That’s so Fetch! Tips for a Trophy

     That’s so Fetch! Tips for a Trophy

     If you’re like me, you may not have ventured into the world of ‘Fetch’ for several years. I had vague childhood memories of being thrown out into the woods in search of a pink goo only known as “The Stuff” – but it wasn’t until I started playing this game again recently that the nostalgia came flooding back. Fetch is actually a pretty fun game, as outdated as it may look. If you want to re-visit a game you might have played in your childhood and pick up a nifty new trophy while you’re at it, this guide is for you!

     First, let me refresh your memory. ‘Fetch’ is a game where you play a Mutant Blumaroo, who is unfortunately, a servant. You’re under strict instructions from your master to go out and fetch a specific item to then bring back to him. To do this you must find your way through a maze, firstly to the item, then to the exit. Your maze will be a square of paths surrounded by trees. You will recognize the exit as it is one long path leading away from the main maze. The tricky part is that you can only see a small amount of the map at one time.

     There are five difficulties: easy, medium, hard, fiendish, and insane. Fiendish is only unlocked once you have reached 1,500 points, and Insane is unlocked after 2,000 points. I would recommend starting with a quick easy game, then moving up to medium, to get the hang of it. I find with easy and medium, I can just play through without mapping out my maze. However, hard onwards requires some work.

     The best thing you can do with this game is to map out your maze as you go. While travelling down a path, you can see glimpses of paths around you. Some people like to draw what they see on grid paper. I personally like to take screenshots of the game as I go, pasting them together to create one big view of the maze. This will help you out immensely.

     Each difficulty of the game comes with a different size maze. While playing the game you can see one ‘sqaure’ around you at a time. An easy maze is made up of 10x10 of those squares. Medium is 15x15, hard is 20x20, fiendish is 25x25, and insane is 30x30. Knowing the size of the maze is an important aspect of being able to navigate your way through. You are also allowed a higher number of steps with each difficulty.

     To begin, you are dropped in the maze on either an edge or a corner. Your strategy may differ depending on where you start. The item you are looking for will always be at the center of the maze, and the exit will almost always be on the opposite side to where you started. I have heard many people claim that the exit will ALWAYS be on the opposite side, however, I have once had a game where I started right next to the exit, so you never know! But generally it is best to look for the exit opposite to where you started, as 99% of the time that’s where it will be.

     If you begin on one side, you never really know how close you are to the center where the item is.

     The most important thing I learned about playing Fetch, that really changed the way I played the game, is how to properly set up my canvas for mapping out the maze. In a picture editing software like Photoshop or Paint, it is crucial you plan out exactly how big your map is going to be, and work within that canvas. Once you have a big blank square, place a big X in the exact center. This will be the location of your treasure, give or take a few squares. Now you have something to aim for.

     Like I said before, your strategy will differ depending on whether you initially start in a corner or not. I’ll take you through the strategy of each.

     Starting in a corner:

     The advantage to starting in the corner is that you know exactly where you are straight away. You can place your first screenshot in the very corner of your canvas, and make your way over to that big X. Unfortunately finding the exit is a bit more of a challenge. If you begin the game in a corner, say for example, the top left corner, then your exit may be anywhere on either the right or bottom side of the maze.

     Starting along one edge:

     So you’ve taken your first screenshot, but where do you place it? If you start somewhere along an edge with no corner in sight, you can’t be sure exactly where you are in relation to the treasure. If you start for example somewhere along the left edge of the maze, what I would do is place my first screenshot in the middle of the left side of my canvas. Then you can make your way in towards what you think is the middle of the map. If you catch sight of the treasure, then you can move your entire map so the treasure is in line with your big X. Now that you know where the middle of the maze is and have collected the treasure, your exit should be easy to find on the opposite side to where you started.

     So, now you can play the game, let’s talk about going for a trophy!

     An important thing to note about this game when going for a trophy is that scores are cumulative, rather than being based on one single game. This means that skill and luck are not really as important as determination – if you want the trophy badly enough and you’re willing to put in the time, you can get it!

     Insane mode may award the most points, but I would NOT recommend consecutive games on insane mode when going for a trophy, because simply, insane is too hard! The maze is huge and you only have enough steps to be able to cover about half of it. You may get lucky enough to complete it one or two times, but it is very likely you will fail and end up back at 0 points.

     If you’re starting from scratch at 0 points, perhaps just after a failed game, feel free to try your luck on an insane game. If you win, that will leave you with at least 2,500 points. If insane is driving you insane, you can start from fiendish. Still frustratingly hard, but slightly more doable. If you complete a fiendish game, that will leave you with at least 1,000 points. If you already have some points left from unlocking the harder two modes and haven’t failed since, I probably wouldn’t risk it with fiendish either!

     Once you’ve built up a base of at least 1,00-2,000 points, you now have something to lose. You may be tempted to keep playing through the harder levels as they rack up the most points, however, if you lose, you’re back to 0! Easy, medium and hard award at least 100, 200, and 500 points respectively. It’s up to you how safe you want to play it. For my own gold trophy, I built up a good base of points by playing two games on fiendish, and then pushed my score up by playing multiple games on hard until I was at the top of the leaderboard. I would say hard is the best mode for creeping your way up the leaderboard. Once you’ve gotten right up there and accumulated more points than you would care to lose, you might prefer to play it super safe by playing on easy or medium. These two are pretty hard to fail when you map out your maze. Us unglamorous as it sounds to play over and over on easy, those 100 points per game will rack up fast!

     It is of course easiest to go for a Fetch trophy (or any trophy) on the first day of the month, just after the leaderboard has reset. But that doesn’t mean you have to do all this in one day. The leaderboard may reset, but your personal score will not. You can play through Fetch as much as you like throughout the month to rack up a good number of points. Say you end the month on 3,000 points. On the first day of the month, your score will still be 3,000. Just play one more game on easy mode, and boom, you will appear on the leaderboard with 3,100 points! Keep an eye on the leaderboard as the day goes on. If someone threatens your trophy position, just play a few more easy games to get your score up higher than theirs. Trophies are awarded at about 8:30pm NST. At that time, you should be walking away with a FETCH new trophy! Good luck!