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GAMES ROOM - Everyone has a Neopets routine. You know, the list of things they
do every day. Almost everyone I know calls them their "dailies". We all hope that
the Tiki Tack Tombola man and the Fruit Machine will fork over something good
for once instead of handing us a condolence message. But after that, everyone
bolts off in different Neopoint-making directions. Some hit the shops and some
play games. My first stop is the game Pyramids.
I got hooked on the game because my computer is an eight year old Slorg-paced
beast that refuses to load flash games. So I started playing the cards games.
The first week I started playing them I had gold trophies in Go Go Go, Sakhmet
Solitaire and Cheat. Not only was I hooked on card games but I was hooked on
getting trophies after that too.
So I decided to try my luck at Pyramids. But a funny thing happened. I didn't
get that gold trophy in a week. I didn't get that gold trophy in two weeks.
In fact, I didn't get that gold trophy in a month. It took me fours months of
playing Pyramids to the maximum allowable Neopoint payout of 5,000 Neopoints
a day to finally get it. Okay, that's not the funny part. This is the funny
part. After I got the gold trophy, I didn't quit playing it like I did with
the other card games. I kept on playing. I was addicted to it by then. I just
loved playing it no matter what.
The point of this story is that Pyramids can be a frustrating game. It is
amazingly easy to play, but mind-bogglingly hard to win. It's difficult to completely
clear the board of all of the cards. It's astronomically against the odds for
you to clear the board two times in a row. And that's what you need to do to
get that gold trophy. But here is the good news. You can make a lot of Neopoints
off of this game whether you clear the board or not. And I am going to explain
how to do that in little itty-bitty baby Bruce steps.
Okie dokie, let's start with the basics. When you click on the "Play Pyramids"
button, 50 Neopoints are automatically sucked off of you. It's one of those
"Pay to Play" games. So the object is to make more than 50 Neopoints every time
you play or you start going in reverse towards bankruptcy. What you then see
is a bunch of cards arranged in a pyramid. I may be making a totally wild guess
here, but I think that's how the game got its name.
There are seven rows of cards to begin with. The top row has one card, the
next row has two cards and so on until the bottom row, which has seven cards.
When the game starts out all of the cards are face down except for the seven
cards on the very bottom row. They are all face up. At the very top you will
see two cards all by themselves. One is face down, the other is face up. The
face down card is your draw pile. The face up card is your target card. The
object of the game is to get rid of all the cards on the triangle. You do this
by playing either one card higher or one card lower than the target card at
the top of the board. All you have to do is click on a card to send it to the
target pile.
Here is an example of a Pyramids board at the beginning of the game:
This picture may be a little fuzzy, but it's actually a very sweet set-up
here. The target card on the top of the board is a six. You would click on the
seven. However, you have two eights, so there are two ways to play the cards.
You can play eight, nine and eight and then stop. Or you can play the eight
of hearts, nine, ten and jack. My advice is to play the longer run of cards.
Not only do you get more Neopoints for the more cards you play in a row, but
you uncover more cards. And uncovering as many cards as you can is a good thing.
Here is what the board will look like after playing those cards:
As you can see, when cards are played, the cards underneath them automatically
turn face up. But there a snag here. If you look closely, you see that all the
cards are placed in staggered formation. That means one card sits on two other
cards. Very often that means you have to get rid of two cards to see one new
card. So the way you play your cards can be very important. Just remember, the
more cards you can flip over and see, means the more cards you can play. The
more cards you can play means you earn more Neopoints.
Let's look at the board above. Since the last card played was a jack, you
can't clear any cards. So you simply click on the face down card on the top
of the board from your draw pile. You have a two, a three and a five showing.
If the next card is a four you have two choices. You can play the five or you
can play the three and then the two. It may seem like a no-brainer to play the
three and the two. But remember this: if you play the five, there are MORE cards
that COULD come up to help you clear the others. You need a four or a six to
clear the five, but if the draw card is an ace, two, three or four, you can
clear the three and the two. Since there are four of each kind of card in the
deck, that means you have eight cards you could get to clear the five. But you
have fourteen cards that could get to clear the three and the two. The odds
are certainly better than way. Since no matter what you played this round will
uncover a card for you, you might as well play the five.
As long as you can't open up a card, play the single card and leave the multiple
cards on the board. So when do you play those multiple cards? Here is an example:
Lucky you! You have a jack as your target card and a queen, nine and ten on
the board. If you play the queen, only one new card is uncovered. But if you
play the ten and the nine, you not only get more points, you uncover two new
cards. Definitely play those two cards. Chant with me: THE MORE CARDS YOU UNCOVER
THE BETTER! THE MORE CARDS YOU UNCOVER THE BETTER! The more cards you have showing
means the more cards you will be able to clear. I can't stress this enough.
Of course, not every choice you have to make is an easy one. Some are terrifying
leaps of faith. You just have to play a card and hope you made the right choice.
Here is an example of a mind-numbing choice you have to make sometimes:
Let's say you start the game, and you get something like this in the row of
seven cards at the bottom of the pyramid. Your target card is an ace. You now
have four cards you can play on that ace. You can play either a king or a two
because aces are both high and low. I recommend playing either the king or the
two near the center. It's better to open up a space near the center of the board
than on the ends. That because if you play the king on the end, you'll still
need to clear the two next to it to uncover a new card. But if you play the
two near the center, you could clear either a king or a nine to get to see a
card on the next row. I decided to play the king. The next card I drew was a
three. It turned out to be a lucky guess.
Of course, that meant I had three cards I could play on the three. I chose
the two of clubs because it was the closest to the center, but you could play
either two. You COULD play the four, since it will also uncover a card, but
personally I wouldn't. The point is, that you still need a whole bunch of aces
or threes to get rid of the cards on the other end. The more cards you NEED
in order to clear cards, the harder it is to clear them. So get rid of one of
those twos while you have the chance.
Pyramids is not only a game of luck, it is a game of concentration too. You
can make a lot of mistakes if you are not really paying attention. For example,
you have a king, ace, two and three showing. There is an ace on the target card
pile. You would play them in this order if you were napping: two and three.
However, if you were wide awake, you would play them in this order: king, ace,
two and three. That's a big difference.
Just keep in mind that you can go backwards and forwards while playing multiple
cards. Let's say you have these cards showing: three, four, four, four and five.
Your target card is a three. You would play your cards like this: four, three,
four, five and four. If you have a set-up like this, it is okay to take a minute
and really think about how to play the most number of cards. This game has no
time limits. In fact, you can leave the game and come back later to keep playing
if you want to.
As I mentioned before, it's not necessary to clear all of the cards to make
good Neopoints. You will get a 500 point bonus for clearing the Pyramid, so
you will make between 750 and 850 Neopoints if you do it. But it's not unusual
to make over 200 Neopoints just for getting ALMOST to the top. Here is an example:
So that's it. The secret to playing Pyramids is to PLAY Pyramids, whether
you clear the board or not. You can get a decent payout almost every time. Not
bad for about five minutes of game playing. And if you do manage to clear the
pyramid three times you'll get a bronze trophy. Oh, and did I mention that you
can get really cool random events playing this game? I get bottled faeries,
codestones and Faerie quests on a regular basis just minding my own business
and happily clearing away cards. If you ask me, this is the best deal in Neopia.
So what are you waiting for? Why are you sitting here when you could be in the
Lost Desert making tons of Neopoints? Then again, why am I sitting here writing
this, when I could be in the Lost Desert making tons of Neopoints? See ya later!
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