July 18, 2012: Balloon Bounce & Jacks or Better Poker Badge Challenges

Balloon Bounce Badge Challenge

Hammer Time Badge
Inflate 4 or more giant balloons in a row 37 times this week! (Finish the game to check your progress) 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Wowza, what a doozy! This is one of those games that has me bouncing off the walls (and not in a good way) especially with a challenge like this. So I'm thankful that Balloon Buddy helped me retain my sanity and completed the challenge like so:

Game Difficulty: Easy
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 7,780 tokens earned
Time: 2 hours
NOTES: I tried it on 'beginner' at first but it seemed too easy - the balloons were so big that getting 4 'giants' in a row usually didn't happen.

Jacks or Better Badge Challenge

Easy Rider Badge
Win 170 hands this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!
There was nothing easy about this challenge 'til I enlisted the help of Jacks Better Buddy, this challenge got wrapped up like so:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 2,890 tokens earned
Time: 50 minutes
NOTES: Once again luck is a factor since there's no controlling what cards come out; the Buddy's holding strategy seemed right on point.

July 11, 2012: Word Whomp Whackdown & Slingo Ricochet Badge Challenges

Word Whomp Whackdown Badge Challenge

Nick of Time Badge
Find 700 words this week! 
Win this badge plus 3000 Tokens!

Whackdown Buddy is tried and true and cleaned this up as fast as possible:

Game Difficulty: Medium
Buddy Settings: Change speed to 'fastest'
Tokens: 7,927 tokens earned
Time: 30 minutes
NOTES: I changed from 'easy' to 'medium' game play level a couple rounds in because there are more words given on medium (but not more on hard than on medium as far as I could tell). Increasing the Buddy's play speed helped make things go quicker, too.

Slingo Ricochet Badge Challenge

Saved Again Badge
Make 140 slingos this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!
I'm feeling some dejavu here: Yay for a brand new Slingo Buddy! Here's the completion results for this brand new buddy:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 3,560 tokens earned
Time: 21 minutes
NOTES:So this is kind of a 'luck of the draw' situation... the Buddy can't control which numbers appear on the spin but it'll play any and all of 'em.

July 4, 2012: Ride the Tide & Lottso! Express Badge Challenges

Ride the Tide Badge Challenge

Riding High Badge
Earn 3,000 tokens this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Well Ride Tide Buddy got the job done. It's a process but it gets there:

Game Difficulty: N/A
Buddy Settings: Change bet to 'bet max'
Tokens: 3,790 tokens earned
Time: 51 minutes
NOTES: I changed the default bet 5 setting to 'max' to increase the amount of tokens won.

Lottso! Express Badge Challenge

Winning Smile Badge
Reach the 5th goal 3 times this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!
Yay for a brand new Lotso Xpress Buddy! Read my notes on the completion for this one:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Speed 1 / always play for mega lotso (see NOTES)
Tokens: 6,094 tokens earned
Time: 34 minutes
NOTES:So this is kind of a 'luck of the draw' situation... you'll need some lucky draws for certain balls AND some lucky guesses on the mega lottso card to boost the points enough to finish goal 5. To complete this challenge as quickly as possible, play WITH the Buddy. Here's the trick: turn ON 'always play for mega lotso' in its settings so you get your mega lottso card. Then turn it OFF so that it can acquire the points needed to COMPLETE the 5th goal (poorly worded by Pogo this week - reaching the 5th goal does nothing towards the badge; you have to reach 11,000 points thereby COMPLETING the round to get credit). ALSO when I saw it getting low on balls in goal 4 or 5, I'd make sure it collected any 'extra' spots AND if it was going to throw away balls (refill), I'd place them in any empty bonus slots.

Jun 27, 2012: QWERTY & Claire Hart: Soul Searcher Badge Challenges

QWERTY Badge Challenge

Game Face Badge
Score a connection bonus 7 times this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Personally I love Quirty Buddy because I enjoy playing QWERTY and this Buddy is really a... buddy! Here's how we did:

Game Difficulty: Beginner
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 7,925 tokens earned
Time: 33 minutes
NOTES: I actually played WITH Quirty Buddy using the 'scan' and 'solve' at a customized table (600 points to win) and selected from the list words that climbed towards the opponent so I could make connections quickly. And a 600 point game was perfect, as I'd win and finish the game the same time I made the connection. :-)

Claire Hart: Soul Searcher Badge Challenge

Haunted Portrait Badge
Finish one episode using 3 or less hints this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

I had fun with the Quirty challenge but it did take a little while so it was nice to finish this challenge so quickly with Claire Buddy:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Speed 2
Tokens: 5,820 tokens earned
Time: 2 minutes
NOTES: None

Turbo 21 Badge Challenge

Yeehaa! Badge
Win 600 tokens this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

With 21 Buddy's help, this badge doesn't get done any faster AND for a gazillion tokens. Check it out:

Game Difficulty: N/A
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 7,829 tokens earned
Time: 2 minutes
NOTES: None

No Limit Texas Hold'em Badge Challenge

All In Badge
Win 16 hands this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!
Playing poker is boring to me so I'm glad NL Holdem Buddy allowed me to "set it and forget it":

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Speed 3
Tokens: 2,000 tokens earned
Time: 57 minutes
NOTES: Play in a "just for fun" No Limit room so you can bet as much as you want and don't
lose all your tokens.

June 13, 2012: Lost Temple Poker & Amazing Adventures Badge Challenges

Lost Temple Poker Badge Challenge

Waiting to Bet Badge

Win 36 hands this week! 

Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Sigh of relief: an quick and easy badge challenge, especially 
with Lost Temple Buddy's help:

Game Difficulty: Beginner 

Buddy Settings: Default 

Tokens: 2,375 tokens earned 

Time: 4 minutes 

NOTES: None

Amazing Adventures Badge Challenge

Inca Treasures Badge

Complete 2 missions this week! 

Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Talk about a complete opposite time-frame and difficulty level 
compared to last week's challenges! Adventure Buddy made 
lightning fast work of this challenge:

Game Difficulty: n/a 

Buddy Settings: Default 

Tokens: 2,000 tokens earned 

Time: 7 minutes 

NOTES: None

June 6, 2012: High Stakes Pool & Mahjong Garden Badge Challenges

High Stakes Pool Badge Challenge

Color of Money Badge
Win 5 'Cutthroat' games this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

So while Pool Buddy is not an autoplayer, it sure did help
me out by showing where the ball was REALLY going to
go (Pogo's aim lines tried to sabotage me!). So here's how
I did with PB's help:

Game Difficulty: Beginner
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 2,850 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 24 minutes
NOTES: I found that my odds of winning greatly increased
when I broke the balls and got one in a pocket so I could
choose which color I wanted to be and could start winning.

Mahjong Garden Badge Challenge

Bamboo Dragon Badge
Complete 16 animals this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

So needless to say, after the pool challenge I was grateful to have an
automated MahjGar Buddy to nab the badge for me:

Game Difficulty: Easy
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 8,396 tokens earned
Time: 42 minutes
NOTES: None