Players and teams have very different strategies, here are some of the goals and methods that have often been found to be helpful.
First, there are several goals to pursue that will increase a fold's score. They include the following:
These goals should be considered at all stages of the game, from the opening to the middlegame to the endgame.
Tips
Several strategic protein manipulation tips that may prove useful include the following:
- Use rubber bands to pull together structures.
- Always resolve sidechain clashes.
- Find low-scoring areas (those that appear lighter green, tan, or red in normal mode, and appear grey, pink, or red in Colorblind mode) and local wiggle them.
- Consider a rebuild on areas that score particularly low, that cannot be made more compact, or that otherwise look inappropriate.
- Use the Nudge technique
- Use Sheet flattening techniques including tweaking and changing band length
- Try Sidechain flipping
- Examine and reset Sidechain Positions
Middlegame
- Local Rebuild Strategy -- This strategy is also a good one for players to try when they are first learning to use rebuild.
- Manual Rebuild -- discovered by Pletsch. For players who find rebuild too unpredictable or who seek greater compactness ahead of other considerations.
- Dejerpha's notes -- thinking like water, sidechain manipulations
- Banding Techniques -- notes from itskimo on banding to a guide
Endgame
Some endgame strategies are as follows:
- Local Wiggle Strategy
- Global Lock/Wiggle Strategy
- Sad Local Wiggle Strategy
- and, almost more a way of using the interface than a strategy, but Use Undo Graph To Monitor Score Accurately
Suggested Methods
- Hand-folding vs. scripts: The Dishwasher Analogy -- Which is better to use?
- Suggested Methods -- suggested methods by various FoldIt Players
- De-novo puzzle - how to fold a de-novo puzzle
- Proverbs - using the analogy of proverbs to provide insight
Evolver Play
Evolving is a team sport - Evolver Play -- explanation is here, with links to some evolver strategies, thoughts, and opinions.h