If you’re an iPhone owner, I’m sure you’ve heard of the phenomenon that is Angry Birds. Writing this article at my desk I have an Angry Bird plush toy on top of my laptop in the corner and a fan-adapted theme song playing over the game on my iPad. It’s unreal just how much of a success Rovio has created.
While the idea of the game is very simple (kill pigs with birds catapulted from a slingshot), I’m surprised how many players don’t actually know what each bird does or what the difference between the blocks are. In addition to explaining what these are, in this article, we’ll be looking at some top strategies to bag more points in both Angry Birds and Seasons.
The Birds
The birds are the namesake of the game, those who have had their eggs stolen from them. Somehow they deem it fit to commit an act of revenge on the egg-stealing pigs which sets the premise of the game. The idea of firing them is pretty simple, but do you really know what each bird is and does?
The Red Bird
The red bird is a nice all-rounder.
The red bird is the first bird you’ll see in the beginning levels. This one has no special power and is just the plain old projectile bird. Tapping on one achieves nothing but that does not mean the bird isn’t useful. In fact, it’s a well-rounded bird with average power.
The red bird is the iconic bird that appears on the app icon.
Availability: From start
The Blue Bird
The blue bird is akin to a shotgun.
The blue, scattershot bird is your second bird that is slightly smaller than it’s red brother. Tapping the screen whilst this bird is en route splits it into three allowing you to attack different areas of the setup.
The scattershot bird is good for attacking multiple pigs in close proximity to each other or attacking a single pig by firing in close range.
Availability: Level 1-10
The Yellow Bird
So fast it's blurry.
The yellow, third bird is the kamikaze one. This bird is like the red one in that it doesn’t split up but rather stays as one. This time round, when you tap on it, it will accelerate and hit whatever object is in front with more force.
Despite it’s ability to speed up on request, it’s not so useful on glass or stone. Instead it has an uncanny ability to destroy wood blocks which sometimes act as the primary protection for buried pigs.
Availability: Level 1-16
The Black Bird
3…2…1….
You know those (almost) indestructible stone blocks? There’s one bird that can detonate and destroy them: the black bomb bird. This bird acts in two different ways. The first is destruct-on-tap. This method detonates the bird once you tap on it and is a fairly unhelpful approach.
The most useful method is a delayed detonation. Launch the bird and let it land, wait a few seconds and it’ll explode taking most of the stone blocks with it.
Availability: Level 2-5
The White Bird
Pop.
The white bird is the only bird we see to actually lay eggs. We spend so much time trying to extract revenge for the egg theft, but it seems the white bird is the only one dropping the things! This maternal, aerial option is an important one in some levels.
The bird is best used at close range to targets but can also act as a normal projectile bird like the red one.
Availability: Level 2-14
The Green Bird
Argh!
The green bird, or the Boomerang Bird as it’s better known, is one of the harder birds to use. This one acts just like you’d expect, on tap, they do a complete 180 and return. It’ll take some time to get your shots with this bird perfect, but in some cases, this can be a perfect attack.
The boomerang bird is probably the most difficult to master as it’s attack can fluctuate. Be sure to have a go at firing the bird about first in order to judge just what it can do.
Availability: Level 6-5
An interesting option for this bird is to send the bird backwards and tap to create a fast-flying bird.
The Big Red Bird
Expect a destructive finale.
The big red bird is the big brother to the initial, smaller one. The small red has evolved with a bigger head and a more aggressive attack. Just like the small one is an average all rounder, the large one acts in very much the same way by with three-fold power.
Expect the big red bird to literally destroy everything in it’s path, pigs included (or at least, from levels 9-1 and above).
Availability: Level 9-1
Mighty Eagle
He's watching you.
The might eagle isn’t exactly the same as the other birds. Instead of being angry due to natural, egg-related causes, the Mighty Eagle has been drafted in – for an in-app purchase of $0.99 in real money (a tin of sardines in bird money) – to help out. Using a Mighty Eagle allows you pretty much destroy everything in sight and gain “eagle score”. It’s an in-app purchase available in the game.
Price: $0.99 per usage up to a maximum of one per hour
The Pigs
The pigs are the main antagonist of the game. The storyline is simple: while the pigs sat and ate grass, they noticed the Happy Birds (yes, they weren’t always angry!) with their eggs. Gaining a taste for eggs, the pigs managed to steal the eggs while, ironically, the birds killed a fly that had landed on one.
The pigs have a handful of variants but they all pretty much act in the same way. Size also doesn’t affect the game in any way (apart from the bigger ones being every-so-slightly easier to hit). The varients are normal, mustache, crown and stone/helmet. Those equipped with a stone helmet require at least two hits before they are obliterated (one for the hat, one for them). Other than that, the pigs all act in the same way and none have any special powers, unlike the birds.
The pigs also have a sense for royal hierarchy with rare kings pigs seldom seen in some levels and “mustache pigs” as their right-hand accomplices.
Fairly obvious. They're pigs.
Top Tips
Now we’ve covered the birds and the pigs, let’s look into strategy. Here’s a handful of top tips to maximize your Angry Birds score:
- Play about with levels first to gauge scoring. Sometimes attacking a ditch full of watermelons results in more points than simply saving the birds.
- And on the note, use as few birds as possible. Each one bags you an additional 10,000 points
- Check out RovioMobile’s official YouTube channel for walkthroughs of all the levels.
- Aim shots at the corner’s of horizontal beams that will inevitably ripple through the whole structure. A prime example of this is on level 1-1.
- Utilize the blue bird for aerial scatter shots in levels that have some sort of other defense between glass blocks and the bird. Launch the bird high in the air and tap on descent.
- Aim the boomerang bird backwards and then tap to create a highly-accelerate projectile bird.
- Hit golden eggs to unlock extra mini games available in the menu.
Got any other tips to share with fellow players? Discuss in the comments or suggest any other gaming guides you want produced for iPhone.AppStorm!