Alpha mode made easy

[Tuggummi]

I already posted this on another thread, but I guess I have to make a topic for it since so many people have been asking for it.


Here's the original post.


I found a pretty easy setup with items that basicly just let's you grind it out no matter how high the score goes.

So what you need is:

• Suede Ankle Booties
  Gives +3 sentiment for every 4-match
  
• Pink Mary Janes
  Gives +1 sentiment for every passion token match
  
• Leopard Print Pumps
  Gives +1 move for every 4-match
  
• Pearl Necklace
  +1% affection per sentiment
  
• Heart Necklace
  +2% affection per passion level

6th gift slot is optional, I used a penguin that turns broken heart symbols to joy, but the higher I go the more useless and less scarier broken heart symbols become.

From here on out the gameplay is pretty easy and straight forward, you just max out a girls alcohol and food meter before going on a date. Momo is great for that, because she has low alcohol tolerance and is down for a drink at any time or place.

In the actual puzzle bit, use your boots asap. If she's drunk you can use 2 of them right away. Then the rest of the game is just matching +4 tokens at a time which will give you sentiment and extra moves. Grind to +70 sentiment, max passion and use your necklaces and you win. It's really quite easy once you get to the right mindset about just ignoring how much affection you get from matches and just focus on getting the passion and sentiment high.

[cyberdelika]

thamks!

[Slashley]

Technically, if you get to really "scary" levels of Alpha mode you'll need 74 Sentiment. But getting that far will take you a while.

[Tuggummi]

Yeah if you do the math, which im bad at, you need 16 passion levels which gives you +32% affection, then 68 sentiment, plus the 13 sentiment you need to activate the necklaces. So at 0 affection you need 81 sentiment and maxed out passion to win the game with the necklaces.

[Shena'Fu]

I use the same setup. Sometimes I even get over 100 sentiment. So Heart Necklace is more of a backup, but I still don't find it reliable enough. If you're matching Affection tokens, you don't want to waste moves just to raise Passion. So some items to raise or double Passion might be a good idea.

Also on the subject of instant items, their advantage is they don't use up a move. If you find yourself low on moves, instant items can save the day.

Overall this strategy is superb, but there's still a thing called RNG. It can difficult if 4+ matches don't come up enough. Hence I'll be trying a strategy that involves other items that I've never used before or think are even useful at all. Like Vintage Platforms (select a token type, no moves used until different token is matched.) I wonder if it counts combos that match as tokens fall.

[UnLuckyCat]

Vintage Platforms cancel if anything matches other than what you've selected, at any point, intentional or not, even if the correct token was also matched at the same time. It is not worth bringing along over anything described here.

So far I've been including the Stuffed Monkey as well, since that's 2% per Broken Heart on the board, which is better for the cost than feeding the Pearl Necklace 6 more Sentiment.

[shteev]

I'm still not feeling the love for the Pink Mary Janes. I've played a couple of test runs with it with your 5 gifts plus and a 6th (Stuffed Bear, and Stuffed Penguin), and have found that by the time I've built up to 100 Sentiment the Pink Mary Janes have contributed a grand total of 7 Sentiment to that, and they cost 3 Sentiment to play. Stuffed Monkey will make you more than that.

Honestly I'd advise playing without them and playing 2 gifts which affect the board or which generate extra turns. Clearly, in those two test games I played, I didn't need to use the PMJs at all, so it seems sensible to play something which would help me out in gameplay during particularly tricky dates.

[Slashley]

Originally posted by Tuggummi:

Yeah if you do the math, which im bad at, you need 16 passion levels which gives you +32% affection, then 68 sentiment, plus the 13 sentiment you need to activate the necklaces. So at 0 affection you need 81 sentiment and maxed out passion to win the game with the necklaces.

I didn't mean total, I meant going from sub 1% score to 100% score.

But yeah, fair enough.

[Peach]

omg thanks! <3

[Henry Ravenswood]

Thanks man

[Neptune [Preservation Stelle]]

I dunnu why people says that pink mary janes are good >-< I like the one that gives 3 sentiment.

[OnceUponAQuine]

Just do the two boots + pearl necklace. Last three slots use for getting more moves: stuffed penguin (broken hearts -> Joy tokens), gold earrings (1 move per 2 joy tokens on grid), and sunflower(consume all joy tokens for 1 move for every token after the first two).

If all you have to do is hit four in a rows and consume sentiment tokens to win, it's super straightforward to do so. I usually win with at least 10 moves remaining this way. Currently working on a no-trait run, and how I'm winning can take Alpha Mode challenges indefinitely.

[UnLuckyCat]

Originally posted by Neptune Purple Heart!:

I dunnu why people says that pink mary janes are good >-< I like the one that gives 3 sentiment.

Since the two shoes for 4-in-a-rows only work on Affection tokens, matching hearts won't give you anything other than Passion without the Pink Mary Janes.

Perhaps they're less important now that the affection goal completely eclipses the gains from matching tokens themselves, so other means to raise Passion strictly for the Heart Necklace are more desirable.

-Pink Mary Janes go counter to matching 4+ Affection tokens, but so long as you don't prioritize Passion over any 4+ match, you don't waste any moves. They also pay for themselves in sentiment cost over time since they last forever.
-Stuffed Bear can help reposition other tokens for possible 4+ Affection matches if none are available, but doesn't give that much Passion for the cost. Broken Hearts aren't too threatening at the point where you would use this, either.
-Pink Lilly can be used either as an alternative to the Bear, or in conjunction for greater effect. Instantly provides some Passion level, and repositions the board if no 4-in-a-row presents itself.
-Stuffed Sheep instantly fills some Passion level without wasting moves, so the only way it can interfere with your strategy is if you regularly match Broken Hearts in order to position more 4-in-a-rows.
-Kyu instantly doubles your Passion level, but requires some already built up and costs a lot of sentiment. The best time to use this is at 8/16 Passion Level, which grants 16% more Affection from the Heart Necklace, but takes away 10% from the Pearl Necklace. Using this at lv5 or lower is completely meaningless and a waste of a Date Gift slot.

For comparison, the Stuffed Sheep needs 12 Broken Hearts on the board to gain 6 Passion Levels, for +12%(Heart) and -6%(Pearl) to match Kyu overall. This may actually be impossible if there's a cap on Broken Heart spawns, but this can be used as soon as you see 8+ on the board (for 2% of your goal).

You honestly might be better off completely ignoring Passion and bringing a Stuffed Whale instead, or anything for more Moves. And if you're not bringing the Stuffed Monkey, which only needs 3 Broken Hearts to break even for the Sentiment cost (and 6 to match Kyu's best), then you'd better think of something to replace right now.

[Shena'Fu]

I agree that Pink Boots aren't that important.

There are 3 main factors at odds that you need to balance: Passion, Moves, and Sentiment. The most important are Moves, then Sentiment, and they're easily taken care of with the 2 main shoes that match 4+ (not to mention the "infinite Moves" trick I posted elsewhere in the forum.) Then of course the finisher Pearl Necklace. So we're left with 3 slots to help us through the rest of the game.

I'd contend that actively matching Passion isn't even desirable, even if you play Heart Necklace. Because if can keep your moves count up consistently, eventually you'll build up enough Sentiment that Pearl Necklace can win by itself and compensate for the insufficient Passion. Matching Passion to raise Sentiment is actually wasting moves for marginal gain in Sentiment. So it would be better to use items that spend Sentiment instead of using Moves to raise Passion, since Sentiment builds up faster than Moves and you can build Sentiment without wasting Moves.

Think about it another way. Pink boots costs 3 Sentiments. To recover that cost, you must spend 3 Moves. In actuality, you spend one 1 Move to gain 1 Sentiment. That's not a good investment. Now compare to Kyu Plushie which doubles your Passion. Sure the cost says 10 Sentiment. However, with Suede Boots and Leopard Pumps, you just need to match 4+ Affection 4 times. As a result, it actually costs you 0 Moves and 0 Sentiment because all Moves and Sentiment are returned instantly. Moreover, with Passion now maxed out without spending additional Moves, your Affection matches will also get you closer to the goal, thus needing less Sentiment for Pearl Necklace to finish it off. Remember you paid 10 Sentiment for Kyu, and that means less Sentiment for Pearl Necklace, but the Affection matches will compensate (somewhat) for that. Obviously as score goes higher, points from Affection matches mean less and less.

So as we go higher, we start to neglect Affection purely for the score and rely on items that directly give percentage to your score. That's why we keep both Heart and Pearl Necklace as our finishers. But we still need to raise Passion to the max without wasting Moves. That's why I'm leaning on Kyu Plushie for now. (Now looking back, I said it was a useless item when it first came out.)

That leaves one item slot left. At this point, I think Compact Mirror is the best to make sure we get a good start. Sometimes with bad starts, it's hard to get enough Sentiment to get the shoes "engine" running. With Compact Mirror, replace Affection tokens at good locations with more Sentiment and Joy tokens. This will give us more time even with bad starts. With a good start, you don't need anything more than the 2 shoes anyway.

So my current setup is this: Suede Ankle Booties, Leopard Print Pumps, Compact Mirror, Kyu Plushie, Heart Necklace, Pearl Necklace.

[UnLuckyCat]

Huh? That's not entirely fair. Kyu isn't "free" just because your shoes do the thing that they do. The same could be said for practically every other date gift, and that doesn't instantly make them good. It's still just the shoes.

The cost is 10 Sentiment. If you choose not to use it, you'd still have 10 more Sentiment than if you did use it, no matter how many 4+ matches you make. Nothing can change that.

Yes, it doesn't cost you any extra moves since it activates instantly. But you still have to raise your Passion Level somehow, otherwise Kyu does absolutely nothing but waste Sentiment.

If you actually get a 4+ Affection match every single turn, then you will NEVER get any Passion at all, whether you use the Pink Mary Janes or the Kyu Plushie. You would have to exclusively combo them at the same time. What sounds easier to do that way, reach at least lv5 Passion, or match Hearts at least 3 times? Cause that's what it takes to make back the Sentiment cost for each gift.

How many matches do you even need to get to lv8 Passion? Looks like it takes a max of 5 Passion matches to reach lv8 if they're all 3-in-a-row. But if you end up matching more than 9, then the Pink Mary Janes end up better, since that would give back more than 6 Sentiment after the cost, which means >6% of the goal, the absolute maximum that Kyu can provide.

Even the Heart Necklace needs at least lv4 Passion to be worth using, but that's easy enough to get so nobody even argues that.

[UnLuckyCat]

Wait, Pink Mary Janes might be even better, since you'd also have the Passion Level to consider.

Heart Necklace(8) + Kyu(10) at lv16 Passion = 32% Affection Goal in 5 moves, but -18% in Sentiment cost, so 14% overall.

Heart Necklace(8) + PMJ(3) at lv8 Passion = 16% Affection Goal in 5 moves, grants 5 Sentiment, so 6 net cost, for 10% overall goal

But what if you spend one more move? You'd be at lv9 Passion, and get back 1 Sentiment, for 3% more of your goal, or 13% total for the two gifts. That's pretty close to Kyu's maximum effectiveness.

Go all the way to 9 matches of 3 Hearts and you'll be at lv11 Passion. That's 8+3-9=2 Sentiment cost, for 22% of your goal, so 20% overall, and you can keep going up to lv16 for even more.

That's a lot of moves, though, and PMJ doesn't give anything extra for 4+ matches. Meanwhile if you manage to get a 5-in-a-row of Hearts, you instantly get to lv8 in a single move. That is ideal with Kyu, since you still get your 14% that way, but with PMJ you'd only have 6% by that point (even worse than the 8% you'd get with the Heart Necklace alone).

I still swear by the Stuffed Monkey, though. At 8 Broken Hearts, you gain 16% Affection for 6 Sentiment. That's more than if you used it at the exact same time as you'd use Kyu.