Your objective in Score Challenge is to get high score using a fixed number of soldiers. The basic gameplay of launching soldiers to hit targets is the same as Story Mode. What’s different about Score Challenge is that it has three prison camps in the middle. Every time soldiers damage the camps, you release prisoners. If those prisoners make it to the exits, you’ll receive points. You can get Rubies if your final score is in the top 5% or an Item Machine renew ticket if you don’t fall in that category.

You have to complete Chapter 26 in Story Mode to unlock Score Challenge, which can be found on the lobby screen. It costs 30 Rubies to participate in Score Challenge, and there’s no limit on the number of tries within the duration indicated by the timer, given you have enough Rubies. After the timer runs out, there’s a 10-minute cooldown period, in which you can’t play any more Score Challenge. Once the cooldown is over, you can play the challenge again after claiming your reward in the “See Results” menu.

◈ Rescuing prisoners and scoring points

In this mode, the number of soldiers is fixed at 150 with no additional reinforcements. You can still use Charging Soldiers, but not items. Unlike Story Mode, you’re awarded points when your soldiers and prisoners get killed by an enemy or obstacles. Every time your minions are eliminated or make it to the exits, you’ll receive points.

Bronze prisoners will be released when you hit the prison camps the game starts out with. This type of prisoner gives you 100 points, same as regular soldiers. You’ll get progressively more points as the camps level up. For example, silver, gold, and diamond prisoners are worth 200, 400, and 800 points, respectively. If they escape to the exit, you’ll get their points times the multiplier indicated on each exit.

◈ From prison camps to exits: Overview of objects in Score Challenge

① Score: Indicates current score.
② Prison Camp: Prisoners are released when soldiers bump into it.
③ Bomb Monster: Slowly roams around the stage and damages nearby structures when it explodes.
④ Thorn Wall: Constantly rotates and irregularly changes direction
⑤ Pinwheel: Changes trajectory when a soldier bumps into it
⑥ Thorn Shield Orc: Instantly kills soldiers and prisoners who come in contact with the shield
⑦ Control Panel: Can be activated by hitting it with soldiers or prisoners and overheats if all six are activated.
⑧ Exit: Gives the base points times the multiplier if soldiers or prisoners pass through.

Prison camp is the source of points

There are four types of prison camps: bronze, silver, gold, and diamond. Each facility always produces matching colored prisoners. Since diamond camps are of the highest grade, they are indestructible. Your goal in this mode is to hit the camps with soldiers, release prisoners, and guide them to the exits with the highest multiplier.

Camps are destroyed when they take a certain amount of damage and are replaced by the next level of structures. If they’re caught in an explosion caused by a Bomb Monster, they will be blown up regardless of their current health. Always time your shots at the camps because it’ll be a big minus if prisoners get stuck in a wall or touch spikes.

Bomb Monster: Never stops getting in the way

He’s the same Bomb Monster that appeared in Story Mode. With slow movement speed and a significant amount of health, he moves around irregularly and poses a major challenge by blocking the soldiers’ path. He will explode when he dies, dealing massive damage to nearby areas. The reason he’s important in Score Challenge is because he can quickly destroy camps. Killing him will award 1,000 points.

Thorn Wall and Thorn Shield Orc: Hurts to touch

Each prison camp is protected by thorn walls, and the only way to bypass the walls is through a narrow opening on the either side of the walls. It’s easier to pass through the two walls in the upper side of the screen because they have spikes on only one side. However, the bottom walls pose the biggest challenge as they’re armed with spikes on both sides. It doesn’t help that the walls are always rotating and sometimes changes directions.

There are three Thorn Shield Orcs in this mode. Take extra care because the orcs are located right beneath the opening where the prisoners come out. Like other modes, soldiers instantly die when they touch the front side of spikes. You can launch soldiers behind the orcs by bumping into the control panels, which makes them much painless to deal with. Killing an orc will reward 500 points.

Control Panel – Striking lucky

There are six control panels in the bottom of the screen. Hitting it once will activate it, and doing it again will deactivate it. If you activate all six control panels, the camps will overheat. Overheated prison camps will release prisoners for 15 seconds, giving you an opportunity to get max points in a short amount of time.

Exit – All points lead here

If a prisoner makes it through an exit, you’ll receive points based on the multiplier of the exit. There are three multipliers in the game: x2, x3, and x10. You’ll just get the base points if prisoners don’t make it out alive.

As a bonus type of getaway, trains appear during Score Challenge. About 10 seconds into the game, a train will traverse from the bottom over 6-10 seconds every 20 seconds. This comes out to be 5-6 trains in a stage. You can get 20 times the base points if a prisoner makes it onto the train. Cram as many prisoners on as possible for a high score.

◈ Tips for High Score

It’s very difficult to plan out your strategy in Score Challenge due to the Bomb Monster’s irregular pathing and the rotating spike walls.

Replace prison camps early

It’s a sound idea to focus on prison camps from the get-go. Bronze camps have low health, and you can easily dismantle them with a small number of soldiers. There’s a good chance you’ll lose out on your soldiers if you go for the Bomb Monster, since he’s got a lot of health.

Prioritize upgrading the camps, then target the monster. If possible, you can blow him up when he’s in the middle of all three camps for maximum damage because then it’s possible to replace all three camps at once.

It’s also technically possible to launch soldiers into the narrow passage between the walls. Keep in mind that it’ll take significant finesse and luck on your part because of the wall’s rotation speed and the lack of space. Since soldiers die after bouncing twice, you can try to deflect them off of a wall to guide them to the camps.

Use Charging Soldiers wisely

Charging Soldiers are a big help if you can get them into the camps for upgrades. Since there aren’t many monsters in Score Challenge, it’s inefficient to use Charging Soldiers for killing monsters.

Due to the nature of Score Challenge with its abundance of spike walls, Charging Soldiers will be most likely rendered useless if caught by walls or monsters. Think twice before you tap that start button.

Activate control panels

Although there’s a lot of luck involved in activating all control panels, getting a high score is much easier if you can successfully do it more than once. When the game starts, send as many Charging Soldiers as possible to the camps and take out the orcs blocking the way. It’ll give prisoners and soldiers a better chance to get to control panels.

If you send your soldiers willy-nilly, you may be blocked off by walls or monsters and waste valuable resources. It falls on you to know the right timing to launch soldiers. Even though it’s impossible to consider all the variables like the rotation of walls and monster pathing, try to simplify and predict the outcome.