In some cases, rather than receiving a new item, an existing item is upgraded, which improves the effect or ability of the old item. Treasures provide special abilities to Lex, such as a reduction in damage inflicted to him, or more damage generated from words containing certain letters, or even resistance to negative effects. Once the boss is defeated, the chapter ends, and the player is rewarded with a treasure item. After each battle victory, Lex automatically recovers to full health before proceeding to the next battle however, there are certain stages called 'Survival Battles' (still called boss battles in the first game), where Lex will not be healed between enemies.Īfter a certain number of battles are won, a boss of increased difficulty is encountered. Some of these attacks can combine two or more effects.

During battles, the player can see what attacks and abilities the enemy can use, located at the bottom-right portion of the screen. The cost of doing this is forfeiting a turn, so that the enemy gets a 'free' attack.Įach turn, players can form a single word, while enemies use one of their available attacks to damage Lex, inflict ailments to Lex, buff themselves, or manipulate the tiles in the grid. The 'scramble' feature from the original title returns in Bookworm Adventures, allowing players to replace their current grid of letters with an entirely new set. Each gem has different effects, such as healing Lex and inflicting debuffs to the enemy.

The game also features gems, which are generated by spelling more powerful words. Similarly, words generated using letters which are less common do more damage than those using only common letters. The longer the word which is formed, the more damage is done to opponents. However, unlike more traditional role-playing games where players can injure their opponents with arms or magic, enemies in Bookworm Adventures are damaged by forming words.Īs in the original Bookworm, words are formed from a grid of available letters, although unlike the original, the letters used to form the words need not be adjacent to one another.

Both Lex and his enemy have health meters (represented by a number of hearts) which, when depleted, signal defeat. Each battle consists of Lex squaring off against a given enemy. Players guide Lex the Bookworm (voiced by the Chief Creative Officer of PopCap, Jason Kapalka) through a number of stages, battling creatures along the way (which are largely based on Greek mythology, One Thousand and One Nights and Gothic fiction, while the foes in the game's sequel are based on fairy tales, Journey to the West and science fiction). Lex battling Medusa in Bookworm Adventures

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