The Bored Ape Yacht Club is once again injecting the NFT ecosystem with much-needed vitality. Before and after the launch of the Sewer Pass, an access token that allows BAYC holders to participate in an interactive minting experience, BAYC-related assets accounted for almost half of the total ETH NFT volume from 16 to 23 January.
Driving that volume is the desire to compete in a skill-based endless runner-style game developed by BAYC’s Yuga Labs called Dookey Career. Available only to Sewer Pass holders, Dookey Dash players try to get as far as possible through the BAYC sewers while dodging obstacles and collecting “shards” along the way. Released on January 18, the game is part of a larger minting mechanic for the next iteration of the BAYC universe in which players with high scores are eligible for rarer mints.
Videos of players streaming their in-game runs have been all over social media in the past week, with many sharing your high scores too. But how exactly do you get a high score in Dookey Dash? To dispel the mystery, we’ve put together a short list of tips and tricks to increase your chances of getting on the Dookey Dash leaderboard and landing a coveted mint on your next BAYC drop.
Tip 1: Time your run perfectly
Dookey Dash scores are based on three main factors: how long the sewer run is, the types of shards you collect, and how many obstacles you destroy. Dashing, a quick speed boost, is one of the key components of the game. Allow your character to slide forward and smash the obstacles in your way. However, timing your run is critical. If you do it too late, you will have a hard time reacting to the invisible obstacles behind the wall you just went through. Too soon, and you may not have enough speed to break through in the first place. Err on the side of running sooner rather than later; crashing into some pipes beyond a wall is more likely to end your run than anything else when using a dash.
Tip 2: Be strategic with fragments
Collecting shards (both common and rare) will help increase your overall score, so be sure to aim for them. However, as the sewers become more and more clogged with obstacles as your run progresses, don’t risk too much for the common shards and focus on extending your run for as long as possible.
Tip 3: Reset your board
Running is a tool, so use it wisely. The three seconds it takes for your run to cool down can seriously inhibit your ability to rack up game points or even cause your entire run to end because you couldn’t get through an obstacle. But when you use the dash to break wooden planks or move large objects out of your way, it immediately resets, cooling down for instant reuse. Using the dash to go through large objects will also give you a small amount of points. Those add up over time, so use them to your advantage, especially in the early stages of the game when there are far fewer items floating around in the sewers.
Tip 4: Buy a Powershart package with ApeCoin
Dookey Dash players who are willing to spend 2 ApeCoin ($APE, the native token of the BAYC universe) will be rewarded with a Powershart Pack, a booster pack that comes with 10 minutes of three real-time in-game updates. . Benefits include an increased chance of finding rare items in the sewers, cutting your dash cooldown time in half, and a 15 percent bonus added to your final run score.
Tip 5: Ignore your score
Try not to pay too much attention to your score in the top left corner of your screen. Looking at it just creates a distraction and increases your chances of hitting an edge on an obstacle and ending your run. If you need an indication of how he’s doing, keep an eye on the music as it changes throughout his career. If the music is too annoying, try muting the game and putting on your own tunes.
Tip 6: Play Dookey, not dirty
Due to the high stakes in the game, some may be tempted to break the rules or cheat in the game in order to achieve a high score. Yuga Labs co-founder Greg Solano recently took to Twitter to address this very issue, explaining that the team collects a fair amount of metadata from every run of the game and that any foul play is likely to surface and result in an essential ban from the future mint reveal.
At that same point, a Web3 denizen and software engineer by the name of cygaar recently broke how they spent a week reviewing the game’s code to find bugs that would allow them to exploit Dookey Dash. After finding a hole that allowed them to record a high score by going completely through obstacles, they contacted the team at Yuga Labs to fix the issue. Now, anyone trying to employ a similar method is unlikely to succeed. Regardless, players need to stick to the script if they want to have a chance at BAYC’s upcoming NFT release, The Summoning.
Good luck out there, rascals.
