The Great Qasalan Caper

Introduction

Heermeedjet and Meerouladen: two devious little Meercas. They've been all around Neopia up to no good, causing havoc everywhere! Now you get to play them as they dive into the Qasalan Royal Treasury to retrieve what Jazan had ordered his craftsmen to create in honor of Nabile: 100 golden statues. They should be given to her on her birthday, but the Meerca Brothers have other ideas...

Controls & Instructions

Using either the mouse or the keyboard, you operate both Heermeedjet and Merouladen on ropes to pass the statues through various obstacles and to the bottom.

To use your mouse, move it to either Heermeedjet or Merouladen's half of the board. Move your mouse up or down to control what row they are on and use the left mouse button to move that row of crates across.

Using the keyboard, you change between the Meercas using the left and right arrow keys, move them up and down rows using the up and down arrow keys and move levels across using the spacebar.

Note: The Meercas can only move a row in the direction they are facing.

How to Play

The goal of the game is to get the golden Nabile statues to the bottom of the screen. The statues will fall through any opening in the rows on the screen, and thus will move closer to the bottom row. Using the Meerca brothers to push a row moves the crates and makes room for the statues to fall.

The game board is mostly filled with crates and stones. The board also has several other items that you'll see: coins, gems, timers/sand clocks, levers, Gebs, and Lyins. You activate each of these items by dropping a statue onto them.

Item	Effect
Statue	+25 points (upon reaching the bottom of the screen)
Coin	+10 points
Gem	+50 points
Timer/Sand Clock	+10 seconds
Lever	Mix up the tiles in its row and column
Geb	Clear a path downward through any tiles (including Lyins) until it hits the bottom of the board, a stone tile, or another statue
Lyins	-10 points, and the statue will be eaten and respawn at the top of the board

Strategy

The best strategy for this game is to finish quickly. You will get a bonus point for every second that is left on the timer when you've completed a level. If you want a trophy or high score, you need to complete each level as quickly as possible to get as many bonus points as you can. Since there are only 9 levels, you need to gain as many points in each level as you can in order to get a high score.

To move your statues to the bottom row quickly, try to create long columns of space. Sometimes you can line the rows up just right so you can push the statues from the top row directly to the bottom row. This will save you a lot of time, which helps you earn a nice time bonus and increases your score.

Move the top statue right first,
and then the bottom to create
a column Keep this in mind while you're moving statues. For example, let's say you have two statues in two rows on top of each other and, in the next row down, there is a space to drop them one square to the right. If you move the top statue one square right and then the bottom statue also one square right, both statues will fall through the space in the row, and you'll have a nice column of space to drop other statues. This will save you several moves later.

At the beginning of a level, you have a few seconds before the Lyins appear. Use this time to try to create any long columns you can, or at least to move as many statues as far downward as you can. You may lose points if you're unlucky and a Lyins appears in your column, but you also could get lucky if all the Lyins appear above where your statues are. Sometimes, if your statues and crates start in just the right spots, you can get all of the statues to the bottom before the Lyins even appear!

Other Tips

If you want to score enough for a trophy, you can follow these simple tips to help improve your score.

• Use your mouse. It's usually faster to control the Meercas.
• Set the game size to small. It's easier to see the whole screen and you don't have to move your mouse as far to move the Meercas.
• Do your best to get the gems. 50 points is a lot in this game, so they can be really helpful. Even if you have to drop a statue on a Lyins to get a gem, you'll still come out 40 points ahead.
• Pick up coins, if you can. They're nice to have, but it's better to finish quickly than to pick them up. You should try to get the coins in early levels, especially in the few seconds before the Lyins appear, but in later levels you may need to leave some on the board.
• Pick up the sand clocks. This puts more time on the clock, which can help you have enough time to finish the level or give you more bonus points when you finish. However, don't go too far out of your way to get them, because that will cost you more time than you gained!
• Avoid the Lyins, but not at the expense of time. Obviously, you shouldn't keep pushing a statue into a Lyins, since it will continue to deduct points from your score, but sometimes you will have to sacrifice a statue or two to finish the level quickly.
• Avoid the levers. Levers will shuffle the tiles, so they have the potential to move a crate right into your column of spaces and interrupt your flow. Try to avoid them, unless you need your tiles shuffled.
• Score high early. To earn a trophy on reset night, you'll likely need to score at least 2,500 - 2,600. You may want to consider restarting the game if you score less than 200 after Level 1, 400 on Level 2, or 630 on Level 3.
• Have patience and luck. Sometimes you will get unplayable boards, where there is a full row of crates and no way to move the statues past it. If this happens on the early levels (1, 2, or 3), restart your game. It's not worth waiting for the problem to be fixed. If it happens on the later levels, you can try to create a space by flipping a lever or waiting for a Lyins to devour a crate. However, often you won't be able to make a space. In those cases, it's best just to cut your losses and start again.

Extra Stuff

Ollie, the phantom orange shirt guy, sometimes makes an appearance in this game. When one of your Nabile statue is dropped on him, all the Lyins of the level are cleared out! It's very rare, though, so don't count on it!

Conclusion

With a little luck, some skill and the odd bit of know-how, you'll be a true robber in little time. Although you don't get to take the Nabile statues when you win, you could be taking a gold "The Great Qasalan Caper" trophy instead. Good luck!