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Tip: Good HUT Offline Game for Pucks


Peelman
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Nothing groundbreaking, but a neat pseudo glitch. I'm not an incredibly good player so I get smoked any time I play an online game. I have to focus on getting the most pucks I can out of offline games and this is how I'm accomplishing that now with a mid-level team:

 

This centers around challenging the "Team of the Week." I found by accident that when you get to the point where you select the difficulty, if you just arrow over to "Rookie" and then go back to "Pro" or higher, if still retains some of the sliders used in "Rookie." For example, there are no line changes, hitting is ridiculously easy, auto-aim is on, and I'm sure a few other things I just don't notice. At the end of the game you still get the multiplier for the higher difficulty you actually select, but can use the rookie slider settings to your advantage. In a game I just completed, even though I won 7-3 on "Pro," I still got 641 pucks from one game and that is without a PP% bonus.

 

Since there are no line changes, you can focus on only using your top line and goalie and load the rest of your team with the lowest level guys you can find. This way you can increase the "Team Difference" multiplier. With my best lineup, my "Team Difference" multiplier was 1.04, but when I only used my top guys on my top line it went up to 1.16 (the max in NHL 12 was 1.20). That difference in multiplier got me about 30 more pucks that game, and could have been higher had I scored on a powerplay opportunity.

 

I've done this a few times now and that 641 was the least amount of pucks I've received so far. I was only getting ~450 per game from the Rookie Challenge and even less from the Pro Challenge offline tournaments. Even with the tournament bonuses, after four games I get a couple hundred more pucks with the "Team of the Week" method than doing a low level tournament ... assuming I win the tournament. I've lost twice during the Pro Challenge and that hurts.

 

This isn't anything incredibly awesome that makes the game easier, but I wanted to share what I've found to work best early on. If all you are doing is going for achievements, you could feasibly just do this to earn your way there. Pick a Euro team to collect all the players, jerseys, and logo of and target that stuff in the auction house. When you are low on contracts, purchase the 600 puck bronze packs. I've received the "Captain" and "Ast. Captain" cards out of those packs so you can get that achievement out of the way. Find the cheapest Team Change card out of the auction house for that achievement ... and then all that is left is the monthly playoff tournament one I'd never get without boosting.

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Alright, so you can bump it all the way up to All-Star and it will still keep the Rookie settings. Brought me up to 800 pucks a game. When you're selecting difficulty, tap left over Rookie and then left again to select All-Star. You'll play against them on Rookie level, but get the difficulty multiplier for All-Star.

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Definitely still working for me. Even though it is Rookie, you are playing against Datsyuk, Stamkos, Giroux, Chara, Karlsson, and Quick so it isn't any walk in the park. I finally got a powerplay opportunity and was able to cash in on it. Ended up with 1,046 pucks:

 

http://i47.tinypic.com/31315e1.jpg

 

If you have problems beating these guys, you may win more games in the rookie tournament, but you can probably get more pucks out of losing to these guys than winning in that tournament.

 

The way to get pucks out of games is getting a lot of shots on net and getting as many hits as you can without getting penalties. Those two things add up quick towards your Skill Bonus. Here are the positive and negative awards I had from the game above:

 

http://i50.tinypic.com/2rn786v.jpg

 

These awards are based on your stats in the game. You get +40 for every goal you score up to a max of 200 (5 goals). Whether you score 5 goals or 15, the EA Pucks award for goals will cap at 200. Shots on goal and hits are a 1 to 1 ratio. You earn one puck reward for every shot or hit. I haven't tested the max in NHL 13, but I think it was 50 each in NHL 12 ... I could be mistaken. Faceoffs are also 1 to 1; a puck for each faceoff won. I don't worry about maxing that out cause I don't like excessive stoppages. I'd rather keep the clock running and get to my next game.

 

Time on attack and passing percentage don't reward much so I don't worry about those either. In this game, I had exactly 7 minutes on the attack and my passing percentage was listed at 80. These weren't direct in NHL 12 and they seem to have changed for NHL 13. Could be a point for every minute on the attack and a fourth of your passing percentage in awards, but I think I've seen some strange numbers in these categories. Obviously, I try to keep my passes crisp but I'm horrible with turnovers. When we are dealing with under 10 points, I wouldn't worry about squeezing one or two more points out of these areas. That is only one or two more hits/shots.

 

The powerplay bonus is huge. It is pretty close to matching your percentage on the powerplay in the game. If your opponent only gets one penalty and you score on that chance ... boom, 100 puck award. If you get a second chance and don't score, it drops to 50 ... I've also seen some strange things here from NHL 12 like scoring on 2 of 2 chances but only getting 97 pucks instead of 100, but roughly this bonus is your powerplay percentage.

 

The negatives are obviously goals against. These are only -15 so they don't hurt you as much as your goals help you. There is a cap on these as well, but I can't remember if it is 5 goals or not (-75 pucks). Penalty minutes hurt quite a bit too, so you really want to be careful on penalties. I believe they are -5 for minors and I haven't seen what majors are. If you commit a penalty that results in a penalty shot, it does not count against you as a penalty. If they score on the penalty shot it counts against you as a goal against. Offsides and icings also count against you for -2 pucks (I think icing may be -5).

 

I play to try and max my shots and hits. I shoot low to generate rebounds and hopefully a follow up shot. This is harder on Rookie since auto-aim is on, but when it is off I shoot low. Keep players to the outside and try and hit whenever you can. You'll quickly learn when you can get away with a hit and when they might penalize you for it.

 

Since the powerplay award is massive, as soon as there is a delayed call I turn it over right away. I don't try and score with my goalie pulled (unless I already scored on the powerplay). I'd much rather have the powerplay and get the chance for the 100 puck bonus.

 

So there are those positive and negative award bonuses and they are multiplied by the "Total Multiplier" to give you your skill bonus:

 

http://i49.tinypic.com/v58fg5.jpg

 

When doing this thingie with the "Team of the Week" you have the DNF modifier, which maxes at 1.2 for not quitting games you start in HUT; the Team Difference modifier, which is based on how much better the opposing teams overall players are than the team you use (I think this caps at 1.2 as well); and then the difficulty modifier, which goes up with the harder difficulty selected. This glitch is great cause you can get the 1.4 modifier from Superstar while still only playing at Rookie (usually Rookie is .6 or .8, don't remember). In tournament play, they don't have the difficulty modifier. This is switched with a modifier specific to the round of the specific tournament you enter.

 

These numbers are multiplied together to get the Total Multiplier. In this case, 1.2 x 1.16 x 1.4 = 1.9488 ... which they display rounded to 1.95. Take that 1.95 and multiply your positive and negative awards by that to find the skill bonus in pucks you receive. In this case, 1.95 * (403 - 62) = 664.95 ... which is where they get the 665 skill bonus.

 

This Fan Appreciation Bonus is new and I'm going to ignore that. I have no idea where that comes from yet! Regardless, the major fluctuation comes from the skill bonus. You get more pucks from a higher skill bonus, which comes from getting higher positive awards (goals, shots, hits) and less award deductions (goals against, penalties, icing, offsides). Work on getting the highest there and play in whatever games give you the best Total Multiplier. When this exploit is fixed, find a tournament with a high round multiplier. I haven't assembled a team able to compete in all of the offline tournaments, but once I do I'm sure I can chime in on what is working for me then.

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This method is fucking awesome. 800+ pucks a game, that beats almost every single tournament, while getting a rare 600 pucks a game. Every tournament if you go with the normal 500 average. Thanks for sharing, me and my friend were going to boost the Playoffs 2012 tourney for the packs/pucks, but this almost beats that.

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If you have problems beating these guys, you may win more games in the rookie tournament, but you can probably get more pucks out of losing to these guys than winning in that tournament.

 

The way to get pucks out of games is getting a lot of shots on net and getting as many hits as you can without getting penalties.

 

...snip...

 

 

Nice analysis. One thing you allude to but do not say outright is that you should be able to score goals. If you have trouble scoring goals on Rookie or Pro difficulty, those goals will be few and far between on Superstar. Assuming someone skilled can get maximum points out of goal-scoring on Superstar difficulty consistently, that's 200 points x the appropriate multiplier - if the multiplier is 1.9, that's 380 points for goal scoring alone. If a not-so-skilled player isn't scoring goals, that's 380 points they won't be getting, and getting shut out on Superstar difficulty would be actually worse than winning (and giving up several goals) on lower difficulties.

 

And I just tried your method (yet again) from your original post - I can confirm that the Rookie sliders remain even for Superstar difficulty.

 

Edit: I take it back. I've played 4 games on SS difficulty now, and it certainly doesn't feel like the Rookie sliders are maintained - the HUT team shots go in more consistently (shooting around 30%), and their defense is a tad better as I've noticed an increased frequency of pass interceptions and better forechecking. I've gone 3-1 in those 4 games. In the one I lost, I earned 692 EA pucks, so...the equivalent of winning a game on All-Star difficulty.

I don't know if this means that the original "pseudo-glitch" that Peelman discovered has been fixed or not.

Edited by mikeymud
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Still works for me. Do realize, not every slider is maintained at rookie. E shot power and accuracy for AI is still high, and the learning and IQ of them is still high, which is why they can make decent plays. It is goalie reaction time and aggressiveness that is lowered, making the game simpler because AI do not hit. If they are hitting, this glitch is not working for you,

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Still works for me. Do realize, not every slider is maintained at rookie. E shot power and accuracy for AI is still high, and the learning and IQ of them is still high, which is why they can make decent plays. It is goalie reaction time and aggressiveness that is lowered, making the game simpler because AI do not hit. If they are hitting, this glitch is not working for you,

 

Ah, thanks. Then yeah, it must still be working in that case.

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This is also working when doing a HUT single player offline game. It doesn't have to be the Team of the Week. You can pick any team to play against. Might be easier to score goals on a weaker goalie in the juniors or on a Euro team, but you would get a lower multiplier from the team difference.

 

Yes, you do have to score goals. The new gameplay has eliminated many of the previous sure ways to score, but I've still been having success shooting short-side high when I'm on my wing or going far side high after cutting to the middle on my off-wing.

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I just played a team of the week game and the game was automatically doing line changes even though i didn't change anything.

 

Did you change the difficulty? It defaults to Pro on mine, but the glitch happens when you switch left to Rookie (don't select it) and then switch left again to Superstar. If you didn't change anything and it stayed on Pro or higher, it will do the line changes and properly play on the selected difficulty.

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Did you change the difficulty? It defaults to Pro on mine, but the glitch happens when you switch left to Rookie (don't select it) and then switch left again to Superstar. If you didn't change anything and it stayed on Pro or higher, it will do the line changes and properly play on the selected difficulty.

ok gottcha it's working now i think i haven't swtiched lines at i'm playing pro difficulty right now will try superstar later however I can't seem to keep them out of my end when I'm on that difficulty. suggestions on strategy settings?

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ok gottcha it's working now i think i haven't swtiched lines at i'm playing pro difficulty right now will try superstar later however I can't seem to keep them out of my end when I'm on that difficulty. suggestions on strategy settings?

 

I haven't changed my strategy settings at all yet. I still use whatever the default strategies are for the Dallas Stars logo.

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  • 2 months later...

No, you don't need to change anything back to Rookie when you start the game. Even though you select to play on Superstar, many of the advanced gameplay settings (which you aren't supposed to be able to adjust) will stay on Rookie. No line changes, auto shot aim, extra pass assist, extra hitting power for your guys, opponents have no hitting power ... I can't string many wins together in the offline 4-star tournaments, but I win convincingly on "Superstar" with a marginal team. Try it to see what I mean.

 

Steps to exploit glitch:

 

  1. Hit Start to challenge the Team of the Week.
  2. On your lineup screen, you likely already have team set so just press A.
  3. Hit A on the Select Teams screen.
  4. Hit A on the Jersey Select screen.
  5. Hit A on the Starting Lineups screen.
  6. When you get to the Game Settings screen it should have you where you select the difficulty and starts off on "Pro." Hit Left twice, passing over "Rookie," and select "Superstar." Hit A with "Superstar" selected.

 

That's all you need to do. When the game starts and you play a few minutes you should see that the opponents aren't as difficult as they should be. You don't need to pause to try and change anything back ... it shouldn't even let you adjust difficulty after the game started.

 

If I had a capture card I'd go through a game showing my lineup and strategy I use for maximizing pucks like I detailed months back. I'm still using this all the time. I could just use a digital camera to record the TV, but videos I see posted like that usually annoy the hell out of me. If people would actually care to watch it I guess I could do it anyway.

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  • 4 weeks later...

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