Hex

A Hex is a type of item that players can hold in Mario Party DS. These count as objects, and therefore a player can only hold at most three of them at one time. Hexes are given to the player any time he or she passes over a Hex space, without cost to the player.

Usage

 * Hexes may only be played at the outset of a player's turn, before he or she rolls the Dice Block.
 * Hexes may only be placed on red or blue spaces; green spaces, Friend Spaces (later replaced by Duel Spaces), Bowser Spaces, and other non-space locations on the board may not have any hexes placed upon them.
 * Hexes may only be placed a maximum of five spaces away from the player's current location.
 * Hexes immediately overwrite any previous hex that may be on that space.
 * When landed on, the hex takes effect first--any other effects, such as Hidden Blocks and the regular three coin bonus or penalty are applied afterward. They are one-shot items--once used, they will disappear off the board.
 * Should the player who sets the hex land on it, as long as it is not a Star Block or Coin Block, the effect is not triggered and the player instead earns 5 coins. This still causes the Hex to be removed from the board.
 * When hexes are placed on the board, if they are set by an opponent, their identity is hidden--all that is publicly known is the player who set the hex. Hexes placed by a player are known to the player, and its identity can be checked at any time.

Types of Hexes
Hexes come in two different types--negative hexes and positive hexes. The negative Hex usually causes the player who lands on it to endure a penalty of stars or coins, which are credited to the owner of the hex. Positive Hexes cause the player who lands on them to receive a bonus.

Negative Hexes

 * 1-Star, 2-Star Hex: A player who lands on this loses one or two stars, based on its denomination. Should a player not have enough stars to cover the penalty, the player loses all the stars he or she possesses. Should the player have no stars, the hex fails to do anything.
 * 10-Coin, 20-Coin Hex: A player who lands on this loses 10 or 20 coins, based on its denomination. Similar to stars, a player who does not have enough coins to cover the penalty loses all the coins he or she possesses, and should the player have no coins, the hex fails to do anything.
 * Space Swap Hex: A player who lands on this immediately swaps their position on the board with the owner of the Hex.
 * Coin Swap Hex: A player who lands on this immediately swaps their coin count with the that of the owner of the Hex.

Positive Hexes

 * Coin Block: A player who lands on this is shown a large block, and has 10 seconds to obtain as many coins as they can out of it. Pressing A rapidly generates the coins. On average, 30-40 coins are obtained from the block.
 * Star Block: A player who lands on this is shown a large block. The player is then awarded between 1 and 3 stars, chosen randomly.

Strategy
Using Hexes effectively depends on what boards the player is playing on. Negative Hexes should be placed in high-traffic areas, where players will always traverse to get to certain sectors of the board. For example, in DK's Stone Statue, the track immediately following the sole Bowser Space leading to the intersection on the bottom level (which contains the sole Hex space) is an ideal place to put negative hexes, as it is the most heavily visited stretch of track--players arrive here after purchasing (or failing to purchase) stars, or being sent back to the start by Dry Bones.

On the other hand, positive Hexes should be placed more judiciously. Ideally, they should be placed in a section of the board that players generally do not head to, as to reduce the chances that a rival grabs the bonus. However, they should not be placed so far out of the way so that trying to land on one will take an undue amount of effort.