Challenge 20: (Don’t Fear) The Reaper!

CHALLENGE 20: (DON’T FEAR) THE REAPER!

Scenario: It’s an inevitable meeting that’s been put off for too long, and after witnessing Cooper’s near misses and sheer dumb luck carry him from room to room, the Grim Reaper has come to put an end to Coopers ways, and thereby vicariously, Cooper himself! You’ll be tasked with outrunning the scythe-wielding Ghouly for as long as possible within the enclosure of the Walled Gardens, with an additional Reaper appearing every fifteen seconds until three have been called. While escaping the Reaper altogether is an impossible task, you’ll be ranked on how long you can evade the steadily speedier Reaper before he’s caught up with you, with a minute and ten seconds required for the 20th Platinum medal.

Strategy: There’s no time to waste as you start off, as the Reaper will appear to your left ready to hunt as soon as the challenge begins. You’ll need to run straight ahead toward the illuminated window that you can spot between the trees and then locate the darkened window to the left just beside the vined challenge door. Smashing the darkened window will provide you with a single tin of Dizzy Reaper! Super Soup that we’ll leave by the wayside for now. Do what you can to evade your single Reaper for now, as the clock chimes 15 seconds you’ll have a second one to deal with in the center of the fountain where our initial Reaper came from. You don’t want to stray too far from the Super Soup, and once you’ve lead your initial Reaper astray we’ll head on back towards the window. Ignore the Super Soup for now and quickly pick up the gramophone player lying just behind it. Acting quickly, you’ll need to toss the gramophone player towards the nearest Reaper and with any luck you’ll manage to pelt both Grim figures with a single toss, knocking them to the ground in response. Once you’ve done that you’ll likely find yourself around 30 seconds which means our third and final Reaper has just made his appearance. While the other Reapers are recovering from their spills, let’s pick up the large drum just beside the vined challenge door and toss it towards the pair. Right, let’s use this bit of leeway to finally pick up the Dizzy Reaper! Soup tin and start on our next defensive practice. While the Reapers are spinning in place rather pointlessly, we’ll make our way down the path ahead past the windows and towards the stone veranda just ahead. Make your way up the stone steps to your right and you’ll find yourself with the makings of a fortified fortress. Without wasting any time we’ll continue ahead towards the pig-like fountain ornament and locate a single potted plant on the right hand side, which we’ll pick up and hoist over our shoulders. Once you’ve done that you’ll be tasked with turning around on the spot and facing the stairs where we’ll wait out the effects of the Dizzy Reaper! tin. Take a breather, you’ve earned it. Once the tin begins to wear you’ll find yourself near enough to the minute mark, not far to go from here then. Be prepared to catch the Reapers approaching from the left-hand side of the path, once they begin to ascend the steps after you we’ll have a bit of bowling and cast the potted plant towards all three and strike them out! From here it’s likely that you’ve found yourself nearing 1:10 mark, so if you want to call it quits you’ll just have to get far enough to the back of the veranda near the pig-like fountain so that the recovering Reapers catch you after the 1:10 mark. If you want to keep going and set a score however, you’ll find a second potted plant just to the right of the staircase that you can use to bowl the recovering Reapers over a second time. You can add insult to injury by squeezing your way through the Reapers and giving Cooper his last run which will bring you to nearly a minute and thirty seconds for the increasingly fast Reapers. If you’ve gotten this far however, it’s safe to assume that you’ve earned the Platinum medal as Cooper falls cold and stiff to the ground like so many Reapers before us. This Platinum plateau also brings with it another achievement however, and if you’ve managed to earn at least a gold ranking on the other 20 Bonus Challenges you’ll find a secret 21st Challenge waiting for you…

Bronze Medal: Dodge the Reapers’ Touch for 25 seconds.

Silver Medal: Dodge the Reapers’ Touch for 40 seconds.

Gold Medal: Dodge the Reapers’ Touch for 55 seconds.

Platinum Medal: Dodge the Reapers’ Touch for 1 Minute and 10 seconds.