Apr 25, 2012: Casino Island Blackjack & Bejeweled 3 Badge Challenges

Casino Island Blackjack Challenge

Cowabunga King Badge
Use 'Up Your Sleeve' card 8 times this week! 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

This challenge was a doozy but were it not for Casino Island Buddy I probably would have been there all week. Here's how it worked out:

Game Difficulty: N/A
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 4,280 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 38 minutes
NOTES: Per the download notes, be sure to open a room from a lobby table in Internet Explorer and also make sure your "up your sleeve" option is selected in the Buddy. Other than that, it's all about luck and how quickly Pogo decides to deal you the "up your sleeve" card.

Bejeweled 3 Badge Challenge

Floating Castle Badge
Create 33 Flame gems this week! (Make sets of 4 gems to get them) 
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Wait until you get a load of these impressive Bejeweled Buddy stats!!!!

Game Difficulty: n/a
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 2,650 tokens earned
Time: 8 minutes
NOTES: Can you say "WOWZA"?

April 18, 2012: Battleship & Hangman Hijinks Badge Challenge

BATTLESHIP Challenge

Pegs Away Badge
Use 40 power-ups this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Yay for Battleship Buddy! I don't see how this challenge could be completed as quickly as this:

Game Difficulty: N/A
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 4,552 tokens earned
Time: 32 minutes
NOTES: Choose the "Speedy" tab then you'll play against speedy robots.

Hangman Hijinks Badge Challenge

Rough Sketch Badge
Solve 20 bonus words this week! (Bonus words appear vertically)
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

So Play Buddy caused me to pull a hijinks this morning with the new release of Hangman Buddy. And check out these stats:

Game Difficulty: Easy
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 3,367 tokens earned
Time: 34 minutes
NOTES: If you're watching the bot play, sometimes you can speed things up on the bonus round by selecting a more obvious word (the Buddy seems to have a very extensive dictionary).

Apr 11, 2012: Euchre & Poppit Sprint Badge Challenges

Euchre Badge Challenge

Euchre Man Badge
Win 4 games by 2 points or more this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

So Pogo's making up for last week's easy badges with a double hard one! I am so grateful to have Euchre Buddycomplete this looooooooong challenge like so:

Game Difficulty: N/A
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 2,000 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 36 minutes
NOTES: First, open your own room so you can change these table settings to make games go by faster: select 10 points to win and select TRAM. Now the rest is mostly luck since Jacks are the winning cards and if you get them is completely random.

Poppit Sprint Badge Challenge

Pop-a-lot Badge
Pop 8400 balloons this week! (Play in the Classic Sprint Mode)
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Yay! This badge was a breath of fresh air after Euchre. Check out the impressive Pop Sprint Buddy stats:

Game Difficulty: No difficulty
Buddy Settings: Default partial (but see notes)
Tokens: 7,903 tokens earned
Time: 23 minutes
NOTES: First, make sure you're on the regular Poppit Sprint with Spike; I started on the casual one (whoops). Also, by default the Buddy saves your coins which is sweet. But if you want the badge completed in HALF the time, select the 'Save' powerup option in the Buddy AND on the start screen choose the Triple Column and Chain Lightning powerups - they'll pop a gazillion balloons!

Apr 4, 2012: Blackjack Carnival & Word Whomp Badge Challenges

Blackjack Carnival Badge Challenge

Trumpet Shuffle Badge
Get 12 'Pair Square' side bets this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Blackjack Buddy is a beautiful thing - it made my morning by knocking this challenge outta the park like so:

Game Difficulty: N/A
Buddy Settings: Side Bet: Pair Square / Random Betting
Tokens: 4,422 tokens earned
Time: 27 minutes
NOTES: Be sure to change the Buddy's options to select 'Pair Square' because I wasted a few minutes not realizing that I had to side-bet to get the credit.

Word Whomp Badge Challenge

Curb Appeal Badge
Find 12 or more words in a game 10 times this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

And I thought Blackjack Buddy did good... Whomp is definitely the winner this week. Okay so how often do we get two easy badges in a row?! Pogo must be off their rocker this week but that's fine by me, especially with how fast Whomp Buddy completed things for me (oh yeah, guess THAT's why the badge was so fast and easy! lol):

Game Difficulty: 2
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 6,990 tokens earned
Time: 14 minutes
NOTES: None.

Mar 28, 2012: Dice City Roller & World Class Solitaire Badge Challenge

Dice City Roller Badge Challenge

Green Fuzz Badge
Place 234 dice this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

With the help of Dice City Buddy this challenge flew by on the breeze. Here's how it happened:

Game Difficulty: N/A
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 3,012 tokens earned
Time: 24 minutes
NOTES: To get this badge in under 1/2 an hour like I did, choose the 'No Auctions' room so you don't waste time on that extra round. And actuall you might complete yours faster if you get lucky with the dice (I had a few rounds where not all the dice could be placed).

World Class Solitaire Badge Challenge

Aces of Aces Badge
Earn 2,300 tokens this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Oh thank heaven for Class World Buddy because playing enough games to get over 2k tokens is no easy chore! Here's how the Buddy did:

Game Difficulty: No difficulty
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 4,882 tokens earned
Time: 53 minutes
NOTES: This bot is a bit quirky (looks a tad different/outdated from the newer bots so maybe a re-do is planned) so I found it helpful to play the very beginning and very end and let it sort through the middle. Also, this badge can go faster depending on luck: the luck of the draw of cards and the luck of the size of your jackpot spins.

Mar 21, 2012: Checkers & Spades Badge Challenges

Checkers Badge Challenge

Bib Badge
Convert 13 single checkers into Kings this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

I love quick badge challenges! So thanks, Checkers Buddy for making it quick and painless. Here's how it did:

Game Difficulty: Beginner tab - play against Robot
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 4,383 tokens earned
Time: 21 minutes
NOTES: The sad thing is that this could have been completed faster *if* the Pogo game allowed more than 1 king on the board at a time. I tried this myself to be sure (while watching the bot play I was thinking to myself 'why don't you make more Kings since you have checkers enough to do so...). So if you know of a trick to allow more than 1 King, make sure to turn it on or play at that table.

Spades Badge Challenge

Number Fun Badge
Win 32 hands this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Can you say LUCKY? Play Buddy JUST NOW turned the Spades bot - once just a counter thing - into an autoplaying Spade Buddy (YAY!!!). Check out this data:

Game Difficulty: No difficulty - played against computer under "Beginner"
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 5,144 tokens earned
Time: 1 hour 29 minutes
NOTES: I have no clue how to play spades but if you do, there's a chance you can use the bot to your advantage by playing with it so the badge challenge is completed quicker.

Mar. 14: Beaker Creatures and Blooop Badge Challenges

Beaker Creatures Badge Challenge

Pot O Gold Badge
Win 10 Jackpot Spins this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

Beaker Buddy knocked this one out of the park! Check out these stats:

Game Difficulty: Easy
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 8,440 tokens earned
Time: 16 minutes
NOTES: Make sure to choose the 'easy' difficulty since you only need to fill up 3 beakers of apx. 100 points to reach the Jackpot Spin.

Blooop Badge Challenge

Vortex Badge
Make 30 matches of 4 or more discs this week!
Win this badge plus 2000 Tokens!

I don't know about you, but this game is definitely not on my favorites list! Thankfully Bloop Buddy came to my rescue and got my badge like so:

Game Difficulty: No difficulty - played against computer under "Beginner"
Buddy Settings: Default
Tokens: 3,350 tokens earned
Time: 36 minutes
NOTES: Create your own game in the 'Beginner' tab so that you can set the game points to '10' (this makes end of round jackpot spins/tallies less frequent) then change it back to '3' when you near 26-29 matches towards the badge (so you don't play longer than you have to).