How to Play and Master Extreme Faerie Cloud Racers

Extreme Faerie Cloud Racers is a fast paced game that involves racing around a square field, trying to outlast your opponents. I have been playing this game, and now, I am reporting in this issue of the Neopian Times, my guide to doing as well as possible in this game. Maybe you’ll be the next Master of Extreme Faerie Cloud Racing after reading this article.

In this game, you play as a Faerie, and you are in a racing vehicle that leaves behind a deadly trail, which disappears after a few seconds. Once you start, you move at a constant speed and you cannot stop unless you crash either into the outside edges of the field, or into a trail that’s been left behind. The aim of the game is to be the last Faerie standing in each level.

At the start of the game, you have a choice of 4 Faeries that you can play as. These are, in order from left to right:

• Illusen the Earth Faerie (green trail)

• The Tooth Faerie (orange trail)

• The Space Faerie (purple trail)

• Taelia the Snow Faerie (yellow trail)

Each Faerie starts in a different quadrant of the battle field, and starts by moving in an anticlockwise direction. From the perspective of the mini map, The Space Faerie starts in the 1st quadrant (top right), Taelia starts in the 2nd quadrant (top left) Illusen starts in the 3rd quadrant (bottom left), and The Tooth Faerie starts in the 4th quadrant (bottom right).

I recommend that you pick 1 of the Faeries for every game and to try and master the game when playing as that Faerie. There are no differences between the Faeries except for where they start, so you should get used to one particular starting position for every game.

After picking a Faerie, you press the spacebar to start the game. Once you press the spacebar to start a level, how do you play the game? The controls are simple, using the arrow keys on the keyboard, press left to turn left, press right to turn right. All turns are quarter turns (π/2 radians), making right angles with your trail as you move around.

Let’s look at the interface you’re presented with. The bulk of the screen is taken up by the actual game, where you can see your Faerie moving forwards towards whatever is in front of her, but this isn’t where you will be looking to play the game (what?). I STRONGLY recommend that you play this game by looking exclusively at the small map in the bottom left of the screen. This map shows a bird's eye view of the field, with your faerie marked with a circle. All of the other Faeries and their trails are shown here as well, along with the power ups.

Now, let’s take a look at playing this game. You start with three lives, and your goal in each level is to be the last Faerie standing and to move on to the next level. Failure will cost you a life, which are indicated on the bottom right of the screen. In the earlier levels, you will want to try to trap the other Faeries in to crashing without crashing yourself. Two of the common movements your opponents will make that you should know about are that they will often trap themselves by turning into a tight rectangle, or they will go anticlockwise (usually) around the outside edge of the field.

The first of these possibilities is good for you, as they will eliminate themselves from the game pretty quickly, and you can focus your attention to the other Faeries. The second one is tougher to deal with as they can keep going like that forever. My strategy for eliminating these pesky Faeries is to follow them in a slightly tighter line, and then when you get just ahead of them (you’ll be covering less distance than them), to turn quickly into their line and to force them to crash. If that doesn’t work, try creating a small rectangular opening at one of the corners for them to turn into.

But what are those power up things that you see on the map? Well, there are 3 types of power up that can be picked up in the game. These are, along with how they appear on the map you should be looking at:

• Meerca Trail (Blue square)

• Sluggish Slorg (Green square)

• Tonu Charge (White square)

Meerca Trail prevents your trail from disappearing while it is active, Sluggish Slorg slows you down, and Tonu Charge gives you immunity to Faerie trails but not to the walls. Each of these power ups lasts for a few seconds, the time left is indicated in a bar that pops up when you pick it up.

Meerca Trail is useful for trapping the other Faeries, as you can surround them for longer than usual, but it also makes it more difficult for you to move around the field, be careful where you place your trails with this power up. Sluggish Slorg makes the game easier, as the other Faeries have a habit of crashing into themselves, but your slowness can make you a target to be tightly surrounded. Tonu Charge is my favourite of the 3 power ups, as it is impossible to be trapped while you have it active, you should avoid getting into tough situations in the first place, but this power up can save a life if you make a mistake.

That said, I don’t usually aim for the power ups, as the aim of the game is to survive for longer than the other Faeries in each level and you don’t earn any points for picking them up.

I just mentioned points then, so let’s look at how you earn points in this game. There are 3 ways to earn points in total, you can earn points by making risky movements, by having other Faeries crash into your trail, and by winning a level. Your score is shown in the bottom middle of the screen.

The points for risky movements range from 3 points for a turn close to a wall or trail, up to 42 points for turning extremely closely between 2 walls. When a Faerie crashes in to your wall, you earn 5 points. When you complete a level, you earn 40 points. I don’t aim for the risky movement bonuses, but if you can master earning them in early levels, then go for them! The points for when a Faerie crashes into you are not very significant, as you can only earn up to 15 points on each level this way. Most of your points will come from when you win a level.

After winning a level, you move on to the next level, which is identical to the previous level except that each level is slightly faster than the previous one. Once your score gets to around 500ish, your opponents will crash quickly without you having to force them to crash, so from this point onwards, my recommended strategy is simply to turn in a square shape in your quadrant, avoiding turning too much so you don’t crash into yourself. The levels will get really fast, so maintaining a good rhythm for both the turn button and the spacebar becomes important for racking up those points. Most of the time, the faeries will behave the same way and crash quickly, but sometimes they go a different way and you may end up crashing into them.

If your aim is to earn the maximum of 1000 Neopoints from each game, You should aim for 850 points (the ratio sometimes changes, it’s visible on the game page before you press play), which you should earn by level 20. If you’re after trophies as well as Neopoints, a score of around 2000 should be enough to definitely earn a trophy to add to your trophy collection, with the score needed going down to about 1200 at the start of the month. When this article was submitted, the score needed for a bronze trophy was around 1500.

And now, for my final tip. Practice! The more often you play this game, the more likely you are to get better at the game, and eventually, you will be getting high scores and trophies just like me!