Pipe Dream(NES) FAQ
version 1.0.0 by Andrew Schultz
[email protected]
Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my prior consent.
However, if you write a polite e-mail to me referring to me(and this FAQ) by
name, then I will probably say OK. But if I ignore you that means no--and I
am bad about answering e-mail. Sorry.
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"A real purty 'n simple game 'til it got all bloated and 3-d and puffed out
and higfalutin"
================================
OUTLINE
1. INTRODUCTION
2. CONTROLS AND BASIC SCORING
2-1. WHAT TO DO
2-2. HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
2-3. PIECES
2-4. SCORING
3. LEVELS
4. DIFFERENT GAME VARIANTS
5. VARIOUS STRATEGIES
5-1. FLAT OUT LASTING
5-2. CROSSING
5-3. CLEAR WHOLE BOARD
5-4. BIG POINTS
5-5. EVASIVE ACTION
5-6. BY-LEVEL
5-7. BONUS BOARD
6. VERSIONS
7. CREDITS
================================
1. INTRODUCTION
Pipe Dream is an excellent puzzle game for the NES. You're given a random
chain of pipes to place on an 8x10 grid, and to survive, you need to keep
chaining the pipes together so that the flooz can flow through them. Flooz
takes some time to get started, during which you need to prepare various
crossing techniques. That is the way to go about piling up points, because
the most useful shape is a cross. The flooz can flow through it two ways, and
once it crosses its previous path, you get a bonus. There's a big bonus for
covering all squares, but the multipliers on the later levels are where the
big points are.
Multiplier squares include a reservoir, which slows the flooz down, a pump,
which speeds the flooz through the next few squares, loosened wall squares,
which are great for a bonus, and ending-pipes, which double your bonus. The
key to a great score is being able to get a lot of loops and crosses, but an
individual cross gets the most points if you travel through reservoirs,
pumps, or the side of the playfield first. You also get a great accumulating
base bonus.
Later levels give more points, the flooz flows faster, and you need to get
the flooz across more squares to survive. If you put together enough crosses,
you can get over one million bonus(my high is ~1200000) and although it's
easy to muddle around and survive, the game's challenge is gambling trying to
get that last loop in. It's like doubling at roulette, only if you think hard
enough you can get a big payoff.
Pipe Dream feels well balanced, as you can replace pipe pieces that don't
fit, but it costs you time and points. There's usually a purpose for any
piece, and often you can just junk pieces looking for the right one on a
later level--with the time and space crunch occurring later. Even with an
emulator there is a chance for strategy. You can second guess what you did
and set up the board according to what's in your buffer--certain scores may
be easier to achieve, but the challenge becomes less rapid and more oriented
around planning.
Pipe Dream was ported to the PlayStation, and it is also on Windows. The
PlayStation version has some cute little pieces of pipe cheering you on and
the option to speed the flooz part of the time, but there are a lot of
special effect delays and tons of loading time. Pipe Dream for the NES is a
simple and effective puzzler that has a lot of variety for its blockiness.
For those who emulate Pipe Dreams provides additional challenges: you can
be even more precise with where you place items. Pause the emulator instead
of pushing "start" and you can figure out what to do next. This cheating
somewhat, but if you want to pile up huge scores it's worth a try(I got the
1000000+ straight up, though.)
Eventually due to the random set-ups you will get a horrendous start in by-
level mode, or you'll get a serendipitous starting position in point-grabbing
mode. For instance, a reservoir or pump will block the end square from a
final cross, or on the flip side a reservoir is two squares from a pump. But
there's always the prospect of finding a certain trick and with 4 items in
the "next" box after your current piece, there are many chances to piece
together strategy.
2. CONTROLS AND BASIC SCORING
2-1. WHAT TO DO
Pipe Dreams has intuitive controls, but there are a few things to be aware
of.
U/D/L/R moves your cursor around in that direction. Note that you can't
cycle across the end of the screen.
A button places the current pipe piece on the square your cursor is over.
If you are over a filled bit of pipe, the start or end pipe, or a pump or
reservoir, nothing will happen. If the square is empty, you can place the
pipe with a brief pause. Otherwise, the previous bit of pipe will explode,
and you may have a delay before you drop the next pipe. This becomes more
defined later on, and when the issues is in doubt, any flooz flowing in won't
make it to the next square. So it's important to ID which squares you may
want to leave to the dogs. Or have a whole strip where you can chuck bad
pieces on when you need a good one.
Select lets the flooz run quickly. This doubles your score for everything
afterwards, but you can't construct much more. It's a nice reward for
finishing quickly.
Start pauses the game. The play screen vanishes, but you will have time to
plan things out if you are good at memorizing positions. You can also flash
the 'start' twice when paused to see the pieces you have and think of what
you can do with them.
The screen flashes in variation A/B once you've gotten the required
distance. You can try to experiment then.
2-2. HOW TO DO IT RIGHT
The most likely mistake you'll make is to tap the A button while you're
chucking away pieces, and when you finally get what you want, you can't stop
tapping. The solution: hold A down when you're chucking pieces. The game
anticipates it once the previous piece has exploded.
Use a vacant area to unload pieces early on--just move around. If you
especially need a piece right away, don't be scared to chuck a lot and just
try to get past a level.
Note that the game may not register a new place you've put in right away,
especially if it overlaps something else. So you can place something just in
time, it seems, but the piece under takes a while to explode, and your level
is over.
Try to have a definite goal about when you'll 'push the button' and also
make sure you don't push select when you want to push start. This undoes the
good cheating you do by freezing and briefly unfreezing to see what's where.
However, you can place pieces while the flooz is running through.
Pay attention to the music, if it's on. It can clue you in when you thought
you had something working right and you didn't. If the music goes fast and
you think you made provisions for much longer, take another look. You can be
especially prone to this later on when you place a one-way piece that goes
the wrong way. Keep the music at a low volume if it gets tiresome after a
while.
Remember that with eleven different piece types in Pipe Dreams(seven early
on, before one-ways are introduced) it may be difficult to get the exact one
you want. If you have two projects going on that require different pieces,
that is a good thing. For instance in one you might have a passage made up of
bend pieces and in another you might use straight pieces. Also you can use a
cross to substitute for another straight piece.
2-3. PIECES
Here are the eleven pieces in Pipe Dreams.
.. ...
XX Down/right XX. Down/left
X. .X.
X. .X.
XX Up/right XX. Up/left
.. ...
X. ... .X.
XXX Cross XXX Right/left .X. Up/down
X. ... .X.
.. ...
<XX 1-way left XX> 1-way right
.. ...
^. .X.
X. 1-way up .X. 1-way down
X. .V.
I'll have these in diagrams below. One-way pieces are the trickiest. As for
crosses, note that you get bonus points for a cross even if the flooz runs
out just after you make the cross. Note that although the cross looks like it
could curve, or it could be a part of two curves, it doesn't.
2-4. SCORING
First of all, you never get any extra wrenches in any game.
-50 points for placing a piece of pipe over another[note there's a slight
delay here too]
-100 points for each piece of pipe left at the end of the level(it feels like
Centipede to watch this doesn't it?)
50 points * (level #) for each square the flooz goes through. No points for
flooz going through the start or end bits.
10000 * (level #) bonus for filling all squares
100 * (level #) + (previous # of loops * items in play * 100) bonus for each
loop created.
Multiplier of loop =
2 for each reservoir you crossed between trips through the loop
4 for each pump
8 for each side of the board
double points for entering the end pipe
Everything is doubled after you have pushed select.
Note that the bonus is always 1 behind on the updates when you go through
the flooz.
Multipliers are clearly where it's at during the game, but you can't just
focus on them--a few crosses before the big multiplier is just as good as a
2x multiplier. Multipliers are cumulative. They do not multiply themselves,
but if you go off the side of the board twice and cross back, you get 16x.
Note that if you enter the end pipe before distance=0, and you are playing
mode A or B, you lose one of the three wrenches you started with. Contrarily,
in mode C, you don't need to worry about getting distance=0 as the game is
about one specific level.
Thought I might as well include this--the default high score list.
(Name/level/speed/score)
NAME LV SP SCORE
1 EEK A 10 2 200000
2 LMB A 8 4 60000
3 RSK A 5 2 30000
4 SVS A 3 4 20000
5 ICE A 2 3 10000
1 DON B 13 3 100000
2 HBR B 9 3 50000
3 DMN B 5 2 20000
4 KEH B 4 2 15000
5 TH B 2 2 10000
1 AL C 7 3 50000
2 TTS C 6 3 20000
3 SDU C 3 3 10000
4 KPP C 4 2 2000
5 AJW C 2 2 1000
Odds of getting certain pieces are listed below:
3. LEVELS
There are 16 levels in the main variation(A) with 4 sublevels. Once you
cover them all, you go back to level 1-5, which is just 1-1 at a
prohibitively more difficult speed and with 4 more blocks to place before
you're safe.
[gotten by plowing through game C on each different level/speed.]
Color key:
G=green
LG=light green
DG=dark green
B=blue
LB=light blue
DB=dark blue
GO=gold
P=purple
PI=pink
R=red
S=silver
Y=yellow
K=black
| | |Resr|Tun |End|Col | |
|Dist|Pump|Voir|nel | |Ors |Bonus |
----+----+----+----+----+---+----+----------+
01-1| 15| 0| 0| 0| N|G/B |0100+0100x|
01-2| 16| 0| 0| 0| N|LB/B|0100+0100x|
01-3| 17| 0| 0| 0| N|P/B |0100+0100x|
01-4| 18| 0| 0| 0| N|GO/G|0100+0100x|
02-1| 16| 0| 1| 0| N|LG/G|0200+0200x|
02-2| 17| 0| 1| 0| N|LB/G|0200+0200x|
02-3| 18| 0| 1| 0| N|P/G |0200+0200x|
02-4| 19| 0| 1| 0| N|GO/G|0200+0200x|
03-1| 17| 1| 0| 0| N|G/R |0300+0200x|
03-2| 18| 1| 0| 0| N|LB/R|0300+0200x|
03-3| 19| 1| 0| 0| N|PI/R|0300+0200x|
03-4| 20| 1| 0| 0| N|GO/R|0300+0200x|
04-1| 18| 0| 1| 1| N|G/Y |0400+0200x|
04-2| 19| 0| 1| 1| N|B/Y |0400+0200x|
04-3| 20| 0| 1| 1| N|P/Y |0400+0200x|
04-4| 21| 0| 1| 1| N|DG/Y|0400+0200x|
05-1| 19| 1| 0| 1| N|G/DG|0500+0200x|
05-2| 20| 1| 0| 1| N|LB/S|0500+0200x|
05-3| 21| 1| 0| 1| N|P/S |0500+0200x|
05-4| 22| 1| 0| 1| N|Y/S |0500+0200x|
06-1| 20| 0| 0| 1| Y|G/G |0600+0200x|
06-2| 21| 0| 0| 1| Y|LB/G|0600+0200x|
06-3| 22| 0| 0| 1| Y|P/G |0600+0200x|
06-4| 23| 0| 0| 1| Y|Y/G |0600+0200x|
07-1| 21| 0| 1| 1| Y|G/S |0700+0300x|
07-2| 22| 0| 1| 1| Y|LB/S|0700+0300x|
07-3| 23| 0| 1| 1| Y|P/S |0700+0300x|
07-4| 24| 0| 1| 1| Y|Y/S |0700+0300x|
08-1| 22| 1| 1| 1| Y|G/K |0800+0400x|
08-2| 23| 1| 1| 1| Y|LB/K|0800+0400x|
08-3| 24| 1| 1| 1| Y|P/K |0800+0400x|
08-4| 25| 1| 1| 1| Y|Y/K |0800+0400x|
09-1| 23| 1| 2| 2| Y|G/G |0900+0500x|
09-2| 24| 1| 2| 2| Y|G/DG|0900+0500x|
09-3| 25| 1| 2| 2| Y|G/R |0900+0500x|
09-4| 26| 1| 2| 2| Y|G/Y |0900+0500x|
10-1| 24| 2| 1| 2| Y|B/G |1000+0500x|
10-2| 25| 2| 1| 2| Y|B/DG|1000+0500x|
10-3| 26| 2| 1| 2| Y|B/R |1000+0500x|
10-4| 27| 2| 1| 2| Y|B/Y |1000+0500x|
11-1| 25| 2| 2| 2| Y|P/LB|1100+0600x|
11-2| 26| 2| 2| 2| Y|P/DG|1100+0600x|
11-3| 27| 2| 2| 2| Y|P/R |1100+0600x|
11-4| 28| 2| 2| 2| Y|P/Y |1100+0600x|
12-1| 26| 2| 3| 3| Y|GO/B|1200+0700x|
12-2| 27| 2| 3| 3| Y|GODG|1200+0700x|
12-3| 28| 2| 3| 3| Y|GO/R|1200+0700x|
12-4| 29| 2| 3| 3| Y|GO/Y|1200+0700x|
13-1| 27| 3| 3| 3| Y|G/B |1300+0200x|
13-2| 28| 3| 3| 3| Y|LG/G|1300+0200x|
13-3| 29| 3| 4| 3| Y|G/R |1300+0200x|
13-4| 30| 3| 4| 3| Y|G/Y |1300+0200x|
14-1| 28| 3| 4| 3| Y|B/B |1300+0200x|
14-2| 29| 3| 4| 3| Y|B/G |1400+0200x|
14-3| 30| 3| 4| 3| Y|B/R |1400+0200x|
14-4| 31| 3| 4| 3| Y|B/Y |1400+0200x|
15-1| 29| 3| 4| 4| Y|P/B |1400+0600x|
15-2| 30| 3| 4| 4| Y|P/G |1500+0600x|
15-3| 31| 3| 4| 4| Y|P/R |1500+0600x|
15-4| 32| 3| 4| 4| Y|P/Y |1500+0600x|
16-1| 30| 3| 5| 6| Y|R/B |1500+0700x|
16-2| 31| 3| 5| 6| Y|R/G |1600+0700x|
16-3| 32| 3| 5| 6| Y|R/Y |1600+0700x|
16-4| 33| 3| 5| 6| Y|R/Y |1600+0700x|
4. DIFFERENT GAME VARIANTS
Games A and B are pretty much the same, although B has a sharper curve than
A. A goes through 1-1, 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, and 2-1. You can start at up to level
12-1 and cannot adjust starting speed. B goes 1-x, 2-x, 3-x, etc. You can
adjust starting speed up to 8 but cannot adjust the level. You can start at
up to 16-8 in game C, which only allows you one scene to maximize your
scores.
You'll probably get tired of playing A after a bit, even on the tougher
levels. B might be a bit too sharp. But C has a good mix of randomness and
strategy--you must formulate a plan quickly.
5. VARIOUS STRATEGIES
5-1. FLAT OUT LASTING
As the initial board setup is random, there's no way to get started easily.
You may not be able to do anything with the first piece, but you do need to
think ahead a bit. Before one-way pieces you have a 4/7 chance for each piece
to work with the starting square(direction of the start piece, 2 of the bent
pieces, and the cross) and after it is 5/11 that you can start OK. So you do
need to make some adjustments for later planning. On the early levels you
probably have enough time to build whatever and wherever, and there aren't
many special squares, but on the later ones you have to set your nets early
when you can't go for immediate survival. Don't put a cross at the beginning
unless you definitely get the right pieces early on, or unless you just use
it as you would a straight piece and decide to plan for the cross later.
At the beginning you may want to get away from the edge of the board, too.
Since you get some time before pieces fall, you may not want to place just
any piece at the start.
There are also a few tricks you can use to have a use for all pieces. For
instance, curved pieces may seem confusing because our minds think more
linearly. But if used right, they can make the chain of pipe even longer.
X. ...
XX XX.
.. .X.
.. .X.
XX XX.
X. ...
You can even think ahead here if you get 2 of the same piece. And these
are also good to put along the side while you build crosses etc. in the main
bit. But there is a risk of getting trapped in a corner. Here you need to use
a straight piece to get out of the area.
.. ... ... ... ... ...
XX XX. .XX XX. ... ...
X. .X. .X. .X. ... ...
X. .X. .X. .X. ... ...
XX. .XX XX. .XX ... ...
.. ... ... ... ... ...
One you're ten or so pieces ahead of the flooz you can start planning the
big maneuvers for big points. Of course you can slow the flooz down in the
later levels by passing something through a reservoir, but as you see in the
points section you want to try to go through a pump first.
5-2. CROSSING
Crossing is a critical element in Pipe Dreams for a high score and for
survival. The easiest and most practical cross comes from taking three curves
around a cross i.e.
.. .X.
XX XXX
X. .X.
X. .X.
XX XX.
.. ...
Crossing buys a bit of time since you can get flooz flowing through a pipe.
And it gets you bonus points too. Also you can place a cross at a potential
dead end. However some of the best crosses are put in conjunction. Crosses
allow you to use a lot of curved pieces you might not know where to put, and
you get a nice bonus too. In fact crosses do not work well with straight
pieces, so you may have one group of places to put straight pieces and
another where you make simple crosses.
If you cross at a piece just before the flooz runs out, you still get the
bonus. For instance, you'd get the bonus with the set up is at the bottom
edge, right before the level ended:
.XX XX.
.X. .X.
.. .X. .X.
XXX XXX XX.
.. .X. ...
Cross pieces can also replace horizontal/vertical ones without losing any
quality in the current stretch of pipe you are building. In fact some times a
regular straight pipe may seem OK, but then your stretch of pipe seems to cut
the board in two. Using a cross piece to replace a straight can help you loop
around.
Cross pieces work well next to each other. The next section's second-last
diagram shows how they can be used to take out a corner more interestingly.
But if you are just going for cross bonuses the following can work too:
.. ... ... ...
XX XX. .XX XXX
X. .X. .X. ...
X. .X. .X. ...
XX XXX XXX XX.
.. .X. .X. .X.
.. .X. .X. .X.
XX XXX XXX XX.
X. .X. .X. ...
X. .X. .X. ...
XX XXX XXX XX.
.. .X. .X. .X.
.. .X. .X. .X.
XX XXX XXX XX.
X. .X. .X. ...
X. .X. .X. ...
XX XXX XXX XX.
.. .X. .X. .X.
.. .X. .X. .X.
XXX XX. .XX XX.
.. ... ... ...
I've made 4x5 crosses on the earlier levels but I have also messed up which
way to turn the curved pipes on the side. Note that if you are not careful, a
situation with 2x6 squares will make you loop back on yourself before going
through the crosses again. If we made the above cross-rectangle 3x6 we could
go u/d/u and then to the UR corner and we could twirl back l/r/l etc.
5-3. CLEAR WHOLE BOARD
While clearing the board is definitely not points-efficient at higher
levels, even without the added complexity of 1-way pieces, it's worth trying
around levels 1-3. There are a few caveats though. You can't just go placing
pieces and hope to work it out. First, you have to look ahead to make sure
you don't create dead ends, and second of all, if you use crosses, you need
to use a variation of the old chessboard color-square problem. You see, the
board is 8x10 and so if we label each alternating square black or white we
get:
BWBWBWBWBW
WBWBWBWBWB
BWBWBWBWBW
WBWBWBWBWB
BWBWBWBWBW
WBWBWBWBWB
BWBWBWBWBW
WBWBWBWBWB
Forty black and forty white. But let's say we put a cross on the opposite
color square as the entry tube(black=tube, white=cross) and then loop around
in the cross. Before entering the cross, we've covered 1 more black square
than white. Then we enter the cross and covere another black square. We've
covered a white square twice and now we've covered 2 more black squares than
white. It will alternate between +1 black and +2 black until we put a cross
on a black square. In order for our try to be successful we must make sure
the differential always goes between 0 and 1: crosses next to each other are
a good way to achieve this.
If you get lost counting crosses then you just need to calculate how many
used crosses are on the same color as the start and how many are on a
different color. The first number should be equal to or 1 more than the
second. You can move diagonally in your mind's eye to see if squares are the
same color--or if they can't reach each other diagonally, you can be
classified as different colors. Doing the total mental calculus for this is
tricky, but if you get a big jump or don't mind using an emulator-freeze(as
opposed to the NES-freeze start button inside the emulator) you can work all
this out.
There's also a space consideration here. You may want to reserve the
outside parts of the board to look something like as follows:
X. | ... .X.
X. | .XX XX.
X. | .X. ...
X. | .X. ...
X. | .XX XX.
X. | ... .X.
X. ... ... | ... ... .X.
XX XXX XXX | XXX XXX XX.
.. ... ... | ... ... ...
Now you have sections where you can put pretty much any pipe piece you can
get. You can even substitute a pipe with a straight!
One other thing to take care of is the prospect of a dead end. You can't
have two of them and expect to win, and you'll also need to smooth things out
at times. It's best not to use too many curvy pieces except to form a square
as above, and you can also use a cross at a place where you might create a
potential dead end, but let's say it happens anyway.
pppppppp
pppppp
ppppp
pppp
>
pppppppp
Let's say you have the position as above. And you need to get out of here.
Here's what to do.
pppppppp
pppppp90
ppppp78a
pppp56cb
>1234hdg
nmlkjief
pppppppp
Make a cross at d to get out of this mess.
Also you do not want to leave one space between your construction and the
edge. That could lead to a position like this.
p...1....
pppp.pppp
pppp.pppp
pppp.pppp
You can only go in two directions from point 1. Leaving the third unused.
Dead ends can be tricky to anticipate, but when in doubt you'll want to
place a cross where things might be trouble. It's also good to have a cross
planned in advance for this sort of thing and to use crosses a diagonal hop
away from a corner to avoid corners becoming dead ends. Use a tight cross
curl to get out. In fact it's very best to do this in a corner if you can,
but if not, then simply using a lot of curves should work OK:
.. ... ... ...
XX XX. .XX XX.
X. .X. .X. .X.
X. .X. .X. .X.
XX XXX XXX XX.
.. .X. .X. ...
.. .X. .X. ...
XX XXX XXX XXX
X. .X. .X. ...
X. .X. .X.
XX XX. .XX
.. ... ...
One other trick--if you have a dead end then you can use a cross on the
square just before it.
.X.
XXX
.X.
.. .X.
S. .X.
X. .X.
X. ... .X.
XX XXX XX.
.. ... ...
Note this example is also good for how NOT to start a level if you want to
clear the whole board--creating a dead end so early forces drastic action,
and you can't do it twice! However, if the horizontal piece were a cross it
would be OK--even though you'd have a rough edge no matter where you turned.
Unless you had a cross below that.
For the last few squares you'll probably need to chuck the wrong pieces on
the right squares until you get what you want. But on level 1 you can get so
far ahead of the game it doesn't matter.
5-4. BIG POINTS
In game C, the object is to get a huge amount of points, and the rule of
thumb is: the later you can get multipliers, the better. So what I like to do
is to set up crosses by the end and plan a way to get crosses to loop around
several valuable pieces. You may want to just survive at the start or
possibly place very tight crosses. You may also want to place a bunch of
crosses just before a pump and have a clear quick path from a pump to a
reservoir. This is a sure way to get big points and yet have the time to look
for more.
However a lot of getting HUGE scores is about getting the right setup. For
instance if you have many spaces where you can go off the board and come back
on, that can make for tremendous multipliers, especially if they are lumped
together. I'll put an ideal scenario below.
... ...
.XX XX.
.X. .X.
---assume this is the edge of the screen---
... ... .X. .X.
.XX XX. .X. .X.
.X. .X. .X. .X.
.. ... ... ... .X. .X. .X. .X. ...
XX RRR XXX PPP XXX XXX XXX XXX XX.
X. ... ... ... .X. .X. .X. .X. .X.
X. .X. .X. .X. .X. .X.
X. .X. .XX XX. .X. .X.
X. .X. ... ... .X. .X.
X. ... ... ... .X. ... ... .X. .X.
XX XXX XXX XXX XX. .FX XXX XX. .S.
.. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
You can also have a cross early on that you don't use right away, because
that can really get a whopping bonus if you come back at the end. If the
start and end are particularly close this can be a big help. Remember that
one extra late cross won't add much, because it has no multipliers, but if
you could, in the example above, get the flooz flowing with 'select' before
passing through any of the last three crosses, you'd get a huge double.
And of course you can keep restarting to get different boards to start with
'til there's one you like. Save states have a set queue of pieces, which you
can abuse as you wish to get a super-high score assuming things fall right.
You can figure out what comes next and thus the best plan of action.
5-5. EVASIVE ACTION
Often you'll find yourself scrambling to get things going. In later levels
you may even be sunk before you start, since you won't get many pieces to
place before the flooz starts, and youcan just be unlucky. Chucking pieces in
some corner works best, but of course this makes it harder to take evasive
action later. The #1 place to look to go is a reservoir. At all costs avoid a
pump.
Also keep a look at the "next" screen and remember the piece at the bottom
is the next one you want to place. Develop a sort of rhythm to drop X in a
row. Don't get overanxious though. But chucking stuff at the start is OK.
Also if you can't find a space for a piece and are in no danger, drop it
where a piece has been so that later you have an open space and can save a
bit of time.
5-6. BY-LEVEL
Of course you can muddle through any level in A mode. But I am concerned
here with playing well and using what you've learned to do a little better in
the next levels and leave yourself the potential to pile up a lot of points.
On level 1 you can try to clear everything. Why not? It's pretty easy to
last even on speed 4, but you will want to experiment with crosses and with
building stuff ahead.
On level 2 you can either use the reservoir to build ahead a bunch, or you
can create a bunch of crosses beforehand to go through after you pass through
the reservoir. Still a possibility for getting through the whole board.
On level 3 you will want to use the pump once you have a lot built ahead--
again, you want to make a few crosses before the pump and loop over. It also
introduces one-way pieces.
Level 4 shows you your first tunnel. Again a good practice here is to make
a few crosses before the tunnel and maybe even try to get through the
reservoir so that you can take a bit of extra time to get your bearings after
going through the tunnel. Because there is only one tunnel, you have to cover
the whole board to get back to the crosses.
Level 5 features a pump and a tunnel. Don't use the pump before the tunnel
unless you know what you're doing, or unless you're very far ahead of the
game. Again you want to experiment with crosses before either of these and
you want to try to go for both, because you can get a x12 multiplier.
Level 6 has an ending square for the first time. Here you have to be
careful on A or B mode because if you make it to the ending square before
you've cleared enough territory, you lose a man. C has no such restrictions.
What I like to do with end-tunnels is place a cross or two right above them,
jump through a few hoops, then enter them on the way back. When I push select
it almost guarantees a 2x bonus for quick flooz on top of the doubling you
get for entering an end square. Because there are no obstacles here I suggest
creating a lot of crosses for later use before you go through the tunnel. Of
course if you don't get any crosses, there's no point in trying to go into
the end square.
... ...
.XX XX.
.X. .X.
.. .X. .X.
XX XXX XX.
X. .X. ...
X. .X. ...
XX XXX XXX
.. .X. ...
.X.
.E.
...
Level 7 has a reservoir. This makes it a bit easier than level 6 but the
same principles still stand. Note here that things can get a bit cluttered
and an awkwardly placed reservoir can get in the way of big bonus points. For
instance:
R. ... ...
R. ... XE.
R. ... ...
Now you can't make a cross just before the end, but you can probably do
something with the reservoir or tunnel.
Level 8 is the first one with all three pieces. I recommend again going for
the pump first. You should still be able to use all the pieces in some order,
but remember it's not really useful unless you place crosses beforehand.
Level 9 has the first opportunity to go back and forth and weave through
tunnels for a serious bonus up to 16x. The reservoirs and pumps are less
efficient but if you find a way to link them up, do so. With multiple
tunnels, hitting the end becomes particularly valuable.
Level 10 is the first one with two pumps, and if you can get the flooz
through the two pumps before hitting the reservoir, good deal! Still, don't
worry too much about this trick. Two pumps make for an extra bonus of 8x, but
they are less risky than a tunnel pair once you can visualize going to the
other side and back--or maybe left and up off the play field.
Level 11 has two of everything. Again it's hard to create much of a big
loop, but you can use the multiple reservoirs to slow things down when you
are looking for a way to make it through the tunnels. The board's starting to
get a bit cluttered here and tunnels almost become a necessity to wade
through it all. I generally try to get through all special squares on
principle but it's around here it starts getting tough. And if you don't
place any crosses beforehand it isn't really worth it.
Level 12 has 3 tunnels and if you are really good, you can loop through a
side with 2 holes and then go through the third. Again, you may want to
prepare the "other side" tunneling while placing crosses etc. and there's a
lot of interference from reservoirs. Given there are more reservoirs than
pumps, you can still do a quick pump/reservoir deal. In some cases a
pump/reservoir cross bonus may be less risky and about as pointworthy as
taking a pump, reservoir and several tunnels.
Level 13 starts to get VERY cluttered. The extra pump over level 12 is a
definite nuisance. You may have a lot of tight quarters. Fortunately the
randomization never never puts any two objects within touch of each other.
But a lot of times you will have to bend around quickly and maybe go through
a reservoir or two as you build up ahead to curve in and out of the walls.
Level 14 isn't much of an improvement although the extra reservoir is nice.
With four of them you can use a couple at the beginning to slow things down
again and build tunnels weaving on and off the board.
Level 15 provides the opportunity for an extra tunnel and even more points.
Up to a 32x bonus. With just one cross at the beginning and if you make it to
the end, that is 1500 * 32 * 2 = 96000.
Level 16 has two more tunnels and a reservoir. The probability two tunnels
are next to each other here, which makes for an easy turnback and bonus
points, is rather good. In fact the probability no two are is:
6C12 + 5C12
----------- = 77/221 if my calculations work out
18C6
....if we work clockwise from the DL and note that we can either
have(tunnel/no) or (no) and use 6 of each on the way around--that's 6C12. We
also need to take care of the cases with a tunnel at the end. That's 5
(tunnel/no) and 7 (no).
With five reservoirs it's probably a matter of time before you get a
situation where you can place them comfortably to start working crosses. If
you can place 4 crosses before going into the tunnels and go into 6 tunnels,
and then get into the end square, that makes 1600(1+2+3+4) * 48 * 2 > 1500000
total points. Whew. Might even be worth pinching off a few small crosses--one
beforehand raises the total to 2.1 million.
This may be a pie in the sky case for most setups, but if you practice long
enough, you'll be ready when the tunnels and reservoirs are placed favorably.
5-7. BONUS BOARD
Bonus boards occur after you've completed four boards on one level. You get
ten times the normal points, but you can't place a pipe wherever you want.
They go back and forth at the top by themselves, and if you push the A
button, one drops.
Piling everything up to the top is not lethal; on the contrary, it can help
you discard pieces you do not want. Because if you have a stack of blocks and
try to drop something on them, it disappears and the next piece comes around.
Therefore if you can bring the stack of blocks 2 in, or on the far edge, you
can have enough time to evaluate if you have the piece you want, and you
don't have to wait for it to disappear.
I usually try to get one cross in this level. It isn't too bad, really. You
can just discard junk left and right of the starting pipe and then look for
the relevant pieces later. It's worth it to just try to survive. A cross
doesn't get you that many more times of points, so you can maybe start a maze
and cap it off with a cross. However if a cross falls right away you could be
in luck. And if you get a couple you can try even more. You can stack them on
top of each other and then look ahead to figure out which curves to put
where--there you may need some luck, but two crosses are worth going after. A
setup you should be pleased with is below. Having two crosses side by side
makes for every curved piece being immediately useful.
.. ... ... ...
XX XX. .XX XX.
X. .X. .X. .X.
X. .X. .X. .X.
XX XXX XXX XX.
.. .X. .X. ...
.. .X. .X. ...
XXX .X. .X. .XX
.. .X. .X. .X.
Usually the board becomes a mess fairly quickly, especially if I use a row
to pitch stuff, so I just plan for a cross or two. Then I push select once
it's all in place. Also, when in doubt, let a piece go. You can't undo a bad
move. But don't be afraid to take chances planning. There's no way to lose,
really.
End of FAQ proper
================================
6. VERSIONS
1.0.0 submitted to GameFAQS 1/30/2004. Should be complete although I
sometimes fudge what happens if things go wrong. This guide was started on
5/2002 apparently!
7. CREDITS
Thanks to the usual GameFAQs gang. They know who they are, and you should,
too, because they get some SERIOUS writing done. Good people too--bloomer,
daremo, falsehead, RetroFreak, Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, and others
I forgot.
Sam's Club for having the Pipe Dreams 3-D which led me to the even greater
fun of the original!
All those math/chess competitions which helped me to like this sort of
puzzling.
The folks on the FAQ board who helped keep up the NES completion topic I
made, so that this FAQ could get sent in 30 months after it was conceived.
You folks are great.
