Angry Birds Halloween tips - hurl birds, kill pigs, smash pumpkins

Halloween may have passed, but the spectre of Angry Birds Halloween continues to haunt many of us. It’s like some smaller, meaner ghost of the first game.

If Rovio’s spooky spin-off continues to give you cold sweats, never fear - we’ve compiled this handy go-to feature. It rounds up some helpful videos to help you towards three-star perfection, as well ones detailing the location of the two golden eggs.

Oh, and a solution to that daunting bonus pumpkin round. Although, if you’ve been good enough to unlock the level in the first place, you probably don’t need any help.

We haven’t covered all of the main levels just yet, but we’ll update this piece as and when the videos appear.

Let’s start by repeating some of the basic tips from our main guide. Angry Birds Halloween is essentially a bonus level pack with a spooky theme, so these pointers are as relevant as ever.

Simply killing all the birds will unlock the next level, but if you want to get the maximum three stars on each stage, you'll need to aim for some high scores.

The key to getting a high score in Angry Birds Halloween is a mixture of deadly efficiency (unused birds net you an automatic 10,000 points each) and unrelenting damage (smashed objects give off small, but quickly accumulated points).

You'll often need to use both strategies at once, though: simply using a very small number of birds might not get all three stars if you didn't make much damage.

Angry Birds Halloween contains a deceptively sophisticated physics engine, which allows its structures to topple and fold realistically. That means that offsetting balance and attacking weak points is always a more effective strategy than blindly firing at the main reinforced walls.

And some materials are sturdier than others. It's no use fruitlessly bashing away at a stone wall (especially because it takes about three direct hits to finally smash one) when you could focus on the easily destructible wooden platform that's holding it up.

Pinch and zoom to see the entire battlefield on one screen, so you can quickly see how far away your catapult is from the pig's base.

Every bird leaves a trail of dust behind, meaning you can replicate (or slightly deviate from) previous throws without the tedious guesswork.

You don't always have to attack from left to right: if you aim the bird high enough you can attack from above. Perfect for levels with fortified walls, but exposed roofs.

Wait until your previous bird disappears. If you hit your last bird's dazed body, your attack will be significantly dampened.

Plain old projectile birds. Won't do anything when tapped, and isn't very tough either.

Scattershot birds dissipate into three small projectiles when the screen is tapped.

Think of these little guys like a shotgun. You can make a scattershot early to hit a good range of targets, but ideally you want to release these fellows close to the target so all three birds will smash into a small area at once. That's how you inflict the most damage.

Kamikaze birds rocket at super speeds when the screen is tapped.

Despite their greatly increased velocity, they still won't do much damage on materials like stone and glass. They rip through wood like it's wet paper, though, allowing you to quickly attack enemies buried deep within a structure.

These are caustic birds that explode to create shockwaves and destroy close blocks and birds. They blow up in their own time, but if you tap you can explode them instantly.

Remember, these guys are so heavy that they'll destroy even a large chunk of stone in just one hit.

Egg dropping, maternal birds. Tap the screen to launch an explosive egg from your backside, before firing your now deflated friend into the stratosphere. Get as low to the target as possible for maximum splash damage.

Don't forget: these enemies can still be used as classic red-styled birds if you don't tap. Useful if you just need a boring old projectile.

Boomerang birds turn around and fly backwards at roughly double the speed when the screen is tapped. Learning their trajectory is just a matter of patience and experience. In the right hands, though, these exotic toucans can be deadly accurate, and very powerful.

You can fire them backwards, and then quickly tap the screen to make a fast-flying bird. You'll be hard pressed to make efficient hits in this way, but it's a useful trick to keep under your belt.

At the time of writing, the Big brother bird is the game’s final poultry-type, offering up enormous power. This pot bellied evolution of the classic red starter rips through wood and glass like butter, and can take out concrete without too much bother as well.

He has the destructive power of the black bomb bird, just without the explosive finale. His giant size makes it tough to squeeze into tight corners, but he can wipe out entire structures just by wiping out the bottom foundations.

There’s little strategy found here: just let him loose and watch materials smash and pigs pop!

There are a handful of videos out there featuring three-star solutions to some of the levels. At the moment, we only have the first theme and the first five levels from the second, thanks to the aficionados at AngryBirdsNest. We’ll update this feature once the remaining 25 levels become available.

Look out for bird placement to help you pass a level if you're just plain old stuck.

Here are some links. Each video contains multiple levels: