A Striking Lost City Lanes Guide

The lost city of Geraptiku is a very mysterious place that is overrun by petpets. Back in the day while the few braver petpets spent their days searching the endless hidden tombs hoping to stumble upon treasure, the others were left behind with nothing to do. Thankfully one inventive Lizark created a new game for everyone to play to pass the time away. The game became known as Lost City Lanes and was Geraptiku's version of bowling. It became an instant classic amongst all the petpets of Geraptiku and now is a fun game for all Neopians to enjoy! However, this is no average game of bowling! Since when does bowling have obstacles on the alley?!! Hopefully this guide will help you achieve that high score you have always been dreaming of!

The Basics

The game Lost City Lanes has 7 levels and each level has 5 frames. In each frame you are playing a Lizark who gets 2 tries to knock all 10 pins down. If you knock all of them down in your first turn it is called a "strike" and shows up on the scoreboard which is on the top of the screen as an "X". If you don't knock all of the pins down on your first try but you finish knocking them all down on the second try that is called a "spare" and shows up on the scoreboard as a "/". In the last frame of each level if you manage to get a spare you get one extra throw of the ball to knock down as many pins as you can. For an added bonus if you manage to get a strike on your first toss of the last frame you also get another throw of the ball and if you strike again then you get one more throw of the ball! So potentially you can get up to 3 strikes in the last frame alone! In bowling getting 3 strikes in a row is called a "turkey". You definitely want to try to get 3 strikes in the last frame of each level because all these extra tosses will earn you valuable points in the end! If you don't manage to knock down all the pins in any frame this is termed and "open", you want to avoid getting them at all costs if you want to get a good score.

Each level has a minimum number of points you need to move onto the next level. In level 1 you need to get at least 50 points to move onto level 2. You need 10 more points in each subsequent level in order to move on. So, for example in level 2 you need 60 points to move on and so on. In level 7 you need at least 110 points to win the game. On both sides of the alley are the gutters, you don't ever want your ball to go into one since your goal is to knock down the pins! I highly recommend playing the game in low quality as the game tends to lag. To get the ball rolling you first position where you want your ball on the alley to be using the right or left arrow keys. I tend to stick to the middle unless there is an obstacle in my way. Then, you hit the space bar and wait till the power bar is at maximum power and then hit the spacebar again to send the ball down the alley. You can move the ball as it rolls down the alley by using your right and left arrow keys and you can also make your ball jump by pressing the space bar. The reasons you want to move your ball as it travels down the alley include staying out of the gutter, avoiding obstacles and bad power-ups, picking up good power-ups, and positioning your ball to knock over the pins. I will get more into obstacles and power-ups in the next sections!

Obstacles

Lost City Lanes is no average bowling game! This game has a lot of obstacles to overcome-literally! The obstacles include short, wide blocks that are stationary and also tall, skinny blocks that move! Luckily in level 1 there are no obstacles so you get used to the game, but starting in level 2 you will start to see them. Starting in level 3 the moving obstacles start to appear and these are the most difficult to deal with! The obstacles don't show up in the same places every game. They are put in random spots so unfortunately you can't memorize when and where they will show up in each level and you just need to learn how to get around them.

To avoid obstacles you can move around them using your right and left arrow keys. You want to start pressing the arrow keys as soon as possible so the ball can sway away in time, you don't want to wait until the last second to move because the ball doesn't turn very quickly. For the short, wide obstacles you can either move around them using your arrow keys or jump over them using the space bar. If you use the spacebar try to press it a little ahead of time and not at the last second or you will not clear the obstacle and if you hit an obstacle your ball stops and you will not get to knock any pins down. For the moving obstacles you need to time the movement of them so you can turn in the appropriate direction. This does take practice, but I find if I don't roll the ball right away and watch how fast the obstacles are moving this helps me make my decision on which direction I want to turn the ball and at what time. I tend to stay close to one gutter or the other to move past these moving obstacles. There are also a couple power-ups you can pick up in the game that will help you with obstacles that I will explain in the next paragraph.

Power-Ups

There are numerous power-ups in Lost City Lanes. Power-ups are very important if you want to get a high score in the game! I will explain them all and their effects below.

Green Gems: Each gem you collect adds 10 points to your score!

Locks: Each lock gives you 10 points and seals up the gutters so you don't have to worry about getting a nasty gutter ball that frame!

Spiky Ball: Each gives you 10 points and then on your next turn it turns your ball red and knocks out any obstacle you touch. Aim for every obstacle but if you can't knock down them all at least go for the most annoying ones and the moving ones! Remember the power-up lasts for one frame only but will eliminate those obstacles for the rest of that level!

Bomb: Each gives you 10 points and explodes all the obstacles nearby, even if you have no obstacles left pick it up for the points!

Speed Up/Slow Down Tracks: The tracks with green arrows speed you up and the tracks with red slow you down, definitely don't go on the red tracks because it slows you down way too much.

Switch Speed Tracks: These power-ups give you 10 points and will switch the speed up and slow down tracks. So, the tracks that were fast turn slow and vice versa. I like to pick them up for the bonus points, but just be careful with it because you don't want to roll over the slow tracks!

Wind Gust: This power-up looks like a red flag. When you hit it you get 10 bonus points plus it sends your ball down the alley past any obstacles and you get an automatic strike!

How To Get A High Score

Now what I am going to say next may shock you and you may have to forget everything you thought you knew about bowling! Ok ready to have your mind blown? The easiest way to get a trophy in this game is to actually get more spares in this game than strikes! I know what you are thinking, I must be out of my mind right? Well hear me out! A lot of the power-ups in this game give you bonus points and thus you want to collect as many of them as possible! In order to get more power- ups you actually want to prolong the game by getting spares rather than strikes in the first 4 frames in each level! This way you get 2 chances per frame to pick up power-ups rather than just a single chance per frame.

So, on your first throw of a frame you want to pick up all the power-ups you can for the bonus points and then knock down a few pins. Then, on your second throw you try to pick up as many power ups again and then finish knocking down all the remaining pins for a spare. This is how you can easily maximize getting points in this game! In the last frame of each level you want to try to strike out and get that infamous "turkey" I was talking about earlier so you get that extra third toss in there thus getting even more points!

There are 2 main ways to get a strike. One way is to hit the middle pin dead on with a lot of speed. The other way is to hit just beside the middle pin and hook the ball towards the middle of all the pins. If you hit to the left side of the middle pin you press your right arrow key to curve the ball into the center of the pins. Conversely, if you hit to the right side of the middle pin you press your left arrow key to curve the ball into the center of the pins. I find the second method is more reliable, but it does require practice to master it! Since I like to spare more than strike I avoid getting the wind gust power ups on my first throw of each frame unless I'm in the last frame and I want an automatic strike.

So, to increase your chances of getting a high enough score to get a trophy you want to spare the first 4 frames and then strike out the last frame of each level and pick up as many power-ups as possible! This method earned me a gold trophy in Lost City Lanes so I know it works. However, if it just feels wrong to you to get spares rather than strikes I completely understand. In fact you still can get a high score and a trophy getting strikes the whole game too as long as you pick up a lot of power-ups. If you were to strike out the whole game and not get any power-ups you would only get 1050 points which isn't enough for a trophy. Power-ups are the key part of this game!

So I hope you all spare some time to read this guide and then hopefully you will have a new shiny trophy to add to your user lookup!