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We rate this game medium. (this is our rating, not Neopets')		NP Ratio: 0.33 3031 pts :: 1000 NP

Introduction

While on their mission to defeat Dr. Sloth, two Grundos, Gorix and Cylara, stumble upon the Time Tunnel. Help them crack the twelve codes of the door to get to the treasure, and be quick about it!

Controls and Instructions

Your goal is to figure out the four stones' proper colors within 12 guesses to get through each level. Change each stone's color by clicking on it and press "unlock" to submit your guess. After each guess, white, yellow and green marks will indicate how close you were to the actual code. Each green mark means that one of your stones is the right color and in the right position. A yellow mark indicates that a stone is the right color but in the wrong place, and white means that a stone is an incorrect color.

There are a total of 12 levels in the game. In the first 5 levels, stones can only be white, gray, blue or red. Orange is introduced on the 6th level, and purple on the 10th. Completing each level gives 25 points plus the time bonus. Time bonuses start at 120 points and decrease by one point each second. Note that the timer pauses when you click "unlock" until your results are shown. Finally, for beating the last level, you gain an additional 200 points. Because the only variable score is the time bonus, if you are trying to get a high score you will need to finish the game as quickly as possible.

Tips and Strategies

The best strategy in Time Tunnel is to first figure out which colors are in the correct code, and then find their proper positioning If you are lucky, you will be able to figure out some of the positioning as you find the right colors.

To begin each level, press "unlock" right away. By doing this, you can learn how many white stones there are depending on the number of green marks that appear. If there are two green marks, you know that there must be two white stones in the code. In your next guess, try two white and two gray stones. Repeat this until you know the colors of all the stones (when there are no more white marks). Now you will need to figure out the positioning of the stones. We'll go over how to do this in the following examples.

Example 1

#	Guess	Results
1
2
3
4
5

In this example, the colors and positions of all the stones are found at once. Assume that this is level 1, and stone colors only go up to red.

1. As always, the first guess is all white stones. The result is one green mark so you know that there is one (and only one) white stone in the code.
2. One white stone is kept in the second guess and the other three are set to gray. Because the results are still only one green mark, you know that there are no gray stones in the code. You now also know that the one white stone is in the correct position, because if it were supposed to be in another spot there would have been a yellow mark instead of the green.
3. Continuing on to the next color, blue, another green mark appears. This means that there must be one blue stone. You know the other two must be red because that is the only color left.
4. At this point, you know that the far left stone is white, and there are one red and two blue stones to the right. Simply guess and check to figure out the correct positioning.

Example 2

Many times the code is not as easy to find as in the first example. Figuring out the positions of the stones gets much harder in the later levels when each stone is likely to be a different color. In these cases, you may find it easier to find the correct position and color of two stones first, and then have only two more to find. Here's an example:

#	Guess	Results
1
2
3
4
5

1. The results of the first guess show that there are no white stones in the correct code.
2. In the second guess, you learn that there are two gray stones. Instead of moving on to the next color, you figure out the positions of the gray stones in the next three guesses.
3. In the third guess, there is one green and one yellow mark, so one of the gray stones must be moved over.
4. Because both marks are yellow in the fourth guess, you know that both gray stones must be moved. Submitting the fifth guess is not necessary since you already know the positions of the gray stones from the previous results.

Essentially, you learn half the code in four guesses. Be careful using this strategy, though. You can waste a lot of guesses on half the code and run out by the end. I wouldn't recommend doing this for only one stone.

Conclusion

If you're looking for a game to keep your mind busy, Time Tunnel is definitely one to try out. Once you get the hang of the game, it becomes quite easy to beat. This game isn't played too often but remember, less players means less competition. :) Maybe with a little luck and patience you might earn yourself a shiny new trophy!

This Neopets help article was written for The Daily Neopets by staff member Ian.
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