, we can clear all of our Twos in a row and get a powerup, two powerups, or even three powerups.
This is a fantastic strategy for a couple of reasons. First of all, obviously, powerups are great at totally saving you if you’re about to lose. Second of all, less obviously, the line of orbs moves slower as it approaches the pyramid. By making the line longer and closer to the pyramid while simultaneously making progress to clear the line, we are slowing down the speed of the line, giving ourselves more overall time to clear the line.
To conclude, when you get to the very difficult levels, you want to wait as long as possible before you start clearing orbs. You basically don’t want to clear orbs until the line is so close to the pyramid that you’re in danger of losing. If you can, you want to wait until the pyramid is basically eating the first orb before you start clearing orbs. Seriously, that pyramid’s mouth is way deeper than you’d think. Obviously, it’s okay to clear a couple orbs if you must, but the longer you can wait to clear orbs and the more Twos you can create before you start clearing, the easier time you’re going to have. This is the core strategy of Luxor 2. If you watch any expert player play this game, you will see them using this strategy. All you have to do to beat this game is to just keep repeating this over and over. Once you run out of Twos to clear, start making more. Keep manufacturing those Twos for as long as possible, then cash them in. That’s how you win this game. You got this.
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Double Powerup Trick:
If you get a 2x chain and at the very same time clear another sequence of orbs, the game will think that the orbs you manually cleared were part of the chain, giving you a 3x chain and giving you a powerup. At this point, you’ll also be at a combo of 2x, since you had to clear one sequence of orbs to initiate the chain and another sequence of orbs to trick the game into thinking you’ve gotten a 3x chain. The orbs you cleared that give you your 2x combo do not need to be adjacent to your chain. You’ll only need to clear one more sequence of orbs to get a 3x combo and another power up. This is a great way to get two powerups very quickly without needing a lot of Twos. Don’t overlook this strategy. This trick can be an absolute lifesaver a lot of the time, and it’s not that difficult to pull off.
Watch me setup and execute this trick in the video below:
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Rollback Trick / Closing Gaps:
Rollback Trick: When there is a gap in the line of orbs, if you shoot an orb at the last spot of the first line segment AND that orb is the same color as the FIRST orb in the very next line segment, the very next line segment of orbs will rollback, close the gap, and create a small knockback effect on the line of orbs. Every time you do this, you gain around an additional 0.5 - 1.5 seconds of time before the line of orbs reaches the pyramid. This trick can be especially useful if there are some orbs stuck deep in the pyramid and you don’t want to shoot at them in case you accidentally force them deeper into the pyramid’s mouth and lose. You can use the rollback trick to get those orbs out of the pyramid’s mouth.
Watch me use this trick a few times in a row in the video below:
Closing Gaps: Related to this, it is in your best interest to try to close gaps in the line as soon as possible. The speed at which the line of orbs advances is directly correlated to the distance at which the last moving orb is from the pyramid. What this means is if you have an unmoving line segment of orbs, the scarab will be advancing at a faster pace than it needs to be, and you’ll have less space and time than you could have to clear all of the orbs. The closer that the gap is to the beginning of the path, the more important it is for you to close it. When you have orbs in the danger zone, you want to try to avoid clearing orbs -- thus creating gaps -- near the beginning of that line of orbs, since this will buy you the least amount of time. (If you have multiple lines of orbs, it is okay for you to shoot at a different line of orbs. For example, if you have a line of orbs in the danger zone and a line of orbs that is just spawning in, it is okay for you to shoot at the line of orbs that is just spawning in, since this will not affect the speed of the line of orbs in the danger zone).
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Extreme Knockback Trick:
If you can get the correct timing to get two different chains at the same time at two different spots of the same line, you can get extreme knockback on the line of orbs. This effect can be amplified even more if one of the chains is greater than a chain of two. This trick can knockback a line of orbs halfway across the map or even the entire way across the map. This trick seems difficult, but it’s not that difficult to execute once you understand it and practice it a little bit. You just have to get a little bit lucky with which colored orbs you receive. This probably won’t be a trick that you’ll be using on every level, but it’s one that’s nice to be able to use when the correct opportunity presents itself. You can see me using this trick in the video below:
Here’s another impressive video of some player who’s way better than me using this trick. The clips starting at 1:17 and 1:29 are particularly good examples.
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Optimal Daggers:
It may be tempting to spam all of your daggers as fast as possible at the end of the line where the orbs are closest to the pyramid. This is an okay strategy, but we can do better. You should only spam your daggers at the end of the line if you are in very imminent danger of losing, and even then, you should still have at least a few daggers left over. In general, you should be patient with your daggers. Remember the central strategy of Luxor 2. We want to be creating as many Twos as possible, and Daggers are a fantastic tool to help us create a LOT of Twos. Try to get rid of lone orbs with your daggers. Watch a video of me below to get an idea of what an optimal Daggers powerup looks like:
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Optimal Lightning Bolt:
There’s not much to say here, but it’s still worth saying. Obviously, use your lightning bolt on the vertical stretches of path to clear as many orbs as possible.
Remember, lightning bolts destroy orbs under tunnels, too. Additionally, lightning bolts can destroy off-screen orbs as well. If you get a lightning bolt and a new line of balls is just spawning in AND coming from the top of the screen (ex. Weaving Egyptian Linen, The Wings of Isis, Step Pyramid of Djoser, etc.), it's possible to destroy up to 100% of a line with one single lightning bolt.
Also, the lightning bolt is a lot wider than it looks. In a lot of maps where there are two columns next to each other (ex. Balance of Ma’at, Wings of Isis, Bathing in the Sacred Pool), if you shoot in between the two columns, you can actually clear both columns with one lightning bolt.
Lastly, remember you can swap your lightning shot, so if you need to wait a few seconds to use your lightning bolt for whatever reason, you can swap it using in the meantime.
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Optimal Fireball/Color Cloud:
Just like the Lightning Bolt, Fireball and Color Cloud also affect orbs under tunnels. Since Fireball and Color Cloud affect a radius from where they are shot, they are most effective when they are shot over tunnels/intersections or at corners. Inside corners are preferable, but outside corners are not bad, either.
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Optimal Wild Ball:
Don’t waste your Twos with your wild ball. Remember the central strategy. Use your wild ball to clear lone balls – preferably two lone balls at the same time. One thing you may also want to consider doing is delaying using your wild ball to try to extend your combo and get another powerup. There’s not much else to say about this powerup.
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Intentional Misses:
Whenever you have an orb in your winged scarab of a color that is not very accessible, don’t be afraid to throw it away. Ideally, you can have it miss the line of orbs completely, but that’s not always possible. Don’t be afraid to create a lone orb if you absolutely must. If you’re going to have to wait for the line of orbs to travel halfway across the map to get rid of one orb of a specific color, it’s usually better to intentionally make an inaccurate shot and create a lone orb so you’re not having to constantly switch the color out after every single shot. Also, if you get a second orb of that color, now you’ll be able to access it (and create a Two).
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Orb Differentiation:
When you get to the difficult levels, every millisecond counts, so you need to be able to differentiate the colors of the orbs immediately, without thinking, and you especially don’t want to be making inaccurate shots because you were mistaken about the color of an orb. If you find yourself having trouble telling the difference between the color of two orbs immediately (blue/purple, blue/black, and red/orange were the three pairs that tripped me up the most), you may want to consider sitting closer to your television, or you could play around with your TV settings until you find something that works.
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Additional Resources:
If you are struggling with a certain level, need clarification on any strategies or need any additional help, feel free to join the Sphere Matchers Discord server and we will gladly answer any questions you have: . We can also help you with Zuma.
Additionally, if you’d like to see a video of any particular level completed, here is a video of CartoonEarthBoy2 beating the entire Luxor 2 game, from Level 1-1 on Easy to Level 5-5 on Challenge of Horus. I personally don’t think it will be much help – I think getting good at this game is knowing the strategies, practicing enough in order to be able to execute the strategies quickly enough, and getting a little bit lucky, and I don’t know if a video will help much with any of that. But maybe it’ll make you feel inspired if you see someone beat a level that you’ve been stuck on for a long time. It’s here if you want to see it.
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