Petpet Cannonball – A Guide to Firing Petpets

     Ahoy there m’hearties and welcome to my guide to Petpet Cannonball. The only game where you can fire Petpets from a cannon and not get into trouble with the PPL!

     In this game you play as pirate Neopets that seem to have run out of cannonballs for practice and started using their Petpets as cannon food instead. The game screen shows your pirate, a cannon with a loaded Petpet and a bucket which is held up between 2 poles. The aim of the game is to get your Petpet to land inside the suspended bucket and slide to safety.

     This is done using the arrow keys to move the dotted line to aim your Petpet and adjusting the power metre by holding and releasing the space bar so that it lands perfectly inside the bucket.

     There are 8 different Petpets that feature in the game and each Petpet has a different weight. The lighter Petpets require less power and fly easier while heavier Petpets require more power and don’t fly as far as easily. It is worth noting that the heavier Petpets are worth the most points so if you are aiming for a trophy score it is best to focus on these where possible.

     The different Petpets weights are as follows:

     Buzzer – 0.8kg

     Slorg – 0.9kg

     Babaa – 1.0kg

     Faellie – 1.2kg

     Tenna – 1.3kg

     Angelpuss – 1.4kg

     Snowbunny – 1.5kg

     There is another pirate Petpet that occasionally makes an appearance and is also worth the most points. The pirate Tenna! This elusive pirate Petpet is special in that its weight does not affect its point value, it will always be 20 points higher than whatever the Snowbunny is worth in any particular level despite being 200g lighter. However, these are rare to show up. If you get one, always try to dunk it!

     The scoring for each Petpet in level 1 is as follows:

     Buzzer – 10

     Slorg – 11

     Babaa – 12

     Faellie – 13

     Angelpuss – 14

     Snowbunny – 15

     Tenna – 35

     The number of points you receive for successfully shooting the Petpet into a bucket increases by 5 as you go through the levels.

     The points progression for each Petpet in the levels is as follows;

     Snowbunny: 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45, 50.

     Angelpuss: 14, 19, 24, 29, 34, 39, 44, 49.

     Faellie: 13, 18, 23, 28, 33, 38, 43, 48.

     Babaa: 12, 17, 22, 27, 32, 37, 42, 47.

     Slorg: 11, 16, 21, 26, 31, 36, 41, 46.

     Buzzer: 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 35, 40, 45.

     Tenna: 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70. (this is the bonus Petpet)

     There are 8 levels in total and in each level you will be required to successfully fire 3 of the Petpets into the bucket to be able to move on to the next. With each level progression the bucket will be higher, and your cannon will be pulled back further which will affect the angle of the shot. Your power metre bar will also go up slightly faster each time making the final level pretty tough!

     Handy Tips to a trophy score:

     - When aiming the cannon I find that I prefer to aim higher and with more power so that the Petpet falls down into the bucket. A good rule that works for me is to have the underside of the top of the cannon lined up just above the line in the middle of the anchor. This creates a good angle and just requires you to play a few times to work out the power needed for the different weights of the pets. In the first level your cannon is quite close to the front of the anchor so for this a good visual aiming point is to have the line of the anchor at the Petpets eye level.

     - Turn off the sound. Why? You may ask… While sound effects are cute they can be very distracting so while you’re getting to grips with the game and learning the ropes it is far easier to concentrate without the sound effects or music in the background.

          - When you start each new level you will have a dotted aim line and power metre for the first turn. It’s useful to take note of this when you are getting used to the game so that you get used to how fast the power metre fills in each level. In later levels this moves very fast which means the lighter Petpets will easily be fired off screen – poor little guys!

     - I always aim to dunk only Snowbunnies in each level. This is because Snowbunnies give you the highest points, with Tenna being the only exception. Unless I am on my last 3 lives, I just shoot to get rid of the lower point Petpets until a Snowbunny or Tenna pops up. This ensures you get the highest scores possible on each level. You can use the lower scoring Petpets as practice to get used to the power too. Just remember that when you then get a heavier pet, It will require a lot more power than the smaller ones.

     - If you miss a Petpet dunk then you lose one of your tries. You start the game with 10. However, once you successfully dunk a Petpet again you earn one of these tries back. Handy to know when you are low on lives whilst waiting for a Snowbunny.

     If you miss a Snowbunny in the first few levels and get to the last 3 tries without one reappearing, I always restart. You need as many Snowbunnies as possible to have a chance of a leaderboard-worthy score.

     - Practice practice practice! As with any Neopets game, practice makes a huge difference for trophy scores. With some practice you should easily be achieving scores in excess of 700 and on your way to a gold trophy.

     This really is a fun game with very cute graphics. The pirates' celebration when they score is my favourite! With a little practice and some luck of the Petpets you could be the bomb! (…Get it?)