Gods - bonuses FAQ written by BioSpark8000 (biobandit at hotmail.co.uk) For quick and easy navigation, pop the following into the find function of your browser of choice: Introduction and apologies [GIN] Reposting this guide [GRE] A note on levers and triggers [GNO] General scoring and shopping info [GINFO] To be updated [GUD] Contacting [GCO] Introduction and apologies [GIN] --- I do realise that there's a perfectly good FAQ for Gods on this site already, but it misses several bonuses. Can't blame anyone for that, some of the pickups in this game are ridiculously well hidden. Now, while the game advertises itself (the Genesis/Mega Drive version at least) as matching itself to your skill level, the simple fact is that the more cash you get, the better you'll do, and it rarely gives you anything of real value for doing badly (not that it doesn't give you anything for screwing up, just mostly replacement lives and health, nothing of much monetary value). This FAQ covers every secret that my family have found across more than a decade of owning this on various platforms. The purpose of this isn't to guide you by the hand through every level, it's to make you rich and to rack up lives. Now I know that being precise is key in FAQs, but you'll have to excuse a little loss of precision here and there, as I don't know the precise locations of the triggers for the awards, I don't know the exact amount of lives needed for each lives bonus (generally, if you don't die too much, you're fine), and I don't know where most of the help bonuses are, as I don't really die now, having played through at least 3 times during the writing of this FAQ and I don't get hurt that badly, having memorised most of the early worlds. Reposting this guide elsewhere [GRE] --- If you feel the urge to host this anywhere else, by alls means do it. Honestly, it's flattering. I'd appreciate it if you could leave my name on as the author, mind, and it's nice to actually be told so I can take a look, but I'm probably never going to find out if you don't, only if I get bored and google my own name, and I've neither the time, money or inclination to pursue legal action against plagiarists. I might email you if you blatantly rip anything of mine off, though. In other words, knock yourselves out. A note on levers and trigger points [GNO] --- For lever puzzles, I'll use the following notation: U = up, D = down, X = either So if the solution's UUDU, that's the two left levers up, the third down, the last up. UXD is the left up, the right down, the middle one's whatever you want. If I refer to a trigger, that's a specific point in the level where the game will look at your current score, lives, speed, nearby lever configuration, inventory or health, then see if you're eligible for a bonus. If a lever puzzle doesn't give you a reward, the trigger point for the reward might be under one of the levers you're not stood under, so wander around them a little. If you're carrying items that are removed at a certain point, that'll be a trigger, too. It feels a bit amateurish to say it, but if a level puzzle reward fails to show up, it does sometimes help to fiddle with them lever a couple of times. General info on scoring and smart shopping [GINFO] --- If something in the guide doesn't make sense, you're probably not in the right place. This isn't a flat out FAQ, it's only for scoring, so if you can't see what I'm describing, move through the level a bit as I'll tend to skip sections that don't have any bonuses. Everything you can pick up that doesn't serve a specific function will give you points in varying amounts, from small white gems to sacks of cash and gold gems. The specific values are listed elsewhere on GameFAQs, so there's not much point in covering old ground. Most enemies attack in waves, and generally the last one will always drop a gem (it's not a given, but it's usually the way). If you see a monster, be prepared for it to have friends, especially if it doesn't give you anything. Killing is one of the better ways of increasing your score, especially in the final levels. The bonuses are harder to come by later on, so it does balance out nicely (unless you know where everything is...). This also means that the FAQ will grow steadily more sparse as the levels go on, since the last levels are pretty much mindless arcade action. If there's a health based bonus in a level, it's often better to kill everything in the level, grab a health pickup later on (if there is one), then backtrack and get it when you're topped up. No fighting involved. This doesn't always work, though, through lack of health bonuses, fall damage areas in the route, etc. The point is to get rid of everything that might hurt you, then do all the bonuses that require you to have a lot of hitpoints left. The majority of points at the start will most likely come from your end of level bonuses. It's more than possible to have over 13 lives by the end of world 2, and they're worth a good 2000 points each at the end of a level. Since every 100k on your score nets you a life or a pretty valuable gem (alternating), the bonus will just keep growing if you're careful and know how the game will attack you (and with low intelligence AI and fixed placement, a good memory is your best friend). For maximum points, never let the last enemy of a group die inside a wall if it has the flying ability. Flyers ignore terrain for their movement (but terrain will still block their projectile attacks), but if a gem drops in a wall, it'll fall until it reaches the next available floor, which is usually never there, or at least not on a floor that you're allowed to visit. You'll RARELY be able to recover a gem lost like this, but it does happen, your best time to try this is probably the third world, which tends towards networks of underground rooms. While shopping, if you don't have enough money to buy what I did, but want to upgrade your weapons, look at power potions. A 1/2 potion will increase all your weapons by 1 (you'll throw one more) and a full one will add 2, which will effectively max out the power on anything. Thing is, it's often cheaper to buy one power potion 1/2 than it is to buy one of all your weapons, or even one of one weapon. Power potions DO NOT increase weapon strength, they increase volume (I'm certain of it, but tell me if I'm wrong), so chugging one with a full stack of weapons will do nothing. It's worth doing a little math to save you some cash, and you will want quite a bit of money, come the fourth world. Unless I tell you to, don't buy anything at the shops (except healing items if you need 'em. No sense in getting yourself killed) if you're going for max points. It's better to save all the money you can so that you can buy better weapons later on. Then you can kill more monsters, which will get you more money, which lets you kill more monsters, which drop more money... If you've got a lot of spare cash by the time you hit the later shops, you can sink it all on whatever you like, lives for a bigger bonus at the end of levels, a familiar, fire arcs, powerups. That kind of stuff. Making more monsters to fight, if you're given the option to spawn more of them, is not a bad thing. More kills makes more points and gems, and this guide promotes greed. Things wouldn't be valuable without a little work and risk. So, with all that in mind, shall we? World walkthroughs --- World 1-1 In general, reset all your levers to the starting position in this world. It doesn't hurt, at least, and the hint does tell you to experiment. There's nothing too special here, or too hard to get. [Speed bonus] Reach the end of the platform with the second lever fast enough for a sack. Honestly, this is hard to miss if you don't spend much time wandering around. [Short cut] Hit the second lever (to the left of the speed bonus trigger) to disable the trap, then grab the brown key. Reset the lever to open the floor below, but don't go down there yet. It holds some nice gems and one enemy, but you can clear the level then backtrack here if you want more cash. One of the gems in the pit is a shortcut (there's no way out of the gem pit without taking this teleport gem), but it doesn't disable a trap, which cuts off your backtracking. [Lever puzzle] Just above the speed bonus: UUD - monster spawn, but the last drops a decent gem UDU - disables the trap DUU - monster spawn, with a cheap gem from the last UDD - treasure chest with a key (trigger point is under the right lever) DUD - gold gem (trigger is under the left lever, must have tripped the UDD config) [Health and lives bonus] If you're at full health by the time you hit the end of the level and you haven't died, you'll get a gold mask. [Special bonus] Now this one's a doozy. SOMETIMES (usually), if you hit the switch to open the end of the level, a platform juts out to the left, above the ladder, allowing you to see the fairly obvious hidden switch for a gold gem. The conditions for it appearing seem to be that you've finished the lever puzzle and taken the shortcut. If it still doesn't jut out, you can get it but don't ask how we found this out... Open the end door as normal, and step out of it. The trick is to stop no less than two steps away from the trigger area that tells the game that the level has ended (it's like an invisible vertical line. If you jump over it, you'll be suspended in mid air when you hit the trigger). If you pull it off (your heel should be one step past touching the very right edge of the door), then try the switch to open the door again, it normally works. Now wasn't that worth all that effort? World 1-2 One large secret, one that's not too obvious and assorted junk. [Special bonus] Starting with the big one. Go to your top left from the world entrance, kill the apes (or whatever those are), then hit the secret button in the middle of the platform a few times. Now drop down and kill one ape at a time, facing right, left, right, left, left to avoid damage. If you have to duck a shot, chances are one's going to touch you. After that, climb back up to the platform above that you just dropped off of and step under the switch for a bonus pickup, but don't get it yet if you want everything. If it doesn't appear, you probably got hit or didn't press the button enough, so hit it a couple more times. If it still fails, you're probably not going to get it this time. No biggie, really. Run to the right, kill another ape and avoid the fliers. If you get hurt too much by this point, you'll trigger a: [Help bonus] Just next to the second hidden button, a small heart pickup spawns. Bear left, hit the button, then head right again carefully to get a starburst, which SHOULD clear all the flyer spawns out. It's not flawless. If you head left again, there's one single flyer that tends to appear, which is kind of annoying, I'd recommend jumping to the left across the gap and hurling knives as fast as you can. Proceed right, over the gaps and fall off the end of the platform when you can't jump any further across for a: [Lives bonus] A sack spawns if you haven't been totalled at all yet, just left of the trapdoor. Continue back to the left to make a monster spawn that spawns a trap. Another one will then spawn that drops invincibility. Make sure that you allow him to reach the left hand side of the trap, unless you want to get really hurt. Proceed left, ignoring the invincibility, kill the third guy that spawns then return to the first secret button. If the potion didn't spawn earlier, skip to the next bonus, if it did then grab the potion (it's a super jump. They're very rare and mostly occur in this world, oddly enough). See that platform to your left, just above? Yeah. Get moving quickly, this potion's short lived, hop up there, then hop to the right, you'll find a gold chest full of cash, a 1-up, large health power up AND if you jump at the end of the platform as far as you can, if the potion holds there's a transparent platform full of coins. Now drop down off the right to get the last shelf of goods, and a small heart pickup. That's a nice chunk of your cash covered for this world, really, but there's plenty more. Now drop off the platform to your left and make sure you get on those platforms above the ground where the fliers attacked. [Health and lives bonus] Grab the invincibility you missed (approach from the left, grab it, run through the trap), then QUICKLY go right and drop down the hole. Go immediately left, drop again and run right. WAY easier than actually fighting them properly and it'll net you the bonus over the ladder to the right. If you're fast, you can continue right and take out the enemies on the upper ledge to the right, too, but don't count on the invincibility taking you down that last ladder. Unless you're quick, it's a little safer to just knife the guys above the ladder. [Pot puzzle] Climb back up and hit the third hidden switch and the end of the long passage, then grab the vessel (pot/flask) on the floor. Then, travel down and hit the switch on the right of the ladder, leave it down and hit the left one. Be careful, if you do it the wrong way around, you'll create an annoying (but avoidable) trap. Teleport gem to the pot, grab it, then teleport out. Travel down, then right at the fork to clear the monster spawn (kill the ones on the left, first, they're fast and weak). Make sure you hit the switch to your right (it closes the trapdoor and saves you a fall damage death), but don't drop down, go left, down the ladder with the wall enemies and open the door. You should now get the world key and a gold gem for taking the pots back. If you pick up the two unique pots in there, take them out and to the right, you get a small heart pickup, but there's a health bonus in this level, so save this until the very end, so you can get your health to full in case you get hurt. [Health, lives and score bonus] If you've gotten everything so far, you shouldn't have any problems. It's just a silver gem. The heart pickup from the pots puzzle can help in getting the almost full health you need to trigger this (you can be down by around one weak ranged attack's worth of damage and still get it), or you could just kill yourself if you haven't died yet. I wouldn't do that, though, you're losing 2k per level for every life you lose. Side note, if you drop down that pit to the right, where you hit the trapdoor switch, you can get into a treasure room, but if you've hit all those secret buttons, there's one final button, on the right of the pot room door, that will open the third trapdoor and make all the goods drop on your head. World 1-3 Get 3 shurikens from the merchant. You'll need them. You'll have to press 4 times, the first press just confirms that you want to replace your knives. Just don't accidentally ever buy 4 of a weapon, I'm pretty sure the game WILL let you waste your money. Why should the shop guy care if you buy more than you can use? [Special bonus] Clear the area, then flip all the switches down and flip them back to up. Jump up to the lowest trapdoor, then drop to your right, kill the enemy, drop down and grab the jump potion from where the spike trap was. Jump up the small ledge to your left, then right to where the enemy was, then up the trapdoors. You get a gold gem for doing it the hard way, but if you can't do that, just wait a while, a teleport gem will appear but you won't get a couple of bonuses and it does take rather a long time. [Speed, lives and score bonus] Move on, grab the fireball pickup and flip the switch for an invincibility. Drop down quickly, mindlessly ploughing through everything, drop again and clear the mini treasure room, climb up and walk through the monsters at the top of the ladder. Flip the switch to leave, then climb up and go a little left (just to the left of the ladder) to trigger this. It'll lift the wall to the right and make a very nice treasure room. [Score and lives bonus] Climb the ladder just to the left of the stone harpies and bear left. You'll get it. [Unlabelled bonus] Just past the score and lives bonus, you'll reach a dead end. Leap off the ledge to the left (actually properly jump off the edge, don't just walk), even though it looks like there's nothing there. You won't get hurt, you'll land on a ledge that'll start moving. This area's reached through a door later on, but the leap of faith makes the gems fall down, if you go through the door, the platform never retracts. [Treasure room] Kill the harpies, then flip the switch and follow the invincibility down the hole (or just drop if you missed it, you should grab it before you hit the ground). That'll take you a little further up through a door, which has a ledge with another door. This one takes you to a treasure room, and a special weapon (which expires after the boss dies, unfortunately, as it's really quite good). [Score and lives bonus] Triggered just past the boss. Just don't die too much before you kill him, you should have way more than enough points right now. When you hit the shop, I'd get a throwing axe and a power potion (1/2). That'll bring you to two axes. Don't buy an arc, you're given one in world 2. World 2-1 Getting harder, now. You'll have to learn to use the newly introduced thief game mechanic, too. They're sort of common from here. Just a quick note, the purpose of a thief is to steal the single item that is nearest to him, then try to run away with it. They are always attracted to items, even if they already have one, so if they grab something, you can lure them with a small key, a regular key, a lure potion, anything at all. They're your personal delivery boys. Hit the secret button on the right of your starting location to start things off. [Speed bonus] Grab the key from the shelf with the first walker on it. Drop down carefully, hang a left (don't go down the ladder) and drop into the pit with the heart pickup. Be quick, though, this pit fills with traps after a while. The heart can be recovered by using the secret button to summon a thief who'll appear to your right and can be lure with a key, if you're not quick enough. If you are, summon him anyway and kill him for points. [Unlabelled bonus - part 1] Go back right and down the ladder. DO NOT ATTACK at all when you're down here. The hint tile tells you about thieves, run past it and you'll meet one. Run a little left, but keep your eye on him, let him grab the invincibility on the trap floor, then drop the key you picked up and he'll take notice and try to steal it (don't worry, he can only hold one thing at once and he never drops something he's holding, he'll just walk around any new loot). Kill him and use the pickup to get through the traps. Hitting the door's switch will summon another thief after a second or two. Let him, and this is VERY important, get into the field of traps, but not close enough to kill himself on your invincibility (they're not too bright), then step through the door. [Pushing your luck for no reward] Not at all required, it won't get you any points and it's downright dangerous. When you get the invincibility in the room through the door, you can run to the right, drop, then very quickly run left, climb the ladder and hop left to grab a silver key. You already have one, there's only one silver chest, so it's not required, but it's nice to be a smartass. If you're letting common sense prevail, then just use the invincibility to avoid any fall damage from leaving the room and maybe mop up a few enemies. [Unlabelled bonus - part 2] Run right to the thief pit from the start of the level (almost). Your friend will grab the key from above, using his handy permanent super jump. Drop him one of your keys and he'll try to get that, too. You now have two keys (or three if you were daring), and a lesson on the dangers of greed. [Lives bonus] When you reach the drop on the left of the level with the ladders, on the area down the second ladder you'll get a sack. [Bonus room] In the 3 gems room, pound on the door button for a few seconds for a teleport gem. You do need to hit it several times. Now it's highly advisable to go in here with full health, as it's VERY dangerous. You can heal in the big treasure pit at the end of the level if/when you get hurt in here. I'll describe the way through now, though. First off, don't get hit by the first snakes, or you're leaving without everything. Second, don't collect any teleport gems until the end unless you're nearly dead (dying here will kick you out, so you might as well preserve a life), as they all just lead outside. Kill the snakes, then their smaller spawns (don't get hit by them. Seriously), then climb up. A soldier will appear behind you and present you with two options. Get to the end of the platform (don't jump up) and throw as much as you can at him. With a little luck, he'll die before he hits you, but you will have to be fast and I can rarely pull it off. It helps to throw some axes just before he spawns so you can get a couple more free hits in. Alternatively, make a run for it and clear the spikes so you get a little more attack time. If you're fast, you can spin around and attack him, but it's not too good to be hasty around traps. Either way, there's a full heal at the end, so if you've the energy to spare, he can run into you, it's still a kill for your points. Jump the traps up at the top when they're at their lowest and clear the room. Getting the super jump here means you don't need the gems, either, you can jump to the world key, which saves you... pretty much nothing that I know of. A minute or two of your life, I guess, but the gems can still be cashed in at the gem room. You won't get anything for doing it, or for trying to leave the level with all the gems. [Health bonus] Just before the world's exit, if you have above half health you'll get this. There's a treasure room at the end of the corridor (the world door is before it) which you should have the key for. Don't worry about the drop in there, although it can hurt you if you decide to return to this room for whatever reason, as you won't get healed twice. NOTE: I don't know what's with the bronze chest in the treasure room. It's possible to do this level and finish with one silver and one gold key, as well as the puzzle gems but I don't know about the bronze. World 2-2 You get a clue about chalices. You will want the chalices. The first is at the start of the level, up the ladders and to the right. [Speed and lives bonus] Rip through everything until you hit the ladder that goes through the ground. Turn off the trap there and run through the spot it was on for this. [Lever puzzle] UDU - drop through, but land on a trap. Yeah, don't do that, hit the switch from the side instead (you can do it from one step away from the centre). UUD (AFTER UDU), drop to safety and a chalice In other words, you do need to set off a trap to actually disarm the trap and gain access to the chalice. [Health bonus] Tricky. When you see a switch that closes a trapdoor beneath you, go right and do some fighting for a health pickup. Now, drop down and take out the stationary targets on each floor, pressing the switch every time to close the next trapdoor. If you forget the switches, you're pretty surely dead, simple as. When you get to the bottom, you'll get a bonus, but it's hard to kill the last guy without getting hit, as you don't drop far enough to see his shots come out (and he's FAST). [Special bonus] You should have all three chalices by the end. Drop them all in the chalice room (leave them there) for a bronze chest when you come out. The order and location of the drops don't particularly matter, so long as they're in the room. [Unlabelled bonus] Take all your keys and use the teleport gem beneath the chalice room. You should be able to open that door beside the lever puzzle, now, by using the left lever. At the shop, you'll want one spear and one power potion (1/2). That'll also max out any other weapons you have. World 2-3 [On target for huge speed bonus] The optimal room order for the mosaic puzzle, looking at the doors left to right numbered 1 to 4 is: 2, 3, 4, 3, 1 Clear the rooms, grab any items that drop (a skull, a bottle of herbs, a globe), the order of the rooms mentioned will take you past the puzzle triggers (a pot, the apothecary's desk, a globe frame). Just grab anything that drops, standard procedure. Clear the puzzle with the mosaic pieces, get the key, trip the switch on the right, get the other key from up the ladder and trip the switch in the middle of the wall to climb down the ladder and get a sack. [Unlabelled bonus] After the area with the horizontally moving platform, drop down the gap between the trapdoors at the top into the area that it looks like you can't jump out of. You'll open the trapdoor and get the key to the treasure room on your right. [Health bonus] Just below the area with the first moving platform [Speed and special bonus] I do believe this is the huge speed bonus. It's not amazing, but it's very decent. Get to the part just after grabbing the candle, up the ladder from that area in fact. If you're on time, you should get a 1-up and two gold gems. [Treasure room] Clear the chapel puzzle and get the gem. You'll get a key to the treasure room above. If you don't, try to take the candles, too, that usually does the trick. [Boss] Just a note on him, where you drop the gem determines where he'll stop. If you drop right at the end of the room, he can't hit you with anything at all, but if he's too far back when he dies, all his loot will appear off the screen and bosses generally are worth a decent haul. If you're going to die soon and you're worried, might be as well taking the cash loss, but if you drop it in the right place, you can safely disable him with minimal dodging and still get the full payoff. If you've done it right, only his tail should be any real threat. DO NOT buy weapons from the shop. You'll want to downgrade to a free weapon once you hit the labyrinth. If you feel you need lives to survive, grab 'em, otherwise just heal up and roll out. 3-1 Be careful. There's treasure all over, but you WILL have to work for it from now on. [Cracked blocks] This world's in a bit of disrepair. Hit the cracked blocks with your mace when you get it to break them for various prizes. Nothing much, most likely, but prizes all the same. It's worth leaving these until the end, though, since the spear is better than the mace in at least three ways (it's much stronger, it's bigger and it pierces walls), so it's not a bad idea to kill as much as you can with the better weapon. [Help bonus] In the area just above the beehive and trap area, where you need the bombs. Get hurt enough to trip this and get a full heal. It's handy for the end of the level, just jump off small ledges to carefully whittle away your life energy. [Unlabelled bonus] There's a gold gem in the ceiling at the bottom of the level. If you have a wide arc (heaven help you, those things are terrible) then it's easy, and regular arc users can hit it from the ladder. If you have concentrated firing, you're going to have to switch. [Health and lives bonus] It's easy to miss health bonuses from this point onwards, you're going to get attacked a lot. Get to the bottom, right after the hint about the treasure room for a gold mask. Might as well try to get this one early, before anything really makes a mess of you. [Lever puzzle] On the bottom, to the left, there's a set of levers. UUD - open door (with key in inventory) UDX - lock door (don't worry) DUX - reopen door permanently Now walk right, a door will open elsewhere. I'm... not sure where, though. [Teleport gem puzzle] Above the lever puzzle, there's a set of three gems. You know what to do, but read ahead to save a life: Left gem - a trap, the bee room. Keep hitting the hive, this one's no problem, you can just batter it, and jump shot to kill the bees quickly. If you don't kill them quickly, they will fly into you. Throw the switch to summon another hive and get some easy points. Middle gem - empty room with a pot in it. Grab it and run. The pot trades for a key at the door below, which opens the door Right gem - a trap, the bat room. I'll be honest, if you don't have a wide arc or a bought invincibility/starburst, you're going to die in here, I'm pretty convinced that you just can't survive any other way. There's a wide arc later in the level to clear this one out. [Special bonus] Clear the puzzle for a gold gem at the door below. [Treasure room] There's a door to the right of the pot puzzle which tells you you need the room key. By pulling the level, you get a free room key. Ominous... You're told that the potion can't be taken from the room. Don't try it, crossing the threshold makes you lose it and you do want to keep it. If you die, you're warped outside, and crossing the threshold to ENTER removes it, trigger points work both ways. Go right, a thief spawns, lure him with the potion for a key. Opening the door creates a gem. Crack the wall to the right with maces for a bonus. [Short cut] This one's fun. Clear the hive and trap puzzle at the right of the start (just monkey around with the levers. You can't go wrong). Now, if you jump around those things that looks like trophies with axe blades for handles right at the start of the level (literally, where you spawned), a key will appear. If you walk back to the hive area, you'll open the wall above. It's another one of those 'clear the level then take the shortcut for max treasure' things from world 1-1. It leads to a couple of gold gems, 3 maces, a wide arc powerup and a treasure key (the exit door is a treasure room, which is misleading)... good stuff, but the wide arc will make this level hard, so get it at the end. [Unlabelled bonus] Take your wide arc back to the teleport gem room. Enter the bat room and prepare to fight. Clear it without getting killed for a gold gem. [Special bonus] A gold gem before the treasure room. I'm not sure of the requirements, probably clearing the shortcut or just doing everything. [Treasure room - NOTE, THIS LEADS TO THE WORLD EXIT] Clear that nonsense with the pot puzzle or hit the shortcut to gain access to the lower right treasure room. Now, be really, really careful about how you defend yourself, you're forced to use a wide arc. The gimmick is that the ceiling is made of damaged blocks, destroy them for the treasure. Don't be a hero, dislodge the starburst first to take care of the bulked up guy on the left, or he'll just keep coming through the hail of maces. At the shop, you should have enough cash to buy an axe, a full power potion (everything will be at max, even the axes) and a temporary invincibility. That'll come in handy, trust me. Lives if you need them, but you may as well conserve cash, otherwise. Axes will now be your weapon of choice. 3-2 [Unlabelled bonus] Before the second thief's spawn point, run to the far left for a gold gem. [Special bonus] Kill the gold gem grabbing thief before he gets down to safety (if you miss him, you can get that later on, but no bonus). Shouldn't be hard with three axes and fireballs. [Unlabelled bonus] The hint tells you to reach the top with full health for a key (quite a tasty one, too). Fine. Tug the switch for a full health power up, then pop your invincibility powerup. It's possible without being invincible, but honestly, good luck with that, and there's no sense in exerting yourself when you can cheat. Pull all the switches on the way up, climb the ladder. You just did it the cheap way. There's also the stupid way, which involves you dropping to your death for a health refill, but it's unreliable and not necessary. [Treasure room] Take that key to the right (if you got the health bonus). You'll get an invincibility to survive the fall in the gem room, and a small treasure area. Also of note, once back up, flip the switch and start firing as soon as you see the potion, then inch forward while attacking. It attracts thieves like catnip, and if the flying thieves take it, it's probably gone (that falling item drops inside the wall thing). [Lever puzzle] Down the ladder from the potion room. First lever is on the top left, middle is the top right, last is the bottom right: XDX - open trapdoor XUX - close trapdoor XXD - nothing XXU (after XXD) - disable trap DXX (after gem) - disable block trap [Lever puzzle] To the upper right, there's another one. The problem is, you CAN set this one to an unwinnable state. You won't lose the game if you fail, but you'll lose goods. Here's the combinations, but you'll want to hit them in order, so: DUU DDU DDD If you decide to hit them out of sequence: XDX - lower first block, release enemy, seal treasure room XXD - spring trap XDD - drop gem DDD - raise second bock, allow passage DUD - invincibility If you got the health bonus, you'll pretty much get what you'd have gotten from this puzzle. Play around with them after you've cleared the room, though, you won't really lose anything. World 3-3 This one's downright cruel for looters. [Lever puzzle] Double tap the left one for a gem [Unlabelled bonus] It says to pull the lever on the right quickly for a bonus. Flip the left one to lower the block, the jog over and flip the right for a 1-up, then run left again. Easy. If you're not fast enough, you'll get gutted very quickly if you try to hit it. [Hidden button] Just over the trapdoor where the starburst appears, there's a button. If someone could fill me in on what that does, it'd be really helpful, 'cause I've got NO clue. [Speed bonus] Clear the area with the spikes, rock spitters... the first area, really, in time. [Lives bonus] After the vessels hint, go left for a sack [Treasure room] You'll get a treasure key from doing the get the key in 15 seconds part. Get in the treasure room on the left before leaving via the normal door. There's a hidden button in there, but I don't know what it's for. That's kind of a running theme, here. Once the boss dies, don't buy any axes, even if you need them. You're going to get lumped with maces again. Buy one hunter (the little metal spores, not the bird), though, but no more, it'll get a free max power upgrade. World 4-1 You've gotten this far, just a little more until the end. This place does have a few nice bonuses, but you're going to get an obscene score from killing. Nothing's really as tricky as the last world, puzzle wise. Well, this is nice. The first hint gives you a clue as to how pleasant the game will be from now on. [Special bonus] "I wouldn't go down there". The first hint meant that the next hint would lie to you. A dead drop onto a trap, but it spawns a handy platform that saves you and provides a gold gem. They seem to forget about the lying thing after this. [Something moves above you] Reset the switches around the second set of tube shaped... walkers? It'll reward you with a room above with a key and a chest key (the chest's on the lower left of the level). Before the trap room, run left and go down the hole. You only get one shot, the trap room seals this off. [Trap room] Once you reach this room, and it's clearly labelled in the dialog, as quick as you can get to the top left and hit the lever to save the trap key. If you get it in time, you can hit and reset all the switches to save the gold gem. If not, you can spike trap yourself and get the key from behind it while you're invincible, or you can sacrifice the gem and pick up the bombs to blow up the traps and save the key. You can't take the bombs with you, unfortunately. [Unlabelled bonus] Run left after the trap room, summon the flyers, then run right. You don't want to destroy the cracked blocks, they lead to a hunter and full health. Let your hunters kill the turret further up by firing into a wall and letting them find their target. Takes a while, but it's completely safe. [Block trap] At the end of the level, you'll see a stack of damaged blocks. Run past them, ignore your pursuers and get to the door, then fight off the walkers. Now, careful adventurers can pick off the blocks one by one until only the bottom block remains, allowing you to start world 4-2 with full health and a few more points. At the shop, go ahead and restock on axes. You can get some for free later, but you're much better off saving yourself the trouble of difficult combat. Be thrifty, though, buy one axe and a full power potion. Also, sink the rest of your cash in whatever you like, I'd suggest 1-ups, this is the last store after all, but don't buy a weapon arc or health (unless you're below 50% health), as you'll be given them as you start the next level. 4-2 [Treasure room] Go up. Pull hard left is your hint, so go left, but don't pull the lever. Go around to your left, grab the key, drop down. You can just barely jump the trap if you're careful (time it so the peak of your jump is over the centre of the trap, you should touch it, but not take damage), then drop down and open the front facing door to the left. In this room, be prepared to fight. Enemies will appear that drop... projectiles which destroy the blocks which you'll need to get the goods. Three waves will appear, each bearing three enemies, your axes will clear them. Do NOT get the mace, it's a trick, your fireballs will clear the blocks perfectly well, if a little slowly (and raw firepower is much better than saving time in this place). What you're really after in here, though, is the key, the chest and the lamp (inventory item). [Release the birds] Hitting the switch in the next area with the lamp in your inventory will summon a familiar. He's pretty much a generic shoot-em-up orbiter/option, he supports by throwing however many fireballs you do. Fantastically useful here, but be careful that he doesn't destroy important cracked blocks. Your familiar can take damage, albeit a lot of it, so he'll eventually die unless you're ridiculously careful, but he does seem to damage any touching enemies in a similar way to your hero. [Forever downwards] Take the top path at the fork, then fend off the fliers that'll damage the route. You want to go up again, see the ladders? There's a couple of useful things there. On warping out, keep the top route, or go down for a bit of a fight and some empty points, then return up without pressing anything. [Thief room] There's a room in a front facing door to the lower right. Clear it to summon a thief, but you're told to be careful. Bear in mind that your familiar deals a small amount of contact damage, is exactly level with the thief's little passage and will spawn a starburst when it takes too much damage, and that this thief has very few hitpoints. If he dies, you can just wait and play with the button just next to where he'd hop out, a key spawns which allows you to drop the platform above the thief's little escape route and force the pickup to fall. The mortar and pestle set is the key to the door. [Lives bonus] A little way beyond the thief room, down a ladder. [Special bonus] Take the long route described, then hit the secret switch to the right of the lever through the door after the thief room. It's a gold gem. Also, run left and don't hit the lever for more goods, then hit the lever to drop down. 4-3 Be careful. It's the last world, and the game still has some tricks to pull. Don't accept spears if you have axes, don't miss them if you have a mace. [Speed bonus] Clear the thief 'puzzle' fast enough. [Unlabelled bonus] A little cheap, but if you have a standard arc and three fireballs, there's just enough room to get one fireball over the gap between the solid block and the crumbling ones which hold the axes and standard arc. Those of you with spears can make this level much more pleasant by getting these early, those of you with axes can have a cheap laugh at the level designers. [Lever puzzle] Yeah, no more puzzles. Right. UDU - lower key, release somewhat harmless thief. DUU - keep trying it, the floor will part and you can drop. You'll get an invincibility halfway down, then enter one last huge treasure room. The chest key's next to the door. Also, when you leave, open the door you're in front of for a full power potion and the world key. Also, with all keys in hand, climb up and hit the secret button above to properly release the axes if you couldn't cheat your way to them. You will want those for the boss. It's a pretty amazing and profitable sequence of events. UUD - just don't. You'll be lumped with a mace again. [Lives bonus] Just before the last boss room, there's a lives bonus in an overhead alcove, in the one place you're probably most likely to have gotten to with very few lives. Well, that's it. For some reason, the last boss drops the same amount of cash as the others, as if you could spend it. To be updated [GUD] --- It'd be nice to be able to include the points values for everything. Not the gems, men more patient than me have done that already, but bosses, enemies and the like, but it'd be a pretty tedious task, and I'm not sure if the monsters that the last guardian spawns are worth anything or not. It'd be a foul endurance task to try and kill them for infinite points, for sure, but at least you'd get some lives, I suppose. Contact [GCO] --- Have I helped you out with this thing? Missed anything? Made an error? Done something in a stupid way? Have you worked out the most optimal place to buy extra lives, increasing the lives bonus at the end of the level, but leaving enough cash to still buy all the weapons you need? If so, I want to hear about it. Mail sent to BioBandit at hotmail.co.uk ought to get my attention, adding me on MSN will not (no offence meant, but it's pretty much a mail only account). This FAQ is dedicated to Edgar, our sadly deceased Acorn Archimedes and the torrent of night time abuse that a 6 year old boy hurled at it 15 years ago while trying to scramble through the underworld on the second run. Bio out.