Run Amok Combat Robotics

 

OK Hotshot, you've managed to come up with three-star designs for all levels of the 'Original' and 'Instruments of Death' releases of Jundaroo's wonderful engineering design challenge game 'Dummy Defense' and you're now a 'Certified Genus'. Congratulations! Problem is that when you go the the 'All Time Leaderboard' for a level you see that some clever players came up with solutions that are way less than half the cost of your best design. Don't you wish you could take a peek at those designs to learn a trick or two from these engineering gods? Here's my plan I don't want to hand out 'spoilers' to anyone who drops by this site, but I'm interested in working with experienced players who have found some good design tricks and work-arounds. I've listed my current best scores in the tables below. If you can beat any of my scores, I'll be pleased to trade designs with you. We can learn from each other! Want to trade designs? I won't give out designs that will get you straight into the 'all time' lists (you'll have to work for those) but I will trade designs that will put you on the right path. Email me a blueprint that beats my score on any level you're particularly proud of (Dummy Defense menu: Blueprints tab: email) and tell me a couple of levels you're having trouble with. I'll send you some blueprints to get you on-track. My email is: joerger@toast.net NOTE: I run Dummy Defense on an Android device. The blueprint files for iDOS and Android are not compatible. If you play on an iDOS device, we'll need to exchange screen shots instead of blueprint files. To send you on your way, here's a design tip that you may find useful: Instruments of Death - Level 18 'Out of Range' Conventional design builds a counterweight to tip the ship and and raise the cannon trajectory. That heavy counterweight is expensive, and you don't need to hit Kelvin with a cannonball to kill him. Try a light structure that tips over in front of the cannon muzzle -- the blast can throw debris far enough to hit Kelvin. ...and a few general design thoughts: It takes a much lighter structure to deflect a moving object or blast than it does to stop it. Not all designs work every time. Try a design several times before you give up on it. Some designs will work more reliably at one speed than another. Try 'slow' and 'fast forward' if you're having trouble. A single straight rod is very strong in compression. Align it to take the load and you may be surprised at its strength. If a rigid structure isn't working, try something flexible. An unattached rod can put other elements into motion as it drops, if it bounces just right. A single 'shot' can kill more than one Kelvin if you can get one Kelvin to fall onto another. I have a report from a builder on an iDOS device that the order in which design elements are placed can effect whether the design works or not. I have not been able to replicate his results, but I thought it might be worth mentioning here. I CAN say that there are designs that will work very reliably most of the time, and will suddenly not work at all. Wait an hour or two and try again. The random generator for this game seems to be time-based and can present unusual conditions once in a while. I don't have all the answers, but any of my designs will very comfortably make the 'today' leaderboards, quite a few are tied with 'all time' leaderboard designs, and several are currently on the 'all time' leaderboards. Original Level Name Cost 1 Tutorial $   9 2 One Tiny Bomb $   8 3 Sledge $ 13 4 Bomb Shack $ 17 5 Boulder $ 12 6 Foxhole $ 12 7 Trash Compactor $ 16 8 Bomb Container $ 22 9 Introducing Kelvin $   8 10 Hailstorm ** $147 11 Heavy Sledge $ 27 12 Trash Compactor with Kelvin $ 16 13 Death Pit $ 16 14 Foxhole with Kelvin $   8 15 Sledge with Kelvin $   4 16 Train $506 17 Death Pit with Kelvin $ 62 18 Meteor Shower ** $216 19 Foxhole II $ 32 20 Confined $122 21 Foxhole with Kelvin II $ 35 22 Scaffold $ 36 23 Sledge with Kelvin II $ 20 24 Death Pit II $ 24 25 Bonus Level $114 While most of my designs work every time, some levels have random factors in their elements that impact design reliability.   * My design works more often than not. ** My design may take several tries to work. Instruments of Death Level Name Cost 1 Javelin $ 24 2 Boulder Bridge $ 96 3 Volley of Arrows ** $ 29 4 Battering Ram $ 13 5 Ballista $ 26 6 Catapult * $ 89 7 Trebuchet $ 16 8 Flaming Arrows ** $ 74 9 Guillotine $ 20 10 Wrath of the Gods ** $203 11 Cannonball $ 19 12 M2 Browning Firing Squad * $ 12 13 Flame Thrower ** $ 24 14 Gunned Down ** $ 72 15 Double Envelopment $ 41 16 Naval Mines $114 17 Inferno ** $131 18 Out of Range $ 20 19 Guillotine Saw $ 28 20 Nuke (no solution possible) N/A 21 Cramjacker $ 40 22 Laser Gun Field Test $ 14 23 Laser Deflection $ 34 24 Macro Virus $ 48 25 Magnetic Field $ 19 26 Trial and Error $ 35 27 Evolved Virus * $120 28 Antimatter Pulse Cannon $ 56 29 Disintegration Derby $104 30 Fatal Attraction $ 24 31 Alternation $   9 32 The Final Frontier $ 33