Carnival of Terror is all about accuracy and how you can best use your resources to maximise your score.

History to Carnival of Terror
My Comments
Trophies & Rewards
The Basics
Basic Shooting Technique
Advanced Shooting Technique
Interesting Features

There once was a carnival so amazing that Neopians from all around would flock in droves to see it. Visitors were enchanted by the carnival's colourful shows and spectacular attractions. The fun came to an end, though, on the day that the nefarious Dr. Sloth sent an invasion of robot Chia clowns to take over the carnival and then use it to capture all of Neopia! They've already infiltrated the once joyful carnival, but with your help, their reign of mechanised terror can come to an end!

Carnival of Terror is probably one of my favourite games on Neopets. Recently I received a Bronze Trophy for my efforts in this game, and felt that I'd give some general pointers as to how you can vastly improve your game. Carnival of Terror is a quick, fun and easy game to win 1000 NP per play. By the end of this guide you'll be able to achieve scores of 700+ easily. In addition to 1000 NP per play, scores of 700+ have very high chances of winning Haunted Woods Map Pieces from the World Challenge, which is a very nice income stream to have.

The Carnival of Terror Avatar!
On the 2nd of September (2009) TNT released a new avatar for Carnival of Terror!!

The avatar score for this game is 725+. If you stick to the suggested tips in this guide, you should be easily able to beat that score with some practice.

There is also an unreleased game avatar for this game (maybe)

Accuracy

Accuracy is one of the major aspects of Carnival of Terror. Wasted bullets substantially reduce your score. The shooting techniques discussed later in the guide require reasonable aim for you to achieve a high score. However, this can be easily achieved.

Practice makes perfect. Carnival of Terror is no exception.
You don't need to play the game for hours on end to improve.

I suggest playing 3 times a day. Additionally, games such as Evil Fuzzles Beyond the Stars and Cooty Wars will vastly improve your accuracy. Playing popular First person shooter games will further help improve your score.

General Information

• You start with 100 Bullets. However – Only 99 of these are useable as with the 100th shot your game ends as you've run out of ammo. The game will not record what happens with this 100th shot.
• Your game will run for 102.5 seconds
• 10 Pies can hit you before you lose the game due to a lack of health.
• This game contains "Powerups" which all allow your Ammo, Health and Time to be boosted. These will be explained in greater detail later.

NEVER shoot the Umbrella and Pie. They're only worth 1 point and you forgo the use of one bullet – Which could be used to gain 6 points!

Powerups

• Shooting the Ammo Case gives you 10 additional shots.
• Shooting the Clock gives you 10 seconds extra time.
• Shooting the Health Pack allows you to be hit by ONE extra pie.

I usually follow a shooting pattern like this:

Following this shooting pattern will earn 13 points for the expenditure of 4 bullets. The pattern is: Head, Arm, Bottom and then Body.

This is what it looks like after each shot:
1.

2.

3.

After the fourth shot the evil Chia Clown will explode.

Secret Codes:

Typing piecrust will restore your Ammo to full!! This gives you an extra 100 bullets. I suggest waiting until you've used up all your bullets like seen in the graphic. Waiting maximises the benefit of using this code.

Typing custard will restore your Health back to full!! This allows 10 new pies to hit you before you lose the game. You must type in custard BEFORE the 10th Pie hits you the first time, otherwise you will lose the game. Each code can only be used once. Although it is risky waiting until such a late stage before typing the code in, it helps greatly.

Just by following these basic tips a score of 637 is possible – Without getting ANY powerups. At current game ratios 637 points means 879NP – for 102.5 seconds of work! That's 9NP per second!

Your score can further be maximised by following some advanced shooting techniques

In Carnival of Terror you want to maximise your score. It's extremely difficult to know what shooting process you should follow throughout the game. I suggest following a method which involves shooting your bullets disproportionately to the amount of time used. This causes you to have excess time remaining. This situation will arise when following the Basic Shooting Strategy. With excess time you can focus on achieving more points per bullet, but a lower points per clown.

These advanced techniques involve paying close attention to your ammunition and your time bar to see what you can 'afford' to shoot. You must know what each of the parts of the Chia Clown are worth: Arm – 3 Points, Legs – 2 Points, Top – 2 Points, Body – 6 points.

For score maximisation purposes it is wise to ensure you've used up your bullets and time in proportion.

Earlier in this section I suggested using up bullets and time disproportionately. This is because it is extremely difficult to constantly balance the percentage of bullets and time used at any one stage. The techniques discussed shortly will result in your bullets/time being used proportionately by the end of the game and will enable you to achieve a higher score.

In the diagram above, 50 Bullets have been used (25%) and 25.625 (25%) seconds have elapsed. However, powerups can distort this ratio. A good understanding of how to successfully use these powerups can maximise your score further.

Situations such as in the diagram above are great. In this case I've been aggressively using my basic shooting strategy. I've shot 90 bullets and only used up 40 seconds. Given that we want to use our time and bullets in proportion we can use these extra 10 bullets to hit higher scoring parts of the Chia Clown. Keep in mind that after those bullets are used there are still another 100 to go after using the piecrust code.

If you shoot the Chia Clown in that circled area (The "Instant Kill" zone), you'll get six points and the clown will explode. This increases the points earned per bullet and will help to maximise your score.

It is important to note that shooting the clown once, although scoring a higher amount per bullet used, causes you to forgo other combinations of shots which will score a higher total score per clown (but a lower score per bullet).

Based on the principle of using your time/bullets in proportion it is only possible to focus on higher scoring combinations of shots for a short period. Although you're scoring a higher amount per clown, they're also exploding relatively quicker. This means there is an increased possibility of a long gap between the clown you just shot and the next one appearing on screen. I suggest waiting for a minimum of two clowns to appear on screen before shooting them in the Instant Kill Zone.

I've played a few games just to see what happens when you focus just on shooting that area for the whole game. You run out of time with only 450 points. This means there is a greatly improved potential for you to score higher by following the basic shooting strategy.

The Basic shooting strategy is only 3.25 points per bullet, however this method is 6 points per bullet. This makes it worthwhile as a method of shooting away my extra time.

Depending on how I feel, I've also used other shooting strategies once I've got an excess of time.

This looks a bit confusing. It goes: Head, Arm, Body that is showing after the Head is shot. This sequence earns 10 Points for 3 bullets. 10/3 Points per bullet isn't bad and it allows you to maintain your benefit over the clock for a lot longer.

This earns 9 points for 2 bullets. It goes: Arm, Instant Kill zone. 4.5 Points per bullet is great.

It is worthwhile restating that the fewer shots taken to destroy each clown effectively increases the amount of time between one clown leaving the screen and another coming onto the screen. Long gaps will cause you to waste time, which will lower your score. I suggest continuing with your basic shooting strategy until there are multiple clowns on the screen and then focusing on higher point scoring combinations.

AVOID situations where you're high on ammo and low on time AT ALL COSTS. There is nothing more useless than unused bullets.

This situation could have (and usually does happen) due to a large number of ammo box power-ups. In that situation, lucky you! Fire at everything you see, although be careful not to waste TOO many bullets on your targets. This rarely happens due to slow shooting, however can easily be fixed by firing at more Clowns.

There is hidden feature in Carnival of Terror! After loading up the game, click on "Instructions" and then click on "More" until you reach the following screen:

If you hover your mouse over the Clock, you'll notice that your cursor changes. Click on the clock and you'll hear a noise! Click on "Back" to return to the main page. Some claim that clicking on the clock increases the amount of powerups that you get in a game, increasing your score. However, I'm yet to find any evidence to support that theory. If you'd like to get involved testing whether clicking it increases your score, or you have strong evidence to support that clicking it increases your score, please neomail me.

If you have any questions, suggestions or would like to link to my guide please send me a Neomail. I'll respond within a day usually :). Apologies if you read this guide and the images were broken.

Click HERE to play Carnival of Terror.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR GAME!!