How to play Venice Deluxe?

Tips to rescue the sinking buildings of Venice by restoring their lost treasures in Popcap Venice Deluxe game.

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The first time you launch Venice, you will be asked to enter your player name. This allows your progress and high scores to be saved when you quit. If there are several people playing on one computer, you will want to create separate profiles for each. To do this, click on the link in the lower left-hand side of the Main Menu that says "If this is not you, click here." The Gondoliers menu will appear allowing you to create a new player and delete or rename your current player.

Venice has four game modes: Journey, Flood, Trick Shot and Survival. At the beginning of the game only Journey mode is available. Flood mode becomes available once you have completed Building 2 in Journey mode. Trick Shot mode becomes available once you have completed Journey mode, and Survival mode becomes available once you have completed Flood mode.

Goal - Venice is sinking! The buildings have lost their treasures and are slowly subsiding beneath angry waves. Your job is to launch the various treasures up into their proper places on the plates attached to the walls and towers of the city. It's up to you to restore the treasures and the city to glorious life!

The Basics

The majority of the Venice game screen shows a Venetian building. Attached to the walls of the building are plates that contain silhouetted slots of the different kinds of treasures. At the bottom of the screen is a golden gondola that holds treasures. Your task is to launch the treasures from the gondola up into the corresponding slots in the plates. When all the slots in a plate are filled, the plate disappears. When all the plates on a screen are filled, the building sinks and the screen scrolls upward to reveal more plates. Fill all the slots on all the plates on a building to restore it and raise it from the waves. This will complete the level (in Journey mode; see below for more details on other game modes).

Venice has four game modes: a sequential story mode (Journey), a more challenging time pressure mode (Flood), an endless endurance mode (Survival) and a special trick shot mode (Trick Shot).

Journey

Journey mode is the primary mode, and it is available at the beginning of the game. In Journey, the buildings do not sink, allowing you time to carefully pick your shots. You begin each building with three tries and you lose a try each time you launch a treasure, fail to place it in a slot and allow it to fall into the water. If you lose all your tries you lose your score for that building and must go back to its beginning.

Buildings are organized into eight neighborhoods: Welcome to Venice, Lunar Lanes, Cupid's Cove, Venetian Villa, Grotto Ghetto, San Marco Square, Vesta's Vista and Lavender Lair.

Flood

Flood is the secondary mode, and it is available once you have completed Building 2 in Journey mode. Flood is similar to Journey mode in that it is also organized into eight neighborhoods that comprise 9 levels each. Unlike in Journey mode, however, the buildings are constantly sinking, which in turn places time pressure on your efforts to place the treasures. In addition to the buildings� natural sink rate, each shot you make causes them to sink a bit more. Catching a treasure reverses a bit of that sinking. There are no tries in Flood mode, so there is no penalty other than a drop in your shot percentage for losing a treasure in the water. However, if a plate with unfilled slots sinks below the water line, you will lose and must go back to the beginning of the level.

Trick Shot

Trick Shot is a secondary bonus mode, and it is unlocked when you complete Journey mode. Trick Shots levels are puzzle levels in which you get one shot to fill all open slots. In Trick Shot mode the levels are organized according to neighborhood; you must complete all of the levels in each neighborhood before proceeding to the next.

Survival

Survival is a secondary bonus mode, and it is unlocked when you complete Flood mode. Survival is a pure time-pressure challenge. In Survival mode there are no neighborhoods; rather, there is only one building which constantly sinks as in Flood mode. Your task is to fill plates on this infinite building for as long as you can before allowing a plate to slip beneath the waves.

General Tips

- Place treasures in higher slots to set off tumble combos.
- You can shoot pieces against a flat block to cycle and catch treasures.

- Try to fire toward the outside of plates to initiate more effective tumbles.
- Time your shot so that the plate spins when hit. This can result in your shot getting combos that it might not otherwise get because you can base the combo off the top of the spin.

- There are some levels where you can get into trouble by filling treasures into slots while you still need to shoot through that slot to hit something else. Try not to make the mistake of blocking yourself. While it won't be impossible to win after that, it can be much more difficult.

- Don't forget you can right-click to swap your ready treasure with one held in reserve. This is a good way to hang on to a wild shot if you would otherwise be forced to waste it when the screen is mostly clear.
- Try to disable locked blocks early on, as doing this will make an area much easier.

- When bricks appear, clear them away first before placing treasures.
- Use wild shots and power shots to take out hard-to-reach slots.

- As your skill increases, try making more bank shots--the bonus points really add up.
- Don't spend too much time reading the introductory quotes or you may find yourself talking that way and dreaming about gondolas... ;)

Journey Mode Tips

- Don't rapid fire in Journey mode unless you're in a confined area where catching pieces is guaranteed.
- In Journey, take it slow. Shoot one shot at a time, and concentrate on catching the treasure in case it's about to fall in the water.

- Try to shoot around objects when you can in Journey mode--the fewer ricochets you have, the easier it is to catch pieces.
- Try to plan ahead a little in Journey mode so that you don't work yourself into a corner.

Flood Mode Tips

- If slots get close to the water in Flood mode and you don't have access to the correct piece, fire one to get a new reserve piece; the one you need will often appear.

Related Software: Venice Deluxe