Foraging. :)

Right, well..
I SUCK at foraging.
No really I do. I try hard but I suck, and I was wondering whether foraging *scores* were based on the speed (as i've been told it is based on) or is it the efficiency of moves (like bilge and most duty puzzles)

Thank you

Tangoose wrote:I SUCK at foraging.

Welcome to the club.

Enlightening

But thank you

Well, I seem to get either all fines, or all incredibles when I forage, but I think I'm getting to understand why. The puzzle is based on efficiency, just like bilge, the more pieces you move, the lower your score. However I believe that it is done by the number of clears you do to the number of chests cleared, so making a bunch of 3 in a rows, while not clearing a chest, doesn't really help you out.

The key to getting a good score in foraging is all about combos, just like any other puzzle. Clearing multiple chests at once is a must for getting a good score. Always remember when you have a large/medium chest to start from the outside and clear those columns before moving inward, or else you can get stuck easily. If you're not at CI, take your time before flipping pieces and think if you'll accidentally clear something that will get you stuck. I have heard that time plays no role in your score.

CI foraging is scored differently, where it is based purely on the number of chests you clear in a given time. The key to getting a frantic is getting those chests cleared as fast as you can. There are some things to look out for that will make CI foraging easier.

In this image, you can see that when a small chest appears, there are 9 squares below it. This means that 3 vertical3 clears will clear that chest with no horizontal clears. Horizontal clears only take away 1 block from under it, so they take longer, and are therefore worse for your score.


In this picture, you can see that medium (and also large chests) Have 8 blocks underneath them when they appear. This means that 2 vertical4 clears will take it out, or a vertical3 and a vertical5 will clear that column. Of course, you want to stay on the outside and work your way in to make sure you don't get stuck.

Scoring for CI is pretty simple. Each small chest will net you 1 point, medium gives 2, and large gives 3. To get a score of frentic, you need to get 15 points in one set of foraging.

Some quick tips:
-Leave the fray as soon as it's over to start foraging. Every second is precious.
-If you do get stuck, which hopefully doesn't happen, leave the forage, then come back quickly.
-Shovels are amazing. One click can be all it takes to clear a small chest.
-Ants are bad for you, they take up precious time when they're eating pieces, so shove them into a wall as quick as you can.
-As with normal foraging, try to save up a few machetes on the sides at the bottoms for quick clears.
-Combos don't help your score, so don't worry about getting them, just clear those chests as quick as you can.


Hope that helped. If anybody needs anything specific, you can put a reply here, or PM me about it.

Wow that helped a LOT I thought it was all about time. I have got excel before though.

Many thanks Crux

More of what you can do for CI foraging:

Work from the outside in- once a chest has a appeared take the row closest to the wall and clear that first and work your way inside. This saves unwanted pockets forming under the bigger chests causing getting stuck.

Clear Vertically- Always make sure you clear first for the columns because it will bring your chest down faster and the risk of clearing rows is that it can lower something else that you dont want causing you to get stuck.

Another good way to stop from getting stuck is to use unwanted manuevers (monkeys, earthquake) from under the chests as soon as possible. This way you dont get down to the end and have to click that and that makes you get stuck.

The tips listed above can also help you out when in regular foraging. How i was taught regular foraging is that you focus only on combos. You set it up so that every box cleared combos it. Taking time to clear them at this point does not matter chest size is also a factor but mainly look for setting up boxes and the machete manuever in ways that will allow for combo clearing as this will get you the max score. Combos work the same as in swordfighting where small box=1 medium=2 and large=3, if you double a large chest that chest will get you 6 instead of 3 and so on and on with the combos.

Thank you Another question.
I understand the combo-ness. Does it matter to your score how many moves you take to get that combo? Or is it just the number of clears that ocunts?

As far as i was taught it does not matter about how many turns it takes to set up a combo all that counts is the size of the combo.

Muchos Gracias I shall practice more

im fairly good at foraging myself but sometimes i make a massive mistake which makes the coconut a useless tool

when you have a medium chest against the side where there is only one row until it is cleared and you use the coconut, you will find that its utterly pointless unless you set it up properly...

for those who dont know- when using a coconut whether you use the right mouse button or the left, everysingle peice will move in that direction, the peoces moving towards the side will be destroyed and the peices appearing on the other side are random as always.

this mean that if you have a green pice on the left under the medium chest, adna yellow on the right underneatht the chest, the coconut is pointless unless you place a yellow peice directly next to the yellow peice on the right BEFORE you use the coconut, or you will end up in exactly the same situation you were in before...

which is just down right annoying...

thats the only thing i forget, everything else was said by leoric..

so i thought you ought to know you could do that just in case you get yourself into that situation, which you shouldnt!


and start at the middle for the big chests...


just incase you might forget that...