Aweful Visage

Google Search for this board: Did you mean: awful visage*

Known high scores for this board: 2.8m (no powers), 7m (all powers), 7.65m (all powers + monument)

Welcome to Aweful Visage, the board that results when that Hand Drawn Lava board dries up. Or not. Acutally, it's one of the first few boards when Zuma Blitz was first released.

In the works: I plan to maintain a small eBook (later released here) on all of the tips I put on this board, and explained in more detail, as well as a few other things not mentioned here. It will cover all versions of the game since December.

I intend to release the guide for no charge, though you may donate if you find the guide helpful.

In the meantime, it looks like they might re-use older boards for future weeks, so this will be my last post in regards to Zuma Blitz until a new unique board shows up.

TIP: Use the above image a guide for placing double gaps. When you reach hot frog, you should aim carefully to completely remove the middle layer of balls while not causing the 2nd layer to slide back.

Question of the Day: I like this new layout better. Do you? (Essentially widens the game screen, moves the fruit score value to top-right, moves chain to top-left, hot frog meter moved to just above the frog.)

Another Social Experiment

MCHS Class of 2011 graduates today. (It's the last class who I know students, since I was a senior and they were freshman) Rewind four years back, and we (Class of 2008) performed The Social Experiment. I was given the option to perform in this play, but decided not to...

(And then there's two social icons on the navigation bar... how many people do you think will actually click on them?)

Fun Fact: My high school likes to pull lots of parodies and spinoffs, however I got slightly docked for submitting a parody as a production idea to Mr. K. (Yes, that was an assignment). Oh, and I was supposed to post this vid up exactly four years after it happened, but it seemed that my timing was off a little.

EDIT: There used to be a video file, but after looking at the content, I've determined it wasn't fit for everybody to view it.

Multiplier Powerup Study

Time to put some of my applied stats skills to work here.

Multiplier Study: Assuming you hit every single multiplier ball and no multiplier powerup is used, each one will roll out at the following times (in-game time, not the timer on the top-left). Note the timer may run out before you even get to multiplier 9, hence some of the later values's time results are skewed a bit.

Games tested: 29 - Leaping Lava
    Range           Median           #     Time
x2: 4.35 - 9.55s   (median:  7.10s)  (29)  0:07
x3: 13.0 - 27.6s   (median: 19.85s)  (29)  0:20
x4: 21.3 - 45.25s  (median: 32.00s)  (29)  0:32
x5: 31.7 - 64.75s  (median: 48.85s)  (29)  0:49
x6: 45.2 - 83.65s  (median: 65.30s)  (29)  1:05
x7: 58.5 - 100.95s (median: 81.00s)  (25)  1:21
x8: 72.9 - 106.15s (median: 89.83s)  (12)  1:29
x9: 91.5 - 101.35s (median: 97.75s)  (3)   1:38
xe: Not enough data  (0)
xe: Not enough data  (0)

Where 'xe' is other multiplier balls that pop up if you didn't hit other ones. 

Conclusion:

• In a 60 second game if you didn't collect timer powerups, best case = can get up to a x7 multiplier, worst case, up to x5.
• Typically, five multiplier balls will show up on a regular no-power game, but there was one instance where eight showed up in a 1m40s game.
• The first multiplier ball comes out within 4-10 seconds.
• The higher the multiplier, the longer it takes on average before another multiplier comes out. (an x9 takes 20% longer than an x2)
• Multipliers love to spawn near ball starting points.
• On average, it takes 15 seconds between multiplier balls coming out and another. You can get lucky and wait around 5 seconds before another one comes out, or bad luck waiting around a half a minute. Theoretically, you can reach your x9 within 30 seconds with multi-multiplier, but the pseudorandom number generator that determines how long it takes for another ball to appear will make it very unlikely for that to happen.

Note: Something for me to think about via randomness of powerup appearances.

Leaping Lava

So this week's board is called Leaping Lava. It's not a new board, but instead, it's been introduced last December, and a flip version called Life's a Beach was made back in March as well. To avoid repetition, use that link for tips on this week's board.

In the meantime, I've updated my low level 2 million run with a new record: 60 -> 33. Additionally it uses the same board as that well known 2 mil video.

(Unrelated) Fun Fact: Waste from North America / Japan is forming a huge trash island the size of Texas, called The Pacific Trash Vortex. The person in charge of this page needs 500 likes to pass her class. (which ends in a few weeks)

10M Benchmarks: n/a (concentrate on curve clears) (dead by 3:18), 5:35 (Double Tap method - single gap), 4:32 (Double Gap Strat)

Triple Rollout?

Board with triple rollout? Don't mind if I do! :D

Note: Version 2. Top left curve needs optimizing as well as starting points.

Wall of Memes

In the library today. Hope you're doing good on your finals. (It's finals week for most CSU people, but it's the 2nd week of summer school for me.)

Note: Not a viral picture. A better quality image (taken a day later) can be found here.

Calamari Chaos

Calamari Chaos is the name of this week's board. A flip version of the Crossroads board, I start to conclude the levels are more towards showing off artistic style instead of creative ball path design / raising the level cap as well as putting perks from reaching mastery.

Speaking of design, The Long Goodbye is full of it. It's one of my friend's projects btw, I'll put a review of that here when it comes out.

Also, someone forgot to tell the frog that it's a trap...

TIP: Multipliers / Time powerups. (don't use fruit power due to hard to reach) That's it. (I think, for any board, time/multiplier/fruit powers are the only things you'll need for high scores until they introduce epic powers.)*

If you actually look at the image you notice a gap being made on the lower right side... the most effective way to get points. (My high score here with no powers is a bit over 1.2 million.)