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HSC Season 2 Week 12: Oystron

Ze_ro

By Ze_ro
in 2600 High Score Club

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vdub_bobby Quadrunner

vdub_bobby

Posted
Posted

Ok, my tips:

 

The hint from the manual about staying to the right of the pearl zone is a good one.

What you should really aim for is to have the pearl zone completely empty of pearls.

 

Then, stay in the middle of the screen, just to the right of the pearl zone, and move rapidly up and down, facing right, holding the fire button down.

Collect pearls, shoot/dodge enemies, and when you have a break in the action go straight to the left and complete a row of pearls for a bomb. Try to do it quickly, quickly enough that you leave no stray pearls behind. Then, repeat.

When the Oystron comes out to kill you, quickly get directly to the left of him, drop a bomb, and then move further left (to the edge of the screen). He will run into your bomb and die. :)

Then, while warping (i.e., while things move super fast), stay at the far left of the screen, shooting to the right continuously. Don't move up and down unless you absolutely have to because things move so fast that you will probably die.

When done warping, move back to your old, comfy position directly to the right of the pearl zone and repeat.

 

Note: You don't have to kill all the enemies! Choose your battles. It's easy to get killed careening all over the screen. Keep it under control, pick your spots, and collect pearls. Also note that you only get points if you destroy an entire formation of enemies - no points for picking off two of three.

 

Also: learn the behavior of your enemies!

  • -The flashing brown circles, once they reach the left edge of the screen, will eat all the pearls on their row before leaving, rightwards, with the last one. If they are headed for a row with a lot of pearls in it kill them quickly because, even if they eat 6 pearls, you will only get 1 back if you kill them after they are finished eating.

 

-The green bombs will destroy all pearls instantly in their row once they reach the left edge of the screen. Kill them quickly if they are headed for a row with pearls in it. These enemies are a good candidate to ignore if they are headed for an empty row since they won't bounce back and attack you from the rear.

 

-The hammer-head looking fellows can only be destroyed from behind (i.e., by shooting LEFTwards). When they reach the left edge of the screen they will steal the pearl at the far left edge of the screen (if there is a pearl there) and then shift all pearls in their row left by one. Then they will exit to the right. Note that they won't steal a pearl if there isn't one at the far left edge. So in many situations they can be safely ignored, and won't steal anything.

 

-The brown Tie-fighter kinda looking guys have the same pearl-stealing behavior as the hammer-heads, but they can be shot from any direction and will sometimes reverse directions when they are shot.

 

-The large roman-numeral IIIs will move up and down into adjacent, consecutive, empty rows. They are probably the most dangerous enemy, IMO. The move up and down very quickly and can jump more than one row at a time, and will kill you if you are anywhere in their path (as long as all of the inbetween rows are clear). Kill them quickly or very carefully, quickly hide from them by keeping a row with an oyster/pearl between you and them. I think their pearl-stealing behavior is the same as the hammer heads also.

 

-some Space Oysters take many, many hits! So many that they will run you over, killing you, before they turn into a pearl! This happens much more frequently at the higher levels, so be prepared to dodge stubborn oysters.

 

-At the higher levels some pearls that bounce off the left edge will turn into enemies! Keep an eye out for this.

 

-Starting at level three the green, square cheese-like things (what the pearls turn into if you let them escape off the right edge of the screen) will linger in the pearl zone, bouncing back and forth and shifting all the pearls in the zone up a line with every bounce. If you have kept your pearl zone empty, that isn't such a big deal, but in any case you have to shoot them off the left edge of the screen to get rid of them.

 

A lot of headaches can be avoided by keeping the pearl zone empty, especially at the higher levels. The green cheeses are less of a hassle; you don't have to worry about pearls being stolen way at the top of the screen while you are at the bottom; it is just a little easier to keep things under control in general.

 

I hope this is useful!

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Malc74 Dragonstomper

Malc74

Posted
Posted
Wow there is low participation for this game...

 

I'm doing very well though - I'm 4th and 5th at the moment! :grin:

 

Unfortunately I haven't had much free time to play this week and I may not get time to improve my score in the next couple of days. A pity, because it's a really excellent game.

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