Extreme Herder Guide – Chasing Around the Paddock!

What do you get when you put a Kacheek, a Lupe, a couple of petpets and a paddock together? That is right, Extreme Herder, the game! In this fun and adventurous game, you play as Samrin the Kacheek. He is a simple herder enjoying life on a beautiful farm in Meridell. Lately a Lupe who steals the petpets from his field is terrorizing him. This Lupe is also known as Balthazar the Bounty Hunter. Normally he fills his time with hunting down faeries and capturing them in small bottles so he can sell them for a hefty profit. Apparently, this becomes boring too after a while and now he has found another activity, eating petpets from Samrin's field. To keep Samrin's petpets from being eaten, you need to collect all of them and store them in a paddock where Balthazar cannot come. Are you good enough to get the avatar or even a trophy for this game?

The basics

Use your arrow keys to move around the field. Samrin will automatically pick up a petpet when he touches it. To drop a petpet if you picked up the wrong one, just use the spacebar. Drop all petpets off in the paddock by walking to a gate. No need to use the spacebar when dropping off petpets in the paddock, this is done automatically. You start the game with three lives and you lose a life each time you or a petpet gets eaten by Balthazar. Balthazar will never chase Samrin himself. The game also has two different power-ups, a snowflake and an orange orb. The snowflake will temporarily freeze Balthazar, whereas the orange speed orb will give a temporary burst of speed. Use them to your advantage!

In the beginning of Extreme Herder, there are also four teleports, one on each side. In level 5 the teleport at the top of the game field is gone. In level 6 the teleport on the bottom of the game field will disappear. In level 7 and 8 the teleports on the right and the left will disappear. From level 9 onwards the gates to the paddock start to disappear. First at the top, then at the bottom and at last in level 11 you lose the right gate of the paddock. Thus from level 11 onwards you can only drop your petpets of on the left of the field. This is very unfortunate, because Balthazar starts roaming this area first, making it more difficult to save all your petpets.

Scoring

Each petpet is worth 1 point, except for the bonus petpet. You can recognize the bonus petpet by a star on its back. Do not forget to always catch this bonus petpet, especially in later levels. This petpet is very important if you want to get the avatar or a trophy for this game. In the first few levels, you can also earn a bonus if you save all petpets in those levels. This helps you in getting a good score. As a rule, if you have to choose between yourself getting eaten by Balthazar or a petpet, always sacrifice yourself. The life does not give points and the petpet does.

Level 1 has three petpets and if you save all petpets your bonus is three points. Level 2 has four petpets, all-save bonus is also four, etc. Here is a list:

• Level 1: 3 petpets – 3 bonus points
• Level 2: 4 petpets – 4 bonus points
• Level 3: 5 petpets – 5 bonus points
• Level 4: 6 petpets – 6 bonus points
• Level 5: 7 petpets – 7 bonus points
• Level 6 and up: 7 petpets – no bonus points

As discussed, bonus petpets are very important and will give you extra points when you save them. There is a pattern in the amount of bonus points you get. Every three levels you get one bonus point more. So always make sure Balthazar does not eat your bonus petpet. Here is an overview:

• Level 1 – 3: 2 bonus points
• Level 4 – 6: 3 bonus points
• Level 7 – 9: 4 bonus points
• Level 10 – 12: 5 bonus points
• Level 13 – 15: 6 bonus points
• Level 16 – 18: 7 bonus points
• Etc.

Extra tips

The first ten levels should not be a problem and keeping all three lives is a must if you are trying for the avatar or a trophy. Level 11 and onwards is where it gets tricky. Since Balthazar will always start in the top left corner, it is a wise idea to position yourself there as well after you drop of your last petpet. This way you can quickly catch any petpet wandering there on the start of every level. The best position is to place yourself just left and above the corner of the paddock. Unfortunately there is no pause button on this game, so if you want to pause the game, put all petpets in the paddock, except for one. When picking up the last petpet, Balthazar will go back to the top left corner and stay there. If you want, that is the time to go for a bathroom break, get refreshment or get something to eat because the stress of the game is getting to you.

Always pick up the snowflake. This temporarily freezes Balthazar and gives you more time. What it can also do is change the direction Balthazar is going. This can be an extra bonus sometimes if you are in a sticky situation. Once per loaded game you can also use the code 'freeze'. This will work as a snowflake and temporarily freeze Balthazar. I would not suggest going after the orange speed orb power-up. Although this does speed up your movement, it will decrease the accuracy of Samrin. As a result the chances of accidentally run into Balthazar are higher. In addition, since your control of Samrin has decreased, you most likely need to make a bigger path around the paddock, making your path towards a petpet or gate longer.

Balthazar

The most important thing in this game is of course Balthazar, since he is the enemy. But also really important is to keep an eye on his movements. What you want to achieve most of the time is for Balthazar to stay on the left side of the game field, never turning a corner. This way you will never have to worry about losing petpets, since you can save them one by one. How does Balthazar work then? He has a target petpet he is going for. This most often is the petpet closest to him, but that is not always the case. Figure out which petpet he is targeting and save that one first. Once you pick up that particular petpet, he will target another petpet, and so on. If you have picked up a petpet, but Balthazar is going for another petpet, release the petpet you are holding now and go for the petpet Balthazar is targeting. This is also the method to keep him on the left side of the game field. And this method and game insight is also required to get a score good enough for the avatar or a trophy.

I hope that this guide has been helpful in getting some insight in this adventurous game. Hopefully these tips and a lot of practice will help you become a master in this game, the ULTIMATE herder. And a nice avatar or trophy along the way. Good luck herding!