Mar. 14: Beaker Creatures and Blooop Badge Challenges

Beaker Creatures Badge Challenge

Pot O Gold Badge
Win 10 Jackpot Spins this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Beaker Buddy knocked this one out of the park! Check out these stats:

Game Difficulty: Easy
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 8,440 tokens earned
Time: 16 minutes
NOTES: Make sure to choose the 'easy' difficulty since you only need to fill up 3 beakers of apx. 100 points to reach the Jackpot Spin.

Blooop Badge Challenge

Vortex Badge
Make 30 matches of 4 or more discs this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

I don't know about you, but this game is definitely not on my favorites list! Thankfully Bloop Buddy came to my rescue and got my badge like so:

Game Difficulty: No difficulty - played against computer under "Beginner"
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 3,350 tokens earned
Time: 36 minutes
NOTES: Create your own game in the 'Beginner' tab so that you can set the game points to '10' (this makes end of round jackpot spins/tallies less frequent) then change it back to '3' when you near 26-29 matches towards the badge (so you don't play longer than you have to).

March 7, 2012: Tri-Peaks Solitaire & Texas Hold'em Poker

Tri-Peaks Solitaire Badge Challenge

Tomb of Kings Badge
Earn 3500 tokens this week! (Earn a Jackpot Spin to check your progress)
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

While this game can be fun to play, I'm so glad Tripeak Buddy is available for badges like this since the only way to earn tokens is to complete games and 3,500 tokens is a LOT of games. That said, here's the stats:

Game Difficulty: No difficulty - played against computer
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 6,317 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 14 minutes
NOTES: Basically just have to play the game (or let the Buddy do it), and hope Pogo smiles upon you to give you favorable card placement.

Texas Hold'em Poker Badge Challenge

Urban Cowgirl Badge
Win 13 Hands with Two Pair or better this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

If you're like me and poker is just not your game, then you can earn the badge like me too (use Texas Holdem Buddy). I'm not a good judge about how fast or slow this game can be won, but here's how the Buddy did:

Game Difficulty: No difficulty - played against computer under "Limit" / "Just for Fun"
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 2,330 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 36 minutes
NOTES:As far as I could tell the same amount of time will pass regardless of type of room chosen, although if you don't want to risk losing a lot of tokens (like me), play against robots under the 'limit' and 'just for fun' tabs just to be safe.

Feb. 29, 2012: Super Dominoes and Dice Derby Badge Challenges

Super Dominoes Badge Challenge

Tile Train Badge
Win 8 games this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Play Buddy offers Super Domino Buddy for this challenge and I'm so glad because as strange as it may sound, I don't know how to play this game! Even so, I was impressed with this beautiful auto.

Game Difficulty: No difficulty - played against computer
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 7,203 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 11 minutes
NOTES: DON'T click the 'play against robots' on the initial screen because it requires 500 game points to win. Instead, do what I did to speed things up: go to a room lobby, sit at a table and set the game to 250 points AND select 'Limited animations' so the games progress faster. Even so, luck is still a factor because it all comes down to how the bones fall so to speak.

Dice Derby Badge Challenge

Golden Dice Badge
Finish 230 laps this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Well Derby Buddy is a blast from the past because it looks nothing like the Buddies I'm used to. But don't let appearances fool ya - it completed the badge as quickly as is possible and had no hiccups.

Game Difficulty: Default
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 8,575 tokens earned
Time: 2 hours 20 minutes
NOTES: Sheesh, 230 laps is no joke. To speed things up a bit more, select the '9-lap' course before clicking 'play against robots' so that 9 laps (instead of 6) go by before the jackpot spin and final round which take up unnecessary time.

Feb. 22, 2012: Pinochle & Penguin Blocks

Penguin Blocks Badge Challenge

Air Express Badge
Complete 70 rounds with a profit of $1 or more per round this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Boy was I excited to see Penguin Buddy on the PB website this morning because it wasn't in existence a few days ago! Here's how it did:

Game Difficulty: 'Easy'
Buddy Settings: Increased speed to '1'; all else default
Tokens: 4,311 tokens earned
Time: 45 minutes
NOTES: I tried the 'Medium' level as well but it seemed to take longer since more food needed to be collected to earn the $1+

Pinochle Badge Challenge

Premier Virtuoso Badge
Create 10 Pinochles this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Play Buddy offers Pinochle Buddy for this challenge BUT oh how I wish this already autoplayed (coming soon, I'm told from PB support), as I have no clue how to play Pinochle! Instead it's a hand tracker for the Pino pros who play this game for fun (yay for them I suppose! lol).

Game Difficulty: No difficulty - played against Robots
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 0 tokens earned
Time: 15 minutes
NOTES: I chose to NOT get this badge yet - I have no idea how to play Pinochle and my feeble attempt of 15 minutes against the computers after reading 'how to play' left me dazed and confused... I'll wait for my Buddy!

Feb 15, 2012: Phlinx & Mini Golf Madness

Phlinx Badge Challenge

Sphlinx Play Badge
Drop 3600 stones this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

I used the beautiful Phlinx Buddy for this challenge and here's its stats:

Game Difficulty: Beginner level because the puzzles are simplified and finish sooner
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 8,841 tokens earned
Time: 2 hours
NOTES: Sometimes faster is better (like when you want to farm tokens) but definitely use the default '2' speed for this challenge; it seemed like the '1' speed - while much faster - was not as smart which seemed to result in faster decision making causing less stones to drop.

Mini Golf Madness Badge Challenge

A-maze-ing Challenge Badge
Complete 8 18-hole courses under par this week!
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

Thanks to Mini Golf Buddy I got this badge much faster than on my own. Stats are as follows.

Game Difficulty: 'Warm Up' course - Full course (front and back 9)
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 7,620 tokens earned
Time: 35 minutes
NOTES: Easily achieved this badge and got 8/18 holes in 1 every time

Taking a break

Hi all! I'm distracted by and enjoying summer so my entries are postponed. But I'm sure you all will make it through (I checked the upcoming badges for the next month and it looks like Play Buddy has 'em covered) - good luck and have fun badging! TTFN

May 26, 2010: Phlinx & Word Whomp

Phlinx Badge Challenge
Hieroglyphics Badge
Make 75 groups of 5 or more stones fall to the ground this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Sadly no Play Buddy for this challenge. Even so, I was surprised at my skills. I completed this badge on easy in 59 minutes and earned an additional 1,273 tokens. This is a tricky game to play, let alone explain, so my advice is limited.


I recommend choosing the easy level because the puzzles are simplified and finish sooner. Look for any groups that you know will cause balls to fall. Then add some balls to that group if necessary to get 5+. Then "cut the tie" so-to-speak. I continued this process over and over and towards the end of this challenge I really got the hang of it, and you probably will, too.

Word Whomp Badge Challenge
Baby Carrots Badge
Find 15 6-letter words this week!
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

Thanks to Whomp Buddy I got this badge in 6 minutes and an extra 2,283 tokens. BUT you'll get it much faster (hard to believe you can get it in faster time than 6 minutes, huh?) because halfway through I figured out a trick...

You do NOT have to finish the game to receive credit for the 6-letter words. That said, let the Buddy scan the game and generate the list of words on LEVEL 3. Then double-click all the words in the right-most column of the Buddy; these are all the 6-letter words and double-clicking on them automatically enters it into the game (such an awesome feature... man I love Play Buddy!). Then click "NEW GAME" and repeat the process. You'll be done in a couple minutes flat. :-)