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  How to play the game ToTheTop
 

 

The 3d scene of the game (view from above)
The game is in fact a small mountain and with the top in the center. The hill is surrounded by 64 starting positions, where 64 players can participate. In order to go to the top, you need to follow the grey lines of circles : The distance from the starting position to the top is the same for every player
Start to join the game
When you enter the world, you will see 3 panels in front of your avatar. Click upon 1 of these panels if you want to participate. Choose the panel in english , then the game instructions will be in english. If you have chosen the wrong language, then fly to the panels again and click upon the english sign.
 
You may only play with 1 account, Please DON'T CHEAT !!
 

 

Starting position
The gamebot will teleport you to a starting position (a position that was still unoccupied). And you will see this : 10 counters in red colour, 2 green transparent cones, 1 large die in grey colour and and a pole with small dice in orange and blue. There is also a big cube in front, which is only indicating your citizen name and this starting position remains also your "starting spot" during the whole game.
When you re-enter the world , the game bot will teleport you automatically to your starting position. If not, then the bot is not active.

 

 

Game Scoreboard
The game scoreboard of ToTheTop is very simple : you have 10 cells : for every counter you get to the top, you will have 1 point on the scoreboard. When you have 10 points on the scoreboard, you have finished playing. The winner is the player who is the first to get all 10 cells to the top..

 

The HUD screens

You have 3 hud screens for this game: a big die (left below), 2 green cones (right below) and a long list of small dice in orange and blue (right below).

The big die is the die you use to roll with. You can also use the big die at your starting position to do the same, but with the die on your hud screen , you can throw your die at any place in the world, without having to return to your starting position.
The green cones are protections (we talk about this later). The orange and blue dice indicate the number of turns you can throw with your die. There is no difference between the orange and blue dice, the colour has no function in this game. You start with 25 dice turns. (If you started later than the first&2nd day, then the bot will give you 35 dice turns.)
Choosing a colour

For every new player, the default colour is red background with white text. In one of the corners around the mountain, you will find the area where can choose a letter color and background color for your counters, just by clicking upon the squares and/or by clicking upon one of the coloured letters A. Choosing your own colour makes it easier to recognize your own counters on the game board.

Note: You cannot use a backgroundcolor that is already in use by another player. The gamebot will not accept that.
If you go back to your starting position, then you see that the colour has changed.

What can you find on the game of tothetop ?

cell counter die (dice) (to roll with) remaining dice turns

blockade / blocker

protection

counter/disc with protection

cell with extra dice turns debt of dice turns tunnel
position disc     blue cone green cone        
Start to play (throw the die )
Click upon the die of the hud screen (left below) or you can also click upon the dice at your starting position. (=You can choose). Then the die will start to turn around and change from grey into red . And finally the red dice will show a number. In this example it's a 3. As long as the die is red , the dice will remain active. This means : if you leave the world and return into the world, then the 3 will remain on the die in red colour. Now you can start moving one of your counters.
 
Note: Clicking upon the die of the hud screen is useful when you are flying around the hill : you don't need to return to your starting position , and you keep playing with a clear view on the game area where you are focused upon.
Start to move a counter
Click now on 1 of your 10 counters (it doesn't matter which one) : and the counter will light up in green. By clicking again you can deselect and select another counter.

At the same time you will see 2 grey cells of which the edges light up red. In this example, you have thrown a 3 , in this case, you can arrive at a cell which is 3 positions away from your starting position , and you can choose between the position left or right.

 
If you would have thrown a 1 in this example , then you have only 1 position to choose
If you would have thrown a 4, 5 or 6 , then you would have 3 positions to choose from : to the left, to the right or upwards.
Now click upon one of those 2 grey cells of which the edges light up in red, and your counter will move to that position. When the counter has been moved, your die has become grey again (inactive) : not only the die at your starting position but also the die on your hudscreen has turned grey again.
 
 
It may happen that another player is also playing and is busy with moving a counter. In this case, the bot will mention that another player is busy playing, and that you will have to wait until that player has finished with moving the counter.
Continue with playing : throw and move

Now we can continue to play : throw and move, throw and move.... Now you will have 2 possibilities : you can select again a second counter on your starting position, but you can also select the counter that you have just moved.

 
Note : at the same time you will notice that 1 die will be deducted from the pole with your remaining dice turns.
In this example, the die has thrown a 4 . Now you can select the counter which has been moved already : and now there are 3 circles which light up in red: you can go to the left, to the right or you can go up. As we must go towards the top, we choose to go up. (instead of selecting a counter from the starting position).
 
The counter is now on it's way to the top. Your dice has become grey (inactive) again, so now you can start to throw again.
 
How to move
 
You can move upwards or sidewards. You cannot go downwards, except if you are using a tunnel that goes downwards (see later) , or if your counter has been caught by an opponent (then you restart from the starting position) .You can also go upwards by using a tunnel (see later).
Blue cones : blockades

While going up with the counter, you will see a blue cones. The blue cone is a blockade, which prevents you going through to the top. You need to throw with your die the right number and then take the blue cone. If the cone is not blocking you, you don't need to take it.

 
Unless you want to take the blue cone for a specific reason. In this example, we want to take the blue cone because we want to get to the cells with the numbers (see later why).
 
In this case you cannot take the blue cone, because you have thrown a 6. In this case you move another counter, until you throw a 4 with your die.
In this example, we finally throw a 4 , now select your counter (lights up with a green edge) and the cell of the blue cone (lights up with a red edge), and you take the blue cone by clicking on it.
 
Once you have taken the blue cone, then you will see this :
The blue cone appears upon your dice and the left hudscreen has also changed into a blue cone. Now you can't throw with your die . What do you need to do now ? Now you need to place that blue cone on a grey cell on the mountain , but you can't put the blue cone on the bottom cells and there also must remain 1 cell between 2 blue cones.
 
In this case, you choose to put the blue cone on a cell where you can block an opponent to get to the top, but without blocking yourself. As soon as you have placed the blue cone, you will now be able to continue throwing with your die.
 
Note 1 : you cannot put a cone on the cell above the other blue cone : there must remain a blanc space in between.
Note 2 : sometimes it is useful to put blue cones around (or under) one of your counters in order to protect that counter of being caught (see why later)
Extra dice throw turns

The cells with numbers are extra dice turns. In this case we have thrown a 2 , we select our counter, the cell with number 4 lights up and we move our counter to that cell. Now we will get 4 extra dice turns, you will see that on the pole with the dice turns. Also on the hud screen at the right, you can see that.

 
It is interesting to have extra dice turns, as you will get sooner to the top.
Green cones : protections
In this case we have thrown a 2 and we can take a green cone. Green cones are protections and they are useful when you arrive with a counter at the top of the mountain. After having conquered a green cone, you will see that there is 1 green cone added on you hudscreen. Some players collect 10 or even more green cones, because they need them when they reach the top.
 

By using a protection above a counter, the opponents can't eliminate / conquer your counter. Otherwise you will have to restart with that counter from the starting position.

Using a protection
If you need to use a green cone to protect a counter , then go to the hud screen with the green cones, and click (1 green cone will be deducted from the hud screen on the right) . But now you will see a green cone on the hudscreen at the left : now click upon the counter where you want to place the protection, and the protection will appear on the counter.
Note : you can still make "using a protection" undone, by clicking again on the green cone in the hudscreen on the left, then it will be added again to the hudscreen on the right. But if you have placed that protection on the counter, then it is too late to make it undone.
Note : you can only conquer/collect "free/unoccupied" protections. If there is a name under the counter , then it is taken, and that player uses it as a protection.
Note : you can only eliminate the unprotected counters of your opponents.
Note : The protection remains active until the player decides to move the counter to another spot. There is no time restriction. As soon as you move your counter, the protection will be gone.
Going through tunnels
There are also tunnels indicated by A B C D E F G or H. On the mountain you will find 16 tunnel entries : 2 for each letter. If you click upon a tunnel , then you will be teleported to the other end of the tunnel, so that you can see where you will arrive if you take that tunnel. In some cases you can get up to the top, but they can go downwards too.
 
In this example we have thrown a 3. We will check first where we will arrive. For this, we click upon the tunnel with the letter G and we are teleported to the other side of the tunnel where you also see the letter G.
In this example, the tunnel arrives at the other side of the hill, and we decide to go through the tunnel, because we think it is interesting to do that: so we move our counter to the letter G.
 

Now our counter arrives on that cell, and the tunnel has disappeared, but there always remain 8 tunnels : The 2 letters G will be replaced randomly on 2 new positions upon the hill : here in this case there is a new G- tunnel only 2 positions below the previous G-tunnel .

 
Capture a counter of an opponent
In this example we have thrown a 4 and we can capture a counter of an opponent. When this happens, the counter of the opponent returns to the its starting position, where we see 1 counter now.
 
In the first case, it wasn't a real problem for the opponent, as the counter was close to the starting position, this second counter was already located a bit higher on the hill.
 
But in this case, the counter was located at the top, and the unlucky opponent has also to restart with this counter all over again. Now you see why it is important to use protections when you reach the top.

 

Obtain new dice turns

When you start to play, you obtain 25 dice , 25 turns for throwing the die. At a certain moment, you will run out of dice, because you only have 25 dice to throw. And you will be unable to play.This is what happens next :

Every hour , the gamebot will give you 1 die turn, and you will see that on your HUD screen. If you wait 25 hours, then you will have again 25 dice to throw. If you wait longer than 25 hours, then the gamebot will not grant you a 26th die. This means that 25 is the maximum that you will get. (If you obtain extra dice turns than you can exceed that amount of dice)
But there is still another option : the bank.
 
Borrowing at the bank
You can borrow at the bank, which is located in 1 corner of the game. : In this case, you fly with your avatar to the bank and you click upon the dice that are inside the bank or you click upon the roof of the building. Then the gamebot will give you extra dice turns to play with.

 

But borrowing at the bank isn't cheap : for every 5 dice you have borrowed, you must pay back 6 dice : now you will a new hud screen with red dice. This is how it works: every hour there will disappear 1 red die, and only when all the red dices have gone, then there will be added "normal" extra dice each hour again.
 
When can you borrow ? You can only borrow when you have no dice left.
How much can you borrow ? You can borrow up until 25 red dice : each time when you have thrown the 5 dice , you can go again to the bank to borrow 5 dice more and each time you go 6 dice into the red. You don't only have a hud screen, but there is also a second pole indicating the number of borrowed dice. Every hour there will be deducted 1 red die until they are no borrowed dices anymore , and after that there will be added every hour 1 (normal) die on the other pole. So, if you borrowed up to 25 dice, it takes 2 days before you have have again "normal" 25 dice to play with.
Borrow again

When you have borrowed 25 dice, and you don't have any dice left, then you can't play anymore and you have to wait for several hours : the minimum is 6 hours, then you can borrow 5 dice again. It is better to wait until you have no red dice anymore, because you lose each time 1 die when you borrow. But sometimes there are good opportunities. In the example your counter is not far from a protection, and if you don't want that the opponents take that protection , you can dedide to try to take it yourself.

In this case, you go to the bank and borrow again 5 dice, and but you create also a dept of 6 dice : the number of red dice rises again too. And you start to play again. Some players stay with red dice during the whole game, but this is their own choice.
If you don't manage to conquer that protection with you 5 dice turns, than you can borrow again at the bank, until you have a dept of 25 red dice, you cannot go any further. If you were unable to conquer that protection , then you did have bad luck.
Scoring points
If you almost reach the top, and you still have dice left ,then you throw the required number to reach the top (=the position of the TTT-bot) and you can move the counter to the top.
And on the scoreboard , you will get 1 point. On the scoreboard, you can see the top10 , and the names and scores of the other players are on the board at the right side. (if there are more than 10 players in the game)
 
Total distance to the top
There is also a another scoreboard : here you can see how many cells you still need to go with your 10 counters together. (without considering the number of points you have scored). When you put your cursor above the cylinders, then you will see the players name and also how many cells they have to go before they reach the finish.
 
Scoring your 10th point while borrowing dice
If you are playing with your last counter, then you can't move your last counter to finish the game if you still have "borrowed" red dice, only after you have paid back all your red dice to the bank, you can move your counter to finish your game. So this may take several hours, depending on the number of red dice in debt.
And in this case, you better have still have an extra protection to put upon your counter , in order to avoid the risk of having to restart all over again.
 
New green cones and new extra dice throws
The green cones (=protections) and numbers aren't added every hour, like this is the case for your dice turns, but they are added while playing.
After every 35 dice throws , the gamebot TTT puts 1 green cone and 2 cells with extra dices throws somewhere on the TTT-mountain . They appear on a random position on the hill , and the number of dice throws mentioned on the cells is also randomly , from 1 till 9 extra dice throws.
They can be added while you are playing, but they can also be added while another participant is throwing the die.
When do you use the protections (green cones) ?
When you can't play your counter to the top, because you have no dice left to play with, then it is better to place a protection on that counter. If you don't have any protections left, then you are at risk and you must be lucky that the other opponents don't capture your counter.
 
Some new players don't know where or when to use the green cones : when you are still at the lower levels of the mountain, then it's a waste to use those green cones. And when you are at the top , you will need them. So try to conquer some extra green cones if they appear in your neighbourhood , and save them until you need them.
 
Skipping dice throws
During the game, it might happen that you don't manage to throw the number you want. This happens often at the end of the game, when you only have 1 or 2 counters left and while some blue cones have blocked the way to the top. In this case, you click again on the die , and the ttt-gamebot will ask if you are certain that you want to throw again without playing. In this case you lose of course 1 die turn, but you can continue playing and if you are lucky, you can get through ....
 
Passing along counters with protections
If you throw a 6 , then normally you can move 6 cells, but when one of these cells is taken by a counter of an opponent protected with a green cone , then you will be able to move 1 cell further . It might also happen that you can move up more than 10 cells, in the case that you must pass several counters with protections.
However, this is not the case for your own counters with protection,then this cell is not considered as an extra cell. If you throw a 4 , and your other counter with protection is on that position, then you can't get through ! Then you must play a 5 to pass along your own counter with protection.
 
Duration of the game
A ToTheTop game lasts for 1 month , it starts on the 1st of each month and stops a few days before the end of the month in order to prepare the start of the next game. A ToTheTop game is usually played during 15 till 25 days. Some game winners we able to finish the game with 10 points in less than 12 days .
It is not playing constantly : you enter the game, you play during 10 minutes and you leave again. Then the next day or 2 days later, you play again during 10 minutes. And you go on like that until you finish the game.
 
Avoid Cheating
You are not allowed to play with 2 accounts for the same game. If you do so, the bot will disable your accounts from playing during that game.