March 31, 2010: Crazy Cakes and Lottso

Crazy Cakes Badge Challenge
Upside Down Cake Badge
Meet the Goal for 25 rounds without losing any customers this week!
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

Play Buddy didn't have an auto for this game so I went solo on the challenge. That said, I played - and recommend you play - on "Beginner" or "Easy" since we puny humans can complete the badge much easier and faster on these levels. Even though it took exactly 1 hour (and 2,286 additional tokens), I found this game to be engaging and fun; it was non-stop clicking and action until VOILA! up pops the badge.

Helpful Hint: If you're like me and never played before, when a customer is asking for a piece of fruit (i.e. a cherry), they don't want the actual piece of fruit (you can try and give it to them but it won't work, as I discovered), but they want any PASTRY that is flavored with that kind of fruit. So for example, customer shows a cherry. Click on the cherry AND a cookie, cake, or whatever pastry.


Lottso! Badge Challenge
Lottso Lava Badge
Activate 30 silver-bordered cards this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

First of all, the majority of cards SEEM silver-bordered but are actually black. An example of a black border is the "Team Lottso" cards which are always black. The silver cards look more like the color white (at least on my comp). That said, play in the "COMPETITIVE" rooms because then you have greater odds of getting more silver-bordered cards (no team lottso cards means less black bordered cards). ALSO when I joined a room, I personally made sure I had at least 1 silver-bordered card... if there are none it's going to take that much time to clear some cards to get a silver card to drop.

So, there are a couple of options in getting this badge - a slower option and a faster option; one involves working with Lotso Buddy, the other involves letting the Buddy do all the work. :)

Option 1: Team work
So since the bot doesn't have a setting for this particular badge, I'd click on all the numbers in any silver bordered cards I had at the beginning of every round. Then I'd press "autoplay" and let it fill in the rest of the spaces and scratch any scratch cards. BUT REMEMBER to stop it again before the next round if you want to place any more balls on any new silver cards. Using this strategy took me and the Buddy 1 hour 55 minutes and granted us an extra 5,770 tokens.

Option 2: Let 'er ride!
This one is definitely the easier choice, albeit slower. BUT if you have other things to do, just hit autoplay and walk away. :-)

March 24, 2010: World Class Solitaire and Dice City Roller

Class World Badge Challenge
Middle Seat Badge
Complete 6 cities this week! (To complete a city, win the required number of games between the departure and the destination cities)
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

It's challenges like this that make me say "thank you" to Play Buddy. I opened the game and got out Class World Buddy and just hit the play button and walked away. :-) After 1 hour 33 minutes it was done and I had an extra 8,045 tokens. As an added extra bonus, I saw I got 2nd place on the high scores list.

Dice City Roller Badge Challenge
Remodeling Badge
Win 10 auctions this week! (Play in Auction rooms to participate in auctions)
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Unfortunately no Play Buddy for this challenge, but at least it was easy and fast. So, that said...

Want easy and fast completion of this badge? Use an auction room but jump into an EMPTY room (or near empty). This guarantees you'll win all the auctions and for the cheapest amount.

The number of auctions you've won will not appear until all of the quarters have been completed. So after the 4th round and any jackpot spins, you'll receive credit for and be notified of the current auctions won.

NOTE: Be sure to participate in all your auctions! I accidentally missed one and had to go a whole extra 4 quarters for 1 auction. :-( So that said, you'll probably complete this challenge faster than I. That said, it took me 32 minutes and I earned an additional 1,750 tokens.

March 17, 2010: Pogo Bowl and Mahjong Garden

Pogo Bowl Badge Challenge
Pin Monkey Badge
Bowl 100 Spares or Strikes this week!
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

With Play Buddy's auto Bowling Buddy, this badge challenge was a breeze. Just open a fast room, and let 'er rip and check in after about an hour and a half; my badge appeared after 1 hour 31 minutes with an additonal 2,939 tokens and I expect you'll have a similar result.

Mahjong Garden Badge Challenge
Year of the Tiger Badge
Make identical matches for all 8 of the Seasons tiles in 8 puzzles this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Just like on the previous Mahjong Garden badge challenge, MahjGar Buddy was more efficient when I played with it, instead of letting it autoplay straight through. That said, I'll refer you to my previous blog here - just replace "flower tile" with "season tile". :) One difference was that this time it took less time (1 hour 18 minutes) and gave 1,604 extra tokens. And as usual, you'll have to complete the entire puzzle and get through the jackpot spin before the game is counted and the badge awarded.

March 10, 2010: Chess and Lottso! Express

Chess Badge Challenge
Pwned! Badge
Capture 50 pieces this week! (Players will not receive challenge progress if a player resigns)
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Unless you have a friend to play with (and who can purposefully lose to you), I recommend playing against computers since this is always a faster, easier route. And of course like me, you'll be using Play Buddy's awesome auto Chess Buddy.

I began by letting the Buddy autoplay on its own. However, it was so efficient at winning that I stopped it and used "play hint" to get more pieces. I'd use the hints until towards the end of the game at which point I'd capture stray pieces when the opportunity presented itself, whereas if I had let the Buddy continue, it would have gone straight for the kill. In other words, its goal was to win ASAP but since our goal is to get as many pieces as possible in one game, I chose to nab pieces whenever I saw the chance to do so. Again, I recommend doing this towards the end of the game where it's easier to see what pieces to nab without losing the game. Then again, you can just let it autoplay... would probably only take a little while longer but the badge would still be won. :-)

So when it was all said and done, it took us 19 minutes to acquire the badge and an extra 1,207 tokens. Not too shabby!

Lottso! Express Badge Challenge
Refill Badge
Complete 200 bingos this week!
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

I remember a Lottso Express challenge from not too long ago. The blog I wrote on it here has some good overall play tips if you'd like to revisit it.

Unfortunately still no auto from Play Buddy. So I earned my extra 2,646 tokens over the 1 hour 6 minutes it took to complete the challenge. HOWEVER you'll be able to do it much quicker - a lot of my time was spent experimenting. :-) That said, here's what I found to be the most efficient and FASTEST way to get this badge:

If you fill up the entire board, that guarantees 14 bingos. However, this can become tricky to do towards the end when all you need is a 3 and a 1 and they're not coming up and you run out of balls. So the next best thing I found was to do that initially and then do a rotation thereafter so that one side is filled, and one side is free. This enables you to get almost as many bingos in the same time and in a tad easier fashion.

Here's what to do:

1. Begin by filling up ALL the cards. You want to fill up every space until the entire board is filled for your initial "million" bingos.
2. Now scratch the scratch tickets of ONLY ONE SIDE of the board and then refill
3. Now continue to fill up the empty side and collect your bingos. When only a space or two is left and it's time to refill, scratch the FULL side FIRST then refill.
4. Remember to finish filling up your "almost full" side.
5. Repeat 2-4. :-)

Some extra FYI and tips:

• You have to complete the game to see and get credit for your bingos. This means playing all the way to the end 'til you see the play again screen or badge window pop up (even if you get your 200th bingo on the first ball of Goal 1!)


• Look for lines where you can put multiple balls. For example, you have a 2, 2, 8. You could put those anywhere the numbers appear, but if all 3 of those numbers can be put on the same line, you're that much closer to a bingo.


• If you have extra balls that won't fit anywhere on the cards, remember to look to the side bets of the scratch cards before refilling.

March 3, 2010: Bingo Luau and Keno Pop!

Bingo Luau Badge Challenge
Hula Hoop Badge
Get 10 bingos this week!
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

Even though this badge challenge took Bingo Luau Buddy 1 hour 51 minutes and gave me an additional 4,359 tokens, I know how you can complete it in about 15 minutes (albeit for a lot less extra tokens, too). With only 3 bingos left, an "EUREKA!" lightbulb popped on in my head and I completed my remaining 3 bingos in less than 3 minutes. Here's how you can fly through your challenge:

1. Click on the "Super Speedy" game tab
2. Then choose the "Blackout" game
3. Select an empty room, or room that has only a couple people in it

VOILA! You'll be getting triple bingos every couple minutes and your badge will be completed in no time at all. :-)

P.S. If you're in a room with a few other people, it's common curtesy not to call BINGO until there are only 5 numbers left to be called. That way everyone gets triple bingos!


Keno Pop! Badge Challenge
Light Up the Meter Badge
Play any power-up 25 times this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

This was an extremely easy challenge, although the luck factor combined with having to wait for the balls to find their slots and waiting for jackpot spin rounds makes it lengthy (no way around it, as far as I can tell). That said, I opened Kenopop Buddy and just let it autoplay on max bet (you get the most amount of balls this way), while I did other things. After all was said and done, Keno Buddy completed the challenge in 1 hour 42 minutes and gave me a whopping extra 33,000 tokens!!! This game is definitely on the top of the "Best game for most amount of tokens" list.