Contest Winning Advice

[nancy]

The last time I mentioned my formula for competing in contests, I received nothing more than a host of replies refuting my technique. None the less, I have won (1000 tokens) every Chinese New Year contest to date and almost daily in the holiday contests. Here is my formula and if followed, you might have to use between 20 and 40 gems but usually not more:

– I ALWAYS use level 15 Energon Grimlock equipped with sword for all levels.
– I NEVER start the contest when it begins, I always wait until 6 or 8 a.m. the following morning thus never lose any sleep and don’t have to put up with the fanatics that start at the beginning of the contest and will spend any amount of gems, time and energy trying to win. It’s a lost and expensive cause and I refuse to do it.
– I start the contest and play continually using 10, 20 and if necessary (which rarely occurs) 40 gems until I have a 40-50% lead over the next opponent. Then I continue to check back every 3-4 hours playing the now recharged nodes and hopefully keeping ahead with that same 40-50% margin.
– I check in about 1 hour before contest end, play any available nodes and review my margin (and very rarely spending the 40 gems required to insure the first place win).

So far this formula has worked. I believe I only came in 2nd or 3rd twice when I’ve entered a contest (and that was because I was not available to play and/or check in for large blocks of time) and came in first in all the others played since they started these contests. Hope this helps.

Topic

[WeeNaoise]

I am pleased this works for you. It wouldn’t work in my timezone as my sleep time runs up to 4 hours before the end of the contest and I am in work when the contest ends.

[nancy]

I guess that would make a difference. I am in the Pacific Time Zone. The contest starts and ends at 4:00 PM

[Optimus_Pig]

Even though you’ve been winning in the Competition portion, I’m wondering: how are you doing in the Challenge? Have to been able to hit enough targets to reach the 100 Tokens level of the Challenge ladder?

[Optimus_Pig]

For me, waking up in the middle of the night to run four nodes is essentially a “free” set of recharges as few others are willing to do that, so it helps pad my lead overnight.

So far I’ve come in first each day in Days 1 to 5, although Day 5 was really hairy as I had to spend 310 gems to ensure victory against an extremely persistent opponent in a constantly see-sawing battle. Prior to that I’d only spent 30 gems on three days, and 70 gems on one day.

[renta1964]

@optimuspig is asking the right question. @nancy your technique may make you win the first place, but it is only because your competitors let you get away with it. You only need one more agressive player, and your way won’t work anymore.
The competition for Friday has a target of 1700 pigs to get to the 100 tokens level for the full 550 token reward. In order to get there, I have played 38 events. To get to that number, your technique does not work.
But on the downside, my 38 events cost me gems, I’ve not tracked exactly how many, and since I make about 200 per day in the lab I cannot just deduct the wallet levels, but lets say 300. Or even 400. I do think that is a good investment to get to the easy result of 550 tokens.
And yes, Energon Grimlock+Glassor all the way ;-)

[Optimus_Pig]

I’m a big proponent of E. Grimlock + Shieldor.

My reasoning is that using Shieldor allows me to take my time destroying things without having to worry about leaping around to avoid Monoliths from falling on top of me.

I want to treat my TF as a nice steady mobile weapon’s platform.

[nancy]

I don’t understand many of the comments. I’m talking about winning 1000 tokens plus all the little levels of bonus tokens to get there. What I do is usually enough to get to the max available from each challenge. Energon Grimlock with sword accessory and always Glassar which I forgot to mention in my original post.

If you limit your competition time to 8 – 10 hours, it almost guarantees that the most you have to spend to win the CHALLENGE, and by that I mean the 1000 awarded to first place. I don’t understand what you mean Optimus, when you ask about the Competition versus the Challenge. My formula nets me the wining maximum of 1000 tokens + around 100 – 300 more every day of every challenge over the past 4 months with the exception of the two where I came in 2nd and only won 500 both times.

And as I stated, the maximum number of gems I’ve had to spend to do so is 10+20+40 = 70 gems to do so.

My point being don’t play with the obsessives so who think playing over 24 hours will help them win first place i.e., the 1000 token first place prize.

[Optimus_Pig]

@nancy

– Competition = going against other players to hopefully get to first place to win 1,000 tokens

– Challenge = going up the ladder of 10/20/30/40/50/60/70/80/90/100 tokens, to earn a cumulative maximum of 550 tokens

See the difference? These aren’t terms I made up. If you go into the Special Event screen you’ll see:

– in the top right corner, the “Today’s Competition” button shows you your ranking against other players, and

– on the left side it shows “Current Challenge” and how many targets you need to get to the next token level

So my question is, even though you’ve done well enough to place first in the Competition and win 1,000 tokens, have you also destroyed enough targets to earn 550 tokens from the Challenge?

[nancy]

Appreciate you taking the time to explain. I don’t always win the challenge but usually do. Don’t like spending gems when I don’t have to. Today’s contest just ended. I spent 30 gems total and won 1st place with a 965 total pigs…2nd was 390 pigs and 3rd was 270 pigs. Over the course of the Chinese New Year contest, I’ve collected 8,100 total tokens so you tell me if I got 550 every day.

[Optimus_Pig]

@nancy

“Over the course of the Chinese New Year contest, I’ve collected 8,100 total tokens so you tell me if I got 550 every day.”

So we’ve just finished our 6th day of the contest.

Since you’ve come in first place in the Competition every day, then that’s 6,000 tokens right there.

The remaining 2,100 tokens average out to 350/day, so no, you haven’t been maxing out the 550 tokens in the Challenge each day, although you’ve probably hit it at least once.

If you’d maxed out at 1,000 + 550 = 1,550 each day, then you’d be at 9,300 right now.

[Pampeans]

Only today, with the pig challenge, did I make the 550 tokens. I believe Rovio finally got the formula right (business model), where it requires players spend gems in order to score all of the prizes, while those, like me, who prefer to spend minimally still have a chance. Having said that, spending minimal gems requires me to win every single day because it’s impossible to make the 550 challenge without spending a lot of gems. Also, I have noticed that I don’t get the extra prize from Rovio every night. I wonder if you have to score a certain amount in the challenge to win the bonus gift? During the holiday challenge I beat the challenge everyday and I got the gift every night.

[Optimus_Pig]

@pampeans

“Also, I have noticed that I don’t get the extra prize from Rovio every night. I wonder if you have to score a certain amount in the challenge to win the bonus gift?”

Are they still doing those? I haven’t received anything since the Holiday event either. I’d assumed that they’d just done away with the bonus gifts entirely.

[WeeNaoise]

I certainly haven’t been getting extra prizes or bonus gifts.

[Pampeans]

@optimuspig

I have gotten them about every other night during the 11:00 hour (approximately) EST. I got one last night. The gifts have always been tokens whereas in the holiday challenges we sometimes got gems.

[Optimus_Pig]

Really? I haven’t gotten any bonuses during the CNY event.

Since I track the number of tokens I receive on each run, I can say with absolutely certainty that I haven’t received any bonuses this week.

I wonder what I need to do to get them?

Feels like I’m getting ripped off, seeing as how I’ve spent over 500 gems so far this week. Maybe Rovio doesn’t think I’m spending enough of them …..

[Pampeans]

No gift last night, so it’s not for completing the challenge.

[SnTrooper]

I found a little trick to get a minor advantage with your competition. Since you don’t get added to a leaderboard until after you complete a level but your energy starts to recharge after you start a level, if you start then pause and come back a little less than an hour later to finish you will be put in with people that have to wait an hour for their first recharge but yours will be complete in a few minutes/already. So it is like starting with five energy bars.

[TriPolar]

@sntrooper I actually like that idea a lot!!!

I wish I was able to check these post out sooner… You all have some very good & interesting tips!!!

I’m also in the EST zone but no special bonuses showed up for me either… I was hoping to get something… Got EOP and now I’m struggling just to get one of his accessories. BTW: so far I didn’t get any for any otherTF either… HHowever, Ihave been moved from one group(leaderboard) to another during a single day’s contest a few times in this CNY binge.

Now I just have to figure out how to make that crazy amount of gems per day in the lab like @rvanoosten does!!!
Hopefully it’s posted somewhere that is easy be to find…