How to Obtain a High Score in Snow Roller

The Basics

The goal of this game is to roll down a mountainside, collecting items for points while protecting your snow ball from obstacles like logs, trees, houses and igloos! The are three main levels of this game, with each level divided into two parts. The items you must collect have red arrows pointing at them, letting you know it is safe to run into them. The items are worth different amounts of points, from 10 points for items such as different colored Brucicles, Neggs, and Chia pops; up to 30 points for slushies and 40 points for items such as Snowbunnies and Poogle racers.

Until you become more practiced, it is important to pay attention to the red arrows. Sometimes there are objects on the mountain that look like items you should collect (i.e. a Taelia or a wooden statue), but if there isn't a red arrow above them and you run into them, your game is over instantly.

The space bar and side arrows allow you to avoid obstacles and collect items. Pressing the up arrow key will make your snow ball slow down, while the down arrow key will make your snow ball speed up. Using the space bar to jump over obstacles is key to getting through each level. This game takes practice to learn the perfect time to jump over each obstacle. Sometimes if your game is moving slowly, you need more momentum to get enough space to clear each obstacle. Pressing the "down" arrow key will speed you up enough to give you this momentum.

Scoring

For each level, you get a score ("Current Score"), plus a bonus that is added on to that score. The "Bonus Score" is your item score multiplied by the percentage size of your snowball. For example, if your item score is 700 points and your snowball size is 90%, the "Bonus Score" will be 630 points. This 630 gets added onto whatever you scored in the level, the "Current Score" (for example, 1000) to make your "Total Score" for the level (example, 1630).

The main way to gather a lot of points in this game is to have a large item score as well as a large snowball size at the end of each level. Your item score gets higher with the more items you collect, but can be lower if you miss items along the way. Your snowball size is obviously how big your snowball gets as it rolls down the mountain.

Advice

My main recommendations for playing this game optimally are the following:

-Use a slow or slowed-down computer.

+If you have a fast computer, one way to slow it down is have other windows open, such as your habitarium, which will usually slow down your computer. This is especially useful if you have a dual-monitor setup.

-Press the "up" button throughout the level, which will slow down your snow ball if you have trouble controlling it.

+Note that hitting white (Black Hole) or black (Super Traction) slushies appears to take away the use of the up arrow key, so you may want to avoid them even though they give points.

*A common problem is the snowball gets too big and starts lagging the game.* When the snowball gets bigger and starts lagging the game, the game starts giving less items to collect. Also at this point, it becomes very difficult for you to jump over obstacles, as the game doesn't register space bar hits. This used to happen to me around the middle of the third level.

The key strategy I propose in this guide is one of keeping your snowball size low until near the end of each level, focusing on collecting items for the majority of the level.

I keep my snowball around 50% until partway through the second part of each level. By keeping your snowball at around 50-60% for the majority of each level, it is a manageable size and it is moving at a good speed but still slow enough that you can catch items. To keep your snow ball at this smaller size, you may need to intentionally run into a few obstacles. Every time you hit an obstacle, your snowball size is decreased by 5%.

At about halfway through the second portion of the level, you should start focusing more on jumping over every obstacle in order to start building the size of your snowball. Hopefully at this point you have gathered all or most of the items you have seen, so you don't need to worry as much about collecting items as building your snow ball's size. Additionally, as your size increases it becomes easier to collect items if you stay centered on the mountain, because your snowball starts taking up the entire width of screen.

The following are my recommendations for scores to have at the end of each level in order to get close to a spot on the trophy list. These are guidelines I used personally; there is obviously some variability depending on how many items the game gives you in each level.

-After level 1: around 1800-2000

-After level 2: around 3800-4000

-During level 3, you want to make sure to collect as many items as possible for a score, before multiplier, of around 5900-6000

The numbers above rely on a high item score and high snow ball size multiplier to provide for enough points in the end to get you the point total you need to possibly end up on the trophy list. Having a slowed computer makes the game longer overall, and thus exposes you to more items than if you play the game on a quick computer. On the quicker computer, the game goes by quicker with fewer exposures to items and thus fewer possible points.

Overall, this is a fun game to play as you bounce down a mountain finding a variety of fun items. Above any advice that I can give, practice is the most important aspect of playing this game.

Good luck, and have fun!

Please feel free to neomail me with questions or comments. This is my first Neopian Times article!