level 1
what I do is to get myself 2 drones (red) first. this will help in shooting everything else on screen. after that get plasma (pink) or side missile (yellow) will do. The Protoss level is the easiest, regardless whether it's 1, 4, 7 or whatever........... any gun will do.

after getting your 1st 4 modules to arm your ship, collect the bomb (blue) from now onwards.

plasma kills level bosses and those other guardian units MUCH faster but side missile allows you to cover more area.

level boss is easy - just stay at the center and keep firing. when the boss attempts his power weapons, move to say the lower left side of the screen. once he starts firing, you move from 1 end to the other. it works anywhere on the screen but i suggest lower left to right (or right to left) beause there's more space, plus the shape of your ship. (yes yes, i play shoot'em ups!)

note that you need not rush from 1 end to the other. you could stay put, let the fella fire 2 - 3 rounds before shifting to the next clear area.

level 2
plasma works fine here but i find going side missiles are more useful because they really come in swarms. other configurations same. and yes, still keep collecting those bombs. I prefer to change to side missiles for Zerg level because it settles the bogies way faster and you get more score for that.

bombs are critical for Zerg level, what you do is to destroy everything on screen and try to evade the green goo. If it's hope

level boss seems tough for 1st time, i lost 3 ships on my 1st try. after that it's easy. just stay at the bottom, aligned under the boss. keep a watch on the tentacle, it's not too fast but not slow either and it'll aim for you. just move about and distance yourself and you're fine. the boss' special attack is easy. just stay away from center and you're fine.

one thing I noted was that instead of staying right at the bottom of the screen, i could actually stay further up between the screen bottom and the boss. as the tentacles move, you can move downwards and have more space.

bomb is helpful here.

btw you can swap the weapon to plasma at around the 2nd (i think) swarm guardian. should have 2 power up modules around that time.

level 3
plasma works fine here but i find going side missiles are more useful because they really come in swarms. other configurations same. and yes, still keep collecting those bombs.

level boss is tough here but shouldn't be a problem if you have some missiles there. just keep shooting from the center. the 1st salvo the boss fires comes in streams. they're ok.

the next one would be a bunch of circular spam, pretty tough to avoid sometimes. along with it would be the beam from side to side, that one not hard to avoid. at a later point, he would launch spinning disc, that one moves all over the screen, tricky.

you could actually finish the boss even before he throws the disc. how? use bomb! why'd ya think I highlighted the bomb collection!

btw you can swap the weapon to plasma too. I change weapon once I see the battlecruisers appear. should have 2 power up modules around that time.


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USING BOMB - the bomb should be collected as often as you can. no point taking the power up you already have. just keep accumulating the bombs. if the situation looks really tight, BOMB! this applies to every scene, especially level 2 (all parts) and level 3 (some parts, and the boss).

my ending score at level 8 was about 428k or so. have fun!

1. safest part of the screen is lower half but towards the center of the screen. the lowest part of the screen is NOT safest.

2. DO NOT be distracted by power ups! They're the main cause of losing life in shooter games. Count yourself how many times you got hit when attempting to get that power up module? MANY. Better miss it than to "die" and pick up lesser.

3. If you already have most of the power ups, then you can afford to let go some.

4. DO NOT pick up power up modules that are hovering around the sides and top of the screen, they're the most dangerous location. (this is related the safety zone stated in point #1). enemy units come from top the most, sides the next. lower sides and bottom are the least but they still do appear.

5. Your ship usually move faster forward and slower in reverse, or in some case it feels that way because of the background movement that gives the illusion.

6. When there's a lot of "bullets" going around the screen, you need to plan ahead. Notice how a lot of attackers spread their salvo, the safest point is when the salvo is at furthest from the shooter, that's when the spread widens and you get to escape.

*will add more if I can think of any.