How to get really high scores in ABSW2

[wicket182]

First let me start by stating that I had the number one rank before employing the following strategy in many of the levels of ABSW2. I did not utilize this to gain an unfair advantage.

This does not work in many levels, but there are some where it can really increase your score. I had no intention of keeping this a secret, it’s been there since the update but it appears that no one else has utilized this new feature. In the spirit of this site I now share the strategy. I know I will lose many top ranks but that is ok.

The new feature is the “last chance”. On many levels the amount of debris remaining scores more points than the bonus for unused birds/pigs. On those levels, use all the birds and then continue to use last chance until the debris is cleared. That’s it, all there is to it. Not complicated or extremely difficult.

Many may feel that this is unfair. It was Ravio that included the feature, so we just have to play the game the way it is presented. I actually would prefer the last chance had not been included, but it was. There is no way to distinguish scores with or without using the last chance so not using it could be a disadvantage. I elected to employ the feature after much thought and reading the justification for allowing swaps. It’s basically the same logic.

I hope this helps many of you. Happy flinging.

Topic

[thee-michelle]

Thanks for your strategy @wicket182.
I can understand the strategy that you say definitely.
However, what can practice only a rich person and some people using the Hak application is sad.
For example, I should buy it with a coin even if I have infinity of Kit Firsto to use it consecutively.
I who was hard to spend further money by at least right application was not able to compete with you for a score.

[MVNLA2]

@thee-Michelle — Yeah, I agree; I clicked the last chance button, and discovered that it was using your hard-earned characters. Didn’t realize you needed to pay extra. Do you only need to pay extra if you own the telepod, or do you need to pay every time you use one of you pre-existing characters?

[thee-michelle]

@mvnla2
I forgot existence of telepods. When you purchase telepods and use it, can you use telepods of the same character in two continuations?
While a level is completed, I can use the infinity use that I valued with coins only once.

[MVNLA2]

@thee-Michelle — I don’t have any telepods, so don’t know the answer to your question. Didn’t realize you could buy an infinite number of a character. If I were you, I would report this directly to Rovio as a bug, and also mention it in the ABN bugs forum.

[thee-michelle]

@mvnla2
Only in the case of Permanent, it means only once before a level starts and is completed.
Re-at a level; when play, is usable only once again.
As well as Permanent, it means that I can use +10 of the same character consecutively when I buy it.
Therefore a vast fund is necessary.
The report of the bug is not necessary.

[Gelfling]

@mvnla – where is the last chance button? I have never seen one. Is this operating system specific? :-)

@wicket182 – thank you for this post, I appreciate your fair-mindedness and willingness to share.

[MVNLA2]

@gelfling — May only be in Rise of the Clones. When you finish level a flashing arrow appears below the character swap icon and says “Last Chance.”

[DonnMega]

@wicket182 yesterday when I finished my play through the new release ROTC and came to the site to see how my scoring compared; to say that I was astonished with your domination across the SWII leaderboards would be putting it lightly. I had not given any attention to the “last chance” addition to the game, but after reading your post I did replay through the reward chapters and a handful of levels that were glaringly obvious it would be of use. Achieving a score is not difficult but there can be a hint of strategy employed in regards to bird order and approach with “Last Chance”. It will take time to make my way through the levels, plus have to put in some time on the ROTC levels where my scores say I missed something but will be a good challenge.

Appreciate you sharing; your scores are impressive and even armed with the strategy behind the scoring you have set the bar quite high.

[Gelfling]

[Note: I have deleted what I wrote, because although was true, I have changed my mind about using impure methods to get high scores (I am against it).]

[Gelfling]

@mvnla2 – okay, thanks! Android just gained access to the clone wars today. I didn’t see this sign, but I’ll pay closer attention at the end of the next level. [ Sorry, in my post recently you Isia forgotten that 2 at the end of your shortcut.]

[Toby]

I noticed this yesterday when droid became available. Somehow I assumed that “LAST chance” would only give you ONE chance ;) . I think it’s a nice feature — has some of the same feel as the mighty/space eagle/falcon, in that you can use it to get past a tough level. I don’t think Rovio really targets fanatics like us who post scores on a leaderboard! They do, however, certainly target people with money and a willingness to spend it on things that will help them get through a level/game :) . Now that I think about the business reason, it seems obvious that they would let you use all the “last chances” you want (and can afford).

[Gelfling]

@mvnla2 – There is a last chance sign in Android, pretty glaring once I knew what to look for.

But it wasn’t one just last chance. If I used a character to obliterate stuff and carefully avoided winning, it kept giving me more and more last chances. So I guess one new strategy to get a high score would be to learn how NOT to win, and have lots of extra characters. There is nothing in the score that indicates how many characters are used to get that score.

   Maybe with all of these roundabout ways to come up with a top score, we shouldn’t award “top score” unless that person isn’t known top shooter or they explain their strategy and someone with excellent AB skills can replicate it (and at least comes close). That would enable everybody to learn how to do better in the game. [As in science – you have to get results which can be reproduced by other scientists, or you don’t credit for it.]

_____

@tobyv – I’m on your side. I object to anything that allows people with more money to do better on the boards. On the other hand, I’m afraid that is like life. Damn. One thing though, I always have a bunch of extra spare characters I don’t care about, and I could use some to try this out.
______________

This reminded me of the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition Skit. …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt0Y39eMvpI&feature=kp

_____

Inquisition: Now, old lady — you have one last chance. Confess the heinous sin of heresy, reject the works of the ungodly — *two* last chances. And you shall be free — *three* last chances. You have three last chances, the nature of which I have divulged in my previous utterance.

[Pauliboy]

I agree that the game is the game, and we play with what we’re given.
So, if we’re allowed to post scores using last chance, then I will.
But it would have been possible for a polite request not to post scores using last chance, akin to the request not to post scores using power ups in original angry birds leader boards. I’d have preferred it that way, as the challenge of the game (to maximise your score with the allowable number of birds including swaps) is more fun when you don’t have (in theory) limitless extra birds to mop up all the left over debris.

[Gelfling]

@pauliboy – I agree. The leader boards have lost any meaning for me. I thought about entering my score in the last challenge for Star Wars 2 and thought better of it. I’m sure it is still a challenge, but it is not the flinging challenge that I’m interested in.

[Pauliboy]

@gelfling – you’re right. For those levels (not all of them, I concede) it’s not a flinging challenge because you have no idea what a par score is with the birds you’re given. If Rovio had given a points penalty for using last chance (you get 10,000 points for left over birds, so why not -10,000 for each bird using last chance?) then it would’ve been good because you’d’ve been very judicious in your use of last chance.

[Gelfling]

@pauliboy – I think that you know more than I do about this! The only time that I have heard “par” used was with Vikings Icebreakers. What do you mean with respect to Star Wars II?

Bottom line for me is that I’m not interested in enhanced scores, no matter whether they are explained or not, because there are too many ways to enhance a score. If I can’t tell what the players are doing, I can’t follow the game!

[Pauliboy]

@gelfling – I was using par in the golf sense: the score that a good player would aim for. In Angry Birds I reckon that’s the average posted score. The 3 star score is a bare minimum.

[Gelfling]

@pauliboy – thanks for the clarification. All of the posts that I have read here that use par have been using it as it is used in the game Viking Icebreakes. In that game, in order to win a level you cannot make more than a certain number of attempts (“par”) or less. That is a pretty fun game.

[scott20]

The “last chance’ feature has ruined my enjoyment of the game and basically killed the fun mystique of the game.

I decided to go back and improve about five scores using the last chance feature. In doing so, I topped scores that I had spent perhaps hours on achieving before. That was like a punch to my own gut… lol. The fact anyone willing to shell out for IAP’s can top a leader board makes this game no better than any other game begging for IAP’s. It’s a clear cash grab by Rovio.

I had spent over $100 on this game with purchases, which I didn’t mind due to the amount of time I’ve enjoyed playing this game. (Bulk of those purchases buying permanent Vader and Tusken) Now, however, I won’t spend another cent on this game.

I’ll still play the game, but certainly not dedicate any significant time or money.

[Gelfling]

@scott20 – Sometimes I think that I was better off playing the game without coming here, because I wasn’t considering competing against others. Like most people, I three starred levels because I loved the game and that was more challenging.

But isn’t this a lot like life? Other people are happy to tell us what to do or what is important. When they tell us, “These are the rules of the game,” they assume those are the rules of the game, but that is never ever so, unless we are sheep. Saying “we’re going to play and compete in this game according to Rovio’s rules,” can make self-esteem and social interaction depend upon some company’s marketing plans.

What rules for playing and challenging yourself make sense to you? Ignore the leaderboards, what do you really think about it?

For myself, I am pretty purist about the game, and the idea of competing on the leader boards is ridiculous at this point. I imagine that some of us are simply driven to four-star something which only grant three stars. I have from day one been 100% against IAPs, which increases the difficulty of my game (my version of four stars). Playing many different games, I never paid Rovio a cent until this month, when their customer service was top notch, so I decided to pay 99¢ for the “ad-free” game (ha, ha ha! Ad free my tailfeathers!) But I don’t regret that purchase a bit, they were extremely professional and very polite.

From my perspective this lesson is probably worth $100 to you, so long as you don’t get bitter about it. Download the free games, disconnect to avoid the ads, and remember the Carbonite melts.

[scott20]

@gelfling… thanks for the great reply.

I used to really enjoy using the leader boards here as a friendly competitive outlet. It’s not like any of us are out for blood and we are always sharing our strategies with one another. So that always brought me lots of enjoyment. I understand emotionally investing myself in the leader boards has absolutely no impact on life or society, but like I mentioned, it was just a fun and friendly competitive outlet.

At first I was completely anti-IAP as well. However, for the amount of time I’ve played this game and the fun I had with it, it was worth it for me. Mostly permanently unlocking Vader added a whole new element. It kept my hyper-active mind occupied during boring times… haha. I no longer play video game consoles (and save tons of money), so $100 in six months is quite a steal since I’ve probably never played any game as much I did ABSW2… I try to look at the bright side anyway… : )

I believe the one thing that really made me lose my respect and fun for the game was seeing random debris piles located in levels where the debris was wayyyyy out of the way from the main action. That is just pathetic to me in trying to get us to throw 20-30 last chance birds per level to get a max score.

So like I briefly said in my last post, I’ll just be back to three-starring levels and that will be good enough for me. That’s what I’ve done with all the other Angry Birds games anyway. No more investing time and money. If this last chance nonsense didn’t exist, I’d still have motivation to play the game.

[Toby]

As long as we’ve drifted into discussing IAP’s… [grin].

ABSW2 went kind of crazy with the prices. The carbonite has helped a little, but you don’t get the best characters.

ABGo has been even worse. You would literally have to spend THOUSANDS of US$ to buy and upgrade all the carts.

Epic, on the other hand, has gone back to sanity.

This makes me wonder… does it have anything to do with Hasbro? They have a functional monopoly on toys, and they act like it. I’m sure Hasbro insisted that the price of VIRTUAL permanent swaps and carts must (greatly) exceed the price they were willing to sell their PHYSICAL toy versions, or else there would be no incentive to buy their toys.

With the next two Rovio titles (Stella and Transformers) also featuring Telepods, it’s not likely to get better….

Back on topic, I’ve always posted my ABSW2 scores without swaps or “last chance”. Somebody has to help keep the averages down [smile].

[EricBirdz]

I hate every minute of using LCS (last-chance strategy) since I found out “the secret” to Wicket’s success. I happen to have a lot of telepods. The people close to me know I wanted to collect them all. I have 32 unique ones. So when I want to improve a score to approach Wicket’s, I scan them all and go to town. I used to have 6 #1’s on these boards. And they were hard to do. Within 3 days of the new update, 4 of them fell due to the LCS “strategy”. Call me bitter, call it a sore sport, I don’t really care. It has ruined these boards. I mean, absolutely destroyed almost any meaning they used to have. I’m still working through levels thanks to the gifts I was given by my friends, and that’s ok. I guess. I probably have over $200 worth of telepods. But it should never have been allowed. It’s sickening really when I figured out what was up. Absolutely disheartening. If I want to compete at something again after this game, I’ll probably pick an old AB, like Classic, Space, Rio, hell, ANYTHING but this. It’s so cheap (and yet so expensive) if you catch my meaning.

[tomason]

Wicket182, you really shouldn’t feel bad, everyone is playing the same program and the parameters of the game are… as they are. I figured out the “Last Chance” option fairly quickly, and just assumed everyone else did too. Never even crossed my mind to feel any moral quandary or ethical question. You know, unless it’s a legitimate cheat with INTENTION to scam people, I don’t think you have much to be sorry about. Especially since you took some time to type a well crafted explanation and shared your insights with the rest of the class, you’re golden. As my boss used to say… fuhgedda-boudit!

Still, that took stones to step up like that. Pretty cool.

[scott20]

@ericbirdz… well said. I went back and did a few B1 and P1 levels using “Last Chance”. I already had a top 5 or top 10 score on these levels using traditional methods, in which I spent many hours perhaps on getting those scores.

Then my first round using “Last Chance”, I crushed my top 5 scores by over 15k. It was literally hundreds and thousands of flings gone to waste in a matter of two minutes. I believe this was the exact turning point that crushed my spirit for this game.

@tomason33… I don’t believe anyone is shaming @wicket182 for his incredible scores. I’ve always admired his and other user’s scores. We are just upset at how Rovio went for a blatant cash grab with the “Last Chance” and took away the strategies we incorporated for these levels that don’t benefit from “Last Chance”.

I suppose many of us here take pride in figuring out clever ways to get a top score. But with “Last Chance”, there is absolutely no strategy. It’s no different or better than a “button masher” style game.

I suppose there are ways to hack the game and get unlimited swaps and all on certain devices… and those hackers/cheaters also get rewarded for “Last Chance” levels.