I recently got into Canoeing - Quack% after Cmdr recommended it to me, and I've been working at finding the best route to collect the ducks!
To get to the Stray Duckling challenge, simply hit the minus (-) button after entering a canoeing mode to go into Free Practice. In this mode, you will find 10 ducklings and a mama duck scattered around Duckling Pond. The challenge is to collect all these ducks (by canoeing near them) and returning them all to Mama as fast as possible. There is an in-game timer that starts once the first duckling sees you, and ends once the 10th duck is returned to Mama.
I mapped out the pond, buoy barrier, and rough duck locations in this image:
Ducks were named by Cmdr, Sir_Tyler, wipeoutjack7, Plyd823 and me.
By mapping them out on a cartesian plane:
I was able to solve the Traveling Salesman Problem for the ducks in the pond! The program I wrote tests all possible paths to collect 10 ducks and finish at Mama, with some modifications to account for wide turns (such as the connection between Karl and Jerry, which is actually obstructed by the buoy barrier).
In the end, the best route the program could find began at Pete and traveled over towards Mama to collect the rest. After Ichiro, there are 2 possible paths to take, both with similar distances to cover. In my own playthroughs with these routes, I found it best to go for whichever duck Ichiro leads you towards, whether that's past Mama to Carol, or around the corner to Karl.
A secondary route was found and although I though it would be slower, I actually got a great PB with it, so it's worth considering.
Here are images of what I currently believe to be the best 3 routes:
^- The I-K-C-M route
^- The I-C-K-M route
^- The SC route
Right now, I think the SC route is the best, I recommend going with that one.
Some things to look out for when actually attempting the route:
- Be careful to not let Holly see you as you get to Pete... She has incredible eyesight compared to most ducks.
- Make sure to let Pete see you as late as possible so that you can save time early on.
- Aron sucks. He will ruin your runs. Sometimes he faces the right way, sometimes not. You can try threading the needle and going in between the logs to guarantee getting him, but if you bump into one it's game over.
- SC route: It's possible to gather Snek without entering the grass. Call it grassless. It saves about 1-2 seconds from just ramming into the grass.
- SC route: The turn around from Karl's cove can be tricky, but you can actually use the debris to help spin you around faster. It's possible to turn around without even touching the buoys.
- Ducklings always begin in the same pattern, so you can get really good consistency if you always approach Pete the same way. I think ducks only move when they are within a certain loading distance, so try approaching Pete in different ways if some ducks are just never on a good cycle for you.
Good duck and have fun!
Holly is a bit younger and did not fight in the Cold War, however. Some of the ducks did.
(Joey) Bobby has pretty bad eyesight, and you have to get pretty close to him. Pete just really wants to get out of the pond, so you have to attract him well. Aron, Jerry, and Karl also fought in the Cold War. They aren't as bad as Bobby, but sometimes can be a pick for ya. Don't for get Snek after successfully getting Aron. That's his job, he was a spy.
Nice first run! But you should post about this kind of stuff in the discord
Hello! It's been quite a while since the last major resort change.
Previously on these leaderboards, we've only put milliseconds on runs when a world record is tied to the second. However, due to the nature of some of this game's categories being inherently short, competitive, and difficult to opt
