Board 93: Dragon's Hoard

This picture shows the tail of a dragon coiled around a treasure chest in a cave whose floor is thick with gold coins, jewels and other items of treasure.

Level 1 (Clear 30 red pegs from 101 total - Pro target 500k)

This design features a long curve around the body of the dragon, plus a handful of other lines, but mainly individual pegs.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 236,540

• I got a bit caught up trying to open up one side of the big central curve to a single big sweep, but I made a medd of it. I wasn't far off though.

Attempt #2 - No power ups. Score: 512,520 

• Not the most stylish of victories. I destroyed the central curve with the very first ball. But I got a few lucky bounces in the middle, and managed to shoot straight into the 100k bucket at the end to make the pro target.

Level 2 (Clear 30 red pegs from 97 total - Pro target 425k)

This design is a long wavy line with a series of big spikes along the top of it like the dragon's tail.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 327,940

• I struggled to make catches there. I made a hole in the curve with my first ball, but then the second managed to run down the curve despite the spikes all over it, until it hit the hole. So I think I'll try and shoot that ball first next time and see what happens.

Attempt #2 - No power ups. Score: 688,830 

• I didn't get the top section of the curve with my first ball, but I got at least half of it for just under 200k so it was still a pretty good start. In fact I ended up taking out all the pegs for a total clearance, despite being well over the pro target with the last red peg in sight.

Level 3 (Clear 30 red pegs from 133 total - Pro target 400k)

This appears to be of a couple of rows of interlocking dragon scales. It means that all the edges are parallel, so once gaps start appearing, then hopefully catches shoud be not too hard to get.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 304,140

• Catches weren't as easy as I'd hoped. The angles are such that the ball tends to get stuck in a single vertical pair of scales and stay there for quite a while before finally dropping through, making the catch very hard to judge.

Attempt #2 - No power ups. Score: 363,070

• Quite close that time. I only had one red peg left and I was trying to find a way through to it when I missed the catch on the last ball. I would have needed a decent final bonus if I'd hit it, of course, but it was still close.

Attempt #3 - No power ups. Score: 262,920

• Three reds left at the end, I think. Not very close really, as the score was pretty poor. I think I'll use a laser ball. That should speed things up.

Attempt #4 - Laser Ball. Score: 483,080 

• The laser ball took out enough reds and scores enough points as to make the pro target quite easy to reach.

Level 4 (Clear 25 red pegs from 99 total - Pro target 500k)

This design is of a large necklace and consists mainly of circles. There's a line of smaller circles with one larger circle underneath.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 477,010

• I was coming over all tired when I played this - too many late nights! So it was a rubbish attempt full of long pauses where my eyes closed, and then sudden random shots as I jerked awake again! I'm quite glad I didn't get the pro score, or I'd have had to release the video for it. Despite all this, I still cleared all the red pegs, and was less than 25k short of the pro target, so it has to be pretty easy.

Attempt #2 - No power ups. Score: 524,130 

• I think I must have got lucky on the first attempt, as that wasn't as easy as I expected. I got it, though, despite it looking quite unlikely at one stage. I needed to avoid the 10k buckets at the end, and just managed to squeeze into a 50k one.

Level 5 (Clear 25 red pegs from 108 total - Pro target 525k)

This design might be mimicking more dragon scales, but of a different type. There are 9 slightly wobbly squares arranged in a slanted pattern.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 195,760

• The angles on this level are all over the place and trying to judge where a rebound is going to go is nigh on impossible. I'm definitely going to require a laser ball.

Attempt #2 - Laser Ball. Score: 601,890

• The laser ball gave a necessary boost at the start, but the angles were still my undoing as I struggled to pick off the remaining reds. I did use up some shots taking purples that I didn't need to, though, so I'll try and avoid doing that next time.

Attempt #3 - Laser Ball. Score: 630,100 

• I managed to restrict myself to just trying to clear the red pegs and not be distracted by the purple pegs, and I just about managed to clear them all. My score was boosted a bit by a 100k final bonus, despite bouncing off the closed lids of both 10k buckets, so it could have been a lot tighter.

Level 6 (Clear 45 red pegs from 101 total, with only 8 balls - Pro target 750k)

The same design as level 1, but a lot more red pegs and a much higher pro target.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 292,130

• There are a lot of red pegs here and catches are tricky to judge. This will certainly need a power up.

Attempt #2 - Laser Ball. Score: 651,700

• I was down to the last red peg, and I felt I had a good chance of getting a 100k bonus off it, but I still had to get to 650k before I took it. I got there with my final shot, but didn't catch the ball.

Attempt #3 - Laser Ball. Score: 825,330 

• A very similar go to the previous attempt. I picked up a couple of useful and unexpected big bonuses in the middle which helped a lot. Otherwise, I had to make a few catches to keep it going, and then leave a low central red peg until last to get a direct deflection into the 100k bucket to finish.

Level 7 (Clear 45 red pegs from 99 total, with only 8 balls - Pro target 825k)

The same design as level 4, but 20 more red pegs two less balls, and a whacking 325k on the pro target. This could be tough.

Attempt #1 - Laser Ball. Score: 963,210 

• Very pleased to get this one on the first attempt. I thought it looked quite tough. I took what was probably an unnecessary chance off the penultimate peg. I went for a catch off it to take a total clearance, when the 100k bucket off the last red peg was all but guaranteed. Still, it came off for comfortable victory.

Level 8 (Clear ALL pegs - 25 red and 72 blue - Pro target 575k)

The same design as level 2, but all pegs need removing. With the way these pegs are arranged, one carefully targeted laser ball could probably remove most of them in one go.

Attempt #1 - Laser Ball. Score: 1,295,950 

• As I suspected, the laser ball took out 56 pegs, leaving just 22. This was due in part to a good rim bounce. With so few pegs left, catches then got a lot easier. In fact, when I passed the million points mark, I still had 11 pegs left and 12 balls to get them with, which was two more than I started with.

Level 9 (Clear 45 red pegs from 108 total, with only 8 balls - Pro target 700k)

The same design as level 5, but 20 more red pegs two less balls and 175k more on the pro target. Level 5 was no gimme, even with a laser ball, so this might ne awkward.

Attempt #1 - Laser Ball. Score: 532,010

• Only four red pegs left at the end, which is better than it could have been. It took several balls, none of which I caught, to get through to the yellow peg, so that will have to be better next time.

Attempt #2 - Laser Ball. Score: 598,370

• A promising start. I triggered the laser ball with the first shot, but I then made a series of dreadful catch attempts which all failed and I ran out of balls very quickly.

Attempt #3 - Laser Ball. Score: 820,780 

• It took three balls to break through to the yellow peg, so I thought I had no chance at that point. But then I got two extra rim bounces with the laser, and still caught it to take my score to just over 450k. That still left me with 17 red pegs and only 7 balls, but a mixture a lucky and well-worked out catches followed and in the end I had balls and points to spare.

Level 10 (Clear ALL pegs - 30 red and 103 blue - Pro target 625k)

The same design as level 3, but a complete clearance is needed. 133 is a lot of pegs to clear. Although the last time we needed to clear that many pegs was in Spinner's Dungeon, 17 weeks ago, and that went first go without the need of power ups. I don't think this will be so easy though.

Attempt #1 - Laser Ball. Score: 676,160 

• I rode my luck quite a lot in this one. I certainly didn't expect to get it on the first attempt, but that's the way it goes sometimes. There were lots of lucky catches made to get me within sight of victory. The catches towards the end were all played for, but I needed luck to get me in that position.

SUMMARY

Level	Reds	Pegs	Target	Balls	Clock	Pro	Attempts	Record	Average	Video
1	30	101	Reds	10	-	500k	2	512,520	374,530
2	30	97	Reds	10	-	425k	2	688,830	508,385
3	30	133	Reds	10	-	400k	4	483,080	353,302
4	25	99	Reds	10	-	500k	2	524,130	500,570
5	25	108	Reds	10	-	525k	3	630,100	475,916
6	45	101	Reds	8	-	750k	3	825,330	589,720
7	45	99	Reds	8	-	825k	1	963,210	963,210
8	25	97	All	10	-	575k	1	1,295,950	1,295,950
9	45	108	Reds	8	-	700k	3	820,780	650,386
10	30	133	All	10	-	625k	1	676,160	676,160