Saturday, March 22, 2014

Board 155: Owl Retreat

This picture shows a little room, apparently nestled inside a hollow tree. There are a couple of owls perched inside. The room is furnished with a little stool and a couple of little tables, for books and candles.


Level 1 (Clear 30 red pegs from 102 total - Pro target 450k)

The first layout follows many of the lines in the picture. In particular, it uses the outline of the window, the branch on which the left-hand owl is perched, The table to the left, the mat in the centre, the stool and the candlestick. There are plenty of round pegs dotted about.


Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 712,670 
  • A nice easy sweep to start with, and a straightforward pro score. I'm confident I would have got a total clearance but for a premature ending.

Level 2 (Clear 25 red pegs from 92 total, with only 9 balls - Pro target 500k)

The second layout has four curved S-shaped lines, a bit like the branch on which the left-hand owl is perched, extending from the sides of the screen. The rest is covered with a pattern of single round pegs.


Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 569,990 
  • Points seemed a bit harder to come by in this one. I got lucky with some timely bonuses, otherwise I suspect I would've struggled quite a bit getting a pro score.

Level 3 (Clear 30 red pegs from 109 total - Pro target 525k)

The third layout is a close-up of an owl's face. Two big eyes, a little nose and some feathers.


Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 671,930
  • I started really well, but then went to close a pop-up message box in the bottom corner, but clicked on it by mistake, and followed the link, thus aborting the game. I had to restart and it didn't go as well. I only missed by one red peg, and had plenty of points. Annoying.

Attempt #2 - No power ups. Score: 624,350 
  • I just about had that one under control, although it threatened to run away from me on a few occasions.

Level 4 (Clear 30 red pegs from 89 total, with only 9 balls - Pro target 475k)

The fourth layout features a couple of squares, and a couple of circles, one shape in each corner. In the centre is a six-sides figure, like the candelstick.


Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 500,740 
  • This one felt fairly comfortable for the most part. The end was unexpected, but I sneaked across the pro target line, so that was OK.

Level 5 (Clear 25 red pegs from 125 total, with only 9 balls - Pro target 475k)

The fifth layout looks like the pattern on the mat in the centre of the picture. It is basically a trapezium, with an extra inner line along each edge, and a pattern in the centre like two triangles connected at a central point.


Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 417,250
  • I found it tricky to penetrate all the layers of the structure, so I couldn't clear all the red pegs from the lower levels.

Attempt #2 - No power ups. Score: 760,230 
  • I concentrated on clearing some of the central pegs out early. Not all of them, just enough to give me a foothold later on. I could still take plenty of side wall shots, quite a few of which I managed to catch. There were a couple of handy bonuses along the way. I picked up a pretty good score in the end.

Level 6 (Clear 35 red pegs from 92 total, with only 9 balls - Pro target 625k)

The same layout as level 2, but with 10 more red pegs, and 125k on the pro target.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 642,770 
  • I was struggling for points, but I managed to pick off a few purple pegs at the end, and I left a low central red peg until last, so I could deflect off this straight into the 100k bucket.

Level 7 (Clear ALL pegs - 25 red and 64 blue - Pro target 625k)

The same layout as level 4, but with 5 fewer red pegs, one more ball, 150k on the pro target, and a total clearance now needed.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 188,910
  • An 80% clearance and a very poor score. Very few catches and hardly any luck.

Attempt #2 - No power ups. Score: 515,700
  • A big improvement. Up to a 92% clearance and over 500k in score. I was still lucking much luck at the start though. Most of the work came in the endgame.

Attempt #3 - No power ups. Score: 412,250
  • Back down to 83% that time. I'll have one more try before I add a laser ball.

Attempt #4 - No power ups. Score: 591,940
  • An excellent effort. I managed to scratch my way to a total clearance, but I was short of points and needed at least 150k from the final buckets. I only managed 110k so fell just short.

Attempt #5 - No power ups. Score: 375,300
  • I was only missing a couple of red pegs at the end, but I was a long way short of the pro target. I'll add a laser ball.

Attempt #6 - Laser Ball. Score: 529,260
  • I thought I'd wasted the laser ball as I must have accidentally fired it when I wasn't looking, but when I looked back at the video, it had actually worked OK. I finished with just one red red peg left and not too far from the pro target.

Attempt #7 - Laser Ball. Score: 951,740 
  • I actually got to aim my laser ball this time, and did much better with it as a result. I took a total clearance this time for well over the pro target.

Level 8 (Score 500k with 25 red pegs and 77 blue, with only 8 balls - Pro target 650k)

The same layout as level 1, but with 5 fewer red pegs, two fewer balls, 200k on the pro target, and just a score to go for.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 742,730 
  • I was confident I wouldn't need a laser ball here. I got 712k on level 1 and this time I didn't have to worry about clearing the red pegs. I picked up the bonuses wherever I saw them, and cleared the pro target with a ball or two to spare. I could've taken the final red peg, but there was no need so I kept going for catches off the purple peg until I ran out of balls.

Level 9 (Clear 40 red pegs from 125 total, with only 7 balls - Pro target 700k)

The same layout as level 5, but with 15 more red pegs, two fewer balls, and 225k on the pro target.

Attempt #1 - No power ups. Score: 615,340
  • Not too far off. I was trying to pick my through the remaining pegs to clear a path to the last three reds, but with only one ball left, my hopes weren't high. I should probably have tried to clear the central pegs earlier. That worked well on level 5.

Attempt #2 - No power ups. Score: 374,090
  • I didn't get any luck that time. The ball kept just missing the bucket by tiny fractions. I'll use a laser ball.

Attempt #3 - Laser Ball. Score: 951,240 
  • I got to the yellow peg with my second shot and managed a good laser ball. My catching went well, and I took a total clearance with a ball to spare.

Level 10 (Clear ALL pegs - 30 red and 79 blue, with only 7 balls - Pro target 775k)

The same layout as level 3, but with three fewer balls, 250k on the pro target, and a total clearance now required.

Attempt #1 - Laser Ball. Score: 270,150
  • I struggled to get to the yellow peg, and by the time I did, there wasn't much left for the laser ball.

Attempt #2 - Laser Ball. Score: 529,790
  • Only a 79% clearance. Even with the laser ball, I haven't got particularly close on the first two attempts. I'll try adding a Big Bounce.

Attempt #3 - Laser Ball & Big Bounce. Score: 381,890
  • Only a 73% clearance that time, as I couldn't get to either trigger peg easily. I was down to my last ball before I got the green peg. I got the Big Bounce next which took out the yellow peg, but then I never got to use the laser as I'd run out of balls.

Attempt #4 - Laser Ball & Big Bounce. Score: 1,139,050 
  • That was a bit better. I found a good first ball which scored just short of 150k. Then I took out the yellow peg, did well with the laser ball, scoring another 350k. I took the green peg next off the side wall for 50k, and the Big Bounce for just under 160k. All this gave me a total of 707k with only 24 pegs left and still 7 balls in hand. Another 75k with the next ball took me past the pro target, so I just had to clear what was left at an average of about 3 pegs per ball. No problem. A few catches and ricochets later I was down to 4 off 4 and then I could stop worrying too much about catches. I was over a million points by then so I was just going for as big a score as possible.

SUMMARY


Level
Reds
Pegs
Target
Balls
Clock
Pro
Attempts
Record
Average
Video
1
30
102
Reds
10
-
450k
1
712,670
712,670
2
25
92
Reds
9
-
500k
1
569,990
569,990
3
30
109
Reds
10
-
525k
2
671,930
648,140
4
30
89
Reds
9
-
475k
1
500,740
500,740
5
25
125
Reds
9
-
475k
2
760,230
588,740
6
35
92
Reds
9
-
625k
1
642,770
642,770
7
25
89
All
10
-
625k
7
951,740
509,300
8
25
102
500k
8
-
650k
1
742,730
742,730
9
40
125
Reds
7
-
700k
3
951,240
646,890
10
30
109
All
7
-
775k
4
1,139,050
580,220

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