Donkey Kong Strategy > Basic Donkey Kong Strategy

Deciding between Star or Weave?

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dknetter:
So Arron Pitchford posted his first KS in the score submissions thread (congrats!), and mentioned that adding the Weave to his arsenal helped with consistency on rivets. I thought it'd be more obvious from watching, but not sure where the decision points are when choosing to deviate from the Start pattern. How do you decide when to go for a straight Weave vs doing the Star pattern? Tips/advice on making that decision?

furrykef:
I'm still a beginner by the standards of this forum (my highest score is 187,100), but I used my "Loop current stage" cheat on the level 5 rivets and practiced the weave over and over again, trying to get 10 successes in a row. I didn't manage it; I think the most I managed was 5. Then I switched to the star and I had a lot more success and did manage to get 10 in a row. So, clearly I'm generally better at the star than the weave.

But I think practicing the weave still improved my game. For one thing, if your star completely fails and all the fireballs are in the middle and on the right when the bottom hammer expires, you've converted to a weave; if you've practiced it well, you should know what to do. And sometimes you have to break your star and go for the Staal, which is a bit like a cross between a star and a weave.

But as for fully integrating the weave into the strategy while doing an actual run... that sounds tricky, and I don't have any real experience with it. Still, we can work with some basic facts and logic... you have to make the choice after grabbing the first rivet, and by that point four fireballs should have spawned. Obviously, you must make your choice depending on where they are. In what situations would we prefer the weave?

I can think of two possibilities:

* The fireballs are crowding at the top, and we want to get rid of them all as soon as possible.
* The fireballs are crowding at the bottom and middle, which may make it difficult to grab the bottom hammer later on.
The first of these is a rare situation. I don't think fireballs ever spawn on the top platform, and fireballs will often take the ladder down while Mario is below them. Plus, it might be dangerous to grab the top hammer while there are so many fireballs in that area. Finally, the top might not be so crowded by the time Mario actually gets up there.

The second of these situations seems to be handled better by the star as well, on the logic that you can switch to the Staal pattern if getting the bottom hammer isn't in the cards.

...so I must say I'm a bit baffled myself as to when the weave might be preferable, but maybe you can work something out if you experiment.

homerwannabee:
If the fire balls are on top use the weave. If they're on bottom, and 2nd platform for the most part, use the star pattern.

Itsmrpitchy:
Hey thought I should comment and see if I can clear up my approach. Though I am by no means an expert so if a more experienced player would like to correct or elaborate on what I say then please do!

The star pattern is from everything I understand a preferable pattern to use if you can. Due to giving you two hammers and closing the left side. It is simply safer and more consistent when you can get it going.

However, in my opinion after breaking the first peg and completing the climb to the platform of the second you have a very short period of time to make a crucial decision if weave is safer. There is a lot of playing by ear, but if firefoxes are quickly crowding the bottom sections or closing in on the second left hand side rivet then weave! After you have completed the weave you should poke your toe right under the ladder of the top hammer. This enables the firefoxes to travel down one more ladder and gives you a higher chance of getting to the top hammer.

I would like to add that yes the Staal pattern is a nice backup for the star pattern. And sometimes a star pattern will look safe but you will be forced to use the Staal pattern anyway. But I believe that if firefoxes are crowding on the lower sections or near the second left rivet the weave is much safer. The staal pattern allows firefoxes to spread across the stage, and the second left rivet can become hell to get. The weave simply ends up being a safer approach, giving you the whole left side as a safe spot.

Sorry this is so long and I am likely very unqualified. I must also add I am approaching this from the perspective of pure survival, where points are irrelevant and your goal is implementing the most consistent strategies to get a kill screen. Rivets will never to my understanding be a consistent stage where death can only be your fault. But adding the weave can at least in my experience really up your levels of consistency and make the kill screen goal easier to obtain.

Itsmrpitchy:

--- Quote from: homerwannabee on April 13, 2020, 05:15:19 pm ---If the fire balls are on top use the weave. If they're on bottom, and 2nd platform for the most part, use the star pattern.

--- End quote ---

Oh that was the opposite to my approach. Was wondering why you take this angle?

I found that firefoxes being lower meant it was safer to weave and collect the top hammer. If I were to use the star instead then a firefox could sneak into the left side and cut me off from the bottom hammer. 

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