Pikmin
GameFAQs archives
These are the full, expanded threads from the preserved GameFAQs threads. I had to exercise some wicked Perl voodoo to extract the actual text, bad HTML and all, from the archives provided by RockMFR 5 (and DistantSpring54), and patch up the code so it's valid. We couldn't preserve the links to the author name or message detail because they don't seem to work anymore.
Page: [1] · 2 · 3 · 4 · 5 · 6 · 7 · 8 · 9 · 10
Posted by SnapDragon - 4/3/2002 10:55:01 AM
Welcome to the new official topic for Challenge
Mode score competition. The old topic reached the 500 post limit,
and since interest in competing in this fantastic game has done
anything but wane, a new one is definitely called for! We may want
to copy and paste over a few of the strategy posts from the old
one.
Anyone is welcome to post their scores here and get some
recognition, even if they're not in the running for the high-score
charts. Don't be intimidated by the scores here; many of us have
played each individual level hundreds of times, and there's no shame
in not reaching that level of hardcoreness. :)
Here is the
leader board as it stands at the end of the previous topic. It's
getting pretty hard to rank by now... if enough people start
competing, we may need to expand the lists beyond the top
5!
Impact Site:
1. 278 (TomatoMan)
2. 273
(Snapdragon)
2. 273 (Nathan Ian Bowers)
2. 273
(Jimithingr)
2. 273 (Ferret5317)
2. 273
(spenser)
Forest of Hope:
1. 569 (Snapdragon)
2.
568 (topoftheclass)
3. 544 (spenser)
4. 528 (redpichead)
5.
442 (TomatoNan)
Forest Navel:
1. 439
(Snapdragon)
2. 397 (redpichead)
2. 397 (Nathan Ian
Bowers)
2. 397 (Ferret5317)
5. 390
(Jimithingr)
Distant Spring:
1. 516
(Snapdragon)
2. 425 (redpichead)
3. 402 (Nathan Ian
Bowers)
4. 399 (Souja246)
5. 395 (Jimithingr)
Final
Trial:
1. 299 (Snapdragon)
2. 281 (redpichead)
3. 232
(Ferret5317)
4. 223 (TomatoMan)
5. 218 (Kingfisher)
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/3/2002 11:36:49 AM
Thanks for creating the new topic, Snap; I think
it's fitting and proper that it was you! :)
I also like the
idea of maybe moving to a top-10 score list if people are up for it,
subject to the usual kinds of verifications for score claims: either
a screenshot or a lot of posts by a regular we all trust.
:)
Lastly, I don't know what happens when a board hits 500 on
this system; my hope is it doesn't disappear entirely, but it just
locks up so no new posts can be added. Just in case, though, I've
archived the original board in its entirety, and I can make it
available if it turns out something calamatous happens with the
earlier thread.
Onwards! Woo hoo hoo!
Posted by topotheclass - 4/3/2002 12:16:44 PM
Thanks for the "new" topic Snap! It's only
fitting that you, Lord Of All Things Pikmin, be the one to revive
this most excellent board.
My latest...
The Distant
Spring - 383
Still not that great, compared to the greats
:) but movin' on up. I had tons of stuff on the way at the
end, so I'm pretty sure 400 will fall soon.
As to Forest of
Hope, I've taken a bit of a break from it. Not that I'm discouraged
at Snap's reaching perfection before me (it is fitting, after all),
but rather it just got to be tedious, playing for 15 minutes and
then losing one guy and having to restart. Besides, DS is
fun, and a lot more challenging than FOH, since I haven't got
a definite strategy worked out yet (and I refuse to look at
Snap's video for hints).
That's it for now. Keep on Pikin',
all.
Posted by Kingfisher - 4/3/2002 12:40:21 PM
Great new thread!
I'm glad to see this
topic stay alive.
As for the top 10.. Now that's a good idea!
Maybe I can see my name more than once (and for more than a day) :)
HA!
Snap, you were talking about your FN strategy. I don't
want to be pushy and ask you to reveal any secrets, but I hope you
won't mind answering two questions.
1st - Do you know what
the highest possible score is?
2nd - Do you just prefer to
flick a few piks at each building obstacle and let them work while
the horde goes elsewhere or do you swarm walls/bridges?
I use
the first method but have been trying the second
some.
ACTUALLY, anybody's input on this would be
great.
---
This is a "Ruuunnn, Little Man, Ruuunnn"
scenario.
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 4/3/2002 2:53:56 PM
Distant Spring - 411
Yay! My first
score on the new thread! I love this level! Anyway, my buddy Dave
(JimiThingR) is staying a couple of days at my place starting
tonight and we'll probably be hitting Forest Of Hope pretty hard.
I'm going to see if I can pass up redpichead's 425 before Dave gets
here. That should secure my spot on the list for a little while.
I still need to start getting more than one pearl.
Ugh.
Posted by topotheclass - 4/3/2002 2:55:23 PM
And he squeaks into third spot...
The
Distant Spring - 404
For the first time I am able to see
one of my scores on my own home system, as I was finally able to
displace redpic's former fifth place score of 402. And there's tons
of room for improvement. For one, it took me a looong time to beat
the puffy blowhog in the water. I see 4-and-a-quarter as being very
achievable. Later...
Posted by topotheclass - 4/3/2002 2:59:32 PM
Oops, my previous post assumed Nathan's 402. He
posted his 411 while I was composing my post. I hereby humbly
relinquish third place (which I probably held for about 3 minutes)
and take up cozy residence in fourth.
...for now...
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 4/3/2002 3:07:44 PM
Hey Topo (I think I'll start abbreviating your
name....except that it smacks of Topo Gigo, Ed Sullivan's little
rodent buddy):
You're making me nervous. Stop, ye
fiend!
Just kidding. You're giving me reason to keep playing
hardcore.
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/3/2002 3:25:21 PM
Nathan - you're getting 411 with one
pearl?!
I'm in the 350s and 360s with two. What on earth are
you doing?! :) (Don't tell me.)
What I would like to
know is how you kill the friggin' puffstools without losses.
Sometimes I do, and sometimes I look down and see 15 deaths - but
on-screen, the fights look the same. I can't tell what's happening.
It's really p'ing me off!
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 4/3/2002 3:48:24 PM
Distant Spring - 416
Still just
the one pearl.
Killing the Puffstool: I have a pretty
foolproof way of doing this. I like to have at least 40 Pikmin. I
swarm him very tightly and he flips over rather quickly from all the
attacks. Then I call all of my guys, stand back a little bit and
start C-Stick throwing at his upturned stem. If you master this
technique you can kill him with one round of guys, and it usually
only takes about 40 so long as a bunch of them are red. However, I
did notice (as TomatoMan stated before) that sometimes the Puffstool
mysteriously kills a couple of guys. There are no Pikmin death
rattles or little Pikmin spectres, though....your number of guys
just magically drops off by one or two. Strange, the Puffstool is
incapable of killing Pikmin - unless he turns them into mushroom
Pikmin which never happens to me. I think it's just a
glitch.
I need to start getting a second pearl. I'm noticing
that my limit for my current strategy is probably somewhere between
430-440 which is a far cry from 500. I'll figure it out sooner or
later.
We've got some intense competition here! Keep it up
guys and nice work!
Posted by Ahlyis - 4/3/2002 6:04:21 PM
I'm not anywhere close to any scores here (my
best is 196 on IS and I haven't tried the others yet), but from
trying the no death challenge, I'm pretty sure I know why you lose a
couple of Pikmin 'mysteriously' to the Puffstool. I kept having the
same problem with Spotty Bulbears. One Pikmin dies, no death note,
no ghost, just a drop from 100 to 99 Pikmin in the field. I'm fairly
certain I know the cause, and for Puffstool the solution as
well.
You are losing a Pikmin when you kill Puffstool because
Puffstool's carcass is toppling over and squashing one (or a few) of
your Pikmin that was attacking the base rather than being up on its
body. When I swarm a Bulbear and it dies, it always topples to a
side. Occasionally a Pikmin gets squashed by the toppling carcass.
For the Puffstool, it should be sufficient simply to make sure you
call back ALL of the Pikmin that you used to knock it over and make
sure any Pikmin you toss to attack it land on the body and not on
the ground.
That's what I'm fairly certain is happening
anyway. Comments anyone? :-)
---
I'm just a pigment of your
imagination.
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 4/3/2002 6:16:13 PM
Distant Spring - 463
Yeah, it
should be pretty obvious what the improvement here was. Another
pearl. I had no idea how easy the pearl in the back of the
level is to get! All you have to do is sneak a handful of blues
around the frogs and jar the pearl loose. Then if you put 6 guys on
the pearl the frogs cannot catch it so you don't have to worry about
killing them. And to think, I believed the double-bridge pearl was
the easiest of the three! Yeesh!
I think I'm safe from harm
now (in 2nd place by almost 40). Dave will be here in about 2 hours
so, like I said, we'll mostly be playing FoH and Distant Spring will
get little attention.
It's going to take a ton of hard work
to get onto the FoH leaderboard. I hope I can eventually pull it
off!
Hehehe, speaking of "Another Pearl," it just so happens
that this is the title of track 6 on Badly Drawn Boy's "The Hour of
Bewilderbeast" album. It's one of my favorites, too! Check it out if
you get a chance.
Posted by RockMFR 5 - 4/3/2002 8:19:57 PM
I've got it archived, too!
Hey Snap, why
don't you start playing MK:SC? I would love to see what times you
could get in that game...
---
Currently Playing: SONIC
ADVENTURE 2 BATTLE <SSBM-290> <P11-DC>
"Left
Side: You are... Right Side: An *******!" ~ The Rock
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/4/2002 1:55:46 PM
I've been tooling around on the Final Trial,
trying to raise my 223. No dice so far. As always, there just
doesn't seem to be enough time. I can beat the baddies, but not in
time to get the big pellets back.
One thing I *have* found,
though, is that flowered pikmin make a HUGE difference when you have
to fight frogs. When I take on the frog on FT, with about 55 pikmin,
if they're not flowered I have lost as many as 35 in the battle. (At
which point I start over, of course.) Flowered ones seem to do a
better job holding him down.
The only way to the blue 20 by
the firespouts is to bring the blues up the ramp, throw them up to
the level right below the 20, then run all the way back around, over
the bridges, through the gate, over the firespouts to pick them up
and get them on the 20, right? There's no way you can just get up
there yourself and bringing them over the firespouts is probably
impossible. I think the timing of this piece is one of the problems
I'm having.
Posted by SnapDragon - 4/4/2002 2:18:19 PM
Nathan: Yeah, it was pretty silly of you not to
even look into getting the other pearls in the level. :) The one by
the Fiery Blowhogs isn't quite as easy to get, but it's still
obviously worth it overall. As with your second pearl, just put 4-6
Pikmin on the pearl and they should run past the Blowhogs with ease.
Anyway, good job getting 2nd! (or 3rd, as the case may
be...)
Regarding the "disappearing Pikmin": Yes, this is a
common problem; I've mentioned it before, and it's very annoying. It
never happens with full-sized Bulborbs and Bulbears, but it happens
(infrequently) with the Dwarf versions, and it happens all the time
with Yellow Wollywogs. To prevent it, be very sure to have all of
your Pikmin away from the creature before it finishes dying. The
only way you'll be able to tell if you fail is by watching your
Pikmin counter. I've never had a problem with it on the Puffstools,
personally... I guess just because of the way I fight
them.
Tomato: I've always just taken the Blues over the fire
spouts. Use the C-stick to keep them against the wall, and wait for
that spout to stop firing.
RockMFR: I did compete in MKSC,
briefly. I soon decided I wasn't really interested, and the fact
that there was no decent ranking page didn't help. My times are at
http://www.geocities.com/snapdragon64/mksc/times.htm
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 4/4/2002 2:49:16 PM
Distant Spring - 470
Yesterday was
the "Great Memory Card Disaster." Dave and I were
playing Distant Spring and switching off memory cards so that our
scores would save to our own cards. We didn't want anyone else's
scores on our cards. Well, it all turned out well for Dave. He's
still got only his personal scores. But I also have ALL HIS
SCORES! I knew it was a bad idea to switch cards without powering
down the Cube, but whenever we exited out to the title screen,
switched cards, and went back to Challenge Mode - the new card would
be loaded. So there was no problem. Except that I forgot to go to
the title screen when I put my card in. I ended up getting a
450-something and HIS scoreboard came up. So I started
freaking and we turned off the Cube without saving. But to no avail.
The Pikmin files were both identical already. I think this happened
because of the GameCube's excellent memory.
So today I woke
up and did one run on Distant Spring and got the 470. That was a
relief. But my Impact Site scoreboard went from all 273's to one 273
and the rest 260's. And my two 397's in Forest Navel are gone,
too.
It was a stupid idea to switch cards back and forth.
Nintendo puts that "please don't touch the memory card or power
button" warning up when you save for a reason. It's too easy to ruin
files when you goof around with stuff.
But my scores still
stand. They are not saved to a card but they are there. In the
annals of history. And I'll have them back shortly.
Posted by Destiny I - 4/4/2002 3:51:44 PM
The only 2 levels I've been trying lately
are:
The Forest Of Hope: 436
Distant Spring:
344
(I still do not know how to end a bold message)
On
TFOH I keep going to slow when getting my first 100 Pikmin, the
first-quarter bell indicator goes off before I even have
them.
As for the DS I am just not working as fast as I
can.
---
"But Anyway you look at it, he still has more
hair than Clive!" - Ryan Stiles (Hoedown about Colin
Mochrie)
Posted by Emmit310 - 4/4/2002 7:09:36 PM
Wow, when I got my 325 I got 2 pearls. Is there
a third pearl in the level that you speak of? I know about the fiery
blowhog pearl and the double bridge but where is the last one?
---
Hot Dogs and Hamburgers are the same thing, Just shaped
differently.
Posted by Ferret5317 - 4/4/2002 8:36:14 PM
The Distant Spring - 425
Just for
the records...
:)
---
http://www.freehomepages.com/ferretdruid/ -
Devoted to Chao raising!
I have a fetish for a computer
animated male humanoid fox. Live with it.
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 4/4/2002 10:00:53 PM
Pikmin Leaderboard - April
4
Impact Site:
1. 278 (TomatoMan)
2. 273
(Snapdragon)
2. 273 (Nathan Ian Bowers)
2. 273
(Jimithingr)
2. 273 (Ferret5317)
2. 273
(spenser)
Forest of Hope:
1. 569 (Snapdragon)
2.
568 (topotheclass)
3. 544 (spenser)
4. 528 (redpichead)
5.
442 (TomatoMan)
Forest Navel:
1. 439
(Snapdragon)
2. 397 (redpichead)
2. 397 (Nathan Ian
Bowers)
2. 397 (Ferret5317)
5. 390
(JimiThingR)
Distant Spring:
1. 516
(Snapdragon)
2. 470 (Nathan Ian Bowers)
3. 425
(redpichead)
3. 425 (Ferret5317)
5. 404
(topotheclass)
Final Trial:
1. 299
(Snapdragon)
2. 281 (redpichead)
3. 232 (Ferret5317)
4. 223
(TomatoMan)
5. 218 (Kingfisher)
The only board that really
needed updated was Distant Spring, but I went ahead and reprinted
the rest of the list as well just so it would be viewable on page 2
of this topic. Less than a week ago there were 3 scores on Distant
Spring in the 300's....now you need at least 404 to crack the 5th
spot. The com heating up like....things that aren't hot but start to
get hot when things around them heat them up. Was that a lousy
simile?
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 4/5/2002 4:06:38 AM
Forest of Hope - 453
I'm tossing
my chips onto the table for this level now, too (*ante ante
ante*). That puts me in 5th place, but I am going to have to
work extremely hard to get any higher. After all, I have to break
500 to do so. But for now I'm happy. I'm on my fourth leaderboard.
I should be able to easily collect the pearl by the matchbox
during the same run I took to get 453. It shouldn't be very
difficult. I'm looking forward to seeing my first 500!
I've
only done about 15-20 runs in FoH so I think this is a very good
score for being relatively inexperienced at the level. Then again,
after fighting such a vast array of enemies in the Distant Spring I
find it very easy to mow through FoH. And perfection does not seem
unobtainable.
I'll be back.
Posted by brucedawson - 4/5/2002 11:13:14 AM
SnapDragon - what's your technique for fighting
the Puffstool that avoids the mysterious disappearing Pikmin? This
happens far too frequently too me - it complicated my nine days/zero
deaths quest, forcing me to retry that day more times than I should
have needed to.
Also, those mysterious deaths do sometimes
happen with full sized Bulbears. I have that problem occasionally on
DS. Not too often though.
Regarding the memory cards, my
daughter had that problem too. My tests suggested that challenge
mode scores are *only* loaded from the memory card when you first
run the game. Thus, if you want to switch cards in Challenge mode
you have to power down. She ended up copying my scores to her card
because of that. I'd call it a bug.
Posted by Ahlyis - 4/5/2002 12:01:08 PM
I have a question directed to all those that
have gotten a perfect IS run and have watched Tomato's video. I
noticed something on the 278 run that I'm confused
about.
Right at the beginning, the breadbug always goes for
one of the red 1 pellets. In the replay, when Tomato goes after it,
the breadbug has just emerged and grabbed a blue pellet. But I can
see it in the background at the start of the replay.
So what
happened? Why was it just emerging again when Tomato went after it?
I wouldn't think it had time to steal the red 1 pellet, but I can't
tell for sure. If you aren't sure what I mean, take a look at the
replay again. Just as Tomato runs to grab the first 3 red pikmin,
you can see the breadbug in the background running off after
something, presumably the red pellet.
I find it hard to
believe that EVERYONE that has gotten a 264 or 273 has missed this,
but I can't explain the 278 with this either. I've seen the breadbug
steal that red pellet on my games, so I know it doesn't just drop it
somewhere. But Tomato doesn't go after it until it is emerging for
the second time.
Please, I am really confused by this. What
am I not understanding?
---
I'm just a pigment of your
imagination.
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/5/2002 12:25:57 PM
Ahlyis,
Here's the deal with the
breadbug. He's lazy, and always goes for the nearest exposed pellet.
By knocking down the blue flowers before he appears and leaving the
blue pellets there, they're closer than the red he will go for by
the firespout, and he'll grab a blue instead. Throw two blues on him
and you've got bonk number one.
Then, when he survives the
bonk (and it's important that he does, so don't hurt him
beforehand), he'll shake it off and go for the next nearest pellet,
which is the blue near the blue onion if you've cleared the red by
the blue onion beforehand. The blues that dragged him for the first
bonk will go idle under the onion, and when the breadbug starts
dragging the other blue back to his hole, he will go right under the
blue onion enroute. The idle blues will grab him and you get bonk
number two, and you get full credit for the two blues without having
to get them yourself.
It works well, and leaves you a few
extra seconds where you don't have to manage him and can do other
things.
It's important, though, that you not hit him before
he gets bonked for the first time, because if he's not at full
strength, the first bonk will kill him. Then you might have a case
where he drops a blue 5, but he himself falls near the center, and
the 3 idle blues will grab him, and that will throw your ratios off
unless you can whistle them back in time while you're doing whatever
else you're doing.
Kind of sick that I know all this, but
there it is.
I'd just like to reiterate how much I suck at
all of the other levels. I've been wrestling with DS a lot lately,
and still haven't broken 240. Seems if I take on the beady longlegs
with more than about 10 yellows I always lose some, and with 10 it
takes forever. And I have no idea how to beat the bird with no
losses; I know the general tactic of throwing pikmins where you
think he's going to come up so they land right on his head and go to
work, but he doesn't always come up in the same place and he always
eats 10-15 of my guys before the battle's over. And I ALWAYS run out
of time. Thpt!
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/5/2002 12:31:32 PM
Oops, I forgot one thing on the breadbug. This
is very esoteric but it's important.
You're right, when the
level starts he pops right up and heads for the red pellet, way
before you have time to throw a distractor at him. HOWEVER, if you
manage your viewing direction so that he is NOT IN VIEW while he
does this, most of the time he won't grab it, but re-submerge up
there and come out again in his normal place, by which time you've
got the blues exposed and it doesn't matter anymore. He might drag
it a little distance and drop it. If he is onscreen, i.e. if you
watch him do this, he WILL hang onto the red and that messes
everything up.
You might get the sense in the 278 run that
I'm avoiding looking up there at the start. That's absolutely true,
and a key part of the strategy. Look at him doing his thing and it's
over. Once in a while he'll do it even if you aren't looking, but
most of the time he seems to want to be "on camera" when he's
dragging pellets. Crazy but true.
Posted by Ahlyis - 4/5/2002 12:38:55 PM
Ah, thanks for that last piece of info. Your
first post didn't really answer the question. But knowing that he
lives for the camera changes things. I thought there had to be
something I was missing. I knew that you all couldn't possibly have
missed something so obvious. But I couldn't figure it out with my
limited intellect :-).
---
I'm just a pigment of your
imagination.
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/5/2002 1:02:22 PM
(Of course I meant FT in my earlier post, not
DS.)
I wish bandwidth weren't such a problem. I got to
thinking that it would be fun to do another version of the video
with little pauses and explanations of key points, and also pointing
out mistakes and luck and other things that happen.
For
example, the point early in the game where I toss the blue over the
wall in the "valley of the fives" to get the blue 1 below yellow
mountain turns out to be absolutely key later in the game, when I'm
cleaning out the back area and have only two blues, and two blues
drop from the multicolored flowers. If I hadn't gotten the blue 1
there earlier, I would have been in trouble (although I guess I had
enough time to manage it, still).
I also noticed recently
that during the flint beetle battle, five blues got distracted by a
nectar drop, and then when I got the first 5 from the beetle it
landed right next to them. While the battle continued, they
flowered, and then they woke up on their own, realized they were
next to the 5, grabbed it and headed off. :)
Ah well. GOT to
get back to work.
Anybody know about this gameshark thing,
BTW? I hear it's supposed to be released soon, and will allow cheats
on certain games like the old GameGenie did on the cartridge-based
games. I can't quite see how it will work on the GC, I must admit,
because you can't get between the disc and the system in any way I
can imagine the way you could with cartridges... so I don't know if
it's even real.
I was just thinking that it would actually be
really nice and relaxing if there were a way to turn the damn clock
off so you could just take your time and clear a whole level out,
one thoughtful bit at a time, instead of all the hectic rushing. The
rushing for times is fun, but I think it could also be fun to not
have to rush and just solve little problems and admire the scenery
and listen to the happy music. Then again, I'm getting old and
people shouldn't listen to me. :P
Posted by Ferret5317 - 4/5/2002 11:08:02 PM
The Breadbug thing
This is a
normal occurrence in the game, many enemies will not do anything as
long as they are off camera. For instance, if you wake up a Bulborb
and walk far enough away you can see it go back to sleep in a few
seconds right? Now, try waking up a Bulborb and walking to the other
side of the level quickly. When your return, the Bolburb will still
be awake as if you had not moved at all. And then, since he's now
on-screen he will go back to sleep. This is true in many instances,
but it seems that certain actions or certain enemies are programmed
to be active when they are offscreen. Though the Breadbug will not
actually MOVE when it is offscreen without a pellet, it will still
submerge as it normally would, so it gives the game an edge while
still conserving processor power (It seems as if that's the reason
for the whole inactivity, but who knows)
The GameShark
thing
The GameShark can work in a variety of ways, for
instance the original PlayStation GameShark plugged into a port in
the back of the PlayStation that was technically designed for other
things. As a cheat device it has to interrupt the normal processes
of the system so it makes sense that it would go where something
else generally would go. the newer version of GameShark will most
like by similar to the next-gen Gameshark for PlayStation, where it
was actually a memory card type device that went into the memory
card slot. There was a CD included to run the cheat program, and you
actually entered/activated the codes with that and THEN it prompts
you to put the game CD in. It will probably be the same with
GameCube. Or, it may plug into one of the many ports that the
GameCube has on it's underside. But who knows.
Hope that
answers both of your questions.
:)
---
http://www.freehomepages.com/ferretdruid/ -
Devoted to Chao raising!
I have a fetish for a computer
animated male humanoid fox. Live with it.
Posted by Ferret5317 - 4/5/2002 11:22:19 PM
Oh, by the way. I'M BAAAAAACK!
Muahahahaha!
Sonic Adventure is history and I've completely
exhausted Super Monkey Ball. Time to get back on the FoH leader
board! And The Distant Spring is coming first. News to follow...
Peace!
---
http://www.freehomepages.com/ferretdruid/
- Devoted to Chao raising!
I have a fetish for a computer
animated male humanoid fox. Live with it.
Posted by topotheclass - 4/6/2002 1:23:46 AM
Ah, so good to see our little community as
lively as ever! I get more than a few chuckles reading you guys'
posts. I've got nothing funny to say (except that I'm a Marlins'
fan), but I do have a new score...
The Distant Spring -
443
...and I'm beginning to see how 500 just might be
doable.
Posted by Nathan Ian Bowers - 4/6/2002 3:37:04 AM
Forest of Hope - 499
Do you have
any idea how angry I was when my number stopped one shy of 500?
Well, I'll give you a clue - quite angry. No, make that very
angry. Hold up, scratch that and just make it FURIOUS!!! I
think that the word FURIOUS written in italic caps with three
exclamation points adequately describes my mindset.
Almost.
I'm progressing quickly and should be challenging 4th
place relatively soon. There is really only one spot in the level
that I never touch but I also have been skipping the bulbear and
bulborb by the matchbox pearl. Everything else goes down like
clockwork, though.
There are no frogs. Thank god for
that.
Posted by Ferret5317 - 4/6/2002 5:59:44 AM
The Distant Spring - 430
My
current high score!
Now, here's something interesting about
the Distant Spring. You'll notice that on any normal run, you
probably will leave a lot of the water areas untouched. The solution
to this, you ask? None, but if you want to clean out the level you
need to use a lot of blues right?
I've been experimenting
with ONLY Blue Pikmin and have ended up with very decent scores in
the high 300's. I'm not the greatest at dealing with enemies so this
is kinda tough for me, seeing as how to clear out the water you have
to wipe out a lot of Wollywogs.
My point: Try using all
blues! Put away those reds and yellows in the beginning and work on
cleaning out the entire level with blues! I just got my third
highest score ( 383 ) with ONLY blues. And there was a pearl on the
way! So, counting my losses, and including the pearl... My score
would have been about 450+ ! I suggest this to anybody else who is
going for a decent score in the Distant Spring. Mismatching pellets
can be virtuous, in some cases
:)
---
http://www.freehomepages.com/ferretdruid/ -
Devoted to Chao raising!
I have a fetish for a computer
animated male humanoid fox. Live with it.
Posted by Ferret5317 - 4/6/2002 6:51:29 AM
And again, Distant Spring -
430
Using ONLY blues. I'm getting a lot better with the
blues and I think I have come up with a strategy that will allow me
to clear out everything completely except for the Fiery Blowhogs by
the pearl in the big lake, and probably the stump area with the
yellow 20 pellet. Hmmm... Blues rock!
Keep in mind, that this
is only about my fourth all-blue run. I have a lot of improvements
to make, and hopefully I'll be able to break 500 eventually with all
blues! I keep losing tons of Pikmin for some reason!
AUGH!
---
http://www.freehomepages.com/ferretdruid/
- Devoted to Chao raising!
I have a fetish for a computer
animated male humanoid fox. Live with it.
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/6/2002 9:06:24 AM
You guys are out of control. I can't believe the
scores you're all reporting. Jeepers.
Makes me want to go
hide in the Impact Site just to feel better about myself.
:)
442 on FoH is the best I've been able to manage, don't
even really have a FN score yet, 366 on DS and 223 on FT - none of
them even within view of "good" scores. And I can't figure out what
I'm doing wrong on any of them. How you can clean-sweep FoH, for
example, I absolutely can't imagine; I can't even get
close.
Ah well, just have to kick it around more! Someone
needs to bump my FT score off the top 5, coz it's the last non-IS
score I have, and then my pride will be wounded enough to kick it
back into gear. :)
Posted by Ferret5317 - 4/6/2002 9:45:58 AM
I just got 405 with all Blues on the Distant
Spring!
Not as good as my last run, but this time I lost a
hell of a lot of Pikmin and missed a bunch of stuff due to general
flaky-ness. Generally when I start a run off badly, it stays bad
until the end! Well, I'm nearing the point where I'm pretty sure I
can wipe the level clean with only Blue Pikmin, and I also believe
that will beat the #1 score for sure. We'll see! I definitely need a
lot more practice when it comes to killing enemies, then I'll be
okay.
---
http://www.freehomepages.com/ferretdruid/
- Devoted to Chao raising!
I have a fetish for a computer
animated male humanoid fox. Live with it.
Posted by Emmit310 - 4/6/2002 7:25:46 PM
FT - 202
Haven't been playing to often
but I played a few runs last night. I got a 181, a 186, and then the
202. I finally found a strategy that works and I am confident I can
move up the score.
---
Hot Dogs and Hamburgers are the same
thing, Just shaped differently.
Posted by Emmit310 - 4/6/2002 7:27:59 PM
Almost forgot, in my strategy I have not fought
the Beady Long Legs yet, I know it will be a great
pain.
---
Hot Dogs and Hamburgers are the same thing, Just
shaped differently.
Posted by Ahlyis - 4/8/2002 9:39:57 AM
Yay, I can finally post a score that will make
the boards. You all have pushed the scores so high on most of the
levels that I can't hope to seriously compete yet. All of the
levels...except one. For some reason, the high scores on Final Trial
are ridiculously low compared to the other levels. so I sat down
over the weekend and played a bunch of FT.
Final Trial
256, 255 and 254. All three with completely different
patterns.
The 255 run is near perfect, minus Beady. Only 4
deaths, 2 of which came sloppily to the dwarf bulborbs in the middle
of the level. Once I got this score, I knew I had to start taking on
Beady in order to increase my score. the 256 and 254 are both taking
out Beady, though in completely different orders.
My biggest
problem now is time. I've had everything on the way back on several
occasions, but I just can't find the time to get it all back.
---
I'm just a pigment of your imagination.
Posted by Ahlyis - 4/8/2002 10:11:59 AM
Ok, here's a walkthrough of how I'm attacking
FT. If anyone can tell me where I need to change to find some extra
time, I'd appreciate it :-)
At the start, I pick the 8 blues,
toss one off to get the blue 1 pellet and run the other 7 over and
attack the dwarf bulbear on the beach. I have Olimar attack it too
so it dies really quick. Whistle the 7 blues and go pick the 5 blues
on the first island, then jet up to pick the other 10 blues. Run
across and have the blues start on the bridge. Pick the 6 reds and
have them work the bridge too. Pick the 5 blues and drop them next
to the blue 5 pellet. Run back to the first island, pick the 5
yellows and toss them to shore. Whistle them back and toss 4 on the
bulborb carcass and the other on the yellow 1 pellet. Pick the 8
yellows and 8 reds by the onions. toss one red on the red one
pellet. Run back to the bridge, calling the blues and yellows by the
onion on the way. The bridge is just finishing. Call all the Pikmin.
Take the 54 Pikmin to the nectar, calling the lone red from the
onion on the way. Hopefully I get at least 52 flowers out of my 55
Pikmin from just the nectar patch by the red onion.
Take the
Pikmin back to the bridge area. Lure the wollywog onto land and have
the Pikmin swarm it. If the wollywog kills zero to 5 Pikmin, I
continue. If it jumps and squashes more than 5, I start over,
swearing and cursing the whole time :-)
Toss 10 reds on the
first bridge, then have 45 Pikmin build the second bridge. Leave the
frog for now. grab the 10 reds, run to the fire jets and toss the
reds up. Run over by the 10 yellows up on the hillside and kill the
purple sheargrubs with Olimar. Kill one or two white sheargrubs if
they are handy. Run back into the water, whistle the reds and move
them to move the box. Run up over the bridges and whistle everyone.
Have them start knocking down the wall. Run up the box and pick the
5 reds and 5 yellows. Have the yellows get bombs, then bomb down the
wall in front of you with 3 bombs (only requires 2, but you have an
extra to get rid of). Run into the arena, toss the two bomb yellows
off to the side, pick the 5 yellows in the arena. Drop the 5 yellows
and get 20 blues. Take the blues past the fire jets and have them
take the blue 20 pellet back. Pick the 10 reds. Run back and call
the Pikmin. Get the yellow 10, red 10 and yellow 5. Kill the two
dwarf bulborbs and carry them back. Run along the far side and pick
the 10 yellows. If they've gone back into the ground already, I'm
taking too long and will start over. Drop down and carry back the
sheargrub carcasses, killing any still alive as well. Run to the
bridge and carry back the wollywog and the pellet it dropped. Run to
the onions, whistle any idle Pikmin, kill the remaining bulborb and
bulbear near the onions while everything is still coming back. Carry
them back as well.
Whistle everyone up, pick any Pikmin
around the onions and head off. You should have 90 Pikmin. Drop
everyone just outside the arena. Get the yellows and the 2 with bomb
rocks. Run through the middle of the arena, bomb the far gate, then
kill Beady. Go get everyone, pick the 5 reds and 5 blues and go kill
the Snagret. Carry back all the Snagret pellets and the Red 10 and 5
pellets on the Snagret side. Go get the yellow 10 pellet from the
other side. Drop into the arena and carry back all 4 10 pellets that
Beady dropped. If you don't have the right colors, don't worry.
Start the pellets back anyway.
Run back to the onions and
gather any Pikmin that have arrived. Have them help the other
pellets back.
Only problem is, this is as far as I get before
time expires. I've had every pellet on the way but scored only 224
because time expired. So, anyone see where I'm wasting time? Or am I
taking a completely different approach than Snap and
redpic?
---
I'm just a pigment of your imagination.
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/8/2002 12:23:50 PM
Hey Ahlyis.
Here's my FT walkthrough that
produces pathetically low scores. You should ignore it. So should
everybody. :P
When the level starts, run straight to the
bridge and pick the reds. Get them going on the bridge back to land.
Pick the blues and have get them going on the other one.
Ride
the jet up to the 10 blues and pick them; jump down and get the
other 5. Use these 15 to kill the dwarf on the beach, then run them
to the bridge. Throw 5 on the blue 5 in the water really quickly,
and put the other 10 on the inbound bridge.
Pick the 5
yellows on the little island and throw them across; put 4 on the
dead dwarf, the other 1 on the yellow 1, and pick all of the pikmins
by the onions, starting the blues and reds with 1 on the nearby 1s.
By the time you finish this, the bridge should be complete. Get the
reds and blues from the bridge and bring them in.
You should
have 55 at that point; flower them.
Take them all to the
middle island, sleep them, draw the frog in, swarm him, and pray
like hell that he doesn't crush 20 of your guys like he routinely
does with me.
If you survive this, throw the yellows and
blues on the outbound bridge. Take the reds back in, and squash the
grubs, then throw them on the fire-bridge and pull them across to
move the matchbox. It should all finish up around the same
time.
Go back around and put all of them on the wall; go up
the matchbox and pick two yellows and throw them down to the bomb
area; pick the other yellows and reds and sleep them. Hop down and
get the bombs, and blow the gate; whistle them all back.
Kill
the two dwarfs by the grass, and get them going back with 3 on each;
get the yellow 5 and red 10 going back too with everything that can
be spared. Sleep the rest.
Get the blues and take them along
through the firespout by the blue 20, flat against the wall and
timing it when the spout nearest the wall has just erupted (thanks
Snap). Fling them all up to the blue 20 and get that going back;
don't start picking reds until the 20 is underway and all the blues
are on it.
Get the reds and take them back around, and head
back for the onions past where the dwarfs were, so you can pick the
10 yellows. You might have to wait for them to sprout if they've
been sucked back down. Gather up the grubs with whatever you've got
and meet everyone back at the onions.
Flower the others with
the nectar between the other dwarfs; kill them quickly with your big
swarm.
The rest goes like this:
Get everybody and run
back to the back area. Get two more bombs and blow the inner gate.
Pick the ones in the arena if they're up and you can manage
it.
Run in and draw up the bird. Lose a bunch of guys in a
very long battle. Get all the red and blues you can manage, and the
high yellow 10.
Run back to the arena, whistle the yellow 10
back once it's on the ground, move your remaining blues/reds (if
any) off to the side, and run to the middle with your
yellows.
Fight the beady longlegs and lose a bunch of
yellows.
Realize you don't have anywhere near enough pikmins
to carry the four 10s back.
Run out of time before the
pellets from the bird even make it back.
Quit in disgust
before you have to look at your final score.
If anybody wants
to point out things that are obviously stupid, without necessarily
telling me what I *should* do, that would be great. :) I suppose
logic says you do the farthest stuff first, so you should tackle the
bird as soon as you can, and then the beady longlegs, and spend the
rest of the time working things back. Problem is you have to kill
the frog as soon as you can, I think, or he can wreck your inbound
groups, and I can't figure out how to kill him without a gigantic
flowered swarm, and even that is risky for me. Plus I suck at
fighting the bird and even the longlegs. So there you go. :P
Posted by Ahlyis - 4/8/2002 2:53:48 PM
If anybody wants to point out things that are
obviously stupid, without necessarily telling me what I *should* do,
that would be great.
Um, Ok, I'll try to point out areas
where I think you could do better without necessarily saying how.
I'll probably say how tho, it's hard not to :-)
Ride the
jet up to the 10 blues and pick them; jump down and get the other 5.
Use these 15 to kill the dwarf on the beach, then run them to the
bridge.
There has to be a better time to kill him, you are
going way out of your way with this pattern. Granted, he has to be
killed before the blue 5 emerges from the water, but still, this
seems wildly inefficient.
By the time you finish this, the
bridge should be complete. Get the reds and blues from the bridge
and bring them in.
You should have 55 at that point; flower
them.
I'm struggling here too. It seems to take a long
time to get everyone over and flowered up, then head back. I wonder
if waiting to flower until returning from the middle section would
be better? but then you have to kill the frog with leaf Pikmin, not
a good idea. Oh well, I guess this is just a slow
section.
If you survive this, throw the yellows and blues
on the outbound bridge.
Throwing them takes too long. You
can do better here at the least by throwing the reds off, then
dropping everyone else by the bridge. They'll automatically start on
the bridge. If you throw the reds on the frog, they'll start it back
for you as you drop the blues and yellows, then just whistle the
reds and continue.
Kill the two dwarfs by the grass, and
get them going back with 3 on each; get the yellow 5 and red 10
going back too with everything that can be spared. Sleep the
rest.
Get the blues and take them along through the firespout
by the blue 20
This is backwards. You end up going over by
the dwarfs later to get the yellows, so why do them
first?
Get the reds and take them back around, and head
back for the onions past where the dwarfs were, so you can pick the
10 yellows. You might have to wait for them to sprout if they've
been
sucked back down.
See, here you are back on this
side :-)
But if you are waiting for the yellows to sprout, you
are wasting a lot of time. Either do things faster, or ignore those
yellows. You don't HAVE to pick them. They'll still count towards
your final score even if they are still in the ground.
Get
everybody and run back to the back area. Get two more bombs and blow
the inner gate. Pick the ones in the arena if they're up and you can
manage it.
Why get bombs now instead of having gotten them
earlier when you got the first 2 bombs? Probably not much of a time
saver, but every little bit helps. :-)
Run in and draw up
the bird. Lose a bunch of guys in a very long battle. Get all the
red and blues you can manage, and the high yellow 10.
Sadly,
you are mostly right here. Stupid Snagret causes me fits. If I have
a bad game going, he'll come up nice and slow for me. If I'm doing
well, the little bastard will come up fast 6 or 7 times in a row!
:-( Still, if you swarm him, you can kill him relatively quickly
with few losses. If he comes up slowly, you can kill him very
quickly with no losses. The first time he come up, he's always fast.
just call your Pikmin off him and hide behind him until he flees.
then swarm Pikmin over the spot he disappeared in. Now pray he comes
up slow and makes life easy on you.
Quit in disgust before
you have to look at your final score.
I can empathize with
that! :-)
---
I'm just a pigment of your imagination.
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/8/2002 6:44:29 PM
Bit of an improvement, but I think I'm close to
a strat that's workable.
Final Trial - 239
More
later!
Posted by TomatoMan - 4/8/2002 7:29:47 PM
OK, I've still got some timing issues to work
out on FT, but I've figured out two key things that make the frog
and the bird MUCH easier to kill, sometimes without
losses.
For the frogs: it seems to help if you swirl your
pimkin around him when they attack, so they're holding him down on
all sides. If you do a frontal rush, he seems to be able to get
airborne much easier, but if you can get them attacking from all
sides, they seem to hold him down better. Flowered pikmins are much
better because the attacks are faster, but even leaf pikmins can
beat him in a big pack if they're spread out. Or so it
seems.
With the bird, I was trying to guess where he was
going to come up and throwing pikmins on that spot, which was dumb.
Much easier to take 60 or 70 up there and c-stick-swirl them around
right over where he's going to come up. You don't have to be as
exact and many more of them can attack than with the throw method. I
beat him very quickly a couple of times, without losses, using this
method.
I thought that when he comes up slowly, it's in
response to something good that you did, like guess where he was
coming up and setting up in the right place. I'm thinking now that
it's random, and if he comes up quick you need to back off and wait
until he goes down, and try again. If you're lucky, he comes up slow
on the first try and you can knock him out quickly. If not, it might
take as many as 6 or 7 rounds before he comes up slow - more
flint-beetle luck that is critical to a good run.
I'm still
running out of time long before everything gets back, but I'm losing
fewer pikmins. I've worked in some of Ahlyis's tips below,
especially in the early parts, to save some time. It's nice to have
4 or 5 (personal) top-five runs in a row after struggling for a long
time. :)
Posted by Emmit310 - 4/8/2002 7:45:27 PM
I have never seen the bird and I haven't fought
the beady long legs and I still have 202. I have my work cut out for
me!
---
Hot Dogs and Hamburgers are the same thing, Just
shaped differently.
Posted by Jimithingr - 4/8/2002 8:10:36 PM
Distant Spring - 452
Ok I finally
got my self on the leader board. This level is addicting, and the
fact that there is fire, water, and land, makes it even better. I
managed this with ALOT of blues, not all but a good amount maybe
50-60. Thank god I was beginning to wonder if I would ever hit the
board.
Posted by Ferret5317 - 4/9/2002 2:10:36 AM
Ouch! I just got a painful 417 on Distant
Spring. Why was it painful, you ask? Well, this is
why...
Within inches of the onion (Would have gotten all of
this added to my score if I had an extra 3-4 seconds) were the
following:
2 Yellow Wollywogs
3 Dwarf Bulbears
2
Randomly Colored 5-pellets
1 Pearl!
There may have been
other stuff but I just can't remember everything else. I'm going to
keep this up for awhile until I manage to get all this lovely stuff
back in time. And we'll see.
Peace!
---
http://www.freehomepages.com/ferretdruid/
- Devoted to Chao raising!
I have a fetish for a computer
animated male humanoid fox. Live with it.
Posted by Ferret5317 - 4/9/2002 8:08:16 AM
Distant Spring - 450
Once again,
all blues. I had approximately 60 Pikmin worth of 'stuff' within
inches from the onion, yet again! This is irritating, but I suppose
one of these runs is going to eventually get me the big 500 that
I've been waiting for. YAY! So close, I can taste them..
it.
---
http://www.freehomepages.com/ferretdruid/ -
Chao!
All your board are belong to us. You have no chance
to post make your karma. -GotenksSSJ3
Posted by Jimithingr - 4/9/2002 9:39:45 AM
Working...Hoping to take my break soon...Pikmin
on the mind...Throwing Pikmin...loosing control....dropped the
remote....here comes a WollyWog....Panic Sets in....Please god let
them die painlessly
---
OH NOS I"M AN
EGGPLANTT>>!!!!!!!! - Mikaze, Kid Icarus Board
Posted by redpichead - 4/9/2002 6:04:06 PM
Distant Spring-455
And gradually
rising!
Posted by JustinB - 4/9/2002 6:31:33 PM
Hey, Snapdragon, where can I download some of those videos that I've heard other posters mention? One of my friends is having trouble believing some of the challenge mode scores.
