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Admiral achievement in Harbor Master (WP)

Admiral

Score 500 on any map

Admiral0
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How to unlock the Admiral achievement

  • FunkDogFunkDog
    30 Mar 2011 30 Mar 2011
    Hi Everyone,

    First off, for those of you reading this weeks or months later wondering how I got this game early ... here's what happened. Stallion over at onemilliongamerscore.com posted a link to Harbor Master about a month ago. If you went to that link on your WP7, it took you straight to the try/buy screen for the game. I bought it then. A day or two later MSFT must have realized this was going on and took down the link. Looks like there are about 12 of us on TA who managed to snag the game early.

    Onto the guide.

    For my 500 cargo units I used the Cyclone level. The first level gets too crazy for me with only two docks, and I didn't want to mess with multi-colored cargo, monsters, or pirates on the later levels. When things start getting hectic the last thing you want to worry about is something other than your ships and docs. Granted, the Cyclone level does have cyclones, but they're not too difficult to deal with and don't crash a ship if you run into them.

    Here's my tips.

    1) Practice. It's a no brainer right? With Harbor Master, it' a must if you want Admiral to pop. It took me until around 10,000 total cargo units delivered before I could pretty frequently get over 200 per game. It was around 20,000 total before I first broke 400. But by this time I could get over 200 almost every single game and over 300 every 3rd or 4th game. Then, around 30,000 I finally got 500. If you start on the Cyclone level with the intent of hitting 500 from the get-go, you'll probably hit these targets sooner than me.

    2) Difficulty Maxing. On the cyclone level it appears that the difficulty maxes out once you hit around 225-250 cargo units delivered. The "waves" of ships keep coming, but there doesn't ever seem to be more on screen simulatenously than the amount there is when you're around 250.

    3) "Waves" of Ships. The ships come in waves. Once you get to around 100 cargo on a level you will usually see two of the large freighter ships on screen at the same time. That's usually around the start of a wave consisting of around 7-10 small ships, 5-7 medium ships, and 3-4 freighters. Usually towards the end of a wave I find myself parking my final big freighter along with a final medium ship or two. When the wave dies down it's also a heads up that another wave is about to start. This is a good time to pause if you need to take a break.

    4) Back That Freight Up. Freighters can be annoying due to how slow they move, but that's also one of their biggest assets. When one comes on screen I usually try to do one of the following things:

    * Have it circle in place near a corner.
    * Immediately direct it to a port.

    They move so slow that even if you immediately direct it to a port you can still get one or more of the smaller ships to that port before the freighter docks. Also, as it gets close, you can back it up so that squeeze a couple smaller/faster ships in if you need to. Because of how slow it is you can pretty easily have the freighter "idle" in place by occassionally moving it forward then backwards. Trust me, having a freighter idle is a lot easier than continuing to "circle" smaller ships while they're waiting for docks to open up.

    5) Smallest in First. Why are you going to crash ships? Usually it's because you have a bunch of ships circling waiting for a dock to open up. Once you get over 200 cargo you'll want to adopt this method: Always give the smallest ships the right of way. If you have a freighter or a medium ship en-route to a dock and a flurry of smaller ships come on screen, back them up and get the small ship in. They'll be in and out in no time, and the larger, slower moving ships are a lot easier to manage while waiting for docs than the small quick ones.

    6) Pause = Friend. After around 200-250 cargo is can get pretty hectic in the middle of wave. If you start to lose your groove, pause the game after the ships die down. A nice feature is that it will resume your last paused game when you come back to it, whether your phone times out and locks, or you go back with the back or home button. Take a break. Come back in a couple minutes or a couple hours.

    If anyone has any questions/tips/additions feel free to let me know! Good luck ... :)

    Guide not helping? View 4 more guides for this achievement.

    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    xPut Name HerexI think the speed of the boats picks up after the difficulty "maxes" around 250 cargo scored. Either that or I was just going insane as I came closer and closer to 500. It's a possibility.
    Posted by xPut Name Herex on 13 Dec 11 at 07:08
    keungI'm pretty comfortable up to about 300, at which point the game seems to accelerate up to a point where I'm not able to react properly. I'm pretty sure the game speeds up (unless I keep accidentally hitting the fast forward button)
    Posted by keung on 11 Jul 12 at 11:45
    keungI'd definitely recommend using Cyclone Island instead of Cargo City for this achievement. I'm currently at 36 shifts worked, and I just got 442/500 (a small ship got caught up in a whirlpool together with a freighter, so I got effed). Max I've gotten on Cargo City is 218, and that's in 39 shifts. That level is just waaay too random.

    An additional tip on the freighters (which works well for me), keep one (make several circular paths) in the upper-left corner and one in the lower-right corner. That way you also don't have to worry about a small space between the freighters were a ton of ships might spawn. You'll also have two huge corners that you can use as buffers for any ship in line for servicing.
    Posted by keung on 12 Jul 12 at 07:23
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  • L1ttlemikeL1ttlemike
    22 Jan 2012 22 Jan 2012 21 Feb 2012
    Thought I’d share with you a fantastic little trick I used to get this achievement.

    I used the cyclone level to get this achievement yeah you have to put up with the cyclones but they only really throw the ships off a little just keep your ships apart when these are on screen.

    There is three types of ship the
    Speedboats (small 1 cargo)
    Ships (medium 2 cargo)
    And the freighters (large 4 cargo)
    Now the key to my guide is the freighters the game doesn’t allow more than two on screen at the same time so use this to your advantage.
    Just to repeat
    THERE CAN ONLY BE TWO FRIGHTERS ON SCREEN AT A TIME

    Have the first freighter that appears go to either the top or bottom left of the screen then when the next one appears put it in other space.
    When I say put it in the corner I mean direct it there and when it gets there do a path for it by rubbing your finger around the corner of the screen what you should have now is the freighter with a red splodge around it. The frieghters will not circle they will sort of bounce around.
    There are two advantages to this
    1. If you keep them close in the corner no ships will come from those two corners
    2. Only every now and then will a ship appear in the gap in between the freighter so it leaves you to concentrate on the other side of the screen.Remember a cyclone will take these off course but because they are so slow it’s easy to rectify.
    Always give the small bouts the right of way even if you have a medium one on route because these unload quickly and these will make you fail if you are trying to bounce them around.
    Every 30-40 cargo (usually 7-10 small and 5-6 medium ships) the game will not send any more leaving you to get any leftover into the docks. I think this is because the game knows there are 8 lots of cargo still flouting around. This would happen right up to and beyond the 500 mark.

    This method is anything but fool proof I had to try at least 15-20 times after I figured out this trick.

    I hit this at about 17,500 cargo recieved so have a long way to go to hit the last achievement

    This is my first guide so please leave me feedback and any negative at least let me know what I could change before leaving it. Also if anybody can confirm let me know
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    L1ttlemikeGlad it helped
    Posted by L1ttlemike on 17 Oct 13 at 06:47
    MortyDiceFinally worked for me! The cargo bay level went insane when I reached 380 and started spitting freighters out of nowhere for subsequent plays so I got back to Cyclone Island. Using two frighters on the right side and making two ships hugging the left side, I made way for the speedboats and ended up with 504 cargo. Phew! Thanks!
    Posted by MortyDice on 30 Oct 13 at 14:48
    Mr RodsterThis helped me a lot. I suggest not strictly using the left hand side, though. I think it should depend on what hand you are using to trace paths. I was using my right hand, so sending the large freighters to the right meant I could spin them in place and monitor them without my hand covering up the rest of the playing field. A left-handed player would want to use the left hand side. Beyond that, great guide. Thank you.
    Posted by Mr Rodster on 13 Jan 15 at 18:37
  • Farcus PrimeFarcus Prime
    13 Apr 2011 15 Apr 2011
    I did this achievement on Cargo City. Although there are 3 types of colored cargo I still believe it was much easier than Cyclone Island and the best level for this achievement.

    1. There are no obstacles like cyclone/pirates to mess you up.

    2. The difficulty level is actually extremely low. The reason for this is this level only uses the single and double cargo ships. That means no giant freighter to get in the way.

    3. Finally having three different colors is actually a benefit because there is almost always an empty port to dock in.

    Now with a few simple steps I'm going to tell you a strategy to master this level.

    The first thing to note is that there are two yellow ports on the left, two purple on the right and a green on each side.

    Try to dock the green ships to the closest port, you don't want to be sending ships across the level because the yellow and purple need those routes.

    Make sure to pay attention the the arrows that pop up on the screen, these tell you where a new ship is coming from. Then try to send ships that are done unloading their cargo off the screen in the other direction. For example if an arrow pops up saying a ship is coming from the top, un-dock ships that are done unloading and send them off the screen on the bottom. This avoids ships crossing paths and reduces the likelihood of collisions considerably.

    The last thing I recommend is to give priority to the slower double ships. So always send them to the closest port near the edge of the map. This makes it easy to get them out of the way when they are done unloading and also doesn't slow down the process because the single/speed boats can maneuver around them.

    **Don't be afraid to take a break**

    If you follow these steps you should get in a groove by around 100 cargo. It takes a long time do get to 500, but it is very easy to do which is why I was able to do this on my first attempt on this level.
    Showing most recent comments. View all comments.
    Ferrara316yeah, with cargo city looks like you have to be completely lucky to not get any freighters. Its so damn random too. I got up to 460 on Cyclone Island before crashing : ( . Thats everyones best bet when it comes to skill.
    Posted by Ferrara316 on 25 Apr 11 at 23:31
    A Rare CatalystI don't know how you got that level to have no freighters...I usually get them at around 100 and they usually have 2-3 different colored cargos on them :-/

    I'm having a tough time getting to 150 on any map because once I get to a 100 then I'll have at least 10 ships full of cargo all coming at the same time (not counting the ones that are empty and leaving)

    This achievement (and the 200/pacifist) are really frustrating...it almost seems as if the game is punishing me lol.
    Posted by A Rare Catalyst on 05 May 11 at 02:55
    JobbenarThe big freighters only start appearing if you keep letting ships get too close so the alarm goes off. Keep ships as far apart as possible and 9/10 games you'll be fine, although from time to time the game cheats. I just smashed my high score by getting 1145 on cargo city. I had freighters but luckily no mixed colours so they were easy to deal with
    Posted by Jobbenar on 22 Feb 14 at 19:37
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