Firstly, I’ve found that the castle you gain after defeating level 5 is the best to use for this game. It’s a dense castle, so it forms dense rubble with its pieces as they come down. Since the castles don’t rebuild between levels, this is perhaps the best measure of a castle’s quality for defense.
Placing your treasure: Always place your treasure at a 90-degree corner. Do this because it’s behind a thin wall, which is harder to hit accurately. Further, the blocks that are open to Skarl’s attacks will tumble overtop of the treasure, which makes it harder to move. I usually place mine outside my castles, but that’s up to you.
To get the level three or five castle, just play once through that level, and go back and start again. That’s what I did, anyway. Play for points once you’ve put yourself in a good position to succeed.
At 1000 points, which is usually after level four if you’ve been pretty good about beating up on Skarl’s castles, your own castle is rebuilt, which is nice.
Firing
One thing that’s very important is that in the high-stack castles like you get after level 3 and level 5, you can’t aim low. If you do, the cannonball will strike your own facility, and you’ll lose the game. To hit front walls, just use less power.
The larger cannonball, which is gained by knocking down the golden flag, is not really that great. It’s no heavier than the other one, so it doesn’t send pieces flying, and it actually stands a higher chance of hitting your own castle just because it’s so huge. If you want the extra points from knocking down an extra flag, go for it, but shoot the big ball at a high angle and straight.
The best way to take out the treasure, I find, is to use blocks to knock it back and off of the pad. If you CAN hit the treasure directly, by all means go for it. But it’s pretty hard to do that.
Level 1
Really straightforward: blow stuff up. Skarl usually places his treasure chest just inside the front panel, so fire a shot low and hot to take out that block at the bottom. Then take out flags at your leisure, and take out the treasure later.
Level 2
This can be Just as easy, really. Skarl occasionally places his treasure right in the center of the courtyard, so knock out the door (again, from the bottom), and then take out towers. If he’s in a corner, you’re in for more of a fight because of the way the blocks are aligned. The most lateral blocks in the front butt up against, and in front of, the sidewall blocks – meaning it’s almost impossible to knock them out. Take out the towers in the back first if this is where the treasure is. Then just plink away at the side block until it’s in a good position. Take out other flags, and then come back to the treasure.
Level 3
Your first shot should be high, and with a lot of oomph behind it, to take out the back wall FIRST. It makes the towers easier to take out, and also you’ll occasionally get lucky and the treasure will be there. If it is, take out the door again, and just fire shots along the ground to push it back, and knock the treasure off the pad.
Level 4
First take out the rearmost tower (the one in the center) – believe it or not, it’s a load-bearing tower. That also gives you a good view of where the treasure is. It’s frequently at the apex right in front of that tower, so take out the back wall of the center courtyard next. That will knock back the sideways block behind it, as well as maybe give the treasure a bit of a shove. If that’s where the treasure is, then you have a nice wide target to aim at.
Level 5
Every time I’ve played, Skarl’s treasure has been in the courtyard, in the center of the back wall. This castle is really really tall, so it’s impossible to see, but take my word on it. Take out the side walls first, just so you have a view. Start with the back towers, then take out the wide blocks that connect to them (these extend outside of the line of the rest of the castle). Then take out the front towers and see where things stand. You’ll have to finish taking out the back wall, most likely, and then do the front. Start at the bottom, and aim low, just because you might get lucky and knock the bottom block of the front wall straight back into the treasure.
Level 6
This is one of those levels that can be maddeningly simple or maddeningly difficult. I’ll offer solutions for both.
First off, take some light shots at the flags that are placed laterally on the level. The flags on the left are the hardest, simply because you can’t see them as the cannonball gets to them. If you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably pretty adept at firing the cannon, so see if you can’t hit the back flags FIRST, with an airborne shot. Then just toss a slow roller at the flags in the front, and go for the gold flag last, if you like.
If the treasure chest is centered, just fire slow rollers at the chest until you knock it backwards. If it’s behind one of the two corners, then your work is cut out for you. Fire away at the opposite side FIRST, because that will cause the front and back blacks to topple in that direction, leaving you with fewer blocks to knock away. Then fire at the posts and the blocks on the side of the treasure – it’s pretty standard from this point onward.
Level 7
This level is a joke. Seriously. Fire at the backing blocks, and hit them high, to ensure that the blocks tumble away from the treasure. Then just roll cannonballs into the treasure chest.
Level 8 and onward
After this point, it’s all just a repeat of levels 1 through 7.
Good luck. – by Shapu