Tips for becoming a better blaster

Hello! I'm going to give you tips on how to succeed in Marble Blast. This guide, if followed correctly, should help beginners become better.

Patience

The most important thing you need is patience. Without patience, everyone would be ragequitting noobs. If you fall off right at the end of Let's Roll!, don't ragequit. Keep trying until you are satisfied. With this, is how people get better.
EX: If I hit 5.36 on Let's Roll! and I'm not satisfied, I would go lower until I am. Now I hit 2.24 on it, and all it took was a little patience.

Experience

Another thing that's important is experience. If you just started, you'd have a harder time beating levels. Lets say, we play the same amount of time each day, but I have been playing a year more then you, the person who played longer would be better, due to experience. If you had enough time in Beginner (experienced enough), go to Intermediate. It would improve your skills with harder levels. Once you've done the same with Intermediate, go on with Advanced, ect.
EX: If I just got the game, and started Intermediate right away, I wouldn't have any experience, and thus, would fail. If I beat Beginner first, Intermediate wouldn't be as hard, thus, wouldn't fail.

Skills

Lets say, you followed both the tips above. Now, its skills. Lets take in example, you beat the entire game (beat all 100 levels of Marble Blast Gold), beat your times. It may sound hard, but it takes the most important rule, patience. You have 2 options, either go over all Marble Blast Gold levels, OR try custom levels/Marble Blast Platinum.

Option #1: Trying other levels [custom/Marble Blast Platinum] is great. Some levels are harder than all of Marble Blast Gold levels, and with this, you use more skills at once, hence making you become better.

Option #2: You should start by beating all gold times. Next, beat your current time, then after that, just keep on going lower and lower till you cannot get any better. This helps you.
EX: King of the Mountain - 1:15.67 [first beat] - 39.72 [I BEAT THE GOLD TIME, WOOHOO!!!!1!!!!111oneonetwoone] - 25.55 [I beat my time, woo!] - 13.37 [This is as low as I can go...] Wow, I really improved my skills on this level by using this strategy!

Learning from the Pros

Lets face it, no one is the best at every single level in MB history. Everyone is good at something. Just because your name is Pascal and I can own 100+ in Marble Blast Platinum doesn't mean he is the best at everything. One way to get better is to play like the pros. If your on YouTube, and you see a 8.xx path on King of the Mountain, try it. Your only getting better by beating your old times, hence making you have more experience. You just went from 13.37 to 8.56 on King of the Mountain! Awesome!

Game Physics

Powerups Tips

Super Speed - To give you an immediate boost of speed.
Usages/techniques:
- to make your marble go faster.
- used backwards to reduce speed.
- used after hitting a slope to get higher.*

Notes: The way you go after using a super speed depends on your camera. You must rotate your camera correctly to where you want to go before activating it. Otherwise, you may run off the floor. Another thing that may affect the super speed is the last floor you've hit. If you activate the super speed after you hit a slope, you will still get boost of speed but also going upwards. The height depends on the gradient of the slope.

Super Jump - To give you a boost of jump.
Usages/techniques:
-To reach a high platform that can't be reached with a normal jump.
-To save the marble from going out of bounds and return to the floor.
-To reduce the rebound from a huge fall.*

Notes: The height gained after activating the super jump depends on the marble, whether it's still, fallling or going upwards. Always remember that jump + super jump can give your marble additional height.

Shock Absorber - To absorb the rebound after a big fall.
Usages/techniques:
- To stop the marble from rebounding off the floor after falling.
- To climb up a wall with the shock absorber being active.*

Super Bounce - To make your marble rebound higher.
Usages/techniques:
- To bounce to a far/high floor.

Gyrocopter - To make your marble flies.
Usages/techniques:
- To fly to a distant island.
- To reach higher platforms.
- To slow down from a fall.

Notes: The gyrocopter is the most powerful powerup, it can also be used with all the other powerups to give you advantages in completing a level. However, since the gyrocopter is very effective, you must watch your momentum when using the gyrocopter, otherwise you may gain additional height/speed that can be fatal.

* indicates a more advanced usage of a powerup.

Hazards Tips

Fans

Hazardous side:
Fans give off strong winds that can blow your marble off the ground from the sides. To make your marble go through the section successfully, went as fast as you can and avoid jumping. You should be able to pass a section with fans easily.

Advantageous side:
If a fan is placed facing up, you can jump on top of it to gain additional height. When you want to gain height with a fan, always jump on top the fan just before reaching it and make yourself at the center of the fan to give you the maximum height.

Tornadoes

Hazardous side:
Tornadoes can suck your marble and make it being out of control. This can easily throw you out of bounds. You must go as far as you can if you want to avoid a tornado, in order to have the least effect of it.

Advantageous side:
Sometimes a tornado can give you height. Always swings your marble from the bottom of a tornado to gain height.

Trapdoors

A trapdoor is usually hazardous, which will fall open and your marble will fall off if you don't leave it immediately. You need to have good jumping skills so you can jump on the trapdoors once and continue the level.

Bumpers and Mines

Hazardous side:
They are usually placed in the middle of the road in order to block your way and throw you off the ground. Jump over them to continue. Rolling past can also be useful but it's a lot more risky.

Advantageous side:
Jumping on top of a bumper/mine can give you height. Carefully aim your marble exactly on top of it in order to gain height. Sometimes hitting the side of a bumper/mine can also help you to get faster times.

(Thanks Imperial!)

Gem(s) - Needed to finish some levels.
-Acts as a thing you must pick up, there is no limit to how many you can have in one level.
-There is no order in which it must be picked up.
NOTE: As of Marble Blast Gold/Platinum, if you go over 100, the number will mess up.

Time Travel - Both a Hazard and a Powerup.

Hazardous side:
Some time travels give negative time bonuses (such as -2 seconds) which makes it a hazard, taking off time.
Powerup side:
The other time travels can give extra time (such as +5 seconds) which helps you as it stops time for however many seconds.

Gravity Modifier - Allows you to change gravity.
-Allows you to go under, to the sides, and even in random directions.
-Wherever the arrow points to is where you will land if you touch it.
NOTE: If you place enough in the same spot with random angles, it will break your camera view.

Marble Blast Platinum - New powerups plus the new conversions from Marble Blast Gold to this.

New Powerups

Random Powerup - Gives you a chance to grab a powerup randomly.
They are mixed, hence you don't get the same one everytime.
-They respawn 3 times.
-They do not re-spawn if you get a Time Modifier.
EX: The first time you grab it and you get a Time Modifier, the powerup will not re-spawn again unless you restart the level. This happens even if you get a Time Modifier the 2nd or 3rd time.
NOTE: They are only found in the Level Editor and Custom Levels, they CANNOT be found in the original 120 Marble Blast Platinum levels.

Conversions between the games
MBG - Marble Blast Gold
MBP - Marble Blast Platinum

Super Speed (MBG) - Speed Booster (MBP)
Super Jump (MBG) - Jump Booster (MBP)
Shock Absorber (MBG) - Anti-Recoil (MBP)
Super Bounce (MBG) - Marble Recoil (MBP)
Gyrocopter (MBG) - Helicopter (MBP)
Gem(s) (MBG) - Diamond(s) (MBP)
Time Travel (MBG) - Time Modifier (MBP)
Gravity Modifier (MBG) - Gravity Defier (MBP)

New Hazards

Magnets - Pulls your marble towards it.
-Acts as a fan, but instead of pushing away, it pulls you toward it.
-If there are 2 magnets on each side of you, if you go right into the middle it will not affect you.

Nukes - Upgraded and more deadly version of the Mine.
-About 5 to 20 times more explosive than the mine.

Conversions between the games
MBG - Marble Blast Gold
MBP - Marble Blast Platinum

Fan (MBG) - Fan (MBP)
Tornado (MBG) - Cyclone (MBP)
Trapdoors (MBG) - Trapdoors (MBP)
Bumpers (MBG) - Bumpers (MBP)
Mines (MBG) - Mines (MBP)

Other Helpful Tips

-When going at high speed on a flat surface or anywhere else you are rolling through a long distance, if you want to make your marble to bounce (not jump), let go all of the movement buttons when landing and it will perform a tiny bounce. Works 100%.

-To avoid gettng sticked to a wall hence screwing your run up, let go all movement buttons when you're about to touch the wall. See by yourself

(Thanks Xelna!)

-Diagonal Movement - Rotate your camera at an angle and press forward + left/right at the same time and you go faster than just straight forwards. This is inbuilt in the code, so stop saying cheating you goddamn noobs.

-Jumping - Makes you go faster, duh.

-CBETS (Collision Boundaries Exceed That of Shape) - Most items' collision boundaries are larger than the shape, so you can collect those without actually touching them. For example, take a box, and imagine a larger box. That's the shape boundary. Now, the collision boundary is larger than the shape boundary, so imagine a second larger box surrounding that first imaginary shape boundary box. Now if you touch that second box, or go inside it, the game counts you as colliding with the items, hence you receive it. This is often used to get items without touching them so it shaves off some time. Winding Road's Super Jump saves 0.02 seconds by not being touched. Around the World in 30 Seconds Gravity Modifiers give you better movement and to collect gems faster without being stopped, greatly reducing the final time. Ramp Matrix's ninth gem shows one of the largest triggers I've ever seen in my life, with Pascal being nowhere near the gem. Marbletris' third gem is also not being touched. There are lots more of these examples in the run, but you can find those yourself.

-Screenshot Lag Glitch (Ctrl+P lag) - By pressing Ctrl+P, the game takes a screenshot. However, it also causes a lag. The marble meanwhile continues through the mine and when the game goes back to normal, it triggers the mine activation, thus sending the marble at a stronger acceleration. This works in all levels, but is useless in every case except for Space Slide, where you see it used.

-Traplaunch - Trap the marble between two moving objects (or one moving platform and one stationary platform) and watch your marble fly to the goal, assuming you did it right. It cuts off a lot of the stage and a well placed traplaunch gets you to the goal in speed. It's a very hard method for players, as some of the levels that we use it on are very hard to do, while on others it's easier (still hard to get a perfect one). This occurs in Survival of the Fittest, Natural Selection, Battlements, Tower Maze, Skyscraper, Great Divide and Great Divide Revisited. It might be possible on Platform Party but since nobody has ever reached the goal, we can't confirm this.

-Edge Hits - Hit the edge of a platform in a correct place to either hit yourself up or get somewhere else. In Pathways it's used to get to the gravity modifier faster. About medium difficulty, but on some levels it's just too easy.

-Wall Hits - Hit a wall in front of you to gain height on the rebound.

-Extreme Fast/Semi-Fast Start/Other starts - Since you gain control on the marble the instant you get into the level (you're freed off the start pad only at 'GO!'), you can use it to gain early speed by jumping and rolling. Jump at specific points during the 'Ready-Set-Go!' sequence to achieve different starts. While it does give you lower times, not all levels are suited for it. For example, Great Divide Revisited doesn't even use it and Free Fall needs a delayed start. There are many other levels with different examples. All starts are optimal for their levels.

-Finish Trigger - The finish pad has an invisible finish trigger that is random, hence every level contains a different 'finish' height. For example, one level you can finish really high above the goal, while in another you must be just a bit above it.

-Internal Clock - This seems to change for each computer as each computer has a bit different timing. For example, my old computer hits .99, while the new one can't do it, only .98 and .00. However, we found out that it does not affect .rec files (demo recording files) so even if I record from the .rec files, the end time does not change. For example, Super Bounce's 2.99, among others.

-Start Pad Trick - You do an extreme fast start, then slightly slow down so the marble land on the downward sloped edge of the start pad that makes it gain speed faster and shaves off 0.01 or 0.02 off the final time. That is very good for IC Levels such as Super Bounce, Time Trial and Trapdoors!

(Copied from SDA)

References

-MarbleBlast.com
-TorquePowered.com
-YouTube Channels*

Credits

-Marble Blast Community for keeping me interested.
-Pascal for making me do videos in the MBPlatinum WRR.
-YouTube for uploading my videos, also for letting me find multiple paths to become better.
-Matan for being helpful in Marble Blast altogether.
-Andrew/Rokoshu for helping me in making this (the original one).


*Here is where you can find multiple YouTube channels to help you with levels and find better ways of finishing.
-http://youtube.com/user/xxs0n1cw4rriorxx [Me!]
-http://youtube.com/user/SonicWarrior9 [My old YT account, has some good stuff there]
-http://youtube.com/user/IsraeliRedDragon [over 700 videos!]
-http://youtube.com/user/MBdushine [Awesome player]
-http://youtube.com/user/technostick [Another awesome player, 200+ videos!]
-http://youtube.com/user/iMacmatician [Uploads alot, was in MBP WRR!]
-http://youtube.com/user/xRokoshux [He dabes]
-http://youtube.com/user/vattu007
-http://youtube.com/user/asears16
-http://youtube.com/user/JRONII
-http://youtube.com/user/AlexTheProMacGamer
-http://youtube.com/user/mm10o4
-http://youtube.com/user/RadiantVibe
-http://youtube.com/user/Moshinator
-http://youtube.com/user/ProNeptune
-http://youtube.com/user/Akantor707
-http://youtube.com/user/mkbul
-http://youtube.com/user/xMisterHardx
-http://youtube.com/user/imperialcuirassier
-http://youtube.com/user/KidZbacked
-http://youtube.com/user/perishingflames
-http://youtube.com/user/rollcage413
-http://www.youtube.com/user/cam9407
-http://www.youtube.com/user/CH0RUS

If you would like someone/you to be added/removed, post here and I'll change it.

I'll also be updating every few weeks/months if you guys have any suggestions.



Thanks for reading! Let the balls of Marble Blast be with you!

-Henry Mullhall AKA SonicW1

Nice guide.

Stickying so that beginners can see this more easily.

SonicW1 says:
btw roko
post pls.
Rokoshu says:
k

Awesome guide.

Nice tips! Should help me with MB.

That's a pretty good guide, I'm sure you could expand to MBO at some point.

I would like to see a revision though with much better English (spelling, grammar, sentence structure) and less internet speak, as this was a bit annoying to read and isn't the most professional ever. I don't expect 100%, but this could be improved a lot.

Great guide.
I think it will be really completed when tips are given for every strategy in the game (e.g. wall hits, edge hits). But this is still great for the beginners.

Pretty awesome explanation/guide. Definitely will help new marblers.

Great guide! It looks to be very helpful to beginner players.

Great guide.

You're missing the most obvious one:

Jump then use the blast in the air to gain more height.

Updated my guide with some spelling errors fixed and added Wall-hits & Edge-hits!

You forgot Chorus and Cam777

Tip : When going at high speed on a flat surface or anywhere else you are rolling through a long distance, if you want to make your marble to bounce (not jump), let go all of the movement buttons when landing and it will perform a tiny bounce. Works 100%.

Tip #2 : To avoid gettng sticked to a wall hence screwing your run up, let go all movement buttons when you're about to touch the wall. See by yourself

Nice gude
I love it

Sept 21, 2010, 2:10am, xelna wrote:Tip : When going at high speed on a flat surface or anywhere else you are rolling through a long distance, if you want to make your marble to bounce (not jump), let go all of the movement buttons when landing and it will perform a tiny bounce. Works 100%.

Tip #2 : To avoid gettng sticked to a wall hence screwing your run up, let go all movement buttons when you're about to touch the wall. See by yourself

It's amazing how many skills or rules can get ingrained in your brain without even realizing it! These tips don't seem new to me; I'm sure I've discovered them myself before and perhaps used them occasionally. Yet I've never heard them verbalized
You just learn the physics of Marble Land (or is it Marblaxia or something?) without thinking.

Just wanted to say this guide has helped improve. I beat the UT on triple decker and wall master . And have gotten better times on almost all levels I played.

I don't see how telling people they need patience, experience, and skill is going to help. Don't people know that anyway?

Nice tips by Xelna, though. I didn't know those.

Sept 21, 2010, 5:44pm, marblefire wrote:I don't see how telling people they need patience, experience, and skill is going to help. Don't people know that anyway?

Hold your chair tightly, you're going to go through a nasty shock.

Sept 21, 2010, 5:44pm, marblefire wrote:I don't see how telling people they need patience, experience, and skill is going to help. Don't people know that anyway?

I'd like to see you do better pls. Go for it.

Its also meant for beginners and other players who don't know this.

Sept 21, 2010, 2:10am, xelna wrote:

Tip #2 : To avoid gettng sticked to a wall hence screwing your run up, let go all movement buttons when you're about to touch the wall. See by yourself

That shall definitely help me in my life from now own, it kept frustrating me Thanks

Very nice, definitely will help inexperience marblers.

I'd like to see this guide more organized too.

I said that to him, plus he forgot Chorus and Cam777 from the youtube vids so he should be punched

Yo, unshuffle all this thing Sonic, or I'll kick you right on your sitter.

I'll punch, you kick.

And Andrew ... well we know what he's going to do.

Talking about guides...

I started... 2 years ago (lol) an updated version of Michael McFadden's MBG Gold Time guide. Kinda not finished it since then... And I think I lost the text file I'll have to search for it. Who would like to have a new MBG Gold Time guide, or an MBP Platinum/Ultimate time guide?

I'd love to see the MBP guide!

An MBP guide would be awesome! So would an updated MBG guide.

I'd like both.