Snowball Showdown

Objective

Wombley has recruited many elves to his side for the great snowball fight we are about to wage. Please help us defeat him by hitting him with more snowballs than he does to us.

Solution

Bronze

Once loading the game, we get presented with a loading screen detailing how to play the game:

And this is the general game area:

By inspecting the GET parameter in URL, I found this:

&singlePlayer=false

Setting it to true and reload the game:

&singlePlayer=true

Then I inspected https://hhc24-snowballshowdown.holidayhackchallenge.com/js/phaser-snowball-game.js and found some interesting references:

...
create() {
    this.setupWebSocket();
    mainScene = this;
    if (this.isFirefox) {
        console.error("Firefox detected, please use Chrome or Safari for best experience!");
        this.add.text(5, GAME_HEIGHT - 5, "  Runs best in\nChrome or Safari!", { fontSize: '25px', fill: '#fff', fontFamily: 'monospace', stroke: '#000000', strokeThickness: 8 }).setOrigin(0, 1).setDepth(10);
    }
    this.snowBallBlastRadius = 24;
    this.onlyMoveHorizontally = true;
    this.projectiles = this.physics.add.group();
    this.elves = [];
    this.setupBackgroundImages();
    this.setResetDestructibleScenery();
...

Apparently the elves is an array holding a list of elves. Perhaps I can make life easier by disabling the elves? There’s a reference to variable mainScene, which seems to contain the game. Poking around inspecting the values of it, I found a reference to Alabaster and the scale of him. My main goal was then to set his scale to something small in hope he wouldn’t get hit as hard:

mainScene.elves = []
mainScene.alabaster._scaleX = 0.1
mainScene.alabaster._scaleY = 0.1

Apparantly this was not the correct solution, only earning me a bronze completion status

Silver

Circling back to this code I wanted to try to manipulate the snowBallBlastRadius variable, and possibly find something else that could help me out as well:

...
create() {
    this.setupWebSocket();
    mainScene = this;
    if (this.isFirefox) {
        console.error("Firefox detected, please use Chrome or Safari for best experience!");
        this.add.text(5, GAME_HEIGHT - 5, "  Runs best in\nChrome or Safari!", { fontSize: '25px', fill: '#fff', fontFamily: 'monospace', stroke: '#000000', strokeThickness: 8 }).setOrigin(0, 1).setDepth(10);
    }
    this.snowBallBlastRadius = 24;
    this.onlyMoveHorizontally = true;
    this.projectiles = this.physics.add.group();
    this.elves = [];
    this.setupBackgroundImages();
    this.setResetDestructibleScenery();
...

Looking further into the same Javascript where I found the code above, I found a reference to ``throwRateOfFire````:

class SnowBallGame extends Phaser.Scene {
    constructor() {
        super({ key: "game" });
        this.hasBgDebug = typeof window.bgDebug !== 'undefined'
        this.groundOffset = groundOffset;
        this.yellowTint = 0xffeb99;
        this.blueTint = 0x99ddff;
        this.snowballLiveTime = 12000;
        this.healingTerrain = true;
        this.terrainHealDelay = 15000;
        this.elfGroundOffset = GAME_HEIGHT - 115;
        this.wombleyXLocation = GAME_WIDTH - 40;
        this.alabasterXLocation = 40;
        this.playerMoveSpeed = 150;
        this.lastTimePlayerArrowsFromUpdate = 0
        this.lastTimePlayerArrowsFromUpdateDelay = 20
        this.percentageShotPower = 0;
        this.alabasterElvesThrowDelayMin = 1500;
        this.alabasterElvesThrowDelayMax = 2500;
        this.wombleyElvesThrowDelayMin = 1500;
        this.wombleyElvesThrowDelayMax = 2500;
        this.wombleyElvesIncompacitateTime = 5000;
        this.alabasterElvesIncompacitateTime = 5000;
        this.playerIncompacitateTime = 5000;
        this.throwSpeed = 1000;
        this.throwRateOfFire = 1000;

In Console in Edge, I set the following (I tend to set matching values it appears):

mainScene.throwRateOfFire = 1000
mainScene.snowBallBlastRadius = 1000

This resultet in quite a rapid firerate and a greater blastradius making it easier to defeat Wombly. Just had to blow the dividing iceberg to smitherines once and awhile until victory:

Gold

During the conversation with Dusty Giftwrap he mentions a secret weapon - a bomb:

Hi there! I’m Dusty Giftwrap, back from the battlefield! I’m mostly here for the snowball fights!

But I also don’t want Santa angry at us, you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry. His face becomes as red as his hat! So I guess I’m rooting for Alabaster.

Alabaster Snowball seems to be having quite a pickle with Wombley Cube. We need your wizardry.

Take down Wombley the usual way with a friend, or try a different strategy by tweaking client-side values for an extra edge.

Alternatively, we’ve got a secret weapon - a giant snow bomb - but we can’t remember where we put it or how to launch it.

Adjust the right elements and victory for Alabaster can be secured with more subtlety. Intriguing, right?

Raring to go? Terrific! Here’s a real brain tickler. Navigator of chaos or maestro of subtlety, which will you be? Either way, remember our objective: bring victory to Alabaster.

Confidence! Wit! We’ve got what it takes. Team up with a friend or find a way to go solo - no matter how, let’s end this conflict and take down Wombley!

Kinda bored with reading Javascript, I decided to download the https://hhc24-snowballshowdown.holidayhackchallenge.com/js/phaser-snowball-game.js file, then uploading it to ChatGPT asking by this prompt:

Is there anything in this piece of code that could refer to a bomb?

Sure enough, ChatGPT suggested the following (amongst a bunch of others):

“MOASB” Functionality:

There is a function (this.moasb) related to sending a message with the type “moasb”, which might refer to an in-game mechanic potentially tied to “Mother of All > Snowballs,” a playful analogy to a powerful bomb.

Okay. Looking further into the Javascript file, I find this web socket call:

this.moasb = () => { this.ws.sendMessage({ type: 'moasb' }) }

I decided to rewrite it and send it off using the Console in Edge:

mainScene.ws.sendMessage({"type":"moasb"});

And then an ironbird appeared:

Success!