How to create a settlement in Puzzle Craft - hints, tips, and tricks

For those of you who aren't familiar with Puzzle Craft, it's a colourful city-building simulation that features resource-management and match-three puzzling elements.

This Bronze Award-winning title isn't particularly difficult. It's just a little confusing.

There's so much to remember, you see. You have to build, craft, buy, sell, and farm - to name just a few of the activities you're asked to master.

That's why we've created this handy little guide, which should be incredibly useful to you once you've completed Puzzle Craft's brief but invaluable tutorial.

Enjoy.

Along the top of your device's screen are various pieces of information, including the number of workers you can recruit; your settlement's current level; and the amount of gold coins you have stored away.

There's also a backpack icon that displays all of your resources when tapped.

Your settlement's level is pretty important, by the way. The higher its level, the more buildings you're allowed to construct. The more buildings you're allowed to have, the more workers you can recruit.

There are five icons (six, if you count the app's 'Settings' menu) along the bottom of your smartphone's display, too.

From left to right, these allow you to purchase new buildings; craft tools; hire new workers; buy packs of gold coins with real-world cash via in-app purchases; and pay for food and other stock.

So, Puzzle Craft is a game all about collecting resources, which you then use to hire workers, craft tools, construct buildings, and - ultimately - create a settlement that's fit for a king or a queen.

Each time you visit your farm, your mine, or any area of your settlement that produces raw materials, you're presented with a 6x6 grid of icons.

These icons represent different materials, such as grass, trees, and grain.

To collect these materials, simply trace your finger vertically, horizontally, or diagonally along three or more similar-looking icons.

If you collect enough of each material, you'll earn a useful resource. 50 grass, for example, make a haystack. Ten trees, meanwhile, produce a single woodpile.

Hired help

Labourers are extremely important, so make sure you hire as many as you possibly can. You can recruit three new workers for every Cottage that you build in your settlement.

Workers reduce the number of raw materials you need to produce a resource, you see.

Take on a lumberjack, for example, and you'll receive a woodpile after collecting just nine trees (rather than ten). With a reaper at your beck and call, you'll need eight fewer grass to produce a haystack.

Workers cost food and gold coins to recruit, but they're definitely worth having. So, grab as many as you can... as soon as you can.

Tools are also incredibly useful items to have at your disposal, but, once again, they cost some valuable resources to craft.

Thankfully, buildings like the workshop grant you small numbers of free tools every 60 minutes.

Tap on a tool (such as a rake, a shovel, or a wheelbarrow) during a match-three session, and you'll automatically collect all on-screen materials that relate to that tool.

So, tap on a plough, and all visible grass and grain will be added to your inventory instantly.