Playing Yooyuball

Yooyuball is a game played with the Yooyu petpet native to Altador. When Altador was discovered, so was the game. The Altador Cup tournament was released in 2006 to coincide with a real life sports tournament. It appears to have become a new annual Neopets event so you can look forward to it every year.

You play for your chosen team, which can be from one of 16 Neopian worlds. Choose carefully, you cannot change your mind.

Once you enter the game arena, you must choose the arrangement of your team. Personally, I would use the 2x2 layout, as it lends to easier scoring when using the Faerie Yooyu. It also gives you two players up front if the ball is stolen from you, making recover easier than if there was only your lead offense. With the three offensive players up front, you also run into problems when trying to reach the Yooyu in the crucial first moments of the game.

Each round of Yooyu ball lasts 3 minutes. This time includes the time that it takes for the Yooyu ball to enter the field and the celebratory score screen.

Your aim is to grab the ball, then run towards the opponent's goal and shoot and score. I'll give you more information on that later. You can score up to 9 points in a round; after that, the opponents goalie gets set to "hyperdrive" and is impossible (as far as I know) to score against. If you get into this situation, I recommend holding the ball and running in laps around your opponents. It is very entertaining.

You direct your players primarily using the mouse. Pass your cursor (which is usually in the shape of an arrow) over your player of choice. This player will now follow your cursor anywhere on the field you'd like.

You can also use the keyboard to direct players, to some extent.

Hit Spacebar (or the S key) to deselect your active player. Then use your mouse to click on the screen. Your nearest player will run to this point, allowing you to set up nifty passes.

Press the Shift key to send all your players except your active player to their home positions. This is especially useful if you lose the ball near the opponent's goal and must switch to a defensive player to retrieve the ball. Then when you bring the ball back up to their side of the field, your other player is in the way of your perfect shot. This sounds confusing, but trust me, it happens all the time.

You can also switch your active player by hitting the left and right arrow keys or the A and D keys.

Plain Yooyu - This Yooyu plays exactly as you would expect it to. It is best shot at an angle. Stand about at one of the outer "star" points in the design around the goal then shoot at the opposite corner of the goal. The goalie will cover you and miss the ball. This works from a good distance if you get the hang of it.

Fire Yooyu - Red hot, this ball handles a bit differently. You can score with it the same way as the plain Yooyu, but feel free to take long shots. It travels super fast and if you aim right, the goalie can rarely reach it in time. But watch out! If you hold onto the ball too long, it will scald your player, who will drop the ball, leaving it open for the enemy.

Snow Yooyu - This ball works the opposite as the fire Yooyu. It slows down your player when held and travels much slower than normal. While you still want to score using your angle shots, be sure you are close to the goal. Where you could get away with a score with the regular Yooyu, the goalie will have plenty of time to reach out and grab the snow version.

Mutant Yooyu - One of the harder balls to score with, in my opinion. This ball will randomly (as far as I can tell) go straight or in a curve. You can usually use the angle shot technique describe above to make a goal, but be careful. It won't always work.

Faerie Yooyu - Many people have difficulty scoring with this ball, but the technique is fairly easy. Take the ball, then run exactly down the center of the field toward your opponent. Shoot when your player reaches the tip of the point and the next white guideline. With the right timing, the ball will arc perfectly around the goalie and land in the net. This is also why I suggest using the 2x2 player arrangement. With either of the other arrangements, the center defenseman of the opposing team will stand exactly where you need to be to shoot. If you insist on using them, you will probably want to run by then lure off that center opponent. If he (or she, Sela Pretore is pretty intimidating) is chasing you, you should be clear to shoot.

Darigan Yooyu - This ball is quite quirky and very frustrating. The easy solution is to pass it to the other team and let them score a point. This is hard to do, but as the alternative is often running around the field trying to shoot a goal, the subtraction of one point is better than not getting five more points because you are running around bouncing this ball off the walls. Explaining how it shoots is a bit tricky. When your player faces either goal and shoots, the ball will go straight. If you face either side, it will shoot out from behind you. If you face a corner and stand in the center of the field, it will shoot toward the corner on the other side of the goal you are facing. Imagine a line down the field from one goal to the other. If you face 10 degrees to the right of this line, the ball will shoot 10 degrees to the left of it. How does that apply to actually shooting? For me, the best tactic is to go from the bottom of the screen (the right side of the field), run between the two right defenders toward the goal at an angle. When I'm in front of the goalie, facing between the far corner of the field and corner of the goal, I shoot. This usually ends in the ball going past the goalie and into the goal, but practice makes perfect and it isn't perfect for me yet either.

Robot Yooyu - This ball is quite simple. It rolls like the plain Yooyu, but if it remains in play for too long (that is, not scored with), it will explode. Watch the glow around the ball, when it turns red the ball will burst momentarily, after about 15 seconds.

• Bumping your opponent from behind occasionally causes them to drop the ball.
• If your opponent does drop the ball, they will often start running toward your goal until you either take the ball or one of them realises the ball is not being held (usually about when the last player crosses half court).

Text Link:
<a href="www.neopets.com/~Fwanta">Play like a pro! - Guide to Yooyuball</a>