How I became a Champion: Feed Florg Guide

      327. This was the score I got on Feed Florg, one fateful night, on the 31st day of Running, Y21, at around 7:04 pm NST. At the time of writing, my score is pending review and I am not sure if it will get accepted. In case it does not, I want this to serve as proof that this high score did happen.

      Back when Neopets was more active, and there was no shortage of users playing the games hundreds of times, a score like this was a dime a dozen. Now, everything has gotten slower and smaller, which makes my score stand out a lot more.

      Getting such a massive score inspired me to write this article, where I explain my experiences with this game. Maybe this will help you as well? The skill needed for Feed Florg is, honestly, minimal. This game is mostly a gamble!

      The basics

      Feed Florg is a simple game, in which you control a mechanical hand that pushes Petpets back to table so that Florg, a mutant Chia created by Dr Sloth, can eat them. You score points by bumping Petpets (all of which are functionally identical) with your mechanical hand (+1), or when Florg eats a Petpet (+10). You have 5 lives, and you lose one when a Petpet escapes from the table. Getting a high score will grant you a trophy, and there is also an avatar for scoring 250+ points.

      But you probably knew all of this already, didn't you?

      A game of chance

      The game can be found on the "Action" section of the games room, but it isn't really a skill-based game, but instead a pseudo-random one instead. Meaning that your skill will only take you so far: Most of the game will be dictated by luck. And why luck, you ask? Well, Florg eats Petpet at random, and ONLY at random. Florg doesn't cares if a Petpet has been on the table since the start of the ordeal, he will only eat random ones, which means he could (and will) eat a Petpet that has just spawned, while you are busy juggling others Petpet back and forth.

      Alongside this, you have another luck factor: The Petpets themselves. When a Petpet spawns, it will slowly move to a random trajectory, and sometimes you will have two Petpets walking to different directions. Your mechanical contraption can only move so fast, and it's impossible to stop some Petpets on their tracks before is too late. If Florg doesn't eat them, you will fail.

          Advanced tips and tricks

      This game is not just dumb luck: It is pseudo-random. There are some methods you can use to try and stack chances to your favour, and here we will try to cover some of them.

      1- Studying the Petpets

      The Petpets are what you will be fighting against, so it's good to know all of their quirks. As simple as Feed Florg is, there are some things to consider while playing:

      -Petpets start walking slowly after spawn, and increase their movement speed when bumped by the hand.

      -After being bumped over and over by the hand (Around 8 times or so), Petpets display a noticeable change on their hitboxes. Each bump moves it away from the Petpet ever so slightly, which can be confusing to new players of this game. A Petpet affected by thig bug will appear to fall instantly if it ever so slightly touches the bottom side of the table, but will "float" on the air for some seconds, before falling from top side. This can really affect your performance, and make you misjudge how close a Petpet is to actually fall down.

      -The Petpet hitbox, as well as your mechanical hand's hitbox, is not as small at it seems. You can hit Petpets with the hand, even if it looks they won't connect.

      Picture demostration. Notice how the Petpet was hit by an empty space next to the hand's thumb.

      2-Forcing lucky runs

      My main rule for Feed Florg is to restart the game if I get unlucky and lose a life at the 100 points mark. Furthermore, I try to only lose a max of 2-3 lives (depends if I'm feeling lucky or not) on the 100-200 points mark. The reason to do this is that you can force out "bad runs", and end them quickly. The sooner you end a bad run, the earlier you can restart and try again. There's no point on playing if you lose a life so quickly into the game, as you might get more unlucky later on. Instead, try to get a good start, so that you will score a good amount of points, even if you lose many Petpets later on.

      You can also try other ways of forcing lucky runs, such as only losing one life every 50 points (and restarting if you lose more than that), Restart if you lose one life, and then only one life max every 50 points, and so.

      3- The right ways to play

      -Play with THE KEYBOARD KEYS. The mouse controls are wonky and there is nothing you can do with mouse that you can't do with keyboard.

      -I try to play in a large screen, and with high quality, so that I can properly look at Petpets, and try to guess how big their hitboxes are.

      -Do NOT run any programs in an attempt to lag out the game! Not only is this useless (as your hand will always move the same relative to Petpets), but the game has an anti-lag protection measure. A loud buzzing sound will play, and there will be a close-up of Florg's angry face, ending the game. Scary! If you find this during a normal playthrough, try changing the game's quality to a lower one.

      -Playing with sound is perfectly okay! There is a faint "bump" sound when you hit a Petpet with your hand, and this can help you further know when you are done with a Petpet, and when you should move to the next one. Still, playing mute is nice if you are watching videos, series, or listening to something. I got my high score of 327 while watching some fun videos as I played along!

      4- Decision making

      Sometimes, you will have two or three Petpets pretty close to each other. This is the ideal scenario, so try to not break this chain for anything in the world! If a new Petpet spawns far away from your clutter of Petpets, just let it fall. Your hand is not fast enough to save many Petpets and you know it. Instead, focus on what you already have built, and pray that Florg eats the newest Petpets before they fall.

      5- Play, play and play!

      Even it is mostly luck, you have to practice to understand the "feel" of this game. If you don't play a lot, how are you going to score high? You have to keep trying. Play it, at the very least, for your daily Neopoints. I did that, until I managed to score high. You never know when you will find THE run. The more you play, the more chances you will have to score better and better. It's just how Math works.

      Closing statements

      Like I mentioned above, I do not know if my score got accepted. Even if it does not, I do not mind. I will still play this game until I can get the gold trophy.

          I hope this article was useful for you, and maybe one or two tips will help you improve your game! At the end of the day, Feed Florg relies heavily on luck: You will need luck so that the Petpets spawn on easy-to-get-to places, you will need luck so that Florg eats whatever is going to fall, you will need luck so that Petpet's hitboxes remain aligned... I got lucky, what about you?

      You know what they say about 'one picture'...