Extreme Herder 2 – Extreme Herder with a Twist

Hello, and welcome to my guide to Extreme Herder 2! You may be completely new to the Extreme Herder series, and merely want some tips for earning Neopoints. You may have mastered Extreme Herder, got the avatar, maybe even won a trophy, and are looking for more. Look no further! Extreme Herder 2 is fundamentally the same as Extreme Herder, but with new twists and cool items! This guide will try to help you master the basic concept, earn Neopoints, and perhaps land yourself a shiny trophy for your user lookup.

How to Play:

In Extreme Herder 2, you play as Samrin the Kacheek, who is trying to save his petpets from being eaten by the evil Balthazar; this is the same as in Extreme Herder. Use the arrow keys to move Samrin around. Arrow keys can be pressed at the same time if you wish to move diagonally. To pick up a petpet, simply run over it, and Samrin will pick it up automatically. To put a petpet down, press the spacebar while holding a petpet so you can pick up another. You have three lives, and lose one each time a petpet or Samrin is eaten.

Gameplay:

In the beginning of the game, you will notice a few things. First off, there is Samrin, the Kacheek that you control. There is also Balthazar, who tries to eat your petpets. Balthazar will walk around trying to eat one of your petpets, even the one you are holding! In the center of the screen is the paddock, which you are trying to put your petpets into. To put a petpet into the paddock, simply walk over to a petpet, pick it up by running over it, and walk over to one of the four openings in the paddock. Samrin will place the petpet in automatically (although you may need to adjust him a little bit), and you can go pick up another petpet. If you pick up the petpet that Balthazar was trying to eat, he will target another petpet. If no petpets are remaining save the one that you are holding, he will target you.

From levels one through five, you will have all four openings in the paddock. Once you enter level six, you lose the opening at the top of the paddock, so you only have the bottom and side openings to work with. In level eleven, you lose the bottom opening, and in level sixteen, you lose the opening on the right, leaving you with only the left opening in the paddock, similar to the original Extreme Herder.

There will be four holes in the walls. Those holes are passageways that will transport you to the side opposite the passageway you entered. All you have to do is walk through the hole to utilize them and appear on the other side. Unfortunately, the north and south passages disappear after entering Level 4, and after Level 7, the east and west passages disappear. Make sure that you use the teleporters while you can!

Let’s keep going and learn about all the power-ups and obstacles.

Power-ups:

All power-ups are temporary, meaning they don’t last forever, so make good use of them. Up at the top of the screen you will notice two gem shapes, a X2, and an apple. If you see a power-up, you will only have a few seconds to pick it up, after which it will disappear. Once a power-up is activated, its corresponding shape will light up. When the power-up is about to run out, it stops blinking, so hurry and finish what you’re doing with it. If you get one power-up while another is activated, the new one takes the place of the old one.

Blue gem (or diamond): Walk over this power-up and Balthazar will freeze temporarily. You will know that he’s frozen because he will turn blue and stop moving. The freezing power-up lasts longer than it did in the original Extreme Herder, which is good! :)

Orange-yellow gem: Collecting this power-up by running over it will approximately double Samrin’s speed, allowing him to pick up petpets and put in the paddock more quickly. Unfortunately, this can be hard to control, so take this power-up only if you need it.

X2: This power-up is my personal favorite. Getting this power-up allows you to pick up two petpets at once, so you can put two into the paddock at the same time. If the power-up runs out while you’re holding two petpets, Samrin will drop one of them.

Apple: This power-up is arguably the best. Pick up the apple the same way you would with a petpet, then drop it and all of the petpets will gather near it. I suggest that you drop it near a paddock opening, so Balthazar can’t get them. Unfortunately, this power-up seems quite rare (at least for me), and I have only seen it once.

Obstacles:

Balthazar: Obviously Balthazar is an obstacle, an obstacle to saving your petpets. If he manages to get a petpet in his claws, he will eat it, and you will lose a life. If you walk into him, he will eat you, and you will lose a life. Stay away from him!

Rocks and puddles: Rocks and/or puddles will sometimes be present in levels. You can’t go through these, and you must go around them, which may slow your petpet saving down. Luckily, Balthazar can’t go through them either, so if you need a couple seconds of breathing room, place a petpet behind one.

Differences:

There are several differences between Extreme Herder and Extreme Herder 2. The first and most obvious one is the graphics detail. Extreme Herder 2 looks much cleaner and more realistic than the original Extreme Herder.

Balthazar is smarter in Extreme Herder 2. In Extreme Herder, if you picked up all of the petpets and were holding the last one, Balthazar would go to a corner and move back and forth, not coming near you. But in Extreme Herder 2, Balthazar will keep following you and your petpets until he eats you or you finish the level.

Obstacles and power-ups have been added. The rock and puddle are additions to Extreme Herder 2 not present in Extreme Herder. In the regular Extreme Herder, the freezing power-up was in the shape of a snowflake, the speed power-up in the shape of a gem, and the apple and X2 power-ups didn’t exist.

If you were eaten by Balthazar in Extreme Herder, the locations of you, Balthazar, and the petpets were reset, making it worth it to sacrifice yourself. In Extreme Herder 2, if you are eaten by Balthazar, you will appear randomly on the screen, and Balthazar can continue to snack on your petpets.

There is no longer a special petpet that is worth more than the others. All of the petpets are worth five points each.

You can take a break between levels because you must click “continue” in order to progress to the next level. In Extreme Herder you could pick where you started in the next level by moving to that spot before the level started, but now in Extreme Herder 2 your spot is chosen randomly by the game.

Advanced Tips

1. Prioritize the petpets! As the level starts, calculate which petpets you should save first based on how close Balthazar is to them, how many obstacles are between them, and how close the petpets are to a paddock opening.

2. Don’t sacrifice yourself. In the original Extreme Herder, after you died you, Balthazar, and the petpets’ positions would be reset, but now Balthazar will be able to keep eating after he eats you.

3. Use the passageways while you can. The passageways will all disappear by Level 7, so use them if you need them.

4. Use the rocks and puddles to your advantage. If you need to save a different petpet and Balthazar is close to the one you need to put down, put the petpet behind a rock or puddle to delay Balthazar from getting the petpet.

5. Pick up and drop the petpets as needed. If you are carrying a petpet and Balthazar is close to another one, don’t be afraid to drop the one you’re holding and rush to save the other one from Balthazar.

6. Use the pick-up transfer method. If Balthazar is headed for a whole group of petpets, pick up one, drop it farther away, and repeat, saving as many as you can until you can get them to the paddock safely.

Earning Neopoints and Getting a Trophy

If you practice Extreme Herder 2 enough, earning one thousand NP each time you play is a cinch! At the time of writing this guide, the NP ratio is 2.15, meaning you need to score 465 or higher to get 1000 NP. Earning a trophy is harder. I suggest spending a few hours for a couple days just practicing, then sending your score at the beginning of the month, when the high score table has been reset. You will generally need to score at least 600 points, sometimes higher at the beginning of the month if you wish to acquire a trophy. Towards the end of the month, you’ll need to score at least 680, if not 690-700 points. In conclusion, Extreme Herder 2 is a very fun game with a nice twist from Extreme Herder. So get out there and save those petpets!