How to Succeed at Gadgadsgame Without Really Trying

Looking for an easy three thousand neopoints? Of course you are. Aren’t we all? Well, I daresay you should try your luck at Gadgadsgame. Although it is a game with origins in Gadgadsbogen, it can be played year round. Not sure if you have what it takes? This quick and easy guide relies on brains over speed and knowledge over luck. If you’d rather play a game that involves speed and luck, go play Splat-a-Sloth. I will guarantee that the average Neopian makes more points from Gadgadsgame after reading this article than most will ever earn on Splat-a-Sloth. Here are the basics:

The Players

Well, so far as I can tell, there are five fruits: plumberries, stramberries, blobbules, gruish melons, and lemwarts. If there are more than those, you don’t encounter them while aiming for one thousand neopoints. Sometimes their backgrounds will be rotating with colour; these are the explosive fruits, but I’ll have more on them later.

You will also randomly see potions and twirlyfruit-bombs. These are very important to this strategy, so pay special attention to how and when to use those.

The Play

The above fruits will fall in groups of three from the top of the screen as play progresses; hitting the spacebar will rotate the group counterclockwise 90° until it lands. If an explosive fruit lands so that it is touching other fruits of the same colour, all of the touching fruits will light up, and then explode.

Twirlyfruit-bombs are similar in that they make the fruits explode, but with a little twist: they disintegrate every fruit of one colour on the board, touching or not! Twirlyfruits are worth their weight in dubloons! (At least in this game.) For instance, if a twirlyfruit-bomb lands on top of a stramberry, all of the stramberries on the board will light up and explode! Easy as cherry-tastic faerie pie!

Potions work a little differently. Whatever fruit a potion lands on, it and all others like it on the board will change into a different fruit. Useless, right? WRONG!!! This little potion is the basis for a quick, profitable game. Using this potion in tandem with the twirlyfruit-bombs will make neopoints faster than Dr. Sloth can make a mutant. Interested? Read on…

Scoring

Points are earned for each exploding fruit. When fruits are grouped into squares, they melt into one big fruit. The bigger the fruit, the more points you get for blowing it up! Points are as follows:

A single fruit: 1 point

A two-by-two fruit: 8 points

A three-by-three fruit: 27 points

A four-by-four fruit: 64 points

A five-by-five fruit: 125 points

A six-by-six fruit: 216 points

A seven-by-seven fruit: 343 points

An eight-by-eight fruit: 512 points

A nine-by-nine fruit: 729 points

Now, that juicy looking nine-by-nine fruit might look easy and appealing, but that’s a great example of a little thing I like to call ‘greed’. Not only is it darned hard to achieve, but it doesn’t leave much room to work with up top. Remember, the game board is nine fruits wide and only fourteen fruits high, so you’ll want to leave yourself room to grow, so to speak. Points are also awarded for potions, twirlyfruit-bombs, and explosive fruit after they disappear/explode.

At the end of the game (when you send your score), every 100 points you’ve earned will net you 75 neopoints, so to earn 1000 neopoints for a game, you’ll have to score at least 1334 points.

The Strategy

Well, I already gave you a huge strategy hint when I told you to use the potions in combination with the twirlyfruit bombs, but if you’re still reading, you’re in great shape.

At the beginning of the game there are only three fruits to worry about. I like to take a little time to play around and try to make some bigger fruit with them, but if you fail at that, it isn’t a big loss. Explode the fruits as best you can and keep the centre of the game board clear of fruits so that you have room to maneuver. When you see your first gruish melon (the purple and orange felberry cousin), straighten up and start playing. Here’s what you do:

1. Start stacking all of the groups of berries along the walls and floor of the game board. Don’t worry too much about using the explosive fruits or having large clusters of same-fruit bunches.

2. When a potion comes along, land it on top of whichever berry is currently the most common on the board. For instance, if there are an awful lot of plumberries on the board, pop it on top of those. Which ever fruit they change into will become the most popular on the board.

By doing this, you are slowly turning all of the fruits on the board into the same fruit. This creates fantastic opportunities to have big, juicy six-by-sixers and seven-by-seveners. Now, guess what happens when you get a twirlyfruit-bomb?

3. When a twirlyfruit-bomb happens along, drop it onto the most common fruit. KABOOM!!! The points come rolling in. All this, with very little effort at all! Within your first couple days of trying this strategy, you’ll likely be able to get the avatar! Woohoo!

Dos and Don’ts

Even though I’d like to claim this strategy as foolproof, I have met some pretty fantastic fools in my lifetime, and would like to offer some extra hints about how to win:

DO practice a couple times with the strategy before sending it in. Remember, you need at least 1334 points to earn 1000 neopoints.

DON’T get greedy and start throwing away perfectly good bombs to see if you can make the pile bigger. Every so often it will ‘rain’ fruits in the game; you have no control over where these fruits go. Assume the worst and clear the board as often as you can.

DO pay attention to the ‘fall column’. This is located in the fourth column from the left, and all of the fruit originate from here. Keep this way clear, or risk losing the game.

DON’T worry if you miss the fruit you were aiming for with a potion or twirlyfruit-bomb. You may have just created a new ‘most-common fruit’, and you should keep trying!

DO send your score three times a day. If it takes you longer to master the game than I have predicted, have the courage and sense to send your score even if it isn’t worth 1000 neopoints. If you get frustrated and stop playing altogether, you’ve wasted time by not sending your previous scores.

DON’T stop trying! Each Neopian has a different skill set, and sometimes it can take a while to succeed at a game. I’ve learned that if I really want an avatar, or just a great high score, I have to really buckle down and practice.

Well, I hope you’ve learned a little more about the game, and that you can put your new skills to good use. Keep an eye out for falling fruit, and for more game guides from me!