 Sophie's Stew - Game Guide
by jcspare
--------
Deep in the darkest part of the Haunted Woods lives a witch that goes by the name
of Sophie. Some say Sophie is the 'Soup Faerie' of the Haunted Woods, feeding
many a wary traveller.
The only problem, though, is that Sophie is very careless and quite often her
ingredients end up on the floor or get eaten by her hungry Meowclops. She needs
your help to ensure that her ingredients end up in the cauldron.
INSTRUCTIONS
Your tool of choice is Sophie's wand. When Sophie throws an item into the
air, use the wand to bounce the item across the room landing it safely into
the cauldron. Seems simple enough, but Sophie is relentless and throws out items
at ever increasing speed.
Move Sophie's wand by sliding your mouse left and right across the screen.
The Meowclops is always on the lookout for a free meal, but contrary to popular
belief this is not always bad. (see advanced methods)
Keep an eye out for the Droolik that flies across the top of the screen - get
him with an ingredient and he will drop a power up.
Your game is over once you have dropped 5 ingredients onto the floor.
POWER UPS
Some good... Some not so good....
'+' (Plus sign) - Increases your wand size - GOOD
'-' (Minus sign) - Decreases your wand size - NOT SO GOOD
'?' (Wand) - Extra Life - GOOD
SCORING
Each ingredient has a different points value ranging from 5-15 points.
The Ghost Marshmallow is worth 15 points. (I will leave you to discover what
the others are worth.)
You are awarded points in two ways. You get maximum points for bouncing the
ingredient into the cauldron and you are awarded a few points if the Meowclops
eats an ingredient.
GENERAL METHODS
- Try to get the ingredients into the cauldron as fast and with as few bounces
as possible. The minimum amount of bounces is two with the "bouncy" items and
the maximum amount of bounces is four with the codestones (I guess stone doesn't
bounce so well). If you take too long, you will only end up with more ingredients
to try and keep in the air.
- Use the 'edge' of the wand to send the ingredient in the direction you want.
Hitting the ingredient on the right edge will send it across towards the cauldron;
hitting on the left edge will send it back towards Sophie (Bad Idea), and the
middle will send it straight up (not good, but sometimes your only option to
keep an item in the air).
- Don't be distracted by the Meowclops; depending on the item he eats, he likes
to do a wee dance... don't watch this as it only distracts you from the task
at hand.
- I like to play on full screen mode as the items are larger and seem easier
to catch. Playing on full screen also prevents the mouse cursor from 'leaving'
the game window. Sometimes in the mad panic to bounce an ingredient you may
move the mouse too far in one direction, sending the cursor off the window,
leaving your wand stationary, which is definitely not desirable.
- If two items are falling at the same time/speed and are a large distance
apart, just go for one; if you try for two you will probably end up missing
both. Better to lose just one life than two.
- Sometimes an item may become 'trapped' against the left side of the screen.
No matter how hard you try you can only bounce this item straight up, unable
to get it away from the edge. The best method here is to simply keep it in the
air and it will eventually disappear.
- The maximum amount of lives you can have at one time is six (one extra to
what you start with). If you already have six lives, don't bother going for
any more that fall (unless you lose one, of course).
ADVANCED METHODS
- When you have two ingredients falling at the same time/speed, you can sometimes
use the meowclops to your advantage. Go for the item that is farthest from the
meowclops, and if you are lucky, the meowclops will gobble up the item that
is closest to him before it hits the floor.
- Use the edge of the cauldron to your advantage. If you know you can't make
the last bounce into the cauldron, aim for the edge of the pot; the ingredient
will hit the rim and bounce back up, giving you a little more time to catch
the next ingredient that Sophie throws. You can then go back and bump that item
into the cauldron.
- Feed the codestones and dung to the Meowclops. Codestones are... well...
stone, so they don't bounce that well. Dung, as we all know, is squishy, so
it acts like a sponge to absorb the bounce. These items always take an extra
bounce to get them into the pot. If the Meowclops is handy, just bounce the
Codestone to him; this will save you time.
- Ingredients tend to pick up speed as they fall from up high; don't get caught
out by waiting for a low bouncing ingredient, thinking you have heaps of time
for the high ingredient. Quite often you don't!
GAME SECRETS
At the time of writing this guide I am unaware of any secrets.
TROPHY
Using the methods outlined above I have managed to achieve a shiny Silver Trophy
for my Cabinet.
Hopefully my guide will help you improve your best score or even help you on
to the High Score Table.
Extra tip - Go for a trophy at the beginning of the month just after the high
score tables are reset. The scores are always slightly lower at this time.
FINAL WORDS OF WISDOM
Practice, Practice, Practice.... As they say, "Rome wasn't built in a day"...
Well, high scores aren't achieved in a day; you need to practice every day and
you will see your scores improve.
| 
