Level Scoring: Top Ace!

Objective of this Guide:
- Teach reader about how scoring works.
- Teach player theory about how to achieve higher scores.
- Provide player with enough information and tricks to put theory into practice.

Briefing

Clearing levels can be hard or extremely easy. Even when it comes to clearing every peg, you can just get lucky with free balls after penetrating higher levels of pegs before gunning the last few down individually. Acing, though, can take careful consideration. Here, we'll have three sections; Character, In-Game Plan, and Tips. Use wisely, and enjoy!

Characters

Choosing character is a matter of choice, although in some stages it certainly proves beneficial to pick some over others. Let's weed out some of the less useful ones and get to the stuff that can genuinely save runs.
- Despite how cool he is, Cat Tut's power doesn't last enough turns and isn't useful enough to be picked over other masters.
- Claude is useful on one or two levels but doesn't make the cut with the others; The ball simply drains through the centre too frequently.
- Tula's power can prove alright on occasion, but hardly ever contributes largely to a round. Since she lights up 1/5 of orange pegs (20%) it means each turn you hold out on shooting the green peg it'll get worse and worse. In addition, there are no special bonuses attributed to it.
- Warren, again, can be good, but is too luck based. Most of the time you'll end up with magic hat and it'll leave for frustratingly near wins, or simply be of no help whatsoever.
- Hu is cool! But unfortunately, if you use Bjorn, it's better to assess what pegs you're hitting yourself and know the mission.

Alright. Most are very situational, but lets go through the perks of the others.
- Bjorn lets you see your ball's trajectory, excellent for levels where you're required to bounce the ball off of other obstacles or pegs. Can also be used to calculate longshots, and with a bit of forward thinking, super longshots or double longshots.
- Jimmy Lightning. Not only is he the coolest master (Not biased at all) but two balls allows for the whole stage to be covered in a single shot. Plus, if both balls land in the free bucket, you'll get two free balls. This also adds 100,000 points to the tally in "Free Ball Frenzy" which is highly valuable to the ace requirements of most levels. Not to mention the score of the actual ball! So if you hit both green pegs, and get all three balls in the bucket with over 125,000 points accumulated, you'll have six for the price of one!
- Not quite sure why some people choose Splork, but I can see why he can be good. It blasts all around him, making for a great instant free ball later in the game if the point boost is close enough.
- Renfield Pumpkin is my second favourite. He allows the ball to be redeployed from the top instantly after it drains, accumulating a second round of score after the first drop. Perfect for getting an extra ball or consolidating on an already high score.
- Lord Cinderbottom is considered the best by many. Next turn, you're equipped with a fireball, piercing every peg it touches. High score potential for close up pegs and a bonus attached for getting it in the bucket.
- Marina is essentially a better fireball, although having a smaller lightup radius for the bolt of lightning it sends to the bucket than the fireball (Personally, I'd say it's worth it; It's almost like having Renfield's spooky ball and fireball in the same turn).
Also, keep in mind that if you can identify levels from a certain stage, the intended master will likely have an advantage (For example, in Lord Cinderbottom's levels, pegs will be packed closer together for the use of the fireball).

Scoring Strategy

This'll be a short section compared to the masters section.
My best advice would be to remember that style actually counts here. If you open the Help menu in Peggle nights, it will explain how to obtain all the skill shots. Read up on those, and score when applicable. I'll list the titles and the values of the more common ones below.
Longshot - 25,000
Double Longshot - 25,000 + 25,000
Super Longshot - 50,000
Orange Attack - 50,000
Extreme Slide - 50,000
[Two Greens In One Ball] - 25,000
Free Ball Frenzy! - 100,000

However, score accumulated by skill doesn't count towards free balls, so it's either only useful in challenges or to make a number slightly bigger. The answer to easy scoring is simpler then you might think: Hit enough orange pegs to get a 5x or 10x multiplier, then prioritise hitting the purple peg over and over.

Tips & General Advice

- Don't just hang on one master; Switch it up depending on level and/or stage.
- If you can't beat a level (Or rather, become an ace) switch master.
- Although Warren isn't optimal, you can opt to go with him and wait until you have a high multiplier before hitting the green peg. if you're lucky, you'll get a score tripler, which can turn your easy 40,000s at that stage into 120,000.
- Always try extreme slides before any other tricks as not to ruin the slide before you can use it.
- Since Jimmy's green peg immediately disappears upon being struck, try to restart levels with big curves until there is no green peg on the ramp you're trying to slide down (Or change master).
- Aim for higher pegs first, so you hit those plus the pegs you hit on the way down.

Skill & Style Shots

Here are all the ways to get additional points from your shots.

Debriefing

Thanks for reading this guide! I'm not a god but I would call myself fairly decent, so feedback would still be appreciated!