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Chia Bomber

Np Rate: 125np/100pts (800pts for 1000np)
Rated as: Medium
We say: Medium
Controls:
Up arrow=Move up
Down arrow=Move down
Left arrow=Move left
Right arrow=Move right
Space=Fire cannon
M key=Drop mine
Cheats: Type 'geoffrey' for an extra life (100 extra points if you complete the game)

Avatar info:

Score 1300+ Approx time: Somewhere around 20mins, depending on skill.

This game is a challenge for you as far as avatars go, but the key to this game is knowing how it works. For the most points you must annihilate every enemy with your cannon and have four lives (there is a 100pt bonus per life remaining if you complete all 12 levels), though you have a safe 387 point margin from max score (see the trophy section at bottom of page) and av. This basically means if you complete the game, you can be with any amount of lives, plus still room for quite a lot of enemies to be hunted with mines. And if you have this av, you can be sure you have an avatar that requires proper pure skill, and there is no quick fire method for this. So well done if you have.

The Basics
If you have played the game for a few times and are good with the concept you are advised to skip this section.
In Chia Bomber you play as Geoffrey, and you are playing to eliminate the (not very chia like) chia bombers (which shall be reffered to as enemies in my guide). You may get rid these foes by either hitting them with a ball of mud from your cannon, or by using a mine to blow them into chia heaven. Moving requires use of the arrow keys (poke the direction you want to go and you go there) and the spacebar to launch a splat of mud. You may also create a mine, but though these give less bonus than your cannon, and you only have 5 per level, these are a wonderful oppertunity for killing larger foes. Why? They nullify any enemy in one hit, be they black or green (so whatever colour they are, if they walk over a mine they shall be gone to the land of milk and honey). Ideal for breaking into the last level then.
The difficulties are as follows:
Green: One Shot
Blue: Two shots
Yellow: Three shots
Red: Four Shots
Black: Five shots
By shots I mean how many times you must shoot it to destroy it.

This is the board you get once you have beaten the game or died yourself. The 'your score' line is how many enemies you have whacked times by 10, 'ballon kill bonus' is the amount of enemies you shot with your cannon times by 3, 'mine kill bonus' is how many enemies that were dispatched using a mine, and 'final score' is what it all adds up to.
My BKB says I have shot 89 enemies while my 'score' says I have shot 82. Why? Well, this is because when I have lost lives, my 'score' was reset to what it was at the begining of the level, though my BKB was not. This is because a level (with 8 enemies only; the last 3 levels have 9) where you only use your cannon is worth 104 points. If you die after slaughtering 8 (out of 9) enemies in the last level 3 times, you can get 12 points more than everyone else, even though you died more. So that's why tnt resets your score to what it was if you die ;)
You can see my MKB is at 0, because I don't thwart my enemies with mines because they are less points, and it is good practise to work as if you have no mines, though if you are not going for trophy you might choose to lay a few for safety.

The Art of Winning
Chia bomber is a game of skill, no matter how lucky you are you will still have to win this game with skill. But to be good, it's fairly important to know how your cannon works. Obviously, you press space to shoot with it. But it goes deeper than that. You may only have one cannonball on screen at once, and as soon as it hits something you may fire again, with no delay at all. The reason you can't hold space is because of the fact that if you miss, you have to wait for your cannonball to hit something before you can fire again, and if it's got to travel the whole legnth of the screen you have to do something miraculous to get out of losing a life to an enemy. But you can use the one-cannonball rule to your advantage, and get a machine gun effect by being close to things when you fire, because there is no delay. You can fire as fast as the frames allow a cannonball to come out and reach your enemy. Did that make sense? No? Well, put simply, if you are close to an enemy you can destroy them darn fast. Let me explain it like this:
In this screen I have an enemy about to come around the corner I'm hiding behind. The obvious thing is to shoot it, and because it is so close my shot hits it and fires again before I lift the space key. If this enemy is a blue or higher it means that this will give me extra hits, and if you hold it then you can waste large enemies with one encounter like this. It takes some skill to defeat a red like this because you have to shoot slightly earlier, and a black is very hard to wipe out like this because of the amount of times you need to hit them, and is not advisable (I would much rather face it in a head on assault where I have maybe a space or two to begin my gunning, so I can hit him 5 times safely). If you learn this technique well, you may also learn to lift the key just as the enemy dies, thus not fireing any into the wall after (which leave you with a period where you don't have any ammo and can't defend yourself). If you can learn to do that, you will have no time undefended and therefore be one of the best players at this game, and may well be able to get a trophy (see below).

Trophy Scoring
It may not look it but this game has a point where you can score no more, and that makes trophies become reachable. Here are the vital tips to make sure you know exactly how to add a trophy to your lookup:
You get 100 extra points per life - that means to get full points you need to type in the 'geoffrey' cheat for 4 lives, then never lose any. Type the 'geoffrey' cheat when you complete the first level, that way you don't risk being shot while typing.
You must shoot all enemies - If you detonate enemies using mines you lose points. So all must fall to your cannon! There are 8 enemies per level, and if you grimly reap them you get 10 points straight away. Along with that you get 3 points per enemy for shooting them with your cannon, so each enemy is worth 13 points. There is an extra enemy in each of the last three levels, making for 39 extra points.
The maximum score is 1687. Just be careful not to die and not lay any mines and you should get it. So can you remember it and complete it?
Credit to andy131985 for saying about the last levels having extra enemies

That is all for this guide, and I'm all out of variations on the word kill to throw at you. So go out and get that av or trophy, and enjoy it too :P

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Dubloon Disaster

Np Rate: 600np/100pts (167pts for 1000np)
Rated as: Medium
We say: Easy
Controls:
Up arrow=Accelerate
Down arrow=Decelerate
Left arrow=Rotate anticlockwise
Right arrow=Rotate clockwise
Cheats: Type 'scallywags' for an instant whirlpool

Avatar info:

Score 800+ Approx time: Either 10-20mins or 30-45mins depending on style.

There are two methods that all high scoring neopians use in this game. One is slow and tedious, the other is risky. Neither are perfect and I would recommend either. The first time I got this avatar, I used the slow method, and it took me about half an hour. The second time I got it with the fast method, though it took about the same time overall because I died at 640 and had to play again, therefore cancelling out it being faster.

The Basics
Does not include controls. If you have played the game for a few times and are good with the concept you are advised to skip this section.
You are that little guy in the boat, and at the start you are safe and don't need to move instantly, because you have to get a coin for a mine (your enemy) to appear. The mines come towards you, very slowly, and will explode if they touch anything. They always come at you wherever you are. If they touch you it is game over, if they touch another mine then both mines explode. It is impossibly to get them to touch the side (you'd need to position yourself over the edge and you can't do that). And by the way, you are allowed to drive over that island thing, or anywhere else on the map before you reach brown.

The Slow Method
This method is very slow and tedious, but it is the easiest and safest. Basically, you get the first two coins and get two mines. With those mines you simply crash them together, using your skilful powers of judgement.

	Here you can very obviously see these mines are going to collide. Basically if you are using this method, this is the state you want to get your mines into (before making them kaboom!).
	This one is where there is space between the mines, and this is what most of your time will be spent correcting. To correct it, you may either sit between them, but a way away, like I am here. You may also want to go near to one, making it go faster, and then drag it towards the other mine. Normally you will do a mix of both, which is ok. Just remember to always keep your speed up while turning because if you slow down, the mines will be moving faster than you. When they do that you are much more likely to die.
	Here we have the second most common placement, which is having them a long way apart. They would be further apart normally but I had to make my screen a nice size :P The solution to this is simple; put your boat in the gap until they get too close and start becoming dangerous. Then you simply move away into the senario shown directly above this. Had I not been taking a screen I would have just driven through the gap, which is another option if they are too close for you to sit in the middle but too far away from each other to be well placed.

In this style of playing, a few tips are vital to remember. Firstly, each time you get a coin, you really must be moving fast, as often a mine will sprout in front of you, or even worse on you. If you are moving slowly by the time you react, speed up, and then turn out of the way you will probably be exploded. It takes about 10-15 minutes to get 1k here, so judge whether you can get that faster doing other games or whatever. You cannot get 3 mines to collide, it is solidly impossible. So don't try. You will also want to remember this method is boring. Therefore it is the option for those people that have never really got a respectable game avatar before, and it should be noted that when going for the avatar, you will be spending half an hour there. But a benefit of this method is this; when you have no mines on screen, you are free to get a cup of coffee, have a new window open restocking, playing another game or any other pastime you may do. Feel free to take breaks as you want, beleive me you'll need them.

The Fast Method
This one is my favourite as you may get 1k in 6 minutes and your precious avatar at about 10-20, depending on how rushed you are. It basically works like this; there is a maximum of nine mines on screen at one time. If you can get these up then there is none of the moving around waiting for the mines to collide, thus cutting massive chunks out of the time you spend playing. The real trick is to get your mines into as small space as possible (without exploding them).
Here you can see I have gathered the mines, and this is definitely the way you want to make yours. My cluster covers about 1/9th (a ninth) of the screen, and that is a good amount as it means I have 8/9ths (eight ninths) free to row my boat in, although obviously some areas are dangerous. I worked out my rough area by simply holding my fingers to screen and seeing that the cluster goes about three times height ways and three times widthways, if you were curious. To get them in a cluster, my personal approach is to just drive through the group to my coins and around the edges, and within 30 seconds they are grouped enough for you to drive around te edge completely, so making the cluster even tighter. If you want a more formal approach you may choose to bring out two and get them close together, get a third coin and join the new mine to the group and so on, but I find that to be a little lacking when I seem to die very rarely even when I'm being all speedy. Remember, if you are playing for neopoints speed is much more important than safety if the 1k score is easily achievable. At times the formal approach may be neccesary, like it was for me when I had over 700 when a whirlpool whiped out my cluster.
My main tips for this is careful when creating your cluster as if a mine pops out too near you you will explode (as I said in the slow version guide it is slowness that kills, contrary to the common belief that it is speed). When a whirlpool crops up your cluster will be destroyed, so you may choose to create a whirlpool early on (using the cheat that is typing in 'scallywags' while playing) but I never bothered. When changing the direction of rotation around your cluster always turn into the wall. If you turn towards the cluster they shall get faster as you get nearer, but you are getting slower as you turn. I'm sure you can guess the results. After a fun and easy 6 minutes this will be your reward.


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Magax Destroyer

Np Rate: 100np/100pts (1000pts for 1000np)
Rated as: Hard
We say: Between Easy and Medium
Controls:
Up arrow=Move up
Down arrow=Move down
Left arrow=Turn left
Right arrow=Turn right
Space=Fire laser
Cheats: None, though lots of glitches :D

Avatar info:

Score 3000+ Approx time: 20-30 mins

Magax destroyer is a very cool and quite fun game to play if you are good at it, but it is notably low on the user rated list, because it is a hard rated game and requires a few "skills" (listed further on this page) to master. I use the avatar permenantly. Does it really deserve to be so low on the user rated page? I aim to reset the balance.

The Basics
Skip this section if you are already familiar with the game
You are the wocky on screen, called Magax. To me, he is possibly the best neopets character... But moving on, it's you that has to get rid of all the ghosts on each level. The level will have a set number of ghosts, and it loops so there really is no where to run. You must proceed to the next level by destroying all ghosts, and as far as I'm aware there is no ending, you just keep on going to the next level, which will have slightly more ghosts than the last. You move with the arrow keys, and for some reason while you are facing one direction you will keep accelerating, until you hit a rather high top speed. Feel no obligation to go at this speed; slow down by pointing the other direction while you continue to move the way your momentum was dragging you. You can go up and down, and shoot dead straight in the direction you are facing. One of the three types of ghosts, chias, will shoot back at you, but you can move up and down to avoid these spitballs.

Play the Game
Magax destroyer is a game where every control has a lot of secrets. For the basic movement of left and right, you can and should always make yourself slow down by reversing, as the physics mean you won't change instantly, and so can use this to go a speed you are comfortable with, and where you will be able to slow down in time after you see a ghost at the edge of your screen. The faster you go, the more disadvantaged you are, so if you aren't pushed for time it would be worth killing your speed (like all the adverts tell you to!). With practise you will find what sort of speed you are comfortable with, and you'll be a better ghost buster already :D
The shooting is one of the least helpful aspects of this game. The actual properties of it are fine; it shoots at a nice speed and in a straight line that can hit multiple ghosts at once. Simple to aim and quite destructive. Sadly, it has a habit of either going through ghosts, or even if you turn as you shoot not appearing. These almost always happens in front of a chia, and often chias can require 2 or three hits to kill. I have listed a technique further on in this page for chia hunters. You can injure yourself by shooting a lot in a row, but chias aren't much of a problem for your health as you have a fair number of consecutive shots before you start injuring yourself, just don't use it like a machine gun. But should you ever encounter the glitch where a ghost remains on the radar after you shoot it, you can kill yourself and send score by firing a lot. But you can avoid this glitch in the first place by simply not firing at the beginning of a level until the radar has fully loaded, (with all the red dots on it). So though you may think you are getting a little head start by shooting before the ghosts are loaded, you can waste a good game.

Note the radar showing dots

Nox
Hubrid Nox is Magax's enemy. He is meant to be the one who got all the ghosts out of their graves to make an army, and sometimes he makes an entrance himself. Considering you are Magax, after all, it feels a bit petty that You can't actually hurt him. But here are the effects he does;

Fire, which will hurt you for as long as it remains. It does about half the damage of a ghost.


Ice, which stops you doing anything until it has ended. Note if you get hit by fire immediately after, you will have to wait for Nox to put Ice on your again before you can move once more. If you have not yet thinned down the population of the level, this can be fatal. And because it is Nox, this glitch is unavoidable.


Ghost enlargement, where all the ghosts just get a bit bigger. This happens when Nox just laughs and goes off screen, and it really is not a big hassle. Thankfully the chia snot doesn't get any bigger, so really you just have a bigger target to hit and more risk if you are iced.


Techniques
A wise person once said "Magax is actually quite easy if you don't get glitched." I have to say I agree, it really isn't as impossible as it looks. There are a few techniques that will get you through all but the worse situations, after that it is simply up to you to master the techniques and play until you get a clear run to the av slot. These skills shouldn't take long to get the hang of and though you will probably have a slightly different variation on them, but they should improve your game a lot. So what are these fabled skills I speak of? Well, my tactics are as follows...

As well as avoiding shooting upon loading a level, while starting you must avoid the ghosts at the beginning. My personal choice is to rise to the top of the screen while the ghosts load, because ghosts can load on top of you (and injure you before you have a chance), though this seems to happen more rarely while you are at the top. Once all the red dots are onto the radar, you can try lowering yourself to begin the onslaught_


Once you've finished starting (whatever that's meant to mean) you should try and carve a flat edge for yourself. This may not mean much before about 1500 points, but once you have enough ghosts to make going back down to kill tricky, you'll be having troubles. So once the radar's loaded, move very little from side to side and shoot a lot, so some ghosts will die and give you a little more room to maneuver and take out a couple more. Once you are comfortably in the center you can create a wave of death. (That sounds so cliche...) If you can take out the whole height of the screen of ghosts then you can go at your own speed and not be forced into bad positions. And if you take out every ghost you meet like this, your game will be shorter as you don't waste time, and you will be less likely to be injured by ice. 100% gain really.

The move in the picture below is my favourite move for avoiding chias. Basically, you go in a circle by pressing the opposite arrow to the direction you are going at A and B, and moving up and down, to create a circle. When you are shot at when you are in position 1, you'll already be in position 2 when it reaches you, so you avoid it. If he Mr. Chia shoots when you are in position 6 it reaches you when you are at position 7, and misses you again. This is possibly the route that will avoid most spitballs, and you just fire while you are at A (including when you have only just reached there; no point in wasting an opportunity is there?). Only the very fastest balls while you are very close will hit you.


Here is a set of screenshots showing the edges of all the ghosts. If you are travelling at a speed, knowing whether it will require one shot, two/three for jubjubs, or for the chias if it will need a swing round (shown above) to guarantee the kill. Knowing the ghost's edges becomes even more important as you go faster, with less time to react. And the more skilled you are the faster you'll probably choose to go, so it may be worth learning. Jubjubs go feet first, chias hand first and aishas antennae first, though not by much. They always face you so it's always the same side you see. See if you can work out who's who in this symmetrical picture!


There are two health orbs per level. If you shoot a jubjub, one of these is deleted (though you'll never lose them both). If you are in need of health then you may opt to not hit any jubjubs for this level though with your shot going past the edge of the screen this may be tricky. Generally you should try to lose less that 1 section of health and collect one health orb per level, so right until the av giving levels you will mantain a good survival chance.

Round Up

1. Practise
2. Slow down lots
3. Rise to the top and don't shoot before the icons are all on the radar
4. Shoot once for aishas, two or three times fast for jubjubs, and shoot chias lot and lots, until they are well and truly into the afterlife (instead of flying round attacking us!)
5. Get a straight edge to attack from
6. Get lucky with the glitches
7. Be wary of the almighty chias and use "the move" on them
8. Shoot a lot.
9. Don't stop until they're all gone; like the wise person once said, "magax is easy if you don't get any glitches"
10. Practise more

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