Why you should learn the Hard Route in the Winter Wonderland Wintersday Jumpy Puzzle (tips from a girl who cried at JPs years ago)

[Luaren.3921]

1) Being in the instance when the timer hits 00:00 to reset the instance counts as an activity (as do the other Wintersday events with a timer!) 
2) The Hard route (once you can do it consistently) is the fastest route to Tixx's Bonfire 
3) Big Gamer 

I used to hate JPs, literally cried at points ngl, but I LOVE them now. I walk through the Hard JP and give a number of things to look out for and some tips n tricks. So if you've struggled before, or are new to the Festival, I encourage you to challenge yourself and believe in yourself to learn it uwu 

Happy Wintersday!

 

[Ashen.2907]

I can do them, just dislike doing so. At the end of every JP I log out of the game for at least a day.

[Luthan.5236]

Counting as an activity - is not really a reason for me. Since I do the JP only once per day. (Except the last week where I'll grind it to get the 200/200 for the weekly in the remaining 1.5 days.) If I want an activity for the vault I do something that triggers faster. (Unless getting lucky to join at the end ... it might take some time to wait in the JP.) Isn't even related to the routes. (Except that people that want to really wait out the timer and farm while doing so ... can farm more with the faster route.)

Personally I do the fast route cause the other ones ... seem to slow for me. Only problem (besides a lot of people jumping around there sometimes making it annoying) sometimes is my mouse (non-wireless) and the small area I have to move it. (Small mouse pad and place at the desk. Lol.) Need to lift it up a bit and move it to the center of the pad at the middle of the route taking a bit less than a second - but I still have enough time.

It is basically just about being fast - at the snowflakes. Some shortcuts where you can jump to flakes that seem more far away with another one being closer. (You don't really need any I usually only take some of the last ones before the bonfire.) After the bonfire it gets trickier. (Need to be careful - better not too fast except the gifts part where you need to be fast.) Still enough time even with the hard route health loss.

Edit: The most tricky - where it is not worth the risk - is near the end. (Where in the vid - only quickly scrolled through it - the "wait for the snowball to pass" ie mentioned.) Some seem to walk up there pretty fast. Moving to the last candy thing on the right. While it is just okay to wait an then directly go to the blue gift boxes before the end (not taking another wait for another snowball).

Edited December 17, 2023 by Luthan.5236

[Teknomancer.4895]

And then there are those of us with imperfect eyesight/depth perception and relatively slower reflexes for whom no amount of video walkthroughs or motivational nonsense will make any difference whatsoever. There are lots of reasons people dislike jumping puzzles, and not all of them are fixable with persistence and a positive attitude.

[Ashantara.8731]

First off, I sincerely hope you did not break into tears over a Jumping Puzzle, because that would leave a bad impression about us female players. 😉

The "hard route" also isn't very hard once you know it in your sleep. I'm certain I would perceive the other two routes (center and right) as slightly more difficult simply because I have been running the left route for years during Wintersday. 😄

[EphemeralWallaby.7643]

I can never get past the boxes after the paths converge, no matter how many times I try and I have to do the easy path, because both the the dropping icicles of the paths and boxes just after cause me too much anxiety to be successful.  My Q-bert skills from my youth have not aged well.  I'd be more willing to keep practicing it after falling if I were reset to that bonfire, but being reset to the beginning each time is too frustrating. 

It also doesn't help that my graphics are still washed-out from the dx11 migration, that's never been fixed, and so much of the JP is a overblown washed-out headache to be in for any length of time.

Thank you for the vid, though.  I always enjoy your content and encouragement. 🙂

~EpWa

[TheDetective.8172]

36 minutes ago, EphemeralWallaby.7643 said:

I can never get past the boxes after the paths converge, no matter how many times I try and I have to do the easy path, because both the the dropping icicles of the paths and boxes just after cause me too much anxiety to be successful.  My Q-bert skills from my youth have not aged well.  I'd be more willing to keep practicing it after falling if I were reset to that bonfire, but being reset to the beginning each time is too frustrating. 

It also doesn't help that my graphics are still washed-out from the dx11 migration, that's never been fixed, and so much of the JP is a overblown washed-out headache to be in for any length of time.

Thank you for the vid, though.  I always enjoy your content and encouragement. 🙂

~EpWa

Regarding your graphics, you may want to open your graphics card profile settings and adjust the sharpness there. The game is probably not the reason your graphics are “washed out”. I believe it’s your graphics card profile settings. 
 

As for the presents, it’s very consistent to just run straight down the middle and spam jump. 

[EphemeralWallaby.7643]

29 minutes ago, TheDetective.8172 said:

Regarding your graphics, you may want to open your graphics card profile settings and adjust the sharpness there. The game is probably not the reason your graphics are “washed out”. I believe it’s your graphics card profile settings. 

The problem is petty well documented in the Bugs forum... there is no complete fix at this time that can be done on my end.  Many people with this problem, including myself, have tried.  I have done the small handful of things that somewhat ameliorate the problem. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

I keep a subscription to the pertinent thread just in case someone comes up with something, and otherwise I try to avoid the worst maps/instances (Bitterfrost Frontier is imo the worst... it quite perfectly simulates snow-blindness, lol).

~EpWa

Edited December 17, 2023 by EphemeralWallaby.7643

[Solvar.7953]

One also has to evaluate the extra rewards for the hard route vs chance of failure.  I can do the normal route with probably 95% success.  Hard route may be 30% success for me, so the extra rewards for it (and fact it might be slightly faster) still means I'll end up behind in number of gifts.

It always amuses me seeing players trying to save 1 second with the snowball and then failing vs playing it a bit safer.  Sure, over the course of 20 minutes, saving a couple seconds per run may mean you get an extra run in, but if you fail 1 run by trying to go fast, it now just comes out even, and if you fail 2 runs by trying to go really fast, you are ending up behind.

But mostly, I just do 3 runs/day for the extra rewards, so don't really care about trying to save 5 seconds on it.

 

[Danikat.8537]

14 hours ago, Solvar.7953 said:

One also has to evaluate the extra rewards for the hard route vs chance of failure.  I can do the normal route with probably 95% success.  Hard route may be 30% success for me, so the extra rewards for it (and fact it might be slightly faster) still means I'll end up behind in number of gifts.

It always amuses me seeing players trying to save 1 second with the snowball and then failing vs playing it a bit safer.  Sure, over the course of 20 minutes, saving a couple seconds per run may mean you get an extra run in, but if you fail 1 run by trying to go fast, it now just comes out even, and if you fail 2 runs by trying to go really fast, you are ending up behind.

But mostly, I just do 3 runs/day for the extra rewards, so don't really care about trying to save 5 seconds on it.

 

I agree, I think the best approach, especially if you're struggling to complete it at all, is to try each path then pick the 1 you think you'll do best at and then just practice that one, because being able to get to the end consistently (or at all) will make a far bigger difference than shaving a few seconds off successful runs on a path you mostly fail to complete at all.

My other advice for anyone having trouble with it is:

1) Turn the sound and UI off (ctrl+shift+H is the default to turn the UI off). It doesn't give you any useful information and does give you a lot of distractions. Yes that does mean you won't see your health going down, but in my experience that just adds stress and increases the chances of mistakes. You can't actually run or jump faster when you know you're running out of time, so it's better to focus on getting each jump right.

2) Use action camera - it means you don't need to hold a mouse button down to turn, so you can do the entire puzzle with 2 buttons (forward and jump) and moving the mouse to point the camera and your character in the right directions (which means if your mouse has 2 extra buttons it's possible to do it one-handed). You don't need to turn first - if you point the camera where you want to go and push forward and jump your character will turn instantly on the spot and jump in the direction the camera is facing.

3) Position the camera overhead and zoom out enough that you can see at least 1-2 platforms ahead of where you are now.

4) The snowballs on the second part are on a timer, so you need to wait for 1 to pass, then run to the next candy platform, wait for another one to pass, then go to the next platform (or eventually the path of gifts up to the exit). There's always time between snowballs to get to the next candy platform, and almost never time to skip a platform and reach the next (there is 1 point where it can be done, ideally with dodge jumping, but it's not reliable and as @Solvar.7953 said it's better to take a few extra seconds to finish than risk it and fail, especially right at the end). Also try to stay in the middle of the ice path, it's slightly slippery and curved at the edges so it's easy to fall off.

1. For the 'present stairs' just after the checkpoint you want to go right up the middle: https://i.imgur.com/gqIJBgJ.jpg
2. Then run across the top platform, down a candy cane and wait just before the bottom for a snowball to pass (if you're right at the bottom it might hit you) before running on to the two little candy platforms on your right. https://i.imgur.com/GHb9gWE.jpg
3. From there you go back onto the ice path where you left (don't try to jump across diagonally), and round the corner to a big candy platform embedded in the path. https://i.imgur.com/DR69h2Y.jpg
4. Then you go a short way up the path and stop on another candy platform on the left side. (This is the bit where you can skip one if you're fast enough because there's another platform slightly further up, but it's not worth the risk.): https://i.imgur.com/t3bbMjA.jpg
5. Once the final snowball has passed you go to the present 'stairs' and use just the long blue and white ones and the candy cane to reach the exit. https://i.imgur.com/gp4pPD5.jpg