Erin's Extreme Avatar Guide: Typing Terror

    The Basics

The only controls you use in this game are the letters on your keyboard to type the word on each grundo’s chest to eliminate it from the game and gain points. Don’t touch your mouse at all during this game; all you need is your keyboard. Each level increases in difficulty: the first level is mostly yellow grundos with three letter words. The occasional red grundo will appear, and if you’re lucky you will start out with a few sparkly broken robots as well. The second level features four letter words with a few more red grundos, and the game continues on, increasing in difficulty in both word length and type of word to spell. Once you get to the fifth level, you will spell difficult seven-letter words on grundos that are coming at you fast, so practice your typing before you start. The grundos will often walk in front of each other, obscuring their words completely until you eliminate the grundo closest to you. Watch out for this! You can lose a life from a grundo running into your control pad, and you only have three lives until the game ends.

    The sixth level is a little different. You face the boss (who just stands there looking at you creepily) and must accurately type 25 words on his (or her) chest in only one minute. Each word you type correctly on this level will net you 20 points.

    Scoring

There are three ways to score points in this game: eliminating grundos, preserving your lives for a bonus at the end, and the accuracy bonus. First, let’s discuss the grundos and their points.

    Yellow grundos are the easiest to eliminate and worth 5 points. The words that appear on their chests appear normally and are easy to read, and this results in fewer points.

    Red grundos are worth 10 points. They are harder to eliminate because their words appear upside-down.

    Broken robots (I call them sparkly robots because they short-circuit and electricity makes them sparkle) are worth a whopping 100 points. Even better, they’re easy to eliminate because their words appear upright as well! Prioritize these as much as possible when going for the avatar.

    Now let’s talk about the accuracy bonus. The bonus is double your accuracy until you reach the final boss. For example, 100% accuracy x 2 = 200 bonus points per level! Every mistake you make when typing (or button-mashing in a panicked frenzy) will withdraw accuracy bonus points from the end of the level.

    This accuracy bonus is amplified for the sixth level, and you also receive 20 points for every word entered correctly. The maximum you can earn during the final level is 1,100 points, so you need at least a score of 2,500 going into the sixth level to get the avatar. Here’s the breakdown for points on the sixth level:

    300 accuracy points (100% accuracy x 3 = 300)

500 points for words typed (25 words x 20 point each)

300 bonus life points

    This puts you at a maximum of 1,100 extra points for the final level. Achieving this is extremely difficult, so don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t achieve this score.

    Strategy

Try to keep track of how many words you type per level to help prioritize red and sparkly robots over boring yellow robots. Below is a breakdown of how many robots need to be eliminated before the level ends and how many letters you will type per word:

    Level 1 – 12 words (three letters)

Level 2 – 14 words (four letters)

Level 3 – 16 words (five letters)

Level 4 – 18 words (six letters)

Level 5 – 20 words (seven letters)

Level 6 – 25 words (eight letters) in only 60 seconds

    One important thing to remember is you don’t have to destroy the grundos in any specific order as they appear on your screen. On level 1, try to wait as long as possible to eliminate the yellow grundos and prioritize eliminating the red and sparkly grundos. One way to do this is to let the yellow grundos walk as close as possible to your screen before eliminating them (and without losing one of your lives) to give more time for red or sparkly robots to appear behind them.

    Prioritizing sparkly robots really is key to winning the avatar; their bonus points will put your score way ahead of what it would be normally. This is frustrating because getting sparkly robots is purely luck-based, but if you play for long enough you’ll get there. Use this strategy closer to the middle of level 1 when you’re down to your last six grundos. The first five or six that appear on screen will almost always have to be eliminated to spare your lives. Be careful when using this strategy because it can be risky and cause you to lose lives, sacrificing those extra bonus points at the end of the game! Aim for at least 400-500 points when ending level 1 and restart the game if you don’t reach this score.

    Use this same strategy on level 2 as well. If you’re extremely practiced, you can still apply this strategy on level three, but it gets much harder to maintain since the words are now five letters long and you will see a lot more red robots. Once you’re down to your last five or six grundos on levels 2 and 3, try to use this strategy as much as possible while preserving your lives.

    On levels 4 and 5, focus on typing and preserving your lives because you need those bonus points at the end. Speed is your focus here, so remember to switch from focusing on accuracy to focusing on speed during these last few levels. As I mentioned before, if you have less than 2,500 points or less than 3 three lives at the end of level 5, it’s highly unlikely that you will get the avatar unless you type flawlessly. I suggest you start over.

    On level 6, you need to average typing one word every two seconds, which actually isn’t too bad once you memorize every word that appears in this game (more on that below). Spend this level focusing on your accuracy more than anything.

    The Words

Memorize every word that appears in the game and how to spell it. This helps considerably with reading the red robots’ upside-down words much faster so you can get through levels 4 and 5. Here is a list of every word that appears in the game and which level it appears on:

    Level 1: aye, bye, cut, dye, eye, FYI, gyp, hut, ixi, jut, koi, lye, mum, nut, own, put, quo, rye, sup, two uzi, vow, wry, you, zoo

    Level 2: ayes, byte, cuts, dyes, eyes, fyre, gyro, hype, ixis, jute, kurt, lyre, myth, nuts, oxen, pyre, ruts, quiz, sync, tzar, usul, vows, wurm, xray, yurt, zoom

    Level 3: azure, byway, czars, dying, eyrie, fyora, gyros, hypos, izaak, juror, kyrii, lyses, myths, nymph, ozone, pyres, quoth, ryshu, syrup, typos, uvula, vyssa, wryly, xrays, yurts, zooms

    Level 4: azures, byword, cystic, dynamo, eyries, fuzzle, gyring, hyping, itself, jutted, kyriis, lysine, mythos, nymphs, oyster, python, quotes, rutted, system, tyrela, uzarro, vyssas, wuzzle, xantan, yurble, zygote

    Level 5: azaleas, bywords, czarist, dynasty, eyewink, fuzzles, gyrator, hyphens, ivories, jutting kyruggi, lysenko, mystify, nuzzles, oysters, pyramid, quoting, ryshiki, szilard, tzarina, utterly, vulture, wryness, xelqued, yurbles, zyrolon

    Level 6: awarding, bystreet, czerniak, dyslexic, eyewinks, fuzzitus, gyrostat, hysteric, iterator, juvenile, kumquats, lyricist, mythical, nuzzling, oxymoron, pyramids, quotient, ruttiest, syzygies, tyrannia, uttering, vultures, wronging, yummiest, zumagorn

    Quick Tips

If you lose a life during the game, quit and start over because you need that extra 300 points after you beat the final boss.

    Accuracy is extremely important; a few mistakes are okay during the game, but too many will definitely cost you the avatar score.

    Occasionally, a robot grundo will appear on the screen right in front of you, obscuring your view of the rest of the robots. Nobody knows if this is a glitch or a weird easter egg, but regardless it’s annoying, there’s no way to get rid of it, and it will likely make your game end.

    Count out loud how many grundos you have eliminated to keep track of how far you are through the level.

    Practice on training mode to increase your accuracy and memorize the words.

    As stated above, perfect accuracy will net you an extra 200 points when each level ends, so accuracy is key. The bottom right corner of the screen displays the word you need to type, so if you start on a word and then the grundo becomes obscured by another grundo, just look at the bottom right to see what word you’re typing.

    This is essentially a reflex-driven game, so practice your typing if you want the avatar.

    Good luck out there, and stay extreme!