Advanced Key Questing: Stepping Up Your (Mini) Game

At the very beginning of this guide, I said that there were three parts to Key Quest: powerups, luck/chance, and mini-games. Many people would say that your computer speed and ability at mini-games determines how good you are at Key Quest, but I hope the last three articles have changed your mind about that. Nonetheless, mini-games do play a part in Key Quest, and while I cannot help you with computer speed, I can help you step up your mini-game to the next level!

I will very briefly touch on computer specifications that could be helpful for the demanding mini-games. If you are a technophobe, or upgrading your computer isn’t an option, then skip ahead to the next paragraph that begins the discussion on mini-games. There are three components to determining how well your computer runs games: the central processing unit (CPU), the graphics processing unit (GPU), and how much random access memory you have (RAM). You want a good balance between these three components to ensure your computer is smoothly running.

Now, on to the mini-games themselves! Currently, there are eight different mini-games, which means there is a one out of eight chance of getting any of them. This does not include mini-games from beta testing. This also does not include two games which seem to no longer be used (Faerie Labyrinth or Daring Dig), or at least do not happen as frequently as the other ones. Out of these mini-games, each one is a little different and requires a different strategy from the last one. To become an advanced player, you need to be very familiar and experienced in all of the mini-games. For each game, I will tell you the goal of the game and give you strategies for winning – remember, this is an advanced Key Quest guide, and if you are not familiar with the basics, you should look up another guide, or, even better, I would suggest simply going out and playing a few game of Key Quest yourself, and just focus on landing on the mini-game squares so you can get in some practice!

Neogarden Grow – The object of this game is to be the first person to collect all four flowers. The first tip I have is simple enough. Water all of your plants before you begin to cut them! I see people that seem to water a flower, and then cut it, and then water the next, and then cut it, and so on. Switching back and forth between watering and cutting just wastes time, so water all of them and then cut all of them. Secondly, there are spots in which you can water two plants at the same time. I’m not going to give away the spots, but I will give you a tip for once you find them: Instead of trying to remember exactly where you were holding the watering bucket, use the background grass so you can remember and then next time you can go straight to the spot!

Fruit Picker – The object of this game is to collect the most fruit by putting it in your basket. As soon as this mini-game begins, make sure to find your basket (it corresponds to the base of your token. If you’ve forgotten what color you picked for that game, look to the top with the names and see what color you are). I’ve seen several people put the first four or five fruit they cut into the wrong basket only to realize this part way through the game. After you know which basket is yours, immediately start clipping all of the fruit directly above your basket. This way you can just clip and release and the fruit will fall right into your basket. After this is done, you should go after the fruit that is above your enemy. Even though this is cruel, it prevents them from simply doing what you just did with the fruit above your basket! Hey, this is a competition, and you’re playing to win.

Nova Matcher – The object of this game is to collect the most pairs of novas. This is a classic game. As soon as the game starts, most people go for the black novas because they stand out the most. If you want to do this, you can, but know you will be competing against the other players for speed. A less frequently used method is to quickly spot novas that are the same type and are right next to each other. These are a little harder to spot, but at least you won’t be worrying about racing against the other players. To help distinguish between the different types of novas you can, as the game’s instructions hint, you can look at their glow. A method that I find is more helpful, though, is to look at their eyes. Whichever way works best for you. Finally, make sure you always have another pair that you’re going to go for as soon as you click on the two that you just found. Usually, I will follow my mouse pointer with my eyes and find another pair to go for while I click on the current pair I’m working on. As a note of caution, though, be careful about going too quickly! If the other player uses one of the novas you were going to use first, and then you keep clicking, you will be thrown off and your novas will no longer match. So be careful, and make sure the nova pairs you are clicking on are disappearing.

Poogle Carnival Racing – The object of this game is to get the highest score by throwing darts at the board, and have your poogle reach the other end first. For this game, I suggest keeping your mouse directly under the target, and simply move it up and down, dragging and releasing. This way you don’t have to worry about which direction it is, and you can just focus on how much power to use. Similar to using the grass and background in the Neogarden Grow mini-game, use the background here to determine about where you should start dragging from and where you should release at. After that, it’s just a matter of practicing and doing it very quickly!

Petpet Pamper – For some reason, even though you are supposed to be “pampering” this petpet, from the way it jumps back and forth and how you have to forcibly wash it using hoses, I’d have to assume it isn’t enjoying what is happening... Either way, the objective of this game is to wash the most dirt off of the meowclops. When the game starts, first work on the main body of the meowclops. This is because it is the largest portion of the meowclops, and as the meowclops moves back and forth, you should always be on part of its body. When you start to notice the dirt fading away, look around and see what other people are working on. Try to pick a spot that no one else is on so you can more easily tell which water spout is yours. After the body, you can move on to the tail, the legs, or the head. All of them have their advantages and disadvantages, so take your pick. Whatever you decide, keep one eye on the water and your other eye on your score. Make sure your score is always going up. Sometimes it’s hard to tell whether or not you’re actually washing away dirt, so watch your score so you know if you’re in a good spot or not.

Petpetpet Snare – The object of this game is to collect the most petpetpets by drawing circles around them. As far as strategy goes, I will suggest two strategies based off of your computer speed. Both of them rely on the fact that as soon as a player on the board encircles a petpetpet, everyone else’s circles must be redrawn. So, if you have a faster computer – and you know who you are – you want to quickly find groups of petpetpets and circle all of them as quickly as possible. This allows you to grab all of them before anyone else gets a chance. If however, you find yourself being interrupted while trying to draw the larger circles, switch to the slower computer method. For slower computers, you goal is to just quickly as possible encircle one petpetpet at a time. Your goal is to keep making circles fast enough to prevent the people with faster computers – that are making larger circles – from completing their circles.

Spyder Scare – The object of this game is to get the most points by the end of the game. As far as strategy goes, you have a few options. If there is a freeze-ball that isn’t covered by other things, then go for it right away at the beginning. If there isn’t one that is readily accessible, though, then start to go for the nuts and bolts that are closest to the top. This is so it’ll take you less time to grab them. As far as the speed-ball goes, I wouldn’t worry about it as much. If you can easily grab one, then go ahead, but otherwise I’d just worry about the freeze-ball and the nuts and bolts.

Flower Frenzy – The object of this game is to get the most points by repeating a pattern of flowers. For this game, keep in mind that the first one is always the flower on the far left. After that, it is always a flower that is adjacent to the last one, which makes it a little easier to keep track of instead of having to jump around. As the flowers light up, it helps me to count which number that flower was. So I will say “one” as the first one lights up, “two” as the second one lights up, and so on. I will then do this again when I click on the flowers. Another method for helping you remember is to try and think of patterns. For example, very frequently the path will go a few flowers away, and then start repeating itself and go backwards along that same path. Notice patterns like this and use them to help you remember the order of the flowers!

Well, that brings us to the end of the final section of my guide to advanced Key Questing!! To quickly recap, let me point out some of the key points. First off –POWERUPS!! They are your friend. Always pay attention to what powerups you have and what powerups your opponents have, and always be thinking of ways to use your powerups to your best advantage as well as what you would do if an opponent used a powerup on you. You can even take this one step further by trying to think of what an opponent would do if you used a powerup on them.

Next, make sure you remain flexible! Have a variety of plans to rely on, knowing that it won’t always work out the way you want it to. Always have at least one plan in your back pocket, waiting to be used.

As for the mini-games, practice, practice, practice! Hopefully you will find some of the above strategies useful, but by no means feel like you have to use them. If you find a strategy that works better for you, then take and pick what best fits your needs.

Finally, and most importantly, an issue that I probably have not stressed enough in these articles is just to make sure you have fun! All of this is, after all, just a game. =)

Thanks for reading!

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to neomail me!