Puzzle Quest: Galactrix is a rich new addition to the beloved Puzzle Quest universe, incorporating a compelling blend of casual and hardcore game elements similar to those adored by fans of Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords into a futuristic, science-fiction setting. In Puzzle Quest: Galactrix a horrifying scientific accident has provoked another race to attempt extermination of humankind. Each player creates a persistent pilot who gains skills, crafts items, maneuvers among the universe’s political factions, and upgrades the ultimate space fleet as they attempt to end the genocide. An all-new hexagonal puzzle board allows for deeper strategy as it heeds to gravity according to a player’s location in the universe. This, along with new gameplay elements like hacking jumpgates, negotiating with factions, trading commodities and collecting blueprints make Puzzle Quest: Galactrix a captivating new adventure to explore and conquer.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix features over 30 ships you can collect and customize. This guide will help you identify some general classes of ship and their most common uses. Since you can only have 3 ships in your fleet at any one time, it will also provide some suggestions for the best ships to keep.

Warships (Trident Battleship, Vortraag Destroyer, Trident Gunship, Vortraag Cruiser, Trident Warship)

These ships have large reserves of Red Energy, useful for outfitting with lasers and missiles. They focus on directly damaging an opponent. It’s always good to keep one of these heavy-hitting ships in your fleet for when you find that inevitable boss fight! Take care with some items like Mines and Minelayers though, because they can sometimes do as much harm as good.

Fast Ships (Acheron Ghostship, MRI Blade, Cy-Tech Botship, Cy-Tech Needle)

These are useful ships to have if you plan on spending a lot of time running away from encounters or smuggling contraband. Of course PSI Power will also let you escape your enemies so you may choose to concentrate on that instead. Keep in mind that many of the fast ships are also small, so you may be in trouble if you get caught. If you can manage to obtain an Acheron Ghostship though, you should be able to outfit it with quite a bit of equipment.

Science Ships (Lumina Archive, MRI Science Station, Lumina Warship, Lumina Cruiser)

These ships have a large amount of Green Energy, representing the massive computer systems they have on board. Green Energy is useful for buffing your own ship, so Science vessels are often good defensive ships to keep around when fighting some big enemy capital ships. A science vessel with auto-repair functionality can last a very long time in combat.

Cargo Ships (Elysian Ferry, Jahrwoxi Homeship, Standard Hauler)

If you want to make your fortune mining, then it is worthwhile to reserve one or more slots for these behemoths. Your cargo capacity is determined by adding together the capacity of each ship in your fleet, so it is never a waste to keep Cargo Ships around. Although these ships are not good in combat, they will save you the effort of constantly visiting distant stations to get the best prices for your cargo.

Long Range Ships (Cy-Tech Missile Array, Quesadan Lightship)

These Ships have a high reserve of Yellow Energy. This is very useful for manipulating the board and can be a great way of denying a specific enemy the energy he needs to activate his most powerful items. In fact it is often worth keeping a long-range vessel and occasionally customizing it on the fly before a battle with a tricky opponent. Keep an eye out for Thrusters, Waves and Transformers that can be outfitted to these ships to target various gem types in play.

Capital Ships (Lumina Archive, Trident Battleship, Gamma Sphere)

These ships have 8 item slots and can be literally filled with all sorts of items. They are often slow, but also have good cargo capacity, so you probably want as many of these in your fleet as possible. However they are very expensive to buy, and even if you can find the plans it is very difficult to build one yourself!

Well-Balanced Ships (MRI Mindship, All Soulless Ships)

These ships are obviously very versatile. Your biggest problem is locating one or finding all the cargo necessary to create one yourself.

Key Features :

• Strategy and role-playing elements that function harmoniously in the match-three puzzle gameboard are played out via head-to-head, turn-based gameplay that encourages you to plan, think and strategize against opponents; players are not penalized for losing and instead earn psionic powers for their efforts.
• Upgradeable spacecraft options allow players to create, develop and customize the ultimate fleet of attack and exploration vehicles for their persistent pilot to command; the futuristic setting and new innovative gameplay introduce telepathy and ESP.
• An all-new hexagonal puzzle board allows an extra layer of strategy for players who crave it, heeding to gravity according to a player’s location in the universe; board pieces consist of tokens that provide opportunities to increase Defense Systems and Ship Attack Power, upgrade Psionic Powers, gather Intelligence and activate opponent-damaging Space Mines.
• Explore the broad spectrum of gameplay available, some brand new and some familiar: negotiate with factions, mine for or trade commodities, hack jumpgates, recruit crew members, acquire companion aliens, collect informational “rumors” and obtain items like weapons, cargo and blueprints to create new items in order to advance.
• Mankind has spread its empire throughout the universe; four Megacorporations control the Empire, and internal struggles cause an experiment to go horribly awry, producing creatures who begin a systematic extermination of the human race. Players explore the universe via jumpgate technology as they battle to stop the genocide of humans and other life forms.
• Engage in unique experiences each time you play by choosing from the diverse field of pilot skills, ship customizations, opponents, collectibles, upgrades, 150+ battles, story elements and more, for hundreds of hours of gameplay.

Puzzle Quest: Galactrix, rated E10, is in development for PS3 (PSN), X360 (XBLA), PC and NDS, scheduled fopr Feb. 24, 2009 for North and South America.