Come On Down and Beat AAA!

Tip #1: Set goals.

If you don’t set goals for yourself, you’re not going to push your limits and improve your general gaming prowess. Setting goals not only motivates you to try again and again to achieve a certain score, but it also leaves room for improvement. For example, in the Daily Dare, a goal might be to improve your trophy by at least one rank from the year before. If you continue to do this every year, you’ll eventually reach Grandultimate Scoretacular!

Tip #2: Play old DD or GMC games.

A lot of games are used pretty frequently in the DD, like Meerca Chase II or Wingoball. Practicing old games during what expert gamers refer to as the “off-season” better prepares you for DD and the GMC when they come around. This way, you get more experienced at a wide variety of games, so they hopefully will be a breeze for you when AAA returns yet again!

Tip #3: Try to log on and play every day in the DD.

In DD, you can get better trophies simply by beating either challenger on the launch day, regardless of whether it is AAA or Abigail. Obviously, you get a better trophy if you beat AAA every single time, but logging on every single day still improves your trophy quality. Also, it saves you from the dreadful experience of having to beat seven or so games on the last day of the DD.

Tip #4: Try out the games before challenging a character.

Don’t just assume that you can beat a challenger even if your high score is higher than their score. Before picking a challenger, feel free to try out the game first to get a feel for the gameplay. If you can get around 85% of their score in the first few tries, or you think you have a reasonable chance of succeeding, then challenge them. Don’t challenge AAA only because your high score is much higher than theirs, or you might end up playing Darigan Dodgeball for hours on end.

Tip #5: Know your limits.

Some people are so good that they know that they can beat AAA in every single game in the first few tries. Most of us aren’t that good, so if you’re trying a game, and you can’t get anywhere close to AAA’s score, feel free to just challenge Abigail. I know it can be hard, especially if you’re close to the end of the DD and you’ve only challenged AAA, but trust me. If you’re struggling that much, you’re taking the fun out of the DD. Just challenge Abigail; you’ll still get a nifty prize for beating her and still be in the running for a cool trophy.

Tip #6: Don’t procrastinate!

Once you passed that one game that you were unable to beat on the launch day, some of us will decide to “take a break” and come back in a week and catch up. This is NOT a good idea. Once you get back, you have a massive number of different games to beat in a day, and they can really add up over time! Make sure that you have at most 2-3 games that you haven’t beaten yet at a time to prevent yourself from being overwhelmed.

Tip #7: Read a game guide before playing (or the instructions *GASP*).

Getting a feel for the game before even trying it out can really help you in the early levels or parts of a game, and it also can prevent very discouraging games. For example, games like Wingoball and Petpet Plunge become much easier when you read a good guide. Many of these level-based games have extremely helpful guides on petpages, so do a little bit of hunting before trying them; it can really help you out in the long run. Also, try reading the instructions; that’s what they’re there for!

Tip #8: Be patient!

This applies more to the NGC than anything else. These games generally have a few days for you to beat AAA or Abigail. This means that you shouldn’t rush, since it makes much more sense to practice for a few days and then go and beat AAA rather than quickly beat Abigail the first day. Note: Please don’t get confused and think that this tip conflicts with #3; this applies to the NGC only!

Tip #9: If you are going for the Grandultimate Scoretacular trophy, try to beat AAA as early in the day as possible!

On the second to last day in this year’s DD, I lost power. Luckily, I had already gotten AAA out of the way for the day, so it was fine that I did not get power back until noon on the next day. However, if you think that there is even so much as a slight possibility that you might lose power or for some other reason be unable to play the game later, do it as soon as possible! This will minimize heartbreaks caused due to inability to get your desired trophy.

Tip #10: Remember to have fun!

The whole point of DD, NGC, and GMC is to get you to explore games that you might not otherwise have looked at. If you’re not having fun, then maybe you should try doing something else on the site, like the variety of contests, or who knows, try to get something published in the Neopian Times! The point is, don’t do something that you’re not enjoying just for the prize at the end. If you truly enjoy it, you’ll have fun playing the games regardless of the trophy or prizes at the end of the event.

And that’s it! Hopefully you learned a few things that will massively improve your performance in next year’s Daily Dare or one of the other games challenges on the site! If you can’t improve, because you already achieved Grandultimate Scoretacular, then I wish you the best of luck to replicate your huge achievement next year! Let the gaming continue!