Lily Padz Tutorial

Hamlet · 09-03-2007, 01:34 AM

Lily Padz

I posted the original for this tutorial on my site:
http://ant.igon.us/Content.asp?pid=70

At that link, you can view the YouTube Videos.

It took me awhile to get into Lily Padz. Frankly, I don't like playing the games that don't yield trophies - and this game does not give a trophy.

But, as I was doing the research for the Cash Per Minute - the Economy of the Games - I found that Lily Padz actually pays out decently (if you are fairly good at the game).

The game itself needs just a little bit of explanation.

First, for some reason, your frog cannot swim, and must hop from one pad to another - or to a rock - trying to get back to his house. As the time on the 5 levels progress, a hunger bar at the top of the screen continues to diminish. To get your hunger bar back to the maximum level (or at least to not let it get to zero - where you will die), you have to jump up, using the up arrows, and eat bugs. There are 3 kinds of bugs. The blue bugs give you 10 points, and replenish your hunger the most. The dragonflies also give 10 points and replenish your hunger, but not as much as the blue bugs. The bumblebees actually take away your hunger and give no points, so you want to avoid those. You can see all 3 bugs below.

The skill in this game is the jumping. To advance, you use the space bar to increase your spring, and if you set it to spring all the way, you will jump the furthest. The second component is that you have to aim your jump. The combination of aim and angle give you the distance. In some cases, you want to set a high angle (below), like to get over a flower.

In most cases, you will use an angle of around 45 degrees.

This game just takes practice, and understanding where the points are that you have to take long jumps, and the places that you will have to take shorter jumps.

With practice, you will realize that there are some spots that you can get too close to the flower, and not have enough angle to get over the flower and make it to the next block.

For the most part, if you cannot see a landing spot on the screen, you can go with max power and jump all the way. I normally recommend that when you can see a landing spot, you aim for it (and don't jump over it, or else you might over jump a safe landing and end up in the water).

As the levels progress, the game is a little less forgiving about landing between two lily padz, and your frog will die if you land between two.

If you stay on a lily pad for too long, the pad will sink and you will die.

You can stay on the rocks as long as you want. In fact, if you see real high scores out there, it is because people have stayed on the rocks, just eating bugs. I did that once for around 45 minutes and got over 6000 as my final score. That is very tedious, though, and not really worth the effort.

When you get to the end of the level, you have to jump to the house. Do not overjump this last jump or you will die.

As for the points. I have often seen where people tell you that you get more points for getting maximum velocity on the jump. That is just not true. You get points based on what you jump over. If you jump over a flower, you get 50 points, if you jump over nothing (just from one rock to another, or to a lily pad), you get 25 points. I have already mentioned the points for the bugs.

There is no bonus for completing a level.

OK, here are all 5 levels.
To read the layout, use this key:
r = rock
p = lily pad
f = flower
- = spaces in the water

The more dashes there are (----), the longer the jump is.

Level 1

rrp --- pp -- ppp - f - rp -- pp -- pp - f -- rpp ---- prr ---- pp -- rr - f - rr ---- pp --- pp -- rr -- Home

Tricky Spots: If you get too close to the second flower, you might have some trouble - but probably not. A fairly simple level once you get the basics of jumping down. I normally go through this whole level without even getting any bugs - just making fast jumps.

Level 2

rrp -- f --- pp ---- rr -- f --rr --- f - rr ----- pp ---- pp -- pp -- f - rr - f ---- rp --- pp --- f - ppp -- Home

Tricky Spots: Right from the beginning, I just jump to the first rock, then make the long jump over the flower. If you go to the pad, you might not be able to get the trajectory to jump to the first set of 2 padz. When you get to the first double rock, it is best if you jump over the 2nd flower from the first rock (not the second one), or else you might have the same problem. When you get to the pp -- f- rr - f, you want to jump from the first pad, over the flower and land on the first rock - or else you will not clear the second flower.

Sometimes, I go through this level without getting bugs - but I normally do get some from the 3rd set of double rocks, or the double rocks between the two flowers.

Level 3

rr ---- f - pp --- pp - f - pp -- f -- rr -- f f - rr ----- pp --- pp - f -- pp -- r - rr -- Home

Tricky Spots: At the very beginning, you should take a quick short jump (no power, just the right arrow), then make the long jump over the flower and onto the padz. When you get to the next two flowers, you can safely jump over them from the second pad, using the 45 degree angle, full power. The double rock before and after the double flower combo are great points to replenish your hunger. I recommend getting it all the way up to full (ff you can), because the rest of the sequence (until the end) is all lily padz. The double flowers look intimidating, but if you just do the 45 degree, full power, you should be OK. With the last flower, you are best to be on the first pad to jump over the flower. The final r -- rr -- Home sequence can put you in a spot of bother, because that space between the rocks is easy to fall in. Just take the jumps easily. As you get into level 4, you will have to make jumps onto single pads - this jump onto a single rock is just practice for that.

Level 4

rr - ff -- pp --- pp --- pp - f -- pp - f - pp - f -pp - f - pp --- pp ---- pp - f - pp --- p --- p --- Home

Tricky Spots: Right from the very beginning, you can get into trouble if you jump to the second rock. You should jump over the double flower and onto the double pads. When you get to the pads before the next flower, you want to land on the first one, in order to make the jump over the flower (it can be done from the second one, but it is harder). In fact, the next couple of series have 2 pads and a flower, in each case, it is best to jump from the first pad and land on the next grouping's first pad. As you can see, there are no rocks here, so you have to be careful collecting bugs to keep your health up. If you stay on the pad too long, you will die. In earlier levels, you might be able to stay on the pad, get a bug, then jump forward one to prepare for the next jump. In this middle series, that is not recommended because if you get too close to any of the flowers, you might not be able to jump far enough. The last 2 jumps (before the house) are fairly technical, because you just have one pad to land on. This just takes practice. You can see on the videos how I overcame those - just half power at 45 degrees.

Level 5

rr --- p --- p --- pp --- pp -- f -- pp -- p -- p -- f - pp -- p -- p -- pp ----- pp - f - pp ---- p --- p ---- pp - f - pp --- Home

Tricky Spots: Again, from the beginning, you can get into trouble. You have to jump to a single pad - just like the end of level 4, and then have to duplicate that. In fact, you have to do that at 3 more points on level 5. I usually just use 30% power and a 45 degree angle, and that seems to work for all of the single pad jumps.

The only other thing you see is that you have 3 flower jumps that are best done if you land on the first of the 2 lily padz leading up to them. That is the 1st, 3rd and 4th flower. The jumps are actually pretty forgiving, though, and can be done from the second pad if you have to,

Otherwise, this level is not too difficult (again, assuming you figure out how to make the jumps onto the single padz).

That's it.

Be sure to go view my site to see the YouTube Videos - which make this even more clear.

http://ant.igon.us/Content.asp?pid=70