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Dubloon Disaster
Overview
Few games on NeoPets can earn you neopoints faster than this!
However, like all such games, understanding the rules and tactics is imperative!
The game is (in a nutshell) simply about collecting dubloons (points) while avoiding being blown up by some nasty floating mines.
If you can score 800nps you can win an avatar and if you can reach about 1600 you can make the high score table. A score of between 4500 and 7000 will actually be enough to win a trophy.
Play Mode
There are a number of options but for best results play on the extra large screen with all the graphic effects turned off.
The Goody
The good-guy is an entrepreneurial young Krawk that they would have you believe is trolling around the ocean in a row boat. Forget that!! This dude is driving a small punt with supercharged twin 5000cc outboards on the back!
The Baddies
The bad guys are floating mines that drift relentlessly around until they get a whiff of your rocket fuel and then suddenly they develop some horsepower of their own! They are endless. Remember that. No matter how many of them you kill another one will keep on taking its place.
The Winning Strategy
There is only three ways you can die.
a) Running into a mine accidentally
b) Running into a mine stupidly
c) Running into a mine deliberately
Lets look at these three ways of dying.
Because you can run into a mine accidentally when it is being ‘born’ onto your screen it is the absolute Numero Uno reason why you should never attempt to kill them off. Quite the opposite in fact! You should do everything in your power to keep the mines from running into each other. Why? Because when that happens, two more mines will appear (one each after the next two coins you pick up) and you will have no idea where they will suddenly burst into life. Odds on it will be so close to you that you cannot move fast enough to get out of the way.
YOU DO NOT SCORE POINTS FOR KILLING MINES!!!
Once the mines total nine, then no more appear. So long as you can see the 9 mines on the screen you can whiz around picking up coins to your hearts content safe in the knowledge that there will be no ‘surprises’.
My worst case scenario is a sudden whirlpool where all of the mines get sucked in and you have to start again. Then it means that the next 9 coins you pick will deliver a new mine somewhere or anywhere on the board. Once I know where the nine mines are again I can then relax a bit.
By far the most common cause of death in this game is by running into a mine through rampant stupidity caused by greed. You sneak into an area to pick up a coin when you clearly have no hope of a safe exit. You carve into a coin so close that a nearby mine rushes at you and nails you cold. You suddenly develop a death wish and attempt to charge through the fleet of mines like you are bullet proof (which is my favourite form of lunacy!). If you are going to win at this addictive game then you must learn to culture some patience and curb your greed!
Finally, dying by intention does sometimes have some logic to it. The most you can win on this game is 1000nps which equates to 167 game points. Unless you are planning to push on to the avatar (800nps) or are attempting to make the hi-score table then what is the point in playing on? To save time I will reach 167 nps and then quite deliberately power off into a mine to end the game. Three times and I’ve got 3000nps. Nice easy work!!
Some Do’s and Don’t’s
Do try to sideswipe coins from an angle because that way you end up with both speed and larger ‘free zone’. A Free Zone is the distance you are from a coin before the computer will let you have it. The slower you are the closer you have you be. Speed also gives you a better allowance as to whether it was deemed you were zapped or not. The faster you go the better your odds of survival.
Do approach mines at high speed when there is not nine on the screen. If one does get ‘born’ in front of you then if you are traveling at light speed you can actually run right through a new mine unharmed.
Do allow for an exit strategy whenever picking up coins.
Don’t get trapped in corners picking up a coin when there is no escape route.
Don’t go back for seconds when you have missed the coin on a screaming fly past. You will not make it! It is much safer to draw the mine fleet away and go around the outside again.
Do try to avoid two mines running into each other. If you see that is likely then pull up a safe distance away and gently ‘tease’ them apart again.
Do try to stick to the edges where ever practical. Whirlpools are death to you as much as they are to mines and they more often happen away from the edges.
Finally. Enjoy this addictive game for what it is – a game! If you get killed by a mine try to avoid shoving one of your computer speakers through the monitor. It will not increase your game playing pleasure one iota!
Credits:
NeoPets guide written by: Sean
Changes/Revisions/Updates to this NeoPets guide by: None
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