Once you reach the Mt Magma map area, some of the quests become significantly more challenging... unless you learn the tricks of them.
Beating ScurvyJones is one of these battles. (Other stumbling blocks include: War Hog in Mt Magma, and Mortimer in Lost Temple - use boosters then spend gold to gain an extra 5 minutes with full health).
In ScurvyJones, you are given a specific fire team (not your own) in which to fight against ScurvyJones. ScurvyJones is a water monster, so this fire team will already experience a 25% attack reduction as it is weak against water. You cannot use your own monsters or change the team that you are given. (The 158k power rating requirement for this quest is irrelevant).
The standard method of playing against ScurvyJones is to match fire gems when you can, and then heart gems to heal yourself. Most players will find themselves unexpectedly losing health and being defeated without realizing what is happening.
The trick to ScurvyJones is learning to turn Auto-cast off. Each of the monsters in your team has an active ability. After a certain number of turns (usually 3-5) they'll have a special attack or will heal you or several other possibilities. All of the monsters in your team will by default have "auto-cast" turn on, meaning that these abilities activate as soon as they are charged up.
Normally that is a really good thing... but not in the case of the team you are given!
If you click on each of your monsters during battle, you will be able to see which active they have and you will have an option of turning Auto-cast on/off.
Within this fire team, you have the following active abilities (from left to right): Blast (attacks all enemies for 175% attack), Group Heal (heals all monsters for 300% recovery), sacrifice (sacrifices 30% health to attack), sacrifice, snipe (attacks for 350% attack).
The problem with the team you've been given is that you have two sacrifice monsters who each give up 30% of their health in order to make a special attack against your opponent. One sacrifice may be okay as long as you heal after it actives to restore some of the lost health. Two sacrifices on the same team will cause you to lose a lot of health in the same turn!
Click on the two monsters with sacrifice (the 3rd and 4th from the left) and turn auto-cast to "off". This will stop your monsters from automatically sacrificing their health to attack. (You may see a flashing white border around these two monsters after a few turns, this simply means that their sacrifice is ready to be activated if you choose. You can either double click on your monster to activate it, or click once and press "activate"... but in this case it is best to ignore the possibility of activating the sacrifice).
Without these two monsters having their active ability (sacrifice) on, you may find that the battle takes a bit longer, but you'll have an easier time maintaining enough health while you match fire and heart gems during battle. You have unlimited time to defeat ScurvyJones, so you can take your time to battle while keeping an eye on your health.
It's also a good idea to try to match as many other element gems as you can each turn. They won't cause an attack, but they will clear the board of more gems so that hopefully more fire/heart gems drop into play. They will also increase the combo bonus that will effect any fire/heart matches you also made.
Important Note: When you turn auto-cast off in your normal team, it will stay off indefinitely until you turn auto-cast back on during a battle!
Now that you are able to defeat ScurvyJones, the next significant quest you will come across is defeating War Hog. Get a head start by reading this guide to defeating War Hog so that you can start collecting the monsters you will need for that battle.
Been stuck on this one for so long - thank you so much. I followed your advice and beat it on my first re-try!
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