Achievement: Winners don't use drugs

[jamesbro]

To get this achievement, you have to win a game of gravball in chapter 7 without cheating.

I have now tried this literally hundreds of times without success - is there a trick to it?

What I have found is:

- I can consistently hit the ball 4 times;
- I can quite often hit the ball 5 times;
- so far I have never been able to successfully hit the ball a 6th time.

Occasionally the opponent will let a ball go through at around the 4th or 5th hit, but this seems completely random.

[52pickup]

I did it myself, and just did three times again on an older save. I was unaware I was supposed to use drugs.

The ball gets to a point where you have to start your swing before he even returns the ball from your previous swing. You cannot react and start swinging AFTER he returns it. The ball is simply too fast. In fact, it even comes to a point where, RIGHT after you hit the ball, you must click again right away in order to hit it back.

There is a slight element of randomness; most of the time, the opponent will hit the ball in front of him, near where he swings his arm, as he should. But sometimes, the ball will reach literally behind his back or behind his neck, and he manages to hit it back. If it's at a point where the ball is at a sufficient speed, this subsequently messes up the timing of where the ball should be and leaves you unable to get another swing in.

However, this happens very rarely. Seeing as how I have just done it four times while you have tried over hundreds of times, I am led to believe this random factor did not occur all your tries.

[jamesbro]

Judging by your comment, it sounds as though it is simply a matter of getting the timing down for that crucial 6th hit.

[52pickup]

That's another curious thing! Pretty much every game always ended after the 4th or 5th hit. I almost never got to the 6th hit. Are you counting each "hit" every hit that Mandala hits? Or is each hit one return by each player? I never needed a 6th hit pretty much ever if we're counting each hit as each hit by Mandala.

[jamesbro]

Yes, by a "hit" I mean Mandala hitting the ball. The opponent almost always returns Mandala's 5th hit for me, and by that time the ball is going REALLY fast.

Curiously, I have won a point on a few occasions after only 4 or 5 hits, but I have no idea what I am doing different on those occasions.

[Wadjet Eye Games]

Not much to add here, but I personally found this achievement VERY hard to get. And I've played through the games dozens and dozens of times! The first time I succeeded I said "Woo hoo!" along with Mandala.

[[HcC]Tom_007]

I usually win only when Domino starts the game (he gets first hit) and mostly never managed to return ball six times, it takes some tries though.

[shadmere]

Originally posted by 52pickup:

There is a slight element of randomness; most of the time, the opponent will hit the ball in front of him, near where he swings his arm, as he should. But sometimes, the ball will reach literally behind his back or behind his neck, and he manages to hit it back. If it's at a point where the ball is at a sufficient speed, this subsequently messes up the timing of where the ball should be and leaves you unable to get another swing in.

However, this happens very rarely. Seeing as how I have just done it four times while you have tried over hundreds of times, I am led to believe this random factor did not occur all your tries.

He does this to me EVERY SINGLE TIME that I click before the ball gets to him.

Once it reaches the speed where if I wait long enough for the ball to be hit back, it's already too late to click? If I click before the ball gets to him, it flies behind him, then he hits it back, which messes up the timing, so it's impossible to finish my current swing and swing again in time to hit it.

I've been doing this for like 20 minutes. Every single time the ball gets that fast, if I click before he hits the ball back, it goes behind him before he hits it back.

It's pretty frustrating. 0_o The only times I've managed to score a point is when he randomly misses on the second or third pass.

[BumbleJ]

Only after beating the game and looking at achievements did I find out that you can 'cheat' in Gravball! It took me multiple tries, but beating it without drugs was actually not that difficult (though sometimes luck dependent). You just have to click super early, even before Domino hits the ball at the higher speeds.

[John Beaver]

Originally posted by BumbleJ:

Only after beating the game and looking at achievements did I find out that you can 'cheat' in Gravball! It took me multiple tries, but beating it without drugs was actually not that difficult (though sometimes luck dependent). You just have to click super early, even before Domino hits the ball at the higher speeds.

That's basically, it's not immediately after you hit the ball, it's just before HE hits the ball.
Try count at loud or in your head, when it comes to 3, prepare for the 4th hit; that's the one where the ball will go crazy most of the time(unless you begin, then prepare for the 5th one)

Glad I'm not the one who had problem with!

[GabrielK]

Just no.... give me an option that after I loose 25 rounds the other player gets tired so I can get my achievement, thank you.
(As much as I like the game, but there is no gain from this after trying it out for almost two hours.... and yes, I missed a lot on a score of 3 to 2, so that's even more frustrating)

[GabrielK]

After the last hour of failed attempts, I stopped playing.

[Petr Stránský]

This is the worst minigame I've ever seen in an adventure game.
Timing is not the problem. It's the opponent who cheats like crazy, hitting the ball behind his back. That's impossible to react to.

[Jamison]

Just found a way to do it after almost getting to the point of a ragequit.
Just go to settings and set the game to the slowest speed.

Interestingly enough the ball will not be slowed, but Mandala and Domino will. Then it's just a matter of the ball going to Domino first, since the slower speed means you miss almost every time. Occasionally Domino might hit the ball, but most of the time it will hit the wall just as he starts his swing.

[AtypicalChook]

Originally posted by Jamison:

Just found a way to do it after almost getting to the point of a ragequit.
Just go to settings and set the game to the slowest speed.

Interestingly enough the ball will not be slowed, but Mandala and Domino will. Then it's just a matter of the ball going to Domino first, since the slower speed means you miss almost every time. Occasionally Domino might hit the ball, but most of the time it will hit the wall just as he starts his swing.

This was the only way I could win this achievement. I tried it on slow frist and I lost due to unlucky serves but after reading this it went to Domino instead. Thanks!

[MakoSipper]

(First and foremost, I agree with whomever said it's the worst minigame ever. Seriously, guys, don't do that again.)

The speed you use in setting is KEY for this achievement.

First, I was playing the game at max speed and Domino was hitting balls that were already at the wall. Not to mention I was laughing at people here talking about the 6th hit, because I was like getting to 15th hit (literally!) and Domino was still hitting the ball back.

The suggestion of setting the speed to lowest didn't work for me (most of serves started coming my way, and Domino would hit it about 80% of the times when it went his way.

My favorite setting for this, which actually made me win in 2 attempts, was setting the speed to around 75%. This way, Domino never again hit the ball back when it was already at the wall.

Hope this helps someone!