Scoring and the Perfect Score
Winning a MeteorBall level is one puzzle. Winning it with the highest score is usually a second, harder one. This guide explains exactly where the points come from, why the biggest points aren't where most new players look for them, and how to work towards three stars.
A score has three parts
Only a win scores. If the meteor falls through a hole, flies off the board, or reaches the wormhole while an alien ship is still on the board, the attempt scores 0. A win adds up:
- The flight
- 10 points for every step of the meteor's journey. The meteor moves a fifth of a square per step, so each square it crosses is worth about 50 points, whether it travels straight or diagonally.
- Protection bonus
- 1,000 points for each Shuttle, Satellite and Astronaut still intact when the meteor enters the wormhole. Hit one and its bonus is gone.
- Unused pieces
- 1,000 points for each piece still in your toolbox. Placing a piece gives up its bonus, even if the meteor never touches it.
Two things score nothing either way: destroying a deflector with an unsupported hit costs no points, and destroying an alien ship earns none, even though every alien must be destroyed for the win to count.
The 20-square rule
Compare the numbers. A bonus is worth 1,000 points; a square of flight is worth about 50. So one protected astronaut, or one piece left in the toolbox, is worth as much as twenty squares of flight. That's more than two full trips across the 8-square board.
That gives a simple order of priorities when you're chasing a high score:
- Win. Any score beats 0, and a win unlocks the next level.
- Keep every Shuttle, Satellite and Astronaut intact. A route that clips one costs 1,000 points.
- Use as few pieces as you can. Each piece you can do without is another 1,000.
- Then make the flight longer. Once the bonuses are safe, a longer route is how you squeeze out the last points.
A piece only pays for itself if it does something a bonus can't: makes the win possible, saves a protected piece, or adds more than twenty squares to the flight. The original game says it plainly on level 9's card: "Those deflection pieces don't come cheap. If you can save us without using all of them we will give you a nice bonus!!"
A worked example
Imagine a level (an invented one, to keep the arithmetic simple) with three pieces in the toolbox and two astronauts on the board. Here are three ways to win it:
| Plan | Flight | Protection | Unused pieces | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A long route using all 3 pieces, both astronauts safe (about 30 squares) | 1,500 | 2,000 | 0 | 3,500 |
| A shorter route using 2 pieces, both astronauts safe (about 18 squares) | 900 | 2,000 | 1,000 | 3,900 |
| The shortest route, 1 piece, but it hits an astronaut (about 12 squares) | 600 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 3,600 |
The longest flight scores the least. The best plan saves both astronauts and a piece, even though its flight is shorter. On a real level the differences can be just as surprising, which is why a three-star route often looks nothing like the first route that wins.
Stars and the Perfect Score
Every level has a Perfect Score, the target it was designed around. Your stars depend on how close you come to it:
- one star for a score above a third of the Perfect Score;
- two stars for a score above two thirds of it;
- three stars for reaching the Perfect Score.
For example, level 9 has a Perfect Score of 6,270, so one star needs more than 2,090, two stars more than 4,180, and three stars 6,270 or more. The page for each official level lists its thresholds.
Your best score and stars on each official level are saved in your browser. A lower score never replaces a better one, so there's no risk in experimenting.
How to find the Perfect Score route
- Win first, however untidily. A working route shows you which squares matter.
- Look at what you spent. For each piece you placed, ask whether the route could work without it, perhaps by rotating another piece or moving one square along.
- Look at what you hit. If the flight clipped a shuttle, satellite or astronaut, look for a detour that costs fewer than twenty squares of flight, or a piece that sends the meteor round it.
- Count the bonuses. Add 1,000 for each protected piece you could keep and each piece you could save, and compare it with the Perfect Score. If you're still short, the rest has to come from a longer flight, often by using a bar to send the meteor back across the board.
- Change one thing at a time. Flights never vary, so each attempt tells you exactly what one change did.
Scores on community levels
Community levels score the same way. Their Perfect Score is the score the creator achieved when they beat the level to verify it, so it's a target that has definitely been reached, but not necessarily the highest score possible: sometimes a player finds a better route than its creator did.
If you're signed in when you win a community level, the MeteorBall server replays your moves on the exact version you played and puts the result on that version's leaderboard. Only your best score on each version is kept, and when two players have the same score, whoever reached it first ranks higher. A new version of a level is a new puzzle with its own leaderboard. You can see your best scores and ranks on My Scores.
Keep reading
- Beginner's Guide: the basics of reading the board and placing pieces.
- How to Play: the full rules and every piece.
- Designing Great Levels: using scoring to make your own levels interesting.