Conquering Your Fears of Carnival of Terror

A Guide to Mastering Carnival of Terror

DESERTED FAIRGROUND - Carnival of Terror seems to be one game that people either find incredibly easy or terribly frightening; after all, this is the Carnival of TERROR; I'm here to prove to you just how easy and non-threatening the game really is. If you’re one of those frightened players, this guide aims to help conquer your fears of mindless, Sloth-controlled robot Chia clowns, AND make major improvements in your high score. The story behind the game tells us that Sloth has sent his clown minions to enslave all of Neopia and the world beyond. It is up to us to make sure this does not happen.

By now you might be saying, "I don't know about this... saving the world from Sloth's nefarious plan is more than I can handle alone!" Don't let this stop you from trying. Even brilliant villains make mistakes! Indeed, Sloth did err when he created his mechanical clown Chias, as they are much easier to dispatch than you may have first assumed. So now, without further ado, let's get this show... er... game on the road and rid the Deserted Fairgrounds of those pie-wielding Chias!

Planning Ahead

Before you get started saving the world, there are a few simple things that will help you out. First, make sure you have plenty of space to move your mouse around. You don't want a critical attack to be thwarted by your mouse running into objects on your desk. Make sure you have the volume turned on so you will be able to hear the warnings when you are low on time or ammo; you surely won't be able to save anyone if you run out of either of these unexpectedly. Also, try to eliminate any distractions. After all, saving the world from evil Sloth minions is a very important job; it’s going to require all of your focused concentration. Lastly, open the game on large screen size. That way, the game window is large enough to easily target your enemy but is not so huge that you have to move your mouse around large distances.

Know Your Enemy

Now that you are ready to get started, let's take a look at your targets. You have two main enemy targets:

1) The robot Chia clowns: these are an obvious threat; anything that looks that frightening has got to be deadly.

2) The fast flying pies that those Chias throw your way: Ok, so you might be thinking, "How deadly can pie be? I can just eat my way through it." Let me tell you, these aren't your ordinary, run of the mill pies. They are toxic pies and are quite lethal if too many go unblocked.

You can lose a unit of health from an exploding Chia or from a collision with one of those toxic pies. More on that a little later…

Allied Forces

Lucky for us, some mysterious and entirely anonymous collaborator makes frequent parachute drops of vital supplies. I happen to know it’s actually a regiment of the most fearless Feepits Neopia has never seen, but you didn't hear it from me. These powerups will only appear one at a time on the screen and include:

1) Ammo boxes, which provide an additional twenty rounds of firepower

2) Clocks, which provide an additional forty five seconds on the time clock

3) Health crosses, which restores one unit of health

Always target and shoot these powerups, whether you think you need one or not. The reason for this is the sooner you shoot one you don't need, the sooner one you do need will come along.

End Game

You will experience game over as a result of one of three things:

1) Out of ammo: prevent this by collecting the ammo boxes. You start off with one hundred rounds of ammunition. When you get down to only 10 rounds remaining, your ammo meter at the bottom of the screen (which shows as a black bar) will flash and sound an alert. Watch out for this and stop shooting until you get another ammo box to replenish your supply.

2) Out of health: prevent this by collecting health crosses and by shooting those flying pies before they hit you. The pies can be tricky because they will occasionally fly in from just beyond the boundary of the game screen. Frustrating? Yes, but there’s not much that can be done about it. Another issue is the exploding Chia factor that was mentioned earlier. When a Chia loses its legs, it becomes highly unstable and will explode within a few seconds. Anytime you see a Chia crawling around with no legs, shoot it quickly to avoid the explosion. You start off with ten health units and you can keep track of your remaining health on the meter at the bottom of the screen, displayed by the little green crosses.

3) Out of time: prevent this by collecting the clocks. You start off with ninety seconds on the clock. When you get down to only fifteen seconds remaining on the timer, the clock meter at the bottom of the screen will flash and an alert will sound. The number of clocks you get will easily make or break your mission. You can also, in dire circumstances, type in “custard” to reset the time clock once per game window (this means if you wish to play again, you must close the game window and reopen it in order to have the option of using custard again). It is strongly advised to save custard for the very last moment when you will surely run out of time if you don't use it and no clocks are coming your way.

Top Secret

One little known factor is the roller coaster. It is important to keep an eye out for the coaster because of two reasons. First, each time you manage to shoot the first car of the roller coaster you will earn extra points. Second, the roller coaster and the powerups seem to be part of the same cycle; they will never appear on the screen at the same time. This is very useful information, in that if the roller coaster isn't whizzing by, there must be a powerup on the way so be on the lookout for one. I only have one question: just who, or what, is operating that roller coaster?

Tactical Operations

Now that you know what to watch out for, you need to have a well-developed plan of action. You won't have a successful mission if you just start randomly shooting at everything that pops up on the screen and you will quickly run out of ammunition that way. It’s important to prioritize and make the most of each shot you take. Quickly line up your target in the center of the crosshair; perfect aim isn't important but at least be very close or you will have a lot of wasted rounds. Prioritize your targets in this order:

1) Pies: shoot these first as they will rapidly deplete your health meter if not blocked and they are worth the most points.

2) Legless Chias: shoot these next as these explosive, crawling robots will deplete your health meter if left unchecked.

3) Powerups: again, collect them ALL, whether you need that particular one or not. The next one that appears may be just the one you need.

4) Roller Coaster: aim for the first car of the coaster when it reaches the lowest point of the track as that seems to be the easiest place to catch it.

5) Falling Chia Clowns: these are the ones floating down from the sky using an umbrella to break their fall. Get rid of these before the Chias on the ground because these falling Chias can often cover up the much-needed powerups. To maximize points with use of minimal ammo and time, double click just the head. Many players recommend shooting the umbrella but I find that targeting the umbrella takes too much time that could be better spent on the first four priorities.

6) Ground dwelling Chia Clowns: Again, double click only the head. It’s fast and easy and enables you to move onto the next clown, pie, coaster, or powerup quickly. Many players recommend taking them apart piece by piece but I find that not only does this method take too much time but it also depletes your ammo much too quickly. If running out of ammo is not a problem for you and you are super speedy with your clicking, then by all means take them apart piece by piece or try just a head, arm, head approach.

Pitfalls

1) The main downfall of the game is the fact that there is no meter showing your score during game play. You won't find out how well you scored until your game is over, thus making World Challenges very difficult because any score over 1999 will not be accepted.

2) Fairly frequently, the sound in the game will be distorted or disappear altogether. This can be annoying, especially if it affects the alert sound when you are low on ammo or time, but should not be too game altering.

Scoring

1) Pie: 5 points

2) Roller Coaster: 5 points for each hit to the first car only

3) Umbrella: 3 points

4) Chia Head: 2 points

5) Chia Arm: 4 points

6) Chia Skeleton: 1 point

7) Chia Leg: 1 point

Mission Complete

Well, there you have it, your very own guide to saving us all from yet another of Sloth's attempts at world domination. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and start shooting those Chia clowns, you just may end up with a new Grand Master score or even a shiny trophy to boot!