Precisely How to Exact Revenge

If you answered “YES” to any of the above, then this guide is for you buddy pal. Keep on reading for all the juicy info you can imagine on Aristotle A. Avinroo’s latest yoyo slingin’ scheme.

Background - What is Project X?

If you weren’t around back in the Month of Eating earlier this year, you probably missed the “Project X” teasers during the Daily Dare. During the Y18 Daily Dare, AAA traveled all around Neopia to work on his very secretive “Project X.” Over the course of the Daily Dare, he provided teasers in the form of tiny doodles on his map, in which he drew us physics equations and yoyos.

AAA silently continued working on Project X for many months. Finally, at the beginning of the Month of Gathering, AAA’s Project X was revealed: a new game known as AAA’s Revenge in which we discover just how ruthless AAA can be.

Eight years after King Roothless imprisoned AAA and his sister, we finally see AAA getting his long overdue retribution for the events that unfolded during Y10’s Daily Dare. This game even entered Neopian history as the first ever HTML5 game on the site - pretty cool, AAA! (Or should we say AAAwesome?)

A couple weeks later, Neopians uncovered a secret avatar awarded by playing this game. At the time of writing, only around a few dozen users have managed to acquire this elusive avatar. Hopefully this guide will help you to acquire it yourself!*

    * The avatar has not been awarded at all since last month (Month of Gathering). Hopefully this is quickly fixed.

The Basics - Controls and Mechanics

Most of the controls are given in the game’s instructions, but I’ll rehash them in more detail here. I will also mention some of the things that the official instructions happen to omit.

In-game you control AAA’s location and his yoyos. There are twelve locations from which you can make AAA shoot a yoyo.

Moving: The instructions tell you to move around the room with your left and right arrow keys. Your left arrow key will move AAA clockwise around the room, while your right arrow key will move him counterclockwise. It may help you to think of this in terms of what direction is which when AAA is at the bottom of room.

What the instructions don’t tell you is that you can also use WASD to control AAA. You may want to consider this option if 1) you prefer using your left hand to control AAA or 2) you find the clockwise and counterclockwise mechanic confusing. Personally I find it much more difficult and confusing to control AAA with WASD, but I’ve told you about this in case you happen to find it easier. Try it out - see what works best for you! :)

Shooting: Shooting yoyos is simple, just press your spacebar. Your yoyo will move in a straight line from where AAA is to King Roothless in the center. If a guard spots your yoyo (that is, if your yoyo crosses the area illuminated by their light) it will be confiscated. Running out of yoyos will end your game; the number of yoyos you have remaining is displayed in the top left corner.

Note that if a guard is in your way you can shoot a yoyo right through their body: only their lights will cost you a yoyo.

Scoring: The main way you will earn points is by hitting King Roothless with yoyos. Hitting Roothless is typically worth 1 point, however each hit made in quick succession after the first hit will earn you 2 points instead of 1.

Hitting Roothless in quick succession is most easily done by repeatedly shooting yoyos from the same spot. (Additionally, because of the way the guards rotate their lights as they walk, this is easier to do from the center openings of each wall.) However, hitting him three times in a row from the same spot will cause a flashing shield to appear between you and Roothless. At this point, you can do one of two things: hit him from a different spot, which will cause the flashing shield to disappear, or hit him a fourth time from the same spot, but be careful: if you do, the shield will turn solid and prevent you from hitting Roothless from that spot. Luckily, hitting the shield will make it disappear, but it will also cost you one of your yoyos.

The second way to earn points is by collecting power-ups, which are described later.

Objective: The ultimate goal of the game is to make sure King Roothless does not fall asleep. Roothless will fall asleep in two stages: he begins awake, then he yawns, and finally he falls asleep. When he yawns (and an exclamation mark appears by his head) you have 5 seconds to hit him with a yoyo before he falls asleep. If he does fall asleep, it’s game over!

When the game starts, you have 20 seconds from your last hit to keep Roothless awake. This amount of time slowly decreases as your score increases. When your score is between 100 and 999 (both inclusive) points, you will only have 9 seconds to hit Roothless before he falls asleep.

The Basics - Mobile Controls

Since AAA’s Revenge is written in HTML5, it can be played on mobile devices! The controls are mostly the same as the desktop controls, but instead of using a keyboard it provides three buttons at the bottom.

In the bottom left corner you will see two arrows: the one on the left depicts clockwise movement and functions the same as the left arrow key; the one on the right depicts counter-clockwise movement and functions the same as the right arrow key. In the bottom right corner there is an empty circle that shoots your yoyo just as spacebar would.

There is one notable quirk: the game will complain if you try to play with your device in landscape mode. You may want to lock your screen in portrait mode if that’s an option on your device. You will also want to put your device in whatever sort of “Do Not Disturb” mode it may have.

Power-ups

The game has three power-ups (items with positive effects), which are as follows:

Yoyo: Collecting this item grants you an extra “life”

Snowflake: Collecting this item freezes the guards (and their lines of sight) in place for 5 seconds

Gift/Present: Collecting this item awards you 10 points when collected

Collecting a power-up also awards you with a single point. This means that collecting a gift/present power-up will increase your score by 11 points.

Power-ups appear in the game as you earn points, and will stay in place for 10 seconds before beginning to fade out. You get your first power-up (either a yoyo or a snowflake) once you score 10 points. After this you will get power-ups in a set pattern: a snowflake, then a yoyo, then a gift, then another snowflake, and so on. Once your score exceeds 300 the power-ups are random, and they will only appear when your score is a multiple of 10 (i.e., it ends in 0). This means that if you need or want another yoyo or gift, then you must not earn +2 from quickly hitting Roothless when your score ends in a 9. If you’re being conscious of spawning power-ups, you may have to keep an eye on your score and do some quick mental arithmetic.

Useful Tips

Now that you’ve got the basics down, you’re ready for some tips to improve your gameplay!

Tip #1: Stick to two adjacent sides of the room as much as you can. This will allow you to reduce your focus from all of the guards to just two or three. The less you have to pay attention to, the easier the game becomes. Occasionally you will want to venture to the other sides to collect power-ups and take easy shots to keep Roothless awake, but most of the time two sides is sufficient. Three sides is alright if you must, though two is preferred whenever possible.

Tip #2: After some time, the sentries quickly fall into predictable repeating patterns. Take advantage of this by moving in a pattern yourself. Committing to a pattern means you’re only taking shots that you’re certain will be safe -- because you’ve made them before. Of course you may have to deviate from your pattern to collect power-ups (if you want them), but getting back into the pattern is done fairly easily.

Tip #2.5: If you always throw your first yoyo at the same time (i.e., with the sentries’ lights at the same angles), then by collecting snowflakes you should always be able to get them into the same pattern(s) once the guards reach their top speed at around 90 points. If you note when you throw your first yoyo, then once you find a pattern you like you’ll be able to use it as often as you wish.

Tip #3: Once you’ve gotten into a pattern AVOID the snowflakes. Sure, they are are enticing: collecting them gives you a point and stops the guards in their tracks. However, collecting a snowflake can - and most likely will - change up the guards’ patterns. The changes aren’t usually drastic, but even subtle changes to their movement patterns can be enough to knock you off your game if you are not being incredibly cautious. If a snowflake appears in a spot that’s part of the pattern you’ve got going, improvise until it disappears.

Tip #4: Play with the music/sounds on. There are two major benefits of the game’s sounds: 1) the king audibly yawns, adding an audio cue to the exclamation mark and 2) power-ups make a sound when they disappear, but after the sound starts you’ve still got around two seconds to collect them as they fade.

Tip #5: Hitting Roothless to keep him awake is a must. It trumps collecting power-ups every time. No matter what. Try to hit Roothless immediately before going to collect a power-up, and only go for it if you’re sure it won’t mean Roothless will fall asleep. Worst case scenario? You miss a gift and your game takes several seconds longer. The alternative? Gettin’ cozy with the game over screen. Not good.

1000+ Score Bug

At the time of writing, the game will freeze when your score exceeds 999. There is nothing you can do to prevent this (aside from ending your game prior to reaching 1000 points), however you can still submit your score when it happens. To send your score when the game is frozen, click the end game button in the top right corner and then click the area around King Roothless’ lap/body where the SUBMIT SCORE button would normally be.

As with most games, mastery comes with practice, experience, and patience. The more you play, the better you will get (I’ve improved a lot myself while writing this guide!). You should not expect to be able to get the avatar or trophy right away, but I hope this guide has put you on track to achieving them. Good luck; you should be flaunting a rather sporty new avatar in no time!