[Sealy]

Oh, right! I couldn’t see it at first because he’s in plain sight! I’ve never noticed that it does anything. Thought it was a little lantern, but don’t really know.

[Sealy]

@benjamin-p-taylor As far as I know, the only purpose of the black pearls is to buy hats for your guys, which can multiply points for each bird. In the arena before you start your match, click on one of your birds and it’ll show you what hats are available and how many pearls they cost. When you get a whole set of them – like say a crown, for all of your birds, your slingshot will go up a grade. I’ve recently seen some strategies about that, but I am not that far along. Also, even if you have a set of x2 hats, you’d also get your slingshot bumped up if you acquire a different set of x1 hats. Each complete set you buy will elevate your slingshot.

24 is your level number, and you need to win 55 more gems to total 125 to advance to level 25.

I haven’t noticed any gingerbread men – where are they??

[Sealy]

I still can’t claim anything in the free slot on my ipad; haven’t tried on my phone since I’ve been without it for a week. This has been going on for almost a week for me, with a brief appearance for a day after I rebooted. I was hoping this latest update would fix it, but no such luck.

[Sealy]

deleted

[Sealy]

No worries – just kidding… obviously I needed it spelled out! Thanks again for your help, Chucky. Now I’m at azure and will stay there forever; I am a very slow pearl diver.

[Sealy]

Well, Chucky, you made THAT pretty clear! Thank you so much for your help. I guess I’ll be playing with a silver sling for a while – a long while!

[Sealy]

@penz – I only have one at the moment, and I’m pretty bad at completing Boss Pig round, so it’s slow going for me; but I’ll keep on plugging. Thanks again!

[Sealy]

Thank you, too, @chucky2. But I should NOT buy the Halloween set (that’s the only set I can afford right now) since they’re below what I have already?

[Sealy]

@penz – Thank you! I’ll downgrade my cowboy hat and see if I improve; since the “upgrade” I’ve been struggling. I’ll probably be in a nursing home by the time I can buy a set of cowboy hats.

[Sealy]

I’m still a bit confused about all this, but here’s one question: I have a set of crowns w/a bronze slingshot. Does it benefit me to go back down to x1 and buy all Halloween hats – do I get an upgrade on my slingshot?
Oh, one more question: I have one cowboy hat. Should I use all crowns, or go ahead and use the 6 crowns and one cowboy hat?

[Sealy]

I experienced the same thing for a few days, turned off my ipad completely, and now it works.

[Sealy]

Uh, I can’t imagine trying high. I get totally incapacitated.

[Sealy]

Yes, I think one or two is good to loosen you up, but more makes me spastic.

[Sealy]

There were a few times I didn’t see the merge option right away; but I think later when I brought up the duplicate item and backed out or tapped it again, I’d see the merge option. It happens so infrequently (for me), I can’t remember exactly, so I just keet tapping around till it works.

[Sealy]

It has happened to me off and on, but I was doing ok today until just now, when I was only 5 POINTS down and really could have used that extra bird! I tried buying too, but it just sat there, then kicked me out of the game.

[Sealy]

Did you seriously get 100 gems from Rovio??

[Sealy]

Are you kidding? I didn’t get no steenking gems!

[Sealy]

@bobix86:

Whoops! Sorry about that.
Thanks; your explanation makes it perfectly clear!

[Sealy]

@tomt – what is rubberbanding?

[Sealy]

@jakeab: … “Because panel-increase skill doesn’t depend on who the captain bird is.” …

Apart any ship skills that specifically refer to a bird’s color, are you saying it doesn’t matter which bird you use as captain? Isn’t the battle affected at all by the captain bird’s skills? I’ve read that you should use your bird with strongest attack skills. If so, don’t the defense and life values matter as well?

Sorry if this is confusing/repetitive, but I’m just trying to get this straight.

[Sealy]

This has happened to me fairly often as well, and as said above, it usually starts up again. It has happened also during fighting, and also immediately after the battle is finished.

My iPad goes offline while I’m fighting occasionally, but everything continues as usual, except I can’t send a GG.

What I’d like to know is why players go offline intentionally. It happens most often when I start with a strong opening and I figure they think they’re going to lose. I heard this is a form of cheating (or maybe ‘sleazing’ is a better word; not as bad as out-and-out cheating) so you keep your winning streak going – is that true?

[Sealy]

Still can’t get into arena 03SEP 2106 (UK time).
What’s up???

[Sealy]

I got mine, and they immediately disappeared.

BTW, have they totally changed the EXP points for regular battles? Now I’m getting only one if I win, and zero if I lose, instead of (usually) 109 and 87 respectively. Did I miss some notification??

[Sealy]

Deleted – sorry, posted in wrong wrong forum.

[Sealy]

@dseufert – Yes, thanks! I’ve gotten accepted, I’m building up my friends and gifting every day to get to the next step. One weird thing: I am on ios, and several times all my friends have disappeard, but they reappear later or the next day. I have a total of 1700+ friends, but only about 700 show up to send gifts to (only on my mac; iPad is not in synch, only a few dozen friends show up to send gifts to) and I assume they are the friends I’ve gotten just via the group.
Looking forward to the big time!
Thanks again for the follow-up.