Anonymous
07-02-2000, 04:00 PM
I figured I'd start a "Tip" thread where we could all just post our random collective findings, so that all the general advice will be in one spot (instead of randomly scattered throughout all the threads).
Find something cool? Post it here for all of us to benefit! Here's my initial offerings:
- Most of the levels have more than one possible path to completion. Of those possible paths, there is usually one that stands out at the clear, easy, intended path. If you find a level that seems really hard (i.e. you find yourself stuck in a room full of badguys and you only have one hammer and no pants) chances are you missed some powerups on the way. Go ahead and hit "Give Up", restart the level, and check some of the other rooms before going back to that room. Richie Lich in The Basement is a good example of this. It's possible to enter his room after picking up only one hammer and one pants, but if you explore a little you can find another hammer, a few more pants, and a reflect hammer before you enter his room. Big difference!
- Pay attention to everything you see. If a level is called "Fumigation", there might be a reason for it. If you notice a little stick figure drawn on part of a wall, it might mean something. If the ground is glowing, investigate. Usually these occurances all have reasons for them.
- A lot of the bosses are surrounded by lots of little annoying creatures. For example, Mathilda in the forest level is surrounded by egg sacs producing tons of spiders. While it may be tempting to take out all the egg sacs so you can concentrate on the boss, that's actually a bad idea because you are reducing your chances of acquiring powerups. Remember that every time a guy dies there's a chance he'll drop something. The more guys there are, the more powerups that drop. So using Mathilda again as an example, if you leave some of the egg sacs alive and kill spiders while killing Mathilda, it won't be long before the ground is littered with weapons and food!
- The AK8087 is, in my opinion, the weakest special weapon. The spread makes it difficult the concentrate fire on any one target, the bullets do very little damage, and rate of fire is so fast that those 100 bullets run out quick. The only real good use for the weapon is when you are up close to something (like a egg sac/magic lamp, or a tightly bunched group of badguys), in which case all the bullets will hit something, but even in that case it's just a poor man's flamethrower.
- In that vein, the Flamethrower should be used in the situations described above. It does a tremendous amount of damage in a short range. Use it for bosses and anything with lots of hitpoints. I try not to waste it on regular enemies since it's so powerful the extra damage ends up being wasted. Another thing to remember is to keep it easy on the trigger button - since it does so much damage it's easy to waste.
- Missile packs are best used on enemies with ranged attacks (guys that shoot things at you). The Aquazoid (I think that's what they are called) is a good example of this. Oftentimes those enemies are sitting off in water or something far away, shooting things at you, and they are hard to hit because Bouapha can only fire in eight directions (making it hard to set up a shot) plus they move around a lot. Missiles are perfect here because they do excellent damage (usually killing things in one hit) and they track enemies best when they are at long range. Missile packs are also really good against bosses, since you can fire them while running away and have them still connect (a lot of time spend fighting bosses is spent running away!). Oh yes and one other thing... Missiles also do splash damage. This means, when a missile explodes, it does damage in a certain area (like the Cherry Bombs), not just to the enemy that gets hit. If you are using Missiles to attack regular enemies, fire them one at a time to avoid wasting them, since each missile will probably end up killing multiple enemies.
- Cherry Bombs are an alternate form of the Missile Pack - They do more damage and have a larger splash damage area, but don't track. Plus, the ammo supply is a lot smaller. I use them pretty much just like missile packs. You just have to be more careful aiming Oh yeah and another thing, cherry bombs work in areas you might not expect them to (for example, they can travel across water!).
Alright, take it from there fellas!
Find something cool? Post it here for all of us to benefit! Here's my initial offerings:
- Most of the levels have more than one possible path to completion. Of those possible paths, there is usually one that stands out at the clear, easy, intended path. If you find a level that seems really hard (i.e. you find yourself stuck in a room full of badguys and you only have one hammer and no pants) chances are you missed some powerups on the way. Go ahead and hit "Give Up", restart the level, and check some of the other rooms before going back to that room. Richie Lich in The Basement is a good example of this. It's possible to enter his room after picking up only one hammer and one pants, but if you explore a little you can find another hammer, a few more pants, and a reflect hammer before you enter his room. Big difference!
- Pay attention to everything you see. If a level is called "Fumigation", there might be a reason for it. If you notice a little stick figure drawn on part of a wall, it might mean something. If the ground is glowing, investigate. Usually these occurances all have reasons for them.
- A lot of the bosses are surrounded by lots of little annoying creatures. For example, Mathilda in the forest level is surrounded by egg sacs producing tons of spiders. While it may be tempting to take out all the egg sacs so you can concentrate on the boss, that's actually a bad idea because you are reducing your chances of acquiring powerups. Remember that every time a guy dies there's a chance he'll drop something. The more guys there are, the more powerups that drop. So using Mathilda again as an example, if you leave some of the egg sacs alive and kill spiders while killing Mathilda, it won't be long before the ground is littered with weapons and food!
- The AK8087 is, in my opinion, the weakest special weapon. The spread makes it difficult the concentrate fire on any one target, the bullets do very little damage, and rate of fire is so fast that those 100 bullets run out quick. The only real good use for the weapon is when you are up close to something (like a egg sac/magic lamp, or a tightly bunched group of badguys), in which case all the bullets will hit something, but even in that case it's just a poor man's flamethrower.
- In that vein, the Flamethrower should be used in the situations described above. It does a tremendous amount of damage in a short range. Use it for bosses and anything with lots of hitpoints. I try not to waste it on regular enemies since it's so powerful the extra damage ends up being wasted. Another thing to remember is to keep it easy on the trigger button - since it does so much damage it's easy to waste.
- Missile packs are best used on enemies with ranged attacks (guys that shoot things at you). The Aquazoid (I think that's what they are called) is a good example of this. Oftentimes those enemies are sitting off in water or something far away, shooting things at you, and they are hard to hit because Bouapha can only fire in eight directions (making it hard to set up a shot) plus they move around a lot. Missiles are perfect here because they do excellent damage (usually killing things in one hit) and they track enemies best when they are at long range. Missile packs are also really good against bosses, since you can fire them while running away and have them still connect (a lot of time spend fighting bosses is spent running away!). Oh yes and one other thing... Missiles also do splash damage. This means, when a missile explodes, it does damage in a certain area (like the Cherry Bombs), not just to the enemy that gets hit. If you are using Missiles to attack regular enemies, fire them one at a time to avoid wasting them, since each missile will probably end up killing multiple enemies.
- Cherry Bombs are an alternate form of the Missile Pack - They do more damage and have a larger splash damage area, but don't track. Plus, the ammo supply is a lot smaller. I use them pretty much just like missile packs. You just have to be more careful aiming Oh yeah and another thing, cherry bombs work in areas you might not expect them to (for example, they can travel across water!).
Alright, take it from there fellas!