Totem Match 3

Totem Match 3 pays you in two currencies at once. Matching three or more identical totem symbols in a row makes them explode, and each explosion returns both points and time. Since the clock is always draining, the game becomes a question of keeping your income above your expenses.

Speed is therefore the skill, but not recklessness. A run of quick matches keeps the timer topped up and buys you the seconds to look for something larger; a long hunt for a perfect line spends the very thing the line was meant to earn. The rhythm that works is short bursts of easy clears punctuated by one deliberate bigger move.

The carved-totem art keeps the symbols distinct from one another, which matters more than it sounds in a game where you are reading the board at speed.

More match 3 games

• Candy Star — filed under Candy & Sweets
• Cartoon Candy Deluxe — filed under Candy & Sweets
• Cartoon Trucks Match 3 — filed under Games for Kids
• Christmas 2019 Match 3 — filed under Christmas Games

1. Swap two neighbouring symbols to line up three or more of a kind in a row.
2. Keep matching steadily — each explosion returns time as well as points.
3. Take an easy clear when the timer is low and hunt a bigger one when it is healthy.
4. Learn the symbols by shape rather than colour; at speed, shape reads faster.

Treat the clock as a budget you are spending while you look. If ten seconds have passed without a match, take the first legal one you can see — the time it returns is worth more than the better move you had not found yet.