As this is a turn-based game, you should never feel rushed into making your move. Before you attack, study the board carefully and see if you can make any large matches - the bigger the match you can make in the game, the bigger the benefit you'll get to your attacking power or health restoration.
If there are no matches greater than three on the board, see if you can make two different match-threes with just one maneuver. You'll very often have this option when two different clusters of the same color are nearly in an L shape. See if you can slot in the missing piece and clean up on damage.
It's always worth cycling through the enemies in each wave, to see if any of your party members get an attacking bonus. An upwards arrow on their portrait means they get a bonus, a downwards arrow means attacks won't hit nearly as hard. Make sure you're always matching up gems that give a bonus to an attacking character.
Keep an eye on your health bar! It's very easy to lose track of your health as you focus on finishing off the threat in front of you. You must survive every single wave of a mission in one sitting, so make sure you're topping up your health with pink match-ups every now and then.
If your character has an animated outline flowing around their portrait, that means their special ability is ready to be used. Don't just use it blindly though. If you're getting towards the end of an adventure episode, and are about to face off against a mighty boss, it makes sense to hold onto that super damage bonus until the final fight.
Don't forget to tinker with each character's stats once they've leveled up from combat. Whether you upgrade their health, attacking power, or healing powers depends entirely on the balance of your own team, but don't be afraid to experiment - you can reset points if you don't mind spending money on crystals.
Given the choice between equal match-ups, always look out for the one that will cause a cascade of matches to occur straight afterwards. That way you can enjoy some bonus health or attacking power across the team, without wasting one of your turns!
It's not all about damage when it comes to fighting the opposition - sometimes they have special powers too. Grab allows them to remove all gems of a certain color from the board, for example, while Terrify freezes a team member. Be ready to adapt your tactics as the situation changes - and keep an eye on the enemy cooldown timer too, so you can top up on health if it likes like you're about to take a pummeling.
If you need to level up your team a little for a particularly tough challenge, you can always go back and play earlier, easier chapters for a little more XP. This is a great way of getting new team members up to speed too - the oldest members of your team won't get as much XP as the new guy, so it helps to balance them all out.
You don't have to make a match-up to complete your turn. Sometimes it's worth making a deliberate match failure if it means on the next go you'll be able to complete a mammoth match-up. Just be aware that this is a risky strategy - you'll waste a turn, and you should only do this if you have a lot of spare health across the team.
