Friday, April 23, 2010

April 21, 2010: Beaker Creatures & Mini Golf Madness

Beaker Creatures Badge Challenge
Creature Comfort Badge
Win 3000 tokens this week! (Including Jackpot Spins)
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

I thought this badge would take forever so I opened Beaker Buddy and turned on autoplay and left the room. About 1/2 hour later, I came in to check the progress and it was already done! So unfortunately I don't know exactly how long it takes, but I do know it's less than 30 minutes on DIFFICULT level, and I got an extra 4,097 tokens.

Mini Golf Madness Challenge
Chip Shot Badge
Finish a hole under par or better 60 times this week! (Score -1 or less for a hole)
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

Since Play Buddy didn't have an auto for this game, I soloed it and got my badge in 1 hour 28 minutes in addition to an extra 3,490 tokens. BTW, this challenge really means UNDER par. In other words, if you get Par on a hole, it WON'T count. :-( BUT I found some tricks that I think will make your challenge go by more quickly and easily.

First, I recommend playing the easy Warm-up course over and over and over; I found that the more familiar I became with that "easy" course, the more under-par holes I had (my record was 12 holes under par out of 18!). Some helpful hints for particular holes are here:

Hole 3: Shoot to the north-most (upper) hole
Hole 4: Use Big-Gulp if available
Hole 9: Shoot to the south-most (lowest) hole
Hole 11: Draw out the shot as long as you can make it, and aim it north (towards the upper or left side).
Hole 14: Bump it out in front of the car when the car is moving towards the direction of the hole.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

April 14, 2010: Everyone Wins Bingo & Crossword Cove

Everyone Wins Bingo Badge Challenge
Spring Saplings Badge
Call 50 vertical bingos this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

I completed this badge with an additional 3,735 tokens in 45 minutes with EW Bingo Buddy's help. I think you could do it a bit faster because I was playing in a room with only 1 other person, but for this particular challenge a fuller room might work to your advantage because you'll receive more wilds to make more bingos. Anyway, here's what worked great for me:

Select a 5-card FAST room to speed things up. UNcheck "Use wild card for wild bingos only" in the Buddy's options, if you let it autoplay the entire challenge. Personally I played along WITH the Buddy to maximize my vertical bingos. This is done by first checkmarking "Hold wilds" in the Buddy's options. THEN after all of the numbers have been called, place the wilds yourself on numbers that complete vertical bingos. This is more efficient since the Buddy would place them wherever thereby obtaining horizontal or diagonal bignos. :-)

Crossword Cove Badge Challenge
Hermit Crab Badge
Earn 12 star powerups this week! (Easy and Medium difficulty level puzzles contain star powerups)
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Even though Play Buddy didn't have a Buddy for this challenge, I completed it in 10 minutes (but only got an extra 10 tokens, too) because I discovered a great trick. Of course this completely defeats the purpose of playing the game fairly, or solving the puzzle, or trying to obtain tokens, or using your brain. ;-P If you're interested in this tactic, then read on!

Click on the word that contains the star powerup. Now click on Pogo's "Hint". Now a "Solve" button will appear. Click it. Notice that the word has been solved and the powerup star has been placed in your bucket. Voila! Repeat this process on every star on the puzzle and then press the "All Done" button. Now repeat this process on the next puzzle until your badge is completed. This will ensure you don't get tokens or points, BUT it DOES result in getting the badge. :-)

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

April 7, 2010: Canasta and Aces Up

Aces Up! Badge Challenge
Goggles Do Nothing Badge
Remove 1500 cards in this week! (Cards removed by planes do not count. Finish the game to check your progress)
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

With the badge completed, and an extra 2,649 tokens earned in 1 hour 30 minutes, I thank Aces Up Buddy for allowing me to enjoy the sunshine and get a little bit of yard work done! :-) This challenge was very straightforward so I just opened the bot and hit autoplay and I suggest you do the same... unless you'd prefer knocking through 1,500 cards, in which case, to each his own! lol


Canasta Badge Challenge
Hip Cat Badge
Meld out before your opponents 7 times this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Even though Play Buddy has Canasta Buddy, I ended up doing this challenge on my own because I have some knowledge of the game now (from the last challenge) and felt I was able to get things done more quickly. It took me 52 minutes and I got an extra 2,772 tokens. HOWEVER you can still use the Buddy to autoplay through the challenge if you don't know the game. I recommend going to the Settings and selecting "Never pick up discard pile" and "Meld cards immediately" before letting it run, as this is likely to get the challenge completed within 2 hours (just check back in on it around that time).