I found that it was about setting up to fish AFTER you killed everybody in one big combo.

Basically:
(1) generate a bunch of longer verticals.
(2) herd enemies to one-end for the combo-kill (irrespective of number, assuming more than 5 total)
(3) kill them all at once
(4) while the ground is breaking away and score is coming across the screen, get set up to fish
(5) quickly fish each spot in sequence until you run out of fishing holes you are able to generate before the level stops

As far as I can tell, the level isn't "over" until a live score is no longer on screen.
So as long as you can drill out the next fishing hole while the previous fish's score is still visible, you can keep it going.

Safest way to fish, by far.


Also, if you've played the level before to know where the fruit will spawn, you can skip the last fish and run for the fruit and probably make it.

Yup, that definitely works.  It's a good balance between fishing the whole level and grabbing a few extra points after a combo.

There were multiple levels in the 20 I played where you were able to get 6 or 8 extra fish this way.

You're talking 600 points per fishing spot, so that is basically an extra piece of fruit (and you get the fruit to spawn retrievably if you set it up correctly).

It really adds up over the course of a game.

Yeah I was able to confirm it was actually on round 8. I killed 10 fish, and the 10th of which was actually a different color(purple/burgundy) and was worth 5000 points. I don't know if this was just exclusive to round 8 because I haven't had the chance to definitively kill 10 fish in any other round to confirm. But if it turns out that this is possible in any round in which you are able to kill 10 fish it might be worth pursuing even though it can be tedious as a MF'er. Nice score by the way Arch...

I kept trying to get 10 in Round 6 (since there are at least 12 to fish for in that level), but kept having trouble keeping all of the guys alive to do it.

But I would say rounds 6, 7, and 8 are all strong candidates for getting at least 10 fish.
I could almost get 10 fish out of round 3.  If I planned better it would probably be possible.

Part of the issue I ran into trying to get that many fish out of rounds 7 or 8 was the timing of having enemies starting to commit suicide if you took too long.



Thanks for the score compliment... you have no idea how frustrating it was to be at the point where ANY score on Round 20 would have catapulted me into first place...

Yeah its really a pain in the ass to kill that many fish without having an enemy commit suicide and ruin it, and point-wise its probably better to just go for the big combos anyway like Tom said... As far as your frustration goes, believe me, I'm right there with you on this one. Really fun game overall though, maybe my 2nd favorite in the arcade category we played this year behind only Marble Madness. I'm looking forward to seeing what kind of score Tom puts up if he decides to try and break his record, hopefully he can post a video if does.

I was looking at it from a score-maximization standpoint.

Once you figure out how to max-combo any given level, there are still tons of points left on the table if you "solve" the level. (in terms of guaranteeing fruit and maximizing "safe" fishing spots)

Obviously just taking either of our levels of scoring out to the level-rollover would crush the record.
But if multiple people really practiced and could "beat" the game, then you get down the brass tacks of the fishing and fruit really being worth quite a bit over the course of the game.

(on average, let's just say it's 5k fruit + 3k fishing... every 10 levels you are talking about an extra 80k pts... that is pretty significant)

Your right, its definitely worth it it to go for the extra points fishing because it really adds up over the course of so many rounds. But as far as going for the 5000k point fish I don't think its worth it because it could potentially interfere with executing the big combos by destroying the layout of the island.

Yeah, it would almost definitely involve milking a pre-set configuration AFTER you'd done a max-combo. (other than somewhere like Round 6, where you just repeatedly "prod" the last guy to keep him from killing himself)

1) +11 -- BriGuy82 -- 395,300
2) +10 -- arch_8ngel -- 392,500
3) +9 -- guillavoie -- 191,600
4) +8 -- arnpoly -- 184,700
5) +7 -- Thundercat08 -- 145,400
6) +6 -- gutsman004 -- 81,200
7) +5 -- knightriderce -- 70,500
8) +4 -- EgasKrad -- 66,000
9) +3 -- mattbep -- 11,900
10)+2 -- Velinos -- 10,800


--wrong game --
(mercy participation point... hey, he tried)
+1 -- jump_man95 -- 25,140

Thanks for compiling the results, and I agree for jump_man, it's still a Dig Dug game so we can say the effort was there.

Thank you. My god thats funny.

So are we having a summer tournament or has that been cancelled?

I think we should get the final stats up, first!  (I want my Puzzle Champion badge! )

Agreed, or at least get the overall leaderboard updated.  Then hopefully we'll get some information by then.  Otherwise, we should come up with a deadline to set one up by since we're closing in on three weeks until the 2nd half starts.

My guess was going to be that 2nd-half was not going to start on schedule, but I could be wrong.

Yeah,everything does need to be updated first. Sucks seeing the contest in a state of flux.

According to the main contest thread, the summer tournament starts on July 6th. I guess this makes this an off week.

Correct, but the week before it starts is usually the set up week.  A main thread for the tournament is made along with invites to everyone who qualified for the tournament so everything is in place by the starting date.

The standings definitely need to be up to date to see who ends up in what tier.