Comprehensive Achievement Guide

While this game is horrendous, it can be polished off quite quickly with the right strategy, but this relies on "save scumming" (credit to the site admins at MetaGamerScore for bringing this term to my attention). I was told that this is not a popular strategy. But in an exclusively luck-based game like this... meh? Frankly I would argue that utilizing these strategies is the only way to introduce any element of skill to the game. But that's a discussion for another time. I was able to use these techniques to 100% the game in 6 days. Even using this strategy, this game is entirely luck based, so this is not a guaranteed way to finish the game in 1 week, it just makes it possible. I will organize achievements into 2 categories below after describing the general strategy. Credit to JRossiter13 over at TrueAchievements for being identifying the specific files and folders that are central to this method, though the specific application of that knowledge in this guide is all me.

To use this method, you must locate the Jackpot save files, and copy them to another folder. So, on your computer, navigate to this folder: C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft.MicrosoftJackpot _random letters and numbers\LocalState and copy all of the .ARK and .DAT files to another folder. You will do this at various times for the achievements that this helps with.

**GRIND ACHIEVEMENTS**
The achievements that cannot be manipulated using the above method are as follows:
-World Tour
-Atlantis
-Bettin' Man
-Easy Street
-Feline Lucky
-Lion Tamer
-Sugar Rush
-Good Intel
-Daily Allowance
-The Completionist

Feline Lucky, Good Intel, and Lion Tamer are pure luck. Once you have a good amount of cash, just set Fast Spin, Autoplay, and $20 bets, and let the game run on its own on Treasure of the Ancients, Jackpots Are Forever, and Year of the Dragon, respectively. They'll pop eventually, and there's no way to speed it up. This will also give you the Easy Street Achievement. The Completionist also doesn't have any kind of trick. You'll just have to keep spinning and waiting for your collection items to pop up. Once you have several million coins, set the max bet, leave the reels spinning, and it should come for you in time.

For the other achievements above, just follow the descriptions. No real effort involved for the most part. A note for Daily Allowance: for some reason, changing the system clock didn't work for me to get my daily bonuses. I've been able to use that trick to get my gold, silver, and bronze medals in all the other Microsoft Casual games, as well as the Marathon achievements, but for some reason, it just didn't work in Jackpot, for me at least. My experience was that you have to actually log in on 5 consecutive days.

**SAVE SCUM ACHIEVEMENTS**
These are the achievements that would make this game take months if you were to do them legitimately. They are:
-Deep Blue
-Sky's the Limit
-Let's Go Streaking
-VIP
-Choose Wisely
-Sweet Tooth
-Ocean's 10
-Light Up the Sky
-Not So Fast
-Nest Egg

For the special stage achievements (Deep Blue, Choose Wisely, Sweet Tooth, Light Up the Sky, and Not So Fast), what you will be doing is waiting until you reach the special stage legitimately. There's no shortcut here unfortunately, you just have to get lucky. Once you DO reach the special stage, however, do nothing. Every special stage waits for input from you before beginning. Once you're at this part, back out of the game, and make a copy of your game files. You can then return to the game and attempt the special stage. If you fail, close out the game, replace the existing game files with your copy, and re-enter the game. You will be back at the beginning of the special stage, giving you another try. Winning is still luck based, as all the choices are randomized every time, but this allows you to bypass the process of reaching the special stage, which dramatically cuts down on your time. Just keep retying the special stage until you win (and repeat the process 4 more times for Treasure of the Ancients). I was able to unlock all these achievements legitimately in a short amount of time before I discovered this strategy with the exception of Deep Blue, so this should really speed things up. This can also be done at choice points within Deep Dive. Meaning, once I reached the Wild in Deep Dive when I get to choose my first bubble for extra spins, as well as for each of the following choice points, I was able to make additional backups at those points. More on why that's useful later. This may also work on some of the other special stages (the 2nd and 3rd doors for TotA; the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th candy boxes on SR; the consecutive fireworks on YotD), but I didn't discover this trick until I was done with them, so I never tested it. Feel free to try it and report back and I'd be happy to edit this guide and credit you.

Next are the coin/level achievements. You may notice that, when you replace your save data with your backup, you receive a message about syncing with a local game (or something like that), with a bunch of coins being added to your balance. This is the key. Your only real focus here is "Sky's the Limit" because "VIP" and "Nest Egg" will unlock on the way to StL LONG before you get all bet amounts unlocked.

What you want to do is to create a backup of your data, GO OFFLINE (this is essential) set the max bet amount, and spin the reels until you get to a special stage (this works on any stage, I personally went with Wild Ocean, which I recommend, as the wild spots create some insane payouts). If you run out of money before getting to the special stage (again, MAKE SURE YOU ARE OFFLINE), replace the save data with your backup, and try again. The reason you need to be offline for this is that if you are online, your cloud save will make note of your final (empty) coin balance, and when you reload your save, it will simply deduct all of your coins back to zero. By staying offline, there is no cloud to sync with, and you will be able to try again with your original coin balance. Once you reach a special stage with your max bet, create a new backup of your save files, and go back online. Proceed to play the special stage to completion. Once the special stage is over, close the game, reload your backup, and restart the game. The coins you won will be added to your balance, and you'll return to the special stage for another go.

This can be repeated infinitely with your winnings accumulating. You can choose to do this continually until you hit 8-9 million (roughly the amount it will take to reach level 70 and the final 50k bet amount), or you can get a good lump sum, play regularly for a while to level up and unlock a higher bet amount, and start the process over to create a new save file for the special stage with a higher max bet (and therefore bigger payouts). The choice is yours. I personally chose the latter. Once you have several million banked, leave the reels spinning on the max bet, and you'll grind your way up to level 70 pretty quickly. I leveled up every 10 spins or so using the max bets, so this isn't one you can just leave running, as you'll need to click a button every few minutes. Make sure to increase your max bet every time you unlock a higher amount to keep the process moving quickly. Larger bets also increase the amount of collection items you receive when one appears, so this will also speed that process up. VIP and Nest Egg will unlock naturally during this process.

Finally, Ocean's 10 and Let's Go Streaking. You will want to use a backup of the Deep Dive stage for these. It's required for Ocean's 10, and not technically required for Let's Go Streaking, but good luck achieving that one on another level. Both of these achievements are somewhat easier if you repeatedly make backups. I made a new save any time I reached a bubble with a high number of spins. Meaning, if on a particular Deep Dive, I reached the first wild with 8+ free spins, I made a new backup at that point. Same goes for the second wild with 6+ spins. This method of scaffolding speeds things up even more. Make sure to make NEW backups when you do this, always keep at least one backup at the very beginning of Deep Dive. My game encountered a strange glitch where, if I started from my 1st or 2nd wild save points, even if I reached the end, I didn't get to go to the bonus stage. In several instances, I would be on the final bubble (where you're supposed to move on to the treasure chest), and spin turtle after turtle after turtle. I would end these Deep Dives having spun 5-6 more turtles than I needed, but the game just never moved onto the treasure chest spins. Once I re-started from the start of Deep Dive, this problem was fixed. There were also other instances where my 1st and 2nd wild saves were just fine and let me move onto the Treasure Chest, so I never did figure out the issue. Just make sure you have a backup of your files in case.

For Ocean's 10, you just need a backup of Deep Dive as you're going into the treasure chest stage after you've unlocked the third wild. I unlocked this on a game where I only received a single spin for the final stage, so I'm not sure how the following tip works for games where there is more than 1 spin. For this final segment, as you will already know at this point, once the reels have stopped spinning, any successful bet lines will be highlighted, the total payout will then be itemized by line, and finally, the game will end. If I hit the back button while the bet lines were highlighted but before the whole process concluded, I was able to re-enter the game and receive a new spin. I didn't receive the amount I had won, but if there were fewer than 10 wilds on the spin, I was able to quickly back out and try again for a different spin. This isn't essential, but it's much faster than closing the game out, switching the saves, and starting the game up again. It was a matter of 2-3 seconds versus 35-45 seconds between spins. This only works for spins where you win something, for whatever reason. Meaning, the bet lines do have to show up. If I got a spin with no winning lines (turtles don't count), the game would end immediately, and that save would be spoiled. At that point, I would have to do the save file switch. But with that many wilds, the opportunity to back out and try again was there more often than not. I generally got 7-8 tries before needing to close the game and switch save files. Again, this method doesn't make any individual spin more or less likely to give you the 10 wilds, but it DOES give you the opportunity to immediately try again, whereas playing legitimately, you could honestly go multiple days between successful Deep Dives to return to that point in the game. This method takes an achievement that, barring extreme luck, would honestly take several months, and gives you the opportunity to earn it in 1-2 hours.

Finally, Let's Go Streaking. Both regular spins and special stage spins count toward this, and they cross over. So, if your last 6 spins of Deep Dive all pay out, and the next 4 regular spins after Deep Dive also pay out, that's your 10 spins, and you've got your achievement. Mine unlocked with 8 Deep Dive and 2 regular spins. The more spins you have available, the better, obviously. You can chart your own path on this one, but my personal approach was to keep trying Deep Dive from the very beginning until I got to the first wild with at least 8 spins. Once I achieved that, I made a new save. I then kept retrying from that point until I reached the second wild with 7 spins (I was willing to settle for 6), and made another save. This guaranteed me at least 8 Deep Dive spins with 2 wilds, and left me in a good position to possibly even have a 9th or 10th spin within Deep Dive using 3 wilds. Of course if I had been really lucky with the turtles and bubbles, I could've even ended up with 4-6 spins using 3 wilds, but I digress.

Again, this was my personal approach, so feel free to blaze your own trail on this one and leave a comment if you do, but I would load the game up, and if any spin after the first spin didn't pay out, I didn't bother letting it finish. I immediately closed out, restored my save data, and tried again. The reason for this is that the odds of regular spins paying out are so low, that the odds of getting any more than 2 consecutive winning regular spins are very VERY low. If you figure 1 in 4 regular spins pays out (and that seems generous), the odds of 2 consecutive winning spins is 1/16, 1/64 for 3 consecutive spins, and 1/256 for 4 consecutive spins. So while it's possible I could've gotten lucky with the turtles and bubbles, made up for those lost spins with the Deep Dive 3-wild spins, and just needed to pick up 1-2 regular spins, the odds were so low that it was just more time effective to start again.

So there you have it! That's how I ground out Microsoft Jackpot in just 6 days! It's a horrible game, and if I could go back I'd never touch it, but I'm a completionist and there was no going back once it was on my profile. So in the interest of being done with this trash as quickly as possible, I played smarter, not harder. Hope my tips can bring you the same peace!

Since I'm at work, I just skip to the beginning and plan on reading it in full later. I am curious however, if the save scumming, is something I can get you in trouble for cheating. I just want to make sure, given that the instructions to appear to include us messing with the computer data for the game. Honestly this game here takes the crap out of me because it is so luck based.

It's a good question and to be honest I'm not 100% sure. You're not actually manipulating the files, just restoring previous saves, and as long as you're not sharing the files with anyone else (not sure that would even work), you're not exploiting any kind of gamesave sharing. All I can say with certainty is that I did it and didn't get in trouble, and the same goes for Microsoft Treasure Hunt. Whether that's because I just didn't get caught or because there isn't a problem with it, I don't know.

There was a similar way to manipulate save files with Bejeweled on Win 8. Don't see how any one could get in trouble since there's no way to detect people are restoring old save files.

Yeah, the only way I could see would be if they have a way of tracking your coin count history. Getting up to 70 mil or beyond in the course of a few hours without paying anything (I just use 70 mil as an example because that's where I ended up when I was finished) might look fishy. But tracking something like that seems like a poor use of resources on their end, and they've shown they don't care much about the Casual series. Highly doubt anyone is monitoring it even if they can.

While this game is horrendous, it can be polished off quite quickly with the right strategy, but this relies on "save scumming" (credit to the site admins at MetaGamerScore for bringing this term to my attention). I was told that this is not a popular strategy. But in an exclusively luck-based game like this... meh? Frankly I would argue that utilizing these strategies is the only way to introduce any element of skill to the game. [...]

Originally Posted by thanatos8285

I agree. I had the same scare when I heard of the support shutdown last month. For this game, which only serves to occupy disk space, there is much to talk about playing legitimately. I do not believe that there were people who devote more than 5 hours daily, for a period of approximately four years, just to get all the achievements. The end of this game shows how uncreative the developers were to conceive it: luck clovers that did not help, could not even be exchanged for things like, "give us 5 clovers to have 25% more chance of getting one Extra Turtle "or" Give Us 7 Clovers For An Extra Wild In The Machine ". We should give thanks to the Wild Ocean machine because it gave us a huge gap of glithces - when I heard about one, I almost legitimately explored to get the $ 15M needed to get to level 70 quickly. And I have to thank you and others in other forums, for giving the solution to save the local copy of saved games. It took me about 5 days also for all of these purposes (5 to 6 achievements to be unlocked). And the last 12 hours to get "Ocean's 10" (I took a lot of system crashpunches to restore saved games properly). Curiously, it was the only achievement I needed to get hard to get: even "Let's Go Streaking" came naturally, still trying legitimately with no tricks to get those stuckings 10 Wilds at a once yesterday morning.
Ho! A tip: normal wilds and "2x2 big wilds" count. I had 11 (two big ones and a 1 avulse) as a total when this "achievement miracle" occours.

I hope I no longer enter these game traps entirely based on luck, and that there is nothing to make things easier, as mentioned above. Nobody deserves this, not even the worst foe. Just 'cos I'm a completionist too ... Good luck with better games, and with life outside of them too, which is the most important.