You need to update the max again! It keeps changing. I'm amazed at all the points that have been found!
Strange, but over a week ago I responded to Cowboy.Henk, saw it on the forum, and then it wasn't there! Well, whatever, just thought I'd point out that we now 3 people in the 399k club and Cowboy is about to join. Cyan has the lead now and it's really amazing because there were certain advantages with the old version of the game which I benefited from, but cyan did not so to have the lead anyway is very impressive! For those who look at the leaderboard, the first two names are hackers. Their school is not possible except on paper (400 levels at 999 points each). The thing is, you can't get 999 on every level. Moreover, those scores are listed as being earned back in 2013 and 2014. Well, back then the game played differently. No level could get more than 992 points and for most people, it was 991. There were quirks in some levels that kept the clock running down no matter what you did to considerably lower numbers. Would be nice if FDG get rid of those hackers. There is actually at least one more high score from back then, but at least that score can be passed by if a player is really good. That isn't the case with the top two hackers.
Congrats to the Cowboy for reaching the 399K in an impressive short time. Current known high is 399.272
Some players obviously just want to finish all the levels, but others are trying to maximize their points on the leaderboard. I don't want to go into specific hints here since, to be fair, getting help should involve getting some help in return in most cases. Besides, if people are willing to go back through the old posts, they will see a good number of solutions and hints. But maybe some generic advice may be useful to some. One thing to keep in mind is that the rain can help you. It's easy to get wrapped up in protecting the oranges with what you have, but sometimes the rain works in your favor. It might set off a bomb so you don't have to, thus freeing up a piece for other uses. Or the rain may push an object, sometimes just a tiny bit (but it might be all you need) and sometimes quite a bit. It can be useful to just dump all your stuff out of the way and just see what happens when the rain comes. You might find that an orange doesn't need protection. Or you might see that the rain ricochets in a way you didn't expect that might change your strategy. Similar to that would be dropping some objects where you think you really need them, but dump the rest you aren't sure of out of the way to see what the rain does on this new layout. Then decide what to do with those other objects. Sometimes errors work in your favor. Many times I've failed to drop things the way I hoped since I was trying to go so fast. But if the clock stopped for a new high score, it is often worth it to let the rain come. You just might survive. Of course, if an orange is totally exposed, you're going to die, but sometimes it merely looks like you will, but you won't. I recall one level where the ending placement seemed to leave an small, but obvious gap for the rain to get through. But for some reason, it didn't and it wasn't a fluke as I could repeat it. There are also times when a level changes slightly in how rain ricochets from one attempt to another. Usually they are consistent, but I've seen exceptions where doing the same thing worked while usually it did not. So it can be worthwhile to try a "failed" strategy for than once.
The solutions shown in post 1530 are a great example of how you have to think outside the box to get the very best scores - and why cy@n is the top legitimate score on the leaderboard. All but one of the examples I've found on youtube use the "obvious" approach. I'm pretty sure the exception I found will no longer will work (it has the orange falling out of sight, but apparently late enough that it still counted as a victory). I've seen that on other levels, but only with the old version, years ago. I haven't seen that work with the present update to 64-bit version. I've also only succeeded in replicating the one where the barrel ends right next to the "elevator" so even seeing these solutions, I can't do them all!
I've been waiting for that. I mean, it seems logical, yet it hadn't happened. Have you tried other levels unsuccessfully but enough to see if you could do it elsewhere? I'm definitely not the right person to test this!
Did you get that? I just raised my score yesterday on it (still 1 behind the best) and was thrilled because it is so hard to release fast and still get the final piece in the right place. Hard to even know when it is the last piece when going fast!!! At least, I think, that is the only one with 7 objects. And I believe there are only 7 levels with 5 pieces. Unless my chart is wrong. But this all also shows why we know the two top scores are hackers. Sure, a really fast player may get the maximum of 999 even with three objects, but have to work at it. But that being the case, no way to they get 999 if there are 7 objects (or even 4 objects). Yet those two players have to have perfect 999 scores on every level. Furthermore, they got their score years ago, back when no one ever got a higher score on any level above 992. It was the fairly recent update that let us get up to 999 in some cases.
I uploaded a few 999 videos. Have a look... https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6L6tSCIv-hBWD9ehJ_L4DHbQmxU9JPGw
