Aug 15, 2012: Sock Hop Slots & Boardwalk Sea Ball Badge Challenges

Just an interesting observation about this week's badges: notice alllllll the EIGHTS!  I think Pogo meant for these challenges to be last week (Aug 8 aka 8/8).  ;-)

Sock Hop Slots Badge Challenge

Do Wop Ducks Badge
Earn 880 tokens this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

ANOTHER slots challenge? Really Pogo?! Well thank goodness for has Sock Hop Buddy who'll spin and win for me. Check it out:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Speed '1'
Tokens: 1,725 tokens earned
Time: 27 minutes
NOTES: Once again it's luck 'o the spin (i.e. I hit a jackpot spin for 200 and someone else immediately hit 10k jackpot!). So good luck!

Boardwalk Sea Ball Badge Challenge

Duck Defense Badge
Roll 888 balls this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!
For whatever reason, I'm not so good at the controls on this game so I'm thankful for Boardwalk Buddy who was able to roll for me and knocked out the challenge like so:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 7,368 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 2 minutes
NOTES: I actually finished about 5 minutes earlier (in the beginning of the last game) but you have to finish ALL the rounds of the game for the progress to count.

Aug 8, 2012: First Class Solitaire and Monopoly Slots Badge Challenges

First Class Solitaire Badge Challenge

First Class Ride Badge
Earn 2000 tokens this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Although Play Buddy has Class First Buddy, I find that this particular bot works better with my assistance (I play right at the beginning and periodically in between to move cards faster) so here is how we did:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 4,105 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 11 minutes
NOTES: Even on a "bum" game, place as many cards as possible into the finishing piles because when you do "new game" you'll get tokens for the cards that were moved there.

Monopoly Slots Badge Challenge

Heavy Medal Badge
Pass Go once this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

I have a short attention span when it comes to clicking "spin" a million times so I'm grateful Nopoly Slots Buddynabbed my badge while I cooked breakfast. Here's how it did:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 10,260 tokens earned
Time: 44 minutes
NOTES: Keep in mind this is 'luck of the spin' and where your piece is on the board so your challenge completion might take more or less time and have more or less tokens.

Aug 1, 2012: Sci Fi Slots and CLUE Badge Challenges

Sci Fi Slots Badge Challenge

Red Robot Badge
Get 280 red capsules this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

280 capsules? No problem says Sci Fi Buddy. This easy breezy challenge was nothing but spin, spin, spin, spin and got finished up like so:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 10,724 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 36 minutes
NOTES: None

CLUE: Secrets and Spies Badge Challenge

Losing a Tail Badge
Finish an episode within 20 minutes 2 times this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!
I could have spent an hour hunting down all the objects myself (I actually do enjoy Clue) but there is a fascination in watching Clue Buddy fly through the episodes and rack up the tokens like so:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 11,073 tokens earned
Time: 5 minutes
NOTES: None

July 25, 2012: Hog Heaven Slots, Bejeweled Twist & Bingo Luau Badge Challenges

Sistine Hog Badge
Earn 7,000 tokens this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

SURPRISE! extra challenge added. No worries though because of Hog Heaven Buddy. Check it out:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Use ALL halos turned on
Tokens: 4,395 tokens earned (strange considering the badge was to win 7,000!)
Time: 9 minutes
NOTES: Seems like the game was embedded so it wasn't working in the US room so I used a UK room instead.

Bejeweled Twist Badge Challenge

Torch Bearer Badge
Create 1 fruit gem this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

HA! This badge challenge was EASY! But that's probably because I had a little (okay a LOT) of help fromBejeweled Twist Buddy. Check it out:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 2,330 tokens earned
Time: 6 minutes
NOTES: None

Bingo Luau Badge Challenge

Opening Ceremonies Badge
Correctly cover 470 numbers this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!
I enlisted dauber champion Bingo Luau Buddy so I could get this challenged wrapped up like so:

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 4,503 tokens earned
Time: 37 minutes
NOTES: Since covering numbers as quickly as possible is the goal, I recommend joining super-speedy blackout rooms (alone if possible).

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.