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-Why Turmac Roll?
Why Turmac Roll, you ask? I've always been a fan of 'mindless' games to earn my neopoints. Ultimate Bullseye, Turmac Roll, Meerca Chase I and II—they do require a bit of learned skill, but nothing compared to the likes of Invasion of Meridell or Neoquest. With those games, I always felt like someone else with better, secret strategies had an upper hand—with Turmac Roll, there's no way around it. You bounce, you bound, you win. Another reason that I like it is because of the 100 points=100 NP's transfer. In games like Meerca Chase, I constantly find myself doing mental judgments in my head trying to find out when its ok to quit, or how many points I'm making—this game is as simple as it gets. Earn 50 points? Get 50 points. It's a great game to just play quickly and earn 200 or so points per roll when you're in a rush, or to earn a guaranteed 3k a day. So here we go! Strategies for Turmac Roll.

-Change the screen size to 1024 x 768.
For those of you that don't know what that means exactly, those numbers describe the width of the pixels across your computer screen. A computer comes defaulted on 800x600—but if you right click to "Properties" and then "Settings" you can mess with the screen size until you find one that fits what you do. You do not have to have a 1024 x 768 screen size to use the "Large" setting on Turmac Roll. It just makes the screen a lot bigger, and in my opinion gives you a huge advantage. Another tip--if the game is lagging, downgrade to "Medium" or "Low" quality. This should definitly cut the choppiness.

-Learn Your Berries

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The more you play this game, the sooner you'll learn which berries are the most desirable to fight for. Some, such as the Aquaberry or Unguberry (or even a Juicy Berry) are worth sending Turmac on a kamikaze dive roll in a last ditch attempt to collect (the Aquaberry on the Hard setting can earn you almost 1,000 points.) Other berries, like the Snidberry or Loveberry, aren't worth your time. Of course collect them when they're convenient, but don't risk your life.

-Chance is chance. It isn't rigged.
Don't get discouraged if you get round after round of Snidberries. I pride myself in having the absolute worst luck in all of Neopia—I think it helps me relate to people when I write these guides (because really, how could you trust a Neotrillionaire who has 60 trophies?). What I'm saying is, if you don't find an Aquaberry in your first 4, or 5, or 100 tries, don't get frustrated and quit. An Aquaberry has never guaranteed me a win.

-Play the game on Hard. I've played all 3 levels extensively—Easy is marginally easier, but the points that you earn are just minute--there's no way it'd be worth your time. Medium to me seems exactly the same. The combinations that constantly kill me (that doggone three log combination!) are still there. So do yourself a favor, and teach yourself on the Hardest level—you'll appreciate it in the long run.

-You can't cheat.No, there are no cheat codes for this game. But you don't need them--look at my lookup; I've got less trophies than the average noob. But it doesn't mean I dont earn my 3k a day from this game, and it doesn't mean you can't either.

Hand position: there's not a lot to say here. I keep my three middle fingers on the arrow keys (the down arrow doesn't do anything) and I tend to lay my fingers flat on top of them. Remember to utilize the back (left) arrow key. Too too too many people simply attempt to JUMP in this game—learning to use the back key to slow down in the air is an essential strategy. You wont be able to do many of the combinations if you don't learn how to manipulate Turmac during his jumps, so keep this in mind while you play. Also, keep your finger pressed down on the forward (right) arrow key. It isn't necessary, but I've always done it. This is the best way to make sure you recover really fast from slowing down, and it gives you a lot more control over your character.

This looks familiar...
The beginning of the game is ALWAYS the same—a hill, flat land, two berries before a stump, then a series of two berries hovering over a few jumps, before the game begins to vary up. This beginning part is ALWAYS the same—there's no way I can really help you with that part (those dippy hills always get me!) but the more you play, you will definitely learn how to conquer every part of this combination.

-The Dreaded Triple Log Jump
I cannot even express to you how many hundreds upon thousands of times that this jump combination has slaughtered my poor little Turmac. I finally played the game over and over for the sole purpose of conquering this contraption of head-clunking catastrophe, and have developed two options.

The technique I use when I conquer these jumps is pictured in the...picture...below. You have to roll as CLOSE to the log as you can—don't get impatient and jump early. You can get a lot closer to those logs than you think you can. Once you're absolutely as close as you can get, launch yourself. Now it gets a bit tricky—you've got to learn to 'toggle' your back and forward arrow keys a bit to get yourself to drop in between the 2nd and 3rd log, than GUN the right arrow button and jump as hard as you can to get out of there! I've really found it's the most consistent solution. Another option is to try to drop yourself on top of the middle log, than jump off of that, but I find my results are just not as consistent and I find poor little Turmac flying out of control.

This composite image shows the path you should take when conquering the log jumps.
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-The Hills Are Alive….With The Sound Of…Bouncing?
Although I can't play the game for you, or give you some nifty cheat code, what I can do is share the patterns with you that I know. This list below shows the 4 most common 'patterns' that follow certain jumps and how you should handle each one.

This image depicts the 4 most common jumps in the game.
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1.) The Rippling Hills—when you hit the hills that seem to come end after end, be sure to watch where the berry is. If the berry is at the TOP when you can clearly see hills of 3 or more following, relax. You're going to bounce over a series of 8 or 9 hills before simply rolling onto a flat land that contains a berry. When I see these, I generally breathe easy—though it's a few seconds without new berries, at least there's no huge logs or awkward pointed hills to knock your poor Turmac.

2.)The Chunky Hill—how the heck would a hill sustain an injury like that anyway? Nevertheless, you can breathe a little sigh of relief when you see this hill. Just let yourself roll off the end—whatever's coming up is going to be late enough that you can jump it. There is one combination where a taller version of this hill is paired with a matching 'ramp,' but the jump is really small and visible. I seriously doubt you need my help there :)

3.) The Rippling Hills, Part II—This combination is the only acception to the "rippling hills" rule. When the berry is at the BOTTOM of the concave, watch out. At the 2nd berry, there will be a log that you have to jump—its not at all hard, just be aware. There is also only 2 sets of hills in this combination, so stay on your toes because it's a bit shorter.

4.) The Sad Lumpy Hill—OK so I don't know exactly what kind of hill this is, but I know its generally bad. There's always something following it that you won't be able to jump if you roll over top the hill. The solution I have found is jumping right on the spot indicated on the picture, right BEFORE the dip. You get shot up just as similar as hitting a regular hill, so if you jump at the right spot its smooth sailing.

-Mud/ Pit/ Vortex?
The last tidbit of information I have for you is concerning the mud 'holes' that you can see scattered here and there on the course. In honesty…I have no idea what they are. Furthermore, you shouldn't care! I've landed on top of that stuff a trillion times and its never once hurt me. Its no different than the reg'lar old ground, so dont die trying to launch over it.

Sloshing through the mud has absolutely no adverse effects.
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Well, that's it! I have expelled all possible knowledge I have of Turmac Roll.

Did you find this article helpful? Please, by all means, neomail me and let me know what you thought. Whatever your input (good or bad) I'll be sure to add to this page so people know how you felt. Thanks so much for taking the time to read!

Written by hannahb23, 18th Day of Eating, Y8.