# Steam treasure hunt & holiday sales **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [December 7, 2010, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254 "2010-12-07T07:59:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/81 "2010-12-15T07:34:11Z")
Well you’re at least partly right as when I started this time I had a bigger multiplier to start with and it stacked quicker but seemed like a lot more enemies. It must level with your rank or something, I’ve already done the achievement as I mentioned so now it’s just playing for fun. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/82 "2010-12-15T14:26:09Z")
I got the Beat Hazard survival score after about 10 attempts, so it was definitely the hardest of the leaderboards objectives so far. You do get bonuses for levelling up, but it may also increase the difficult, I don’t know - elite survival is pretty hard. I’ve also been using my 360 gamepad because you can lose track of your mouse cursor during the chaos. Song selection has a lot to do with it, some songs are way harder than others, but it’s difficult to say exactly why. Fast, heavy songs give you lots of firepower but also lots of enemies - based on some forum post that seems to be what most people are using. I find that relatively slow, but not quiet, songs give you a good run - if you have an asteroid phase you can dodge them and build up a good multiplayer. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/83 "2010-12-15T21:07:04Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I got the Beat Hazard survival score after about 10 attempts, so it was definitely the hardest of the leaderboards objectives so far. You do get bonuses for levelling up, but it may also increase the difficult, I don’t know - elite survival is pretty hard. > > I’ve also been using my 360 gamepad because you can lose track of your mouse cursor during the chaos. > > Song selection has a lot to do with it, some songs are way harder than others, but it’s difficult to say exactly why. Fast, heavy songs give you lots of firepower but also lots of enemies - based on some forum post that seems to be what most people are using. I find that relatively slow, but not quiet, songs give you a good run - if you have an asteroid phase you can dodge them and build up a good multiplayer. It’s funny that you had a hard time with that but thought the AaAaAA!!! was easy. I still haven’t been able to do the Terminal Velocity objective. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/84 "2010-12-15T21:24:17Z")
The AaAaa one is super easy, you just need to hug the mountain while crashing the plates. I grabbed Just Cause 2 and so far it’s a lot of fun. The voice acting is over the top terrible but I wonder if that’s an homage to bad action movies. I hear it gets repetitive but so far mangling and blowing up everything in sight is a blast. One cool feature is that it seamlessly lets you switch between controls - I’ve been using my gamepad to control vehicles (since the vehicles are too simplistic to justify using my joystick) but mouse/keyboard for on foot. As soon as you hit one of the controls on any device it’ll instantly switch the controls tooltips and everything. It’s not part of the treasure hunt sale, but I might as well mention Killing Floor (with a Christmas event going on now) is on sale for $6.80 and Football Manager 2011 (because the only thing more fun than kicking a ball around is managing people who do it) is 30% off for $28. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2010, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/85 "2010-12-16T18:23:33Z")
Smack Talker Post a comment on a friend’s Steam Community profile page One-Hit Wonder Build a Wonder in Civilization V Road Rage Set a leaderboard score of at least 10,515 for ‘Slaughter, City Center’ in Zombie Driver Butter Me Up Build Me Up Buttercup in Bob came in Pieces Bob came in pieces and Zombie Driver are 75% off ($2.50), Civ 5 is 25% off ($37.50). I got my 15th objective since I already have the civ 5 one done. OMG HATS. SO IMPORTANT. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/86 "2010-12-18T18:03:07Z")
Last batch of treasure hunt objectives. The actual Christmas sale (which will probably rip a hole in time and space) should start on the 20th or 21st. Suggestive Behavior Write a recommendation Made in the USA Become a Founding Father in Empire: Total War Buzz the Tower Set a leaderboard score of at least 37 for ‘Beach’ in Flight Control HD Overachiever Played at least 15 games or demos since March 2009 (When Steam began recording playtime) Flight Control HD is half off ($2.50), and Empire: Total War is half off ($15). Aside from CSS, didn’t steam begin recording playtime in November 2009, not March? ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/87 "2010-12-18T18:12:59Z")
Here’s how the objectives ended up breaking down Free: set avatar friends list undergarden demo official group trailers (gimme) post a comment recommendation play 15 games or demos \<=$5: poker night chime AaAaAA!!! magic the gathering droplitz shatter l4d2 beat hazard zombie driver bob came in pieces flight control HD \>$5 RUSE Fallout NV mafia 2 black ops metro 2033 JC2 civ 5 empire total war other: send a gift So we have 8 total freebies, and one which I’d imagine most people have done and is pretty cheap (sending a gift - not just doing the sale but at any time in the past qualified). So if you had any one of those games above before the sale started, you get in for free. If you never gave a gift, the most you’d have to spend is $1.25 (chime) + $2.50 (lots of games) to get your 10. Games over $5 only mattered in 7/28 objectives, and 2 of those weren’t very expensive anyway (jc2 was $7.50, metro 2033 was $10). So yeah OMG VALVE RIPOFF ANGRY GRRR etc etc. The terms of the contest were extremely generous, and I bet the people who win the contest are people who own like 6 games on steam and who spent the last 2 weeks raging on the forums about how unfair this contest was and how much valve is evil. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/88 "2010-12-18T18:19:25Z")
Well I hit 20 of them which makes me a bit pathetic I guess. I already had 3 of the 4 for today and I don’t plan on buying that indie game. Well here’s fingers crossed that I win the big one. (yeah right). Guess it’s time to wait for the Xmas sale. ---
**Author:** ![Palooka](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/palooka/32/2902_2.png) [@Palooka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Palooka)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/89 "2010-12-18T19:05:22Z")
Just managed to hit 10. All right. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/90 "2010-12-18T19:39:22Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > So we have 8 total freebies, and one which I’d imagine most people have done and is pretty cheap (sending a gift - not just doing the sale but at any time in the past qualified). So if you had any one of those games above before the sale started, you get in for free. If you never gave a gift, the most you’d have to spend is $1.25 (chime) + $2.50 (lots of games) to get your 10. Games over $5 only mattered in 7/28 objectives, and 2 of those weren’t very expensive anyway (jc2 was $7.50, metro 2033 was $10). > > So yeah OMG VALVE RIPOFF ANGRY GRRR etc etc. > > The terms of the contest were extremely generous, and I bet the people who win the contest are people who own like 6 games on steam and who spent the last 2 weeks raging on the forums about how unfair this contest was and how much valve is evil. You know what would be funny? A guy with 0 games sets up his avatar for the first week, wins the weekly contest and somehow has 2 games required in the future weeks competitions in his wishlist. So with those two games he just won and the 8 free objectives, he goes on to win the 100 game prize! ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2010, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/91 "2010-12-18T19:54:47Z")
I think my cable upped my bandwidth again because I was downloading the massive Empire: Total War to grab that objective today and it hit [4.9MB/s](http://members.cox.net/senorbeef/steamdownload.jpg). Steam has got some massive pipes I guess. 2.2GB in 10 minutes. Not sure why it says only 3.4MB peak on the top. ---
**Author:** ![Electronic\_Chaos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Electronic\_Chaos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Electronic_Chaos)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/92 "2010-12-19T01:58:58Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > I think my cable upped my bandwidth again because I was downloading the massive Empire: Total War to grab that objective today and it hit [4.9MB/s](http://members.cox.net/senorbeef/steamdownload.jpg). Steam has got some massive pipes I guess. 2.2GB in 10 minutes. Not sure why it says only 3.4MB peak on the top. Sometimes I wonder if Valve uses something like Bittorrent to send data. I’m almost always downloading at maximum bandwidth through Steam, whereas with other places, I’m struggling to get even half of it. ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/93 "2010-12-19T02:30:55Z")
> [@Electronic\_Chaos](#): > > Sometimes I wonder if Valve uses something like Bittorrent to send data. I’m almost always downloading at maximum bandwidth through Steam, whereas with other places, I’m struggling to get even half of it. I’m pretty sure they’ve got servers all over the place hosted by different companies, and Steam just gets updates from whereever is fastest. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/94 "2010-12-19T02:33:03Z")
Huh. Empire: Total War is 50% off right now. I’m tempted to grab it, except that I vaguely recall that around Thanksgiving, it was 66% off. I wonder if they’ll discount it deeper later in the week? This could be my chance to buy it now, then bitch when they cut prices lower! Hooray! Nah, I bought it. It certainly won’t be discounted lower than $10, so I’ll be out no more than $5. If it does go lower, I promise not to gripe. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/95 "2010-12-19T05:45:18Z")
Unfortunately you missed a [great deal](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13239236&postcount=338) for Napoleon, Empire, and all their DLCs for under $17. The [pack](http://store.steampowered.com/sub/6301/) is on steam but $50 currently. It may be get discounted during the Christmas sale. Subscribe to that thread if you want periodic updates on sales not big enough to justify their own thread. ---
**Author:** ![tr0psn4j](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/958977/32.png) [@tr0psn4j](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tr0psn4j)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 7:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/96 "2010-12-19T07:19:36Z")
> [@appleciders](#): > > Huh. Empire: Total War is 50% off right now. I’m tempted to grab it, except that I vaguely recall that around Thanksgiving, it was 66% off. I wonder if they’ll discount it deeper later in the week? This could be my chance to buy it now, then bitch when they cut prices lower! Hooray! > > Nah, I bought it. It certainly won’t be discounted lower than $10, so I’ll be out no more than $5. If it does go lower, I promise not to gripe. Well, if Steam does drop it below 50%, you’ll have something to RAAAAAAAAAAGE about. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2010, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/97 "2010-12-19T11:31:49Z")
Well I bought a mic today. It’s a cheap POS but hopefully it will work well enough for L4D2 Also anyone playing Just Cause 2 with mouse and keyboard I recommend you try rebinding the grapple to right click instead of a keyboard button. It works so much better that way. ---
**Author:** ![appleciders](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85f322/32.png) [@appleciders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/appleciders)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/98 "2010-12-20T03:17:56Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > Unfortunately you missed a [great deal](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=13239236&postcount=338) for Napoleon, Empire, and all their DLCs for under $17. The [pack](http://store.steampowered.com/sub/6301/) is on steam but $50 currently. It may be get discounted during the Christmas sale. Subscribe to that thread if you want periodic updates on sales not big enough to justify their own thread. I’ve been watching pretty carefully, but I didn’t catch on to that deal until the day after. I’ll keep an eye out moving forward. Unfortunately, at this point, to get the DLCs I’d have to spend more than I did on the game itself, which would leave a bad taste in my mouth. 😉 > [@tr0psn4j](#): > > Well, if Steam does drop it below 50%, you’ll have something to RAAAAAAAAAAGE about. 😃 Oh, I will, I promise! ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/99 "2010-12-20T16:53:14Z")
Well, if the Christmas sale starts right after the treasure hunt sale, we’ve got an hour. I assume that’s what they’re going to do because of the “log in on the 20th” requirement - make everyone see the hole in reaity they are going to rip open with the awesomeness of their Christmas sale. In retrospect I should’ve had seperate threads, since I bet some people who didn’t want to bother with the treasure hunt stuff will be interested in the giant Christmas sale, but oh well. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254/100 "2010-12-20T19:39:15Z")
I was originally going to put the Christmas sale info on this thread, but there’s no need to make thread newbies come in and read 2 pages about a now-completed sale/contest, and the gigantic Christmas sale of doom is certainly worthy of its own thread. So go [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=13271854#post13271854) to discuss it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/steam-treasure-hunt-holiday-sales/563254.md?page=4)