A Great Godori Guide

BASIC GAMEPLAY AND SCORING

After starting a game, you’ll see that you and your computerized opponent (always named as your active pet) each have ten cards dealt to you. Your cards are secret from your opponent and you can’t see theirs. There are ten communal cards, face up, in the center of the play area. The remaining twenty cards are facedown in a deck. To start, you play a card from your hand then you draw a card from the deck, both of which are placed in the communal area. If you have any capture matches, those cards are added in to your capture area.

Each time you go through the deck, you have completed a hand. You need to play hands until someone reaches 50 total points in order to win a Godori match and earn neopoints. I’ll explain how captured cards give you points in a bit. If you win the Godori match, you will earn 200 neopoints plus 5 neopoints for each point you have more than your opponent. If you lose, you will forfeit 200 neopoints plus 5 neopoints for each point you have more than your opponent.

In order to capture cards, you need to match cards from Neopian Worlds. Here is the full list of capture matches:

//www.neopets.com/games/godori/list_cards.phtml

Most Neopian Worlds have one star, one petpet, one flag, and one world. A way to help you learn what captures matches are is to look at the colors. If the color scheme is the same, you have a match.

After playing a card from your hand and drawing a card from the deck, you see if you there are exactly two or all four cards from the same Neopian World in the communal area. If there are, you get to take those cards and put them in your captured area. In a turn, it is possible to capture cards from two different worlds. If the card you play makes a match and the card you draw makes a different match, you get to take both captures. Although you cannot control what card is going to come out of the deck, you are always hoping for two capture matches on your turn.

If there are two cards from the same Neopian World in the communal area to start, you’ll need all four to capture. Sometimes you play a card from you hand thinking you’ll get two cards in a capture, but the card from the deck is a third card for the world. If three cards are in the communal area, you don’t get to take them. This is the most frustrating part of Godori as it means you will be capturing zero cards on that turn.

Sometimes you won’t make a match with either card that is played. On the other hand, if you are very lucky, the card you play and the card you draw will both complete a set of three Neopian Worlds already in the communal area, netting you eight cards in one turn!

The most complicated part of Godori is realizing that capturing matches and scoring matches are different. You capture cards by matching the Neopian Worlds, but once they are in your capture area, they are sorted and scored by a different set of rules.

You can see the full list of scoring matches and how many points they are worth at:

//www.neopets.com/games/godori/scoring_matches.phtml

The cards in your capture area are sorted by scoring match.

At any point, you can check how many points you have for the hand by looking at:

//www.neopets.com/games/godori/score.phtml?user=player

Or look at your opponent’s points:

//www.neopets.com/games/godori/score.phtml?user=comp

If you want to see what cards you or your opponent have collected at a glance, you can hover over any card in either capture area to look at it in more detail.

GETTING THE BEST CARDS FIRST

There is a strategy as to what cards you should focus on getting as soon as you can to maximize your points. Communal means both you and your opponent could capture those cards, so you want to grab up the best ones as quickly as possible. You should follow these basic guidelines, and as the hand progresses, adapt them to fit what cards you’ve already collected.

The highest point scoring matches are the cards with stars on them.

These cards are worth a whopping 15 points if you collect all five, so if you see them in the communal area and can make a capture match, make sure you go for them first. As you can see, you get points only if you have three or more, but you also want to make sure your opponent doesn’t collect all five. Even if your opponent has four and you won’t get any points for the last, still try really hard for it and keep your opponent from those extra eleven points.

Next up you want to go for the flag cards. More specifically, you want to try to complete a set of three matched-shape flag cards.

See how the cards are split into three groups of three? One set looks like they’re hanging banners, one waving in the air, and one crimped into a ribbon. If you collect all three from any set, you get an extra three points. That’s in addition to the points you get just for having five or more of any flag. You’ll want to try and capture as many sets as you can, but even if your opponent has one from the set, keep collecting. Just like with the starred cards, if you can’t get those points, don’t let your opponent have them. Keep track of what sets you already have cards for. If you have two hanging flag cards and a third is available, grab it to complete the set.

Your next focus should be petpet cards. Just like the flags, there is an extra set of three special cards that get you bonus points.

If you collect all three flying petpets, you get an extra five points. The turdle card is also a bit more valuable than some of the other petpet cards. It gets scored as a petpet card AND a world card (more on those in a bit). Unlike flags, there is only the one special set to collect, which is why the flags have higher priority.

The cards that are least important and therefore you should only grab if nothing else is available are world cards. These cards generally have less detail on their pictures and are easy to distinguish from the higher priority cards.

As you can see, there are a lot of these cards. You need ten in order to starting racking up points, but with so many, you should be able to pick up at least ten even with them being the lowest priority.

There are three special world cards. Remember the turdle card I told you about? He counts towards your world total as well as your petpet total. If you have him and four other petpets, he earns you a point. If you also have nine other worlds, he earns you an additional point. The other two special cards count as two world cards collected.

If you have one of those and eight additional world cards, you’ll earn a point. These three special cards should be collected before other world cards if you have a choice (but you should have already collected the turdle before trying for worlds, remember? :)).

Always try to get a capture; avoid putting down a card with no match already on the table whenever you can. The first rule of getting points is to capture as many cards as you can. The more you have, the more likely you’ll rack up big scoring match points.

As I said earlier, you need to be able to adapt what cards you try for first. If you have two waving flags cards captured and your choice is between capturing the third hanging flag card or a second star, you might choose the flag even though I said stars first! Just be willing to be flexible. There also is another aspect of the game that may change the order you want to grab the cards in.

GUARANTEED CAPTURE MATCHES

Sometimes the way cards are played will pretty much guarantee that you will win them. This means you can take your time and collect other cards from the communal area first. If a card is guaranteed, no matter what type it is, it moves to the very bottom of the priority list.

Take a look at your cards and the starting board very carefully. If there are two cards from the same world and you have a third, save it. That will get you a guaranteed match once the fourth card appears on the board (since it will create a set of three and you can’t capture only three at a time). If you have both the remaining two, also save those. Since you know you’ll be capturing the entire set, you should definitely go for cards you might not get.

If there is one card on the board and two in your hand, you may want save it for a little bit. If you play one of your two right away, you are guaranteed to get the entire set. You will either collect the first two immediately and then just wait for the fourth to show up and collect that as well or the fourth will appear on your draw phase and you can collect all four at your leisure.

If you decide to wait, you may miss out on collecting the first card, but the odds of your opponent being able to make the match are low since only one card is unaccounted for. What determines when you want to play one of your cards in this instance is what other cards are on the board. If any of the starred cards are out and you can make a match, do that first. Once you have done that, you may want to finally play to grab it or you may want to go for other matches first. It’s really up to you how long you want to wait.

Near the end of the hand, you may be forced to play your cards when a match isn’t on the board. This doesn’t happen often, though, so I like to just assume a guaranteed capture match. One thing you can do to protect yourself for when you do get forced out of a guaranteed match is to always play for the best cards of a set when you are guaranteed to get them. Don’t play a plain world when you have a star you could also use.

WHY PLAY?

There is no trophy for Godori, so why play? You can earn neopoints, you can get on the Hall of Fame for the month, and it’s fun! The Hall of Fame is a bit like the high score lists of other games, but is more complicated. Names are listed according to who has won the most NP in the month, but you can also see the stats for Total Hands Won, Total Matches Won, Hands in a Row Won, and Matches in a Row Won. It can be really fun to try to get near the top of the list.

There is always a lot to think about when playing Godori, but that’s what makes it interesting. With enough practice, you will be able to play to your best ability without much thought. You may even come up with different strategies for play than what are listed in my guide. Just remember to always have fun!