How to Score 1000 Points (without leaving home)
In this guide you'll be able to navigate through the Xbox Live Arcade menus, figuring out which of these cheap and addictive games will be able to offer you the most achievement points.
So here's the deal. You've just earned yourself a fat 6000 points and you're thinking "What do I do now?" The answer, my friends, is clear... get more points! But instead of having to leave your couch to head over to the retail store, rental place, or mailbox; you want to get as many points as you can without even getting up!
That's what Xbox Live Arcade is for!
Well, sort of. The funny thing about the games on Xbox Live Arcade is that their achievement points are actually about having to achieve something. It's pretty difficult in most cases to scam the points in these games, and after all your hard work, the most you're going to get is 200 points out of them. But if there were loopholes, I was intent on finding them.
Of course there are a few Xbox Live Arcade games with points that are so difficult to get that only the most devoted (and desperate) point-collectors will be able to achieve them. With this handy guide, you'll be able to maneuver through the Xbox Live Arcade menus, downloading only the games that offer you the most points possible. Because you don't want to play any game that doesn't have easy points, do you?
Crystal Quest
Crystal Quest is the Xbox Live Arcade game that has the easiest points to get, and as an added bonus, the game is one of the cheapest on Xbox Live Arcade. The trick to getting the points out of Crystal Quest is to play the game several different ways on several different difficulty levels depending on what type of achievement you're going for. There is one achievement point that's pretty tough to get, and a few that require some patience, but if you apply yourself, you'll get them all.
Crystal Rookie - You just need to score 10,000 points to get this easy 5. You should do it in your first game, if you're awake. 5
Crystal Master - Getting 1,000,000 points in one game is actually pretty easy on any difficulty, but a little harder at standard difficulty or less, which is what this achievement asks you to do. Put the difficulty at standard (level 5, which is right in the middle of the difficulty bar) and get as many bonus crystals as you can. 10
Smart-ass - Saving up 30 smarts is pretty easy, considering that you can play through most of the early levels without using them, and there's at least one smart bomb on each level. If you play through on normal difficulty then you should be able to collect these no problem. 15
Speed Freak - The key to getting wave 1 finished in 5 seconds or less is the placement of the crystals on the first level. Keep restarting the game until they're all clumped close together and close to the exit and you'll be fine. 20
Navigator - You'll get this one just by playing the game carefully and staying away from the mines. It's best done on the normal difficulty and when you're in the mood to play a little more safely than normal. Just avoid the mines and snatch up this fast 20 points. 20
Treasure Hunt - Treasure Hunt means you need to pick up the large bonus crystals that spawn from the two spots where the enemies spawn. This means that instead of shooting at the spawn at all points, you need to wait to figure out what's coming out first. The best way to do this is to get most of your crystals on the first few levels. If you collect slowly (forget about the timer), the enemies (and also the crystals) will keep popping out of the spawn point. So hang around waiting for their spawn, leaving some of the small crystals on the board to keep them coming. You should rack up an easy 20 or so crystals by level 10, and then if you play carefully, you'll get the next ten before you even have to worry about dying. 10
Life-saver - Since bonus crystals are worth so many points, and since you'll really start to lose lives when the swirly enemies start appearing (level 31), the best way to do this is during Treasure Hunt. This is a little tricky and will require a fair amount of patience, but if you get 20 lives by level 20 or so, you're doing well. 15
Marathon Man - This one isn't hard, you just need to be patient and focus. You can put it on the lower difficulties (and you'll need to) just to stick around for 60 levels. 15
As counterintuitive as it seems, the next few achievements are the easiest to get when you're playing on the hardest difficulty setting. So crank it up all the way and be prepared to watch your points go flying! The enemies are going to be pretty tricky on these levels, so be careful.
Immortal - To get 1,000,000 on your first life, set the difficulty setting all the way up to 10. You should get 1,000,000 points by level 5, with the only difficulty being level 4 when the enemies begin to shoot at you a lot. Keep your cool and get your 25 points. 25
Nerves of Steel - This can be done really easily while you're doing Immortal. It only requires that you keep your hand off the smart bomb trigger while you play through the first 5 levels on hard. 25
Crystal Ninja - Once you've gotten Nerves of Steel, it's time to go for Crystal Ninja with the super high difficulty. The game will get more challenging, but at the hardest difficulty setting the points come very quickly. You should get 10,000,000 points around level 12 if you've been playing your crystals right. 25
Apocalypse - This is the hardest achievement in Crystal Quest. The best way to get it is to crank the difficulty up all the way and play to level 19. At that point, 20 enemies will spawn and you can blow them all up with one smart. You just need to make sure to stay alive for the first few seconds until they do. 15
Jewel Quest
Jewel Quest is actually a cheap knockoff of Bejeweled, but it has two things going for it. It's less expensive to download, and you can actually get the points! Yee-haw! Most of Jewel Quest's achievements are yours just by playing through the game, several times. The trickiest thing about this game is that you can delete your progress pretty easily if you're not careful, so keep an eye on what's going on when you're quitting out to the Main Menu or risk having to start over again. Yikes! To get the last three achievements, you have to play through the game three more times. That might be just a little too much Jewel Quest for your taste, so you should probably aim for a little over half of Jewel Quest's achievements.
First Discovery - This achievement is yours simply for completing Level 1-1. Yay! 10
Newcomer - Just when you thought achievements couldn't get any easier, you get this one for completing Level 1-3. 10
Comienzo - Now things get a little tougher, you'll have to complete all of Level 1 in order to get this. Still cake. 10
Advertencia - This is for beating Level 2. 10
Ofrenda - Level 3. 10
Boca del gato - Level 4. 10
Templo del Fuego - Level 5 is where the game starts to get tricky, but if you've saved up your lives until this point, the game will give you a little bit of an edge if you fail a board a couple times by kindly "randomizing" the placement of the jewels so it will be easier to get the hard to reach spaces. 10
Game Master - Once you finish playing through once, you should have around 350,000 points. You can get 500,000 by continuing on in Adventurer mode. You can hit 500,000 without too much sweat if you're willing to invest the time. 40
Adventurer - Beat the game on the Adventurer setting. 20
Hardwood Backgammon
The best thing about Hardwood Backgammon is that most of the achievements can be acquired either offline or online, which means that if you can't do it on your own, you can enlist the help of a buddy to get any achievements you're having trouble getting against the computer. The other best thing about it is that you can snag the points with the game on easy, so go ahead and ratchet the difficulty down. Although a couple of the achievements require a lot of backgammon games, all of them are straightforward and feasible. 100% Omar Sharif approved.
Gammon Grabber - A gammon is when you win a match before your opponent has taken any of his checkers out of play. In order to get a gammon on easy mode, just play slightly aggressively and it shouldn't be too hard. You can rig this with a friend though, if you like. 10
Pied Pipper - While you're getting your gammon, you'll automatically win by 50 pips. And if you fail to get a gammon, you'll probably get this achievement anyway, since it's pretty easy. 10
Backgammon Baby - A backgammon is when you win a match while your opponent still has pieces on the bar or in your home quadrant. You'll have to play extremely aggressively (keep sending them to the bar whenever possible) to get this, or you can simply have a friend help you out. 20
Prime Pied Pipper - While getting your backgammon, you'll win by at least 75 pips. 20
Double Take - As long as the doubling cube option is turned on before you enter the game, and as long as you're set to win, you can get this bonus just by doubling the stakes during the match. You have to win, but on easy that should be... well, easy. 10
Bar Baron - Getting four opponent pieces on the bar requires that you both play aggressively, and that you cover up the spaces in your home quadrant as quickly as possible so that they can't roll off the bar. You'll have to do that no matter how you play, but it's easier with a friend to capture plenty of their pieces. 40
Do you still have that friend around? Good, because for the streak and win counts, you can do something pretty sneaky in order to rack these up quickly. It all boils down to the doubling cube, and the fact that if someone refuses to accept the double, they automatically forfeit the match. See where I'm going with this? Good. Now take turns starting games, offering up the doubling cube and declining, and you should be able to knock most of these out in about half an hour.
Backgammon Beginner - Win a total of ten games. 10
Mini Streaker - Win those ten total games consecutively. 20
Pip Master - Win a total of 25 games. 10
Mega Streaker - Win those 25 games consecutively. 30
Online Gammoner - Even though it says you have to complete the games, you don't. You'll pick this up easily while you're cheesing your way to victory (or loss) with a friend on Xbox Live. 20
Backgammon Veteran - Play 100 games either online or offline. This one will take some time, but if you're doing the doubling trick, it won't take much longer than half an hour. 10
Wik: Fable of Souls
Wik: Fable of Souls has points that you can get just by playing through the game. With a few tricks here and there, most of the points are not that difficult to lock down. It will take some persistence and skill to unlock the ones that require full story mode and challenge mode completion, but unlike some of the other games in the Xbox Live Arcade, it's all very doable.
Story Apprentice - You pick up these first points just for finishing the prologue levels in story mode. Easy stuff. 10
Perfect Grub Hero - You need to get all the grubs on just ten levels to get this achievement (not just the bare minimum to pass the level). This is pretty simple on some of the earlier levels, but you have a ton of levels to choose from, so you should be able to get this while you're playing through. 15
Mouth Full of Bugs - This is another one you'll probably just get as you're playing through. You need to have 500 bugs in your mouth at some point, which really just means that you should swallow up bugs and spit them out a lot. Guess what, you're going to be doing that anyway. 15
Story Master - The story mode is long, but worth the effort. There are tricky spots here and there, but if you persevere, you'll snatch up these points. 20
String Looper - The best way to get the loop tricks is in the Loopnastics mode. It will take some finagling with the controller to get used to this, but if you watch the tutorial a few times and practice a bunch, you'll get it before you know it. After you get the hang of the first loop, just follow yourself around with the analog stick and you'll keep looping. 20
Loop Master - This is a difficult achievement and just takes lots and lots of practice in Loopnastics mode. If you're having trouble doing it, you might want to save it for last, since it's much easier to get good at this after you've played through the Story and Challenge portions of the game. 15
Acrobatic Apprentice - Latch-Suck-Spit-Latch 15
Acrobatic Master - Loop-Release-Loop-Release-Loop 20
Ghost Master Hero- I got this randomly while playing through the game, but I'd suggest watching the "Show Solution" to get an idea of how to do it. On the harder levels you might have a better chance because on some of the easier levels, the computer is quite quick. 15
Challenge Apprentice - The first 30% of Challenge Mode has a couple tricky spots, but if you use the Show Solution feature, you'll be able to figure out pretty much everything and execute it. For some reason I only got this after the game said I had Challenge Mode 34% complete, though. 10
Challenge Master - This is probably the hardest achievement in the game because the later Challenge levels are pretty tricky. All still doable though. And the persistence is worth it. 20
Liberator of Caged Souls - The nice thing about this is that although you have to complete the Story Mode and get all the gems, you can do it separately. So you'll probably find this the easiest to do, if after Story Mode, you go back into one level at a time and get the gems. You do not have to beat the level when you get them, you can fail and it will still count. 25
Robotron
A little under half of Robotron's achievements are pretty easy to get, and then there are two that are ridiculously hard, if not downright impossible. Considering how easy some of them are, and how fun Robotron is, this is pretty much worth the download.
Glue - This one is easy to get, you just have to stay still, stay alive, and finish the first level. 10
Save All Humans - After getting Glue, you'll have to start from the beginning again to get this achievement. The humans on wave 1 are easy, and you just have to luck out with their spawn on wave 2. 10
Wave 5 - If you can't get to wave 5 the first time you play through, then it will just take a tiny bit of practice to be able to. You should have enough lives to make it through fairly easily. 10
Wave 10 - Getting through wave 10 is a little more challenging, but it's still pretty doable. 15
High Score - A little practice and you should get this while you're playing through to wave 10. 15
Time Challenge - The best way to get this achievement is to just kill as fast as you can and not try to save the humans while you're doing it. 15
Dodge - In order to do this one, kill all the enemies except one. That one guy will start moving more quickly while you're waiting, but if you're prepared for it, you should be able to avoid him easily. 5
Is your buddy still around? The thing about Robotron's co-op is that you need to be pretty communicative in order to figure out where you're moving and where you're shooting. Since you need to play this over Xbox Live, make sure that you're using your headset and talking it all out.
Co-op - Communication is the key to any good relationship. You should be able to get this in a couple of tries. 15
Geometry Wars
Geometry Wars is the greatest game in the whole universe. That might be a little bit of an exaggeration, but it's fun, it's one of the cheapest games on Xbox Live Arcade, and points or not, it's completely worth the download. You can get 50-60 points with a little bit of practice, but much more than that and you have to get pretty good at the game.
Score 100,000 - This shouldn't take more than a few tries to get a hang of the game. 5
Survived 100,000 - You need to get those 100,000 points without dying once. 5
Score 250,000 10
Survived 250,000 10
Pacifism - Dodging for 60 seconds is difficult at first, but if you practice this a few times you should be able to get it. 10
Score 500,000 - Okay now it's starting to get pretty hard, so it will probably take some time (if you haven't done this yet) to start scoring over 500,000 points. It's worth all the effort though. 20
Marble Blast Ultra
Marble Blast Ultra is another game that you just need to carefully play through in order to unlock its achievements. The advanced levels are challenging, especially if you're trying to get them done in under the time limit, but the first few just take time to do and not too much effort.
Timely Marble - Finish any level under par time. 5
Egg Seeker - You probably won't find any eggs playing through if you're not looking for them actively, but there are good guides to help you track them down. 5
Apprentice's Badge - Complete all the Beginner levels. 10
Marble-fu Initiate - Complete those beginner levels under par time. 15
Journeyman's Badge - Complete all the Intermediate levels. 15
Marble-fu Master - Complete those intermediate levels under par time. 25
All Xbox Live Arcade Games
Astropop
Astropop is a fun game but the achievements are pretty ridiculous. You can pick up a quick 10 just by playing, but most of the achievements require quite a bit of effort. If you're hooked, you'll pick up a couple of the ones based on how much you've played over time, but the rest demand hearty skill (and luck)-based maneuvers.Bankshot Billiards
Not only is this game expensive, but most of the achievements are really difficult or require playing this game way too much.Bejeweled 2
Bejeweled 2's achievements are so ridiculously hard that it's slightly upsetting. You're better off going after points in practically every other game on the market, including full retail games than these. Fortunately for Pop Cap, the points problem has no effect on the addictive nature of Bejeweled.Crystal Quest
Crystal Quest's achievements are the easiest to get of the Xbox Live Arcade games, and you can get them all before you get sick of playing Crystal Quest.Feeding Frenzy
It's not that Feeding Frenzy is difficult or that the achievements are hard to get, it's just that you have to play so much of the game to get most of them.Gauntlet
Gauntlet hasn't really aged gracefully, so its doubtful that you're going to want to put the kind of legwork into this game that requires getting good enough to get all these points. And some of them look downright impossible.Geometry Wars
About 50 of the Geometry Wars points are pretty simple to get, but the rest require you getting very good at the game. Granted, of all the games on the Xbox Live Arcade, you'll probably be most inclined to get good with this one, so consider them difficult, but worth the effort.Hardwood Backgammon
None of the Backgammon achievements are particularly difficult, but if you get a friend in on it, you can fly through these points quite easily.Hardwood Hearts
Some of these achievements are pretty hard, and some aren't so bad if you have a friend help you out (like with Backgammon). However Hearts is a trickier game than Backgammon, so you'll need to be a little more communicative.Hardwood Spades
As with Hearts, you can get some of these achievements easily if you have a friend around, but some of them are pretty tricky to coordinate. Better make sure you and your friend are close!Hexic HD
Hexic HD is free for people with premium systems, so that's just free points coming your way! However some of the points are pretty hard, so you probably won't collect too many without getting obscenely good at this game.Jewel Quest
Jewel Quest may be a knock off of Bejeweled, but at least you can get the points from it. The only problem with Jewel Quest is that to get all of the points require lots and lots of playthroughs, but you can get the first few just going through the games fairly easy first difficulty level.Joust
Wave 100 with the default settings? Are you people crazy? Most of the Joust points are so stupidly hard, you'll probably get more entertainment out of reading the achievement list and scoffing at what they're asking you to do.Marble Blast Ultra
This game gets frustrating in the later levels, but with plenty of available online FAQS including really helpful guides to show you how to get all the hidden easter eggs, you can get these points if you want to put in the time.Mutant Storm
A couple easy points, but they're mostly arduous.Outpost Kaloki X
Even if you play this game a whole lot, you won't happen upon most of these points pretty easily.Robotron
Some of the Robotron points are pretty simple to get, but some of them are pretty difficult. You'll probably be able to get about 80 of them without having to break a sweat.Smash TV
Smash TV is probably tied for Bejeweled by having some of the most difficult points requirements on Xbox Live. You can get a few by playing and a few by playing with a friend, but most of these are going to be almost impossible.Wik: Fable of Souls
Most of Wik's achievements can be gotten while you're playing through the story and challenge modes, and a few of the others are pretty fun and interesting to figure out. The nice thing is that they're mostly possible, unlike some of the other games on the Xbox Live Arcade.Zuma
You can get these points, but it does require playing quite a bit of Zuma. For some people that will probably come naturally.Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com
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