u/alexmichaelripley

Hello everyone! Seeing this new Cash Cow 2 challenge and its lofty 1300 point goal has finally inspired me to put the chaos of my brain into words for you all. I know many of you have recently spent some long nights clicking on these colored bottles and grumbling to yourself, and I wanted to do something to help you conquer this seemingly impossible challenge. As a math teacher, my brain thinks in logic, numbers, and algorithms, so I thought maybe I could provide a (hopefully) structured breakdown of how to approach this game. Aaaaaaand, here we go.

The biggest thing to keep in mind is that larger groups of bottles reward extra points beyond just the number of bottles in the group. In other words, 3 bottles = 3 points, but 4 bottles = 5 points, 5 bottles = 7 points (etc). With this in mind, you want to try to form larger groups of one color before you eliminate the given group.

So the general strategy to do this is to try to wipe out entire (or almost an entire) single color at a time. In other words. If you have pink, blue, yellow, and green bottles, try eliminating all the pink bottles first, then all blue, then all yellow, then all green (see below for what color order to choose). In this example, ideally you would have a whole screen of green at the end, and this is a huge point bonus when you clear them. Of course you likely won’t be able to clear all the greens this first go-through. But the trick to this is, that you will need to try to eliminate those leftover bottles from previous colors as you move through the next colors. For example, if you eliminate all the pink bottles that you can (and there are still a few left), when you move on to blue, if you see any pink groups form, click them before they un-form. This way you are knocking out any stragglers as you move through the colors. This gets tricky to keep track of as you move through colors (and levels). For instance, after you watch for pinks as you do blue groups, then you are on to yellow. But now while you are doing yellow you need to watch for any pink and blue groups that form!

Now here are two big questions that you might have…

What order should I click these groups? Top to bottom, or bottom to top?

I have seen many of you say bottom to top, but I believe that top to bottom works best. Here is the big reason: When you click a group from the bottom, it is “un-forming” any already formed groups above it. Shoot! In other words, you want to start from the top to get these “already formed” groups, and then move down the screen. When you get to clicking groups at the bottom, there is a good chance that this has caused more groups to form above where you just clicked (go get them)!

What color order should I choose?

Unfortunately I change my color order based on the level setup, so this can get a little sweaty. (There is also some nuance based on the powerups in the level, scroll down to powerups to see how this affects the strategy). In general though, the first color I choose is whatever already has a bigger group on the lower part of the board. So if there is a big group of pink bottles down below, I will start top to bottom, clearing other groups of pink as I move down the board, until all possible groups of pinks have been cleared. After I do this, I then look for a different color, and what color has the largest groups on the lower side of the board. So if this were blue, I would start at the top and clear groups of blue as I move down the board. But remember to look for any pink groups that form as you do this! Repeat this process.

Stop here if you are exhausted <3

Powerups

Lightning: Big tip - Whichever color has a lightning, you will want to clear that color first. NOT right away, but it will be before you move on to other colors. The big key with this lies in the points… when you use the lightning, you don’t get any bonus points! In other words, if you lightning away a huge group, you are leaving points on the board. So you might ask, then why do we want to clear this color first? Two reasons. One, so that you don’t accidentally form a large group with that lightning (no bonus points), and two, so that you can clear the board of a whole color early, which allows for some big groups of other colors to form later. So what is the lightning strategy? Well, if pink were the lightning color, you want to start the round by clearing all pink groups except for the lightning and anything it is touching. Now after doing that, if that lightning is touching a same color, you can clear it (and you maximized your points before doing so). If it isn’t touching a same color, you can wait until later, but now there is a smaller chance it will form a large group to limit bonus points.

2x: Big tip - Whichever color has a 2x, you will want to clear that color last. Why is that? It is because usually your “last” color, is the color that has the largest group. In other words, if you can have ten bottles touching with a 2x powerup, that is 20 bottles! Maximize your large groupings.

Plus Sign: I think this can be more circumstantial, but I like to save this one for later in the round. Mainly because if you use it too early, it doesn’t give you extra bottles for columns that are already filled. This powerup can be especially helpful later in the round when you are stuck with some long “stacks” of mismatched colors, and the extra bottles can sometimes help bridge some of those stacks. In other words, I usually use the plus sign when things start to get sticky.

Special Bottle Formations

I know, I know… Alex, stop talking! No! Here are a couple formations to watch for that can save you some points.

Single color, single width stack: This applies if you have two or more of the same color stacked directly on top of each other (example, blue on blue on blue). As mentioned, something to watch for in this game is to not “un-form” any groups that already exist, but with this case, you (fortunately) can’t accidentally un-form them! In other words, no amount of clicking below this stack of blues could move them apart from each other. With this in mind, you can leave these stacks until later in the round, when they are next to more of the same color. For instance, if I have three blues stacked on top of each other, this is three points. But if I wait until later in the round, they could move down next to a couple more blues, and those five bottles would be seven points! The key here is that you don’t have to worry about those three blues un-forming their group.

Color bridge: If a color bridge forms, this is sometimes where I break my rule of going in “color order”. But what is a color bridge? This is when a column (usually in the middle-ish) is only one bottle high. If this single bottle is surrounded by some other relatively tall stacks, it is keeping all of those bottles in nearby columns from touching each other (and limiting larger groups)! If I see this single bottle down below and it is next to a same color bottle, I will click it (even out of color order), so that it brings together the two adjacent columns of bottles. This often will help quickly form groups of bottles that weren’t there before.

Final tip! If all of this seems ridiculous (it is, don’t worry), and this Ultimate Cash Cow 2 Guide is something you could never keep track of while playing, here is the great news… THE GAME IS NOT ON A TIME LIMIT. In other words, sit back and relax, and you don’t need to rush your brain as you think about your process. In fact, you could even have a paper on hand to help you as move through the levels. Maybe write down some tips, or even keep track of the “color order” on a given level.

That is all from me, I hope that this helps you through this seemingly impossible challenge. You’ve got this <3

Raiders! Baby on the way, selling some cards :-) $35 pwe, $40 bmwt

The Ultimate Cash Cow 2 Guide

Finished sorting my baseball, lets move some cards!

Finished sorting the rest of my baseball, lets move some more cards!

Finished sorting the rest of my baseball, lets move some more cards!

Proud of my collection, had to share

Half a million cards, drop your teams in the comments!

Half a million cards, drop your teams in the comments!

Half a million cards, drop your teams in the comments!

Half a million cards, drop your teams in the comments!

Half a million cards, drop your teams in the comments!

Half a million cards, drop your teams in the comments!

[positive] u/Soggy_War_7557