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. :-)

May 19, 2010: Fortune Bingo & Quick Quack

Fortune Bingo Badge Challenge
Crystal Gong Badge
Get 20 Jackpot Spins this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Thank goodness for Play Buddy because this one was a bit of a doozey!

Fortune Bingo Buddy got this badge for me - and an extra 3752 tokens - in 2 hours 52 minutes. At first I tried the single card (speedy game, of course) rooms thinking it would go faster, but the majority of the time someone else would get and call bingo before me, and before I had gotten my "spin" number. So then I switched to the speedy blackout rooms. These take a bit longer because it is blackout BUT my odds of getting the bingo or my "spin" number greatly increased. So overall, I think this is the way to go to get the badge as quickly as possible (or wait for a couple of days and play in an empty room... empty room = guaranteed jackpot spin for you!).

Quick Quack Badge Challenge
Duck, Duck, Goose Badge
Get 100 streaks of 15 ducks or more this week!
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

With an extra 4,430 tokens and the badge in 49 minutes, I must say I couldn't have done it without Quack Buddy. This bot is so amazing, that it was getting 100-duck streaks right from the start. BUT the badge is for 15 streaks so for this challenge, I played with the Buddy. Here's what I did, and what I recommend to others:

1. Open Quack Buddy and go to "Options" to turn the speed up to 2.
2. Then let it Autoplay until you have 12-14 ducks then STOP the Buddy.
3. Now END the streak: play any duck(s) that will end the streak the quickest.
4. Then START up the Buddy again and repeat this process.

This method earned me more than TWICE as many 15+ duck streaks than letting the Buddy autoplay on its own. However, if you have errands to run or stuff to do, you can certainly just turn the Buddy on and let it play all by itself since it will eventually get the badge on it's own. The choice is yours! :-)

May 12, 2010: Deuces Wild & Thousand Island Solitaire

Thanks to Play Buddy this week was very easy: it was a "download a Buddy and GO" week (yay!). That said, both of these challenges were completed on auto-pilot without any hangups so I don't have much to offer as far as hints or tips.

Double Deuce Poker Badge Challenge
Pair of Deuces Badge
Get a Two Pair or better 100 times this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Double Deuce Buddy earned me an extra 1,980 tokens and the badge in 26 minutes.

Thousand Island Solitaire Badge Challenge
Floating Chest Badge
Get a 'Perfect 1000' on 100 piles this week! (Play Distance cards to make a pile add up to exactly 1000)
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

Island Sol Buddy wasn't too shabby, either; this Buddy received my badge and an extra 5,530 tokens in 1 hour 37 minutes (on average, that's less than 1 minute per pile). NOTE: Be sure to select the "Only Score 1,000" option from the Buddy's menu so that it capitalizes on achieving the badge faster.

May 5, 2010: Ali Baba Slots & WordJong

Ali Baba Slots Badge Challenge
Forty Thieves Badge
Win 100 tokens from the Spin to Win Bonus this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

This week's challenges were so very very very easy compared to last week - what a treat! So for this challenge in particular, I opened Alibaba Buddy, pressed autoplay and the badge was finished in 6 minutes with an additional 1,415 tokens.

WordJong Badge Challenge
WordJong Spring Badge
Spell 15 7-letter words this week! (Win the game to check your progress)
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

Since Play Buddy doesn't have a bot for this yet, I played by myself using the same tactic as SCRABBLE here - by manually typing in all the playable tiles (up to 7) and solving, then filtering the results by 7-letter words; if only 6 letter words could be made, I'd double check to see if an "s" could be tacked on to the end of any of them, when I had extra wild tiles. This strategy helped me complete the challenge in 25 minutes with an extra 264 tokens.

One final note: not only do you have to win the game to check your progress, but you also have to win the game to get your badge (a bummer when you get your 15th word on the beginning of a huge puzzle like I did!)

April 28, 2010: Tri-Peaks Solitaire & Flower Daze

Tri-Peaks Solitaire Badge Challenge
Sneak Peak Badge
Clear 250 peaks this week! (Peaks are the 3 top cards in each hand)
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

This one was a DOOZIE! Even though there is a Tripeak Buddy, I completed this challenge solo because I have Vista and - as the download page attests - it was buggy to the point of not working so I struck out on my own. This was a whopping feat that took me just short of 3 hours 30 minutes, and a bunch 'o extra tokens (8,533). Throughout my journey I learned some tidbits that could help other players:

• Always look for the up AND down cards. Example: showing a 4; can choose a 3 or 5


• Then choose the longest chain which could be a combo of going up and down Example: showing a 4, with a 3,3,4,4,5 on board so you can have a chain of 4,3,4,3,4,5.


• And make sure to select the card that will uncover more cards UNLESS it's at the very top where you can either uncover a card or finish a peak, in which case finishing a peak is preferable (unless you're card counting and know that you can do both).


• Save wilds until you have 0 or only 1 peak in a game, and can use the wild card to obtain an extra peak.

Flower Daze Badge Challenge
Flower Power Badge
Convert 2500 orange flowers this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

This one seemed very easy (and short) compared to the Tri-Peaks challenge - I completed it manually in 52 minutes with an additional 3,244 tokens.

The instructions weren't very clear on how to play this game. Basically you have flowers with numbers in them at the bottom of your screen. That means you can move to that colored flower on the game board, that many times. In short: select any of the difficulty levels until an ORANGE flower appears on the game window, and start clicking on anything that lights up!

Sometimes after a game is completed, no orange flowers will appear. So keep hitting "new game" or change the difficulty level and they will eventually reappear.

And a final sweet note... the great fact about this badge is that you DON'T have to WIN the game in order to get credit. :)