How to play Dubloon Disaster and win BIG

First of all, we need to explain the story:

After a successful raid on Krawk Harbour a small pirate ship tries to escape... however they didn't count on the Black Pawkeet, the most feared pirate ship of all.

You play Dorak, an enterprising young Krawk in a rowing boat. Try and salvage as much of the treasure as possible, but avoid the homing mines that are being fired from the Black Pawkeet. Use the left and right arrow keys to turn, up arrow key to accelerate and the down arrow key to reverse.

So, you are this Krawk, who’s in a boat, in the middle of the ocean, salvaging treasure. That’d be a nice way to start a short story, huh?

Dubloon Disaster doesn’t have any difficulty levels (unless you count getting past the intro as a level), or bonuses, or any of that kind of stuff that regular games have. The basic idea is to move your little boat around and collect Dubloons. For every coin you acquire (no matter the value), one new homing mine pops up out of nowhere and comes to attack you. The amount of mines that pop up is limited to 9. So you get 9 coins, and you have your max number of mines.

There are, however, different values of coins. The little bronze ones that are all over the place are worth 2 points. There are also 5 Dubloon coins, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200. 5 Dubloon coins give you 5 points, 10 give you 10 points, and so on and so forth. (duh) The Neopoint ratio on this game is incredible though: 600 NPs earned for every 100 points scored. That’s awesome if you know how to play.

HOW TO PLAY DUBLOON DISASTER (and win lots of Neopoints):

Pay attention, this is on the exam!

Tip #1 – Mines – I’ll start with these, because they are one of only three things preventing you from getting those pretty little Dubloons. The other two are: whirlpools (which will be explained) and your own stupidity/inexperience/nonexistent skill. (I guess that totals 5 then) So, anyway, mines are bad. If one of those little suckers runs into you (or you into it), your game is over. You don’t get any second chances in this game, just one Krawk in a little boat getting as much treasure as possible. So watch out for the mines. Do not forget that as they get closer to you, they move faster. One good trick that I like to use is going in between two mines. That makes them move closer to each other and therefore less spread out across the screen. Once you have your maximum of nine mines, if you can get them in one little group, there’s a lesser chance of you accidentally plowing into one of them.

Tip #2 – Whirlpools – I didn’t even know about these things until about 4 months ago. (And I’ve been playing Dubloon Disaster for a long time!) You don’t get a whirlpool very often, but when you do, get away from it. They suck everything towards them, including you and the mines. Thankfully, they don’t eat Dubloons. Say you get a whirlpool in the bottom part of the screen. What you would do then is to press the up button and hold it. Stay there until the whirlpool has disappeared. You can attempt to get more Dubloons during a whirlpool if they are in your general area, but I’d advise against it. Better safe than sorry, and better alive to find more treasure than getting game over.

Tip #3 – When a Dubloon looks unattainable – What happens when the next Dubloon is right in the middle of a bunch of mines? Well, you can’t go charging through and get it. The best strategy for a situation like this is to hang out in a corner of the screen and wait for the mines to come near you. If you zip out of the corner (by holding down the correct key) at the last minute (make sure you have enough space to get out), and repeat the process, the mines will eventually move away from the stray Dubloon. Try and keep the mines going in one general direction, and if you freak out or they’re closing in on you, don’t hesitate to move to open waters and rethink the situation.

Tip #4 – Getting the most out of your game – You want 1,000 NPs for every play, right? With this game, don’t settle for less. With practice and patience and goal-setting you can get 1,000 Neopoints every time you hit that “Send Score” button. All you have to do is get at least 167 game points. I figured this out both mathematically and by trial and error. 166 game points only gets you 996 Neopoints, so you want to aim for 167. This isn’t a time-consuming game; once you get really good, achieving 167 points will only take a few minutes. The way to accomplish this is outlined below:

1) Start out small. Set your goals low at first, then once you realize that you can do better, set ‘em higher. My goal when I first started playing was 30. Later, I upped it 50. Now, every time I go and send the score, my points are at 167 or above.

2) Getting the higher value coins is possible, don’t worry. I personally have never gotten a 200 Dubloon coin, but I did once get two 100 Dubloon coins in one game. Usually I get one 100 Dubloon coin in one game out of about four.

3) The small coins add up! The 2 Dubloon coins don’t make a huge difference in your points, but 5 Dubloon coins pop up every once in a while, and those add up like crazy. Average 5 Dubloon coins per game for me is anywhere from 8-12. I also usually get a few 10 Dubloon coins, and sometimes even a 20 or a 50.

Tip #5 – If you are on a slow/old computer – You can change many things to make this game run faster if you are on a slow computer. First thing is the quality. Before you even click on the picture to open the separate game window, change the quality to “medium” or “low”. Once the game window is open, you can click “graphics option” to the right of the “multiplayer” button. This allows you to change the whole screen to just a blue background.

Tip #6 – Aiming for a trophy? – Sorry, this isn’t the guide for you. I have to admit that I don’t have a trophy for this game, because I play only to earn 3,000 NPs a day from it. But, if you do want a trophy, play on the first of every month, but only after you’ve gotten really good. And how do you get really good? By reading this guide, of course!

Tip #7 – Time – Make sure you have a reasonable amount of time to spend on this game. Only about 15 to 20 minutes is all that you should need to get 1,000 NPs from every game. Don’t get up in the middle of playing either; there’s no way to pause it! (not that I know of anyway!)

Tip #8 – Goals – This is a very important part of every game you ever play on Neopets. Always play with an idea of how many points you want to get. Don’t send the score until you have reached your set goal. Setting a goal helped me A LOT in getting better at Dubloon Disaster! (see Tip #4)

Tip #9 – Having Fun – YES! Dubloon Disaster can be fun! Just don’t forget that it’s only a game, and you will conquer in the end!

HOW TO PLAY DUBLOON DISASTER (and win lots of Neopoints) EXAM

Just kidding, there’s no exam. But you should read it all the way through if you want to do well at Dubloon Disaster!

Also, please don’t forget that I’m NOT a Master at this game. I think that the best way to play it is by getting 1,000 NPs from every play. I don’t have a trophy for it, but I do love earning the Neopoints! ;-)

Have fun finding treasure!