Fireworks Tips and Tricks

[Jaybeth]

I've been seeing a lot of posts where people are asking for help with Fireworks, and I understand why. Fireworks is probaly the best way to earn credits, if, and only if, you're good at it. I myself am not a master at it, usually ranging from 235,000 to 250,000 a game, but I'm getting there! And I'd love to give all my tips and tricks on how to play a better game, and get a higher score.

Tip #1: Like in all sports and games, be a good sport. Never say "I sock at this game. Go easy on me.", or "I'm on a quest, let me win." or something to that affect, because chances are, people are going to try even harded to beat you. Plus, it's very annoying. All you need to say is Good luck!, and your set!

Tip #2: If your not that good, try not to act like an expert. Your goal is to hit every firework, not get flawless. I guarentee, that your score will be higher, if you hit every firework and get goods, and awesomes, than if you miss half of them trying to get flawless.

Tip #3: Stress equals bad playing. If you are doing bad, then you are doing bad. It is just a game. Relax like the score means nothing, and you will do great! Also, don't keep glancing down at your score every two seconds. Your concentration will be cut in half.

Tip#4: Listen to the music. OK, it's not a sycronized as DDR, but the music does help. I always do better with the music on than with it off.

Tip#5: Never move your cursor into the bottom half of the screen. Why? Because the fireworks never explode down there, except for maybe a few times toward the end. And never follow your firework with your cursor. It makes it hard to see when the firework turns to a star, and you might miss it. Just keep it at the top, and your thumb/wrist loose, and you should be able to hit them all.

Tip#6: On the final blowout, when they they throw up like 10 fireworks, you should try to hit them all, but, if you wait about a second before you go and explode them, you should get them all awesomes, instead of goods.

Tip#7: Don't feel bad that other people may have a way higher score than you do, and don't laugh at the people whos scores are lower than yours. It's just sort of mean to others and yourself.....EXCEPT there is one exception. Have you ever looked at the all time high scores at the vmk website? 347,000!!!!! How does anyone do that!?!? Infact I counted how many fireworks there are in a game, and there are about 355. That means the highest possible score is 355,000. That means to get 347,000, you have to hit about 98% of them! That means like all flawless and very close to each firework being 1000 points! How can anyone even get 347,000? It's impossible! NO it's inhuman! Inhuman it is! We have some aliens lurking about on vmk.. You better watch out..

ANYWAYS, hope these tips helped you improve your fireworks game on vmk if you felt you were doing bad, and yeah this was long, but I have a tendency to write long things. And remember, for every score you see that makes you go Wow!, there a person looking at your score and saying Wow! ..Oh, and watch out for those aliens...

"This face, which earned a mothers fear and loating.."

[BigPigletFan]

Wow. Very nice. Thanks for your advice.

I will earn myself fireworks magic one of these days, I know I will! I always end at 242,000ish or 222,000ish...

[Tom Chaney]

Great advice, Jaybeth.

Regarding the high scores: There are actually 315 fireworks in the game. A perfect score is 315,000. Several players are quite good at the game and I know of at least one who has scored over 300,000. 347,000, though, is impossible.

In the early days of the fireworks game, someone created a "cheat disc" that allowed the player to repeat the final stage of the game over and over. This is how they were able to post impossibly high scores.

Apparently, VMK fixed the bug that allowed the cheat to work but they've left the bogus scores up. A lot of us would like to see that corrected so that the legitimately skilled players can enjoy their proper place on the list.

[Jaybeth]

Oh, that would explain it. I guess they aren't aliens, just cheaters! And I guess I did overcount the fireworks toward the end. Oh well..

"Turn your face away, from the garish light of day!"

[tinker_bee]

I recently tried a new method for playing the Fireworks and it brought my high score up from 255 000 to 271 000 after only a few times using it. It has also brought me to a steady point total of >260 000 every time (however sometimes I stop during level 5, stage 2 when I have reached 240 000 and want 1300 credits).

Disclaimer: I agree with all the other Fireworks tricks as well, unless clearly stated in my post ie, "click every firework, even if it's not flawless". There is just no point in reposting what we already know.

1) I wear earplugs when I play. They allow me to still hear the music (which helps me relax while playing), but they muffle any outside distractions ie cats meowing, phone ringing, mother and sister talking right outside my bedroom door, or mother yelling to come see who is on the news when Jason Issacs (my favourite character, Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies) comes to Toronto and they have clips of him.

You would be surprised how a distant noise causing your hearing to sway from the music can create a very large mental blip.

2) Clicking a firework while slightly off it's centre does NOT affect your score. I do it all the time and still manage to get 1000's every so often. The score of the individual firework is strictly determined by how close it is to fizzling-out when you click it ie, when it is a complete star, you will get the highest points.

3) It has been mentioned before, but I will restate it, and add to this. When watching the fireworks shoot up, try to place where it will stop and move your cursor there to wait for it. Chances are you will only have to move your cursor slightly to get right on it. I like to attack from the top. As the firework moves upwards, I move downwards until we meet (at the same point where the firework stops moving upwards). Keep your cursor slightly off-centre of the firework so that you can see when it turns into a star. Then BOOM!!! Flawless!!!

4) What you need to memorise in addition to the order of the fireworks is the relative order of fizzling-out of each firework.
E.g. if a pink triple circle and a red saturn come up at the exact same time, which one do you click on first? The answer: click the red saturn first. You will easily be able to get an "awesome" and a "flawless" (if not two "flawlesses") if you do this.

The ones that take longer to fizzle (and therefore you should wait to click them after you do the faster ones) are (numbers refer to the relative order from left to right on the bottom of the screen):

the PINK triple hollow circle (3), the YELLOW-GREEN concentric circles (5), and the YELLOW triple solid circle (6).

Medium length: the PURPLE swirl (1), the ORANGE sun-like thing (2), the RED saturn (4)

Short length: the BLUE-GREEN star (7), the BLUE snowflakes (8), with the snowflakes being the fastest to fizzle where the don't even slow down when reaching their maximum the just turn into a star and disappear.

I hope this has been helpful to you all. If I think of anything else, I shall let you know. Good Luck!!!

[Jaybeth]

You're right Tinker Bee about the different fireworks, fizzleing (is that a word?) at different rates, and merorize those fizzle rates and you'll get an even higher score. But I find that a combination of the backround music, and POTO relaxes me even more, but that's just me!

"But, his voice filled my spirit with a strange, sweet sound."

[Idobelieve!]

I agree...if the music is turned off on my computer I can't play at all...lol.

But that is just me

[Tom Chaney]

There seems to be two camps regarding the music. I learned to play the fireworks game in silence. Since that is what I'm used to, I find the music distracting to my "rhythm" so I leave it off. Others have learned to use the music as a helpful tool.

Great tip regarding the "fizzle rates", tinker_bee. I hate those "pink pretzels!" They seem to take the longest to go out and can really trip you up.

Pay very close attention to the white star at the center of the firework. It appears, then rotates a bit. You'll get the most points if you can find that miniscule moment when the star has rotated but before the firework fizzles. That's how you can, for instance, get a flawless on every firework in a round but get a different score than you did last time you did it.

Learn to recognize the times that two (or more!) fireworks launch at the same time. You cannot get a flawless on both. (ok... one exception). With time you'll learn when to just go ahead and hit the first one and take your good while you line up to get a flawless on the second... or... if they're close together, wait a bit and hit the first as an awesome and the second as a flawless... or (the exception I mentioned) when they're close enough to hit both with one click... then you get two flawlesses for the "price of one!" The green concentric circles do this often.

I dim the lights in the room a bit when I play. The designers of the game were very diabolical in making many of the fireworks peak within the bright display of the previous firework. That makes it hard to see the white star. Reflections on your monitor or bright ambient light in the room makes seeing the star even more difficult.

I'll bet that a lot of VMKers reading this are getting a giggle out of how "wonky" fireworks addicts can be. BUT... if you wanna get a great score, this is how it's done.

[Zaris]

I have a question. Im pretty good at this game. >230,000 each time, relatively top 4 each game. But i cant manage to get the fireworks pin. To my understanding i have to get over 240,000 without winning? But i havent been able to do that yet. Thanks for these tips, but any more to getting high points? I use most of these already.

[tinker_bee]

I have a question. Im pretty good at this game. >230,000 each time, relatively top 4 each game. But i cant manage to get the fireworks pin. To my understanding i have to get over 240,000 without winning? But i havent been able to do that yet. Thanks for these tips, but any more to getting high points? I use most of these already.

You understand correctly!! You must get over 240 000 to get the fireworks magic pin. How you get it though varies. You can get it for not coming in first place with over 240 but not every time. You just have to play a few times. I also heard that you can get it if you win the game repeatedly.

As for the idea that you can only get a maximum of five pins...that, I'm afraid, is false. I have won seven in total over the past two weeks. I have one 4-star, and two 1-stars, and I traded a 1-star.

[Jaybeth]

Not only, do you get another fireworks pin for getting 1st several times, if you get over 240,000 without coming in first several times, you get another pin as well.

"Pittiful creature of darkness, what kind of life have you known?"

[CL_Maribeth]

Awesome! I'm logging in now to go play. Perhaps maybe I'll finally get over 200,000 points. I really want to improve my game enough to get a fireworks magic pin, but first, I'd just like to get over 200,000. Thanks for the tips!!

EDIT: Well that was no fun at all! I joined the game, shot one firework got 1000 points!! and.. get disconnected. Rip off... lol

Thanks!! I just finished with 190,708 points - fifth place!! I finally beat that pesky quest!

[Tom Chaney]

Fireworks magic: I've never quite figured out what it takes to win it, but every now and again, one shows up in my inventory. Occasionally, when you win the game, the dialog box will say something like, "Congratulations for winning Fireworks again." Then you'll get a magic. I've gathered up about four so far this month.

[CL_Maribeth]

Here are the ways I've heard about of winning it:

-Get over 240,000 points but do NOT come in first place.
-Come in first place 10 times
-Something along the lines of get 240,000 points and come in first 5 times
-Come in second place 20 times

[Idobelieve!]

Thx for all the info! It is driving me crazy trying to find out when I get fireworks and when I don't. No logic that I can see whatsoever! I got it the first time for scoring over 240,000 and coming in second but have never gotten it again when scoring over 240,000 in second place. Oh well, I guess I will just take it when and however it comes.... Of course when sillykid plays I can forget coming in first...lol.