Battletoads in Battlemaniacs v 1.4 8-28-03 author: Dimetric Houston e-mail: dhousto6@bellsouth.net CONTENTS: Introduction Updates Story Controls Combos and Smash Hits Walkthrough Tips, Tricks and Secrets Credits ------------------------------------------------------------------------ INTRODUCTION: Hello all. This FAQ covers the game Battletoads in Battlemaniacs for the Super Nintendo. It is the sequel to the Battletoads game for the NES. It is a cool action game. I am not going to bother with the copyright stuff. If you are low enough to try to bank a profit off of this, or you decide to plagiarize it, that's your wretched morality. The newest version of this FAQ can be found at the following sites: GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPDATES: v 1.0 8-26-02 -First edition -most stage info present v 1.1 2-22-03 -correction in Walkthrough section for lv.4 and map for level 5 -updated Credits section v 1.2 4-16-03 -updated Combos and Smash Hits section -updated Credits section v 1.3 4-26-03 -updated Walkthrough section (at the end) -updated Credits section v 1.4 8-28-03 -added secret to Stage 2 and Stage 3 -updated Credits section -------------------------------------------------------------------------- STORY The evil genius, Silas Volkmire, and his sidekick, the Dark Queen, have kidnapped the daughter of a well-renowned scientist and Zitz, one of the awesome Battletoads. Now the remaining Battletoads, Rash and Pimple, must rescue the two captives and stop the deadly duo from fulfilling their plans to control the world. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTROLS D-pad: Moves character (down is ducking in some stages) B: attack A/Y: jump X: pick up/put down Select: none (selects sound options in character select screen) Start: pause L/R button: none Additional moves: Run: tap twice in the left or right directions. For example, to run to the right, press right once, the quickly press it again and hold it. You will run as long as you are holding the direction. Throw: Press X near an opponent to pick them up, then B to throw them. Note: In a bizarre twist of character selection, the Battletoads are permanently assigned to the controller ports. Pimple is assigned to the left port, Rash to the right port. So if you are playing a one player game and wish to play Rash, you must plug your controller into the 2nd controller port. Player 1 always will control Pimple, Player 2 will always control Rash. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ COMBOS AND SMASH HITS The Battletoads tour de force is their ability to alter their limbs to become massively damaging objects to attack opponents. Whenever you do a hit that will kill a foe, the 'toad will change their attacking limb to an object that will finish the opponent (knocking them off the screen usually). This hit is called a "Smash Hit". Your characters normally attack with three hit combos. The third attack knocks the opponent to the floor or back through the air quite a bit. Here are the combo attacks for the different Battletoads: Pimple: 2 punches, shin kick Rash : 2 spin kicks, jumping face kick. Other normal attacks occur when attacking opponents while doing a certain type of action. This includes running, jumping, or attacking a foe that is lying on the ground. The Battletoads have different Smash Hits depending on what they are doing when they kill an opponent. I am putting the Smash Hits in a table. Smash Hit names are from the manual. Here are descriptions of the row titles: Combo: This is the final hit of the 3-hit combo. So if Rash will kill a foe with his combo, the third hit will be the Sidearm Slice instead of the jumping face kick. Dash: This is what will happen if you attack (and kill) a foe while running. Jump: This is what will happen if you attack (and kill) a foe while jumping in the air. Ground: This is if you attack a foe that is lying on the ground. VS - this means Vertical Stage. These smash hits apply for Stage 2 which scrolls down. "Normal" means what will happen if you attack a foe yourself. "Platform" means what will happen if you use the platform you are on to attack a foe. Pimple: Rash: ====== ==== Combo: Bt Big Hammer Sidearm Slice Dash: Battletoad Butt Big Boot Block Jump: Anvil Swipe Flying Battleaxe Ground: Big Bad Boot Ball n' Chain VS normal: Jawbuster Full Metal Earmuffs VS platform: Take out the Trash Push n' Crush (side of screen) VS platform: Wun-Tun Stomp Springin' Stamp (top of screen) Remember, these hits only appear if you will KILL an opponent. If the foe will still live from your attack, you will do a regular attack. How do you know if your hit will kill an opponent? You don't. If the Smash Hit comes out, then you know you have killed the foe. Ok, more info on the platform Smash Hits. "Side of screen" means that you perform these Smash Hits by placing your 'toad at the side of the screen and pressing the attack button. For example, push toward the right side of the screen, the press the attack button. Your Battletoad will kick the platform to the other side of the screen, damaging whatever is in the plaform's path. "Top of screen" means to get at the top of the screen, continue pressing up, then press the attack button. As you will notice, "Take out the Trash" and "Push n' Crush" don't have any limb changes for the Battletoads. Thanks to. . .hold on. . .inhale. . . Guesty the man the myth the legend and ultimate sex god . . .exhale. . . Whew! Anyway, thanks to the above gentlemen for the information for the "Take out the Trash" and "Push n' Crush Smash Hits." Now I can let my hair grow back after tearing it out repeatedly ^_^. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- WALKTHROUGH This walkthrough will help you through Battletoads. As most stages are reflex stages, knowing where obstacles are ahead of time will be invaluable to you. Most stage names are from the manual, others I made up. Stage 1: Khaos Mountains ======== This is the only "fighting" stage in the whole game, so enjoy beating up opposition while you can. Your main concern here is the falling sections of ground. If you are on such a section and fall off the screen, you will lose a life. At the start of the stage, a cave entrance appears on the left. A pig will come out of it. Kill this one and another comes from the right. Kill this one and go right. A white skeleton will jump out of the small volcano. After this, you will come across two cave entrances. Get both of them fully on the screen. Now get in the middle of them, as far up as you can go. A pig will come out of each one. Stay still. Let them approach you and when they are in range, attack. You will do a two-sided attack that will nail both foes. Keep doing this until they die. Stay still after this because two more pigs will appear from the caves. Repeat the two-sided attack like before. Go right. A skeleton will pop out of each small volcano. After this, stay away from the bottom of the screen and proceed right just a bit. A small portion of the ground will collapse. This will happen constantly, so pay close attention to my advice for positioning. After going right a ways, a cave will rise out of the ground. Three foes will come out of this one. First will be two yellow pigs (easy kills), then a purple one later on. Keep right after this. Eventually the ground around a small volcano will rise and a blue skeleton pops out. It is just stronger than the white ones, but otherwise fights the same. After this the screen will shake and a volcano in the background will erupt. Now you will have to deal with falling fireballs. Start moving around in a circle. One fireball will drop. Now get to the bottom of the screen and wait about four seconds. Now move to the left. A fireball will drop where you were. Wait about four more seconds and move to the right. Another fireball will drop. There are a total of eight fireballs that will drop. The time interval between drops decreases by about one second after the third fireball, so keep moving back and forth. You will get the timing. With two players, the fireball drop rate is much faster. After this, proceed right and a large section of the top and bottom ground will collapse. You need to stay in the middle of the screen area to avoid dieing. There is a small volcano in the area. Get right under it. The horizontal line that you are on is where you need to be to be safe. You will next see a bridge. You need to dash around this bridge because it burns away REALLY fast. So run across and jump after you cross the middle section. Do an attack and you will nail a pig sitting right at the edge of the bridge, plus be on safe ground. Ok, now two pigs will appear, and unfortunately you don't have much room to move in. If possible, get them on both sides of you and do the two-side attack. If that is not possible, do a jump attack on the one nearest you, then quickly jump attack the other one. Don't try to combo them, as the other will nail you while you beat up one of them. You need to knock them down so you have moving time. After them, get in the middle of the screen area, then go right. The top and bottom ground portions will fall away. Later on, the ground in front of you will split vertically. You can either wait until it finishes opening or jump across while it is opening. On the other side, get as far right as possible. Three skeletons will pop out of the small volcano. Jump straight up and attack as each one comes near you. If you far enough to the right, you will knock the skeletons into the big hole on your left. Easy wins! After another small volcano, the ground will rise on both sides of the screen. You will be in the valley between the risings. Get around the middle of the valley and get to the right as far as you can go. Two pigs will appear on the walls. Since you are on the right, the pig on the left will jump. Now move down. If you were positioned right, it will hit its partner on the other wall. This may kill the other pig or not. If it does, deal with the remaining pig as you see fit. If not, do jumping attacks to knock them away from you so you have moving time. After them, get to the right because a black pig will jump in from the right wall. These are the most resilient of the pigs and take much more damage than the other two classes. Kill this one, then get to the bottom of the screen and proceed right. Now comes a tricky part. A cave will rise out of the ground and three black pigs will appear. This one is tough to get through without getting hit as one player. Your best bet is jump attacks. However, you will need to do a lot of zig-zag movements to prevent the pigs from getting bead on you. The pigs try to follow you and stay on whatever side of you they are on. If one is on your left, it will try to stay on your left, even while you move around. When one pig comes out, attack it as furiously as you can. A dash attack or combo is good. Keep attacking until the next one appears. If you can manage a two-side attack, go for it. Otherwise, jump attack the one that appeared. By now, the first one is up and the third one has come out. If you can make the pigs attack each other, that will help you out greatly. There are two situations you will find yourself in: Surrounded: Here, one pig is on one side of you, and the other two are on the other side. This one is actually a little easier to deal with. Let's say you are at the bottom of the screen with one pig on your left and two on your right. Go to the upper left. When you are just about at the top, go to the lower left by jumping. Press down-left, then QUICKLY press jump. You basically want to be in the air and trying to move while in the air. Attack now. You should nail the one pig. Press toward the lower right. You are moving toward the two pigs (which probably are overlapping each other). You will move faster than the pigs, so try to get beneath their plane. Now press up toward them with a jump attack. You want to try to hit one of the pigs to knock it away. The remaining pig is set up for an attack from the pig on your left. The pig on your left may try to hit you, but you should be out of its plane of attack. The other pig is not so fortunate. What you want to do is keep doing jump attacks, but you must not be on the same horizontal line as the pigs. You want to be either above or beneath them and basically come into their line with an attack. Technically, you are doing a 3D attack, but that's far too complicated to explain. One-side: Here, all three pigs are on one side of you. This one is harder to deal with, because if you hit one of the pigs, one of the other ones will get you. Try to get into the surrounded state (the situation mentioned above). Again, do your planar attacks--attacking at an angle. If you get above the trio, come toward them from an angle and do a jump attack, but try not to end up directly in line with the pigs. You want to try to cap on of them and still leave yourself safe. Once you get them separated, it is a little easier as they can end up attacking each other After that rather nasty part, get as far right as you can. A black pig will fly in from the right and fall toward the left. You will be out of range of its attack in your position. Now kill it. To do this faster, after knocking the pig down, pick it up (X button), then get right beside the white column. Press A to toss the pig into oblivion. To your right is a hole. Jump across it and get as far right as possible. Three green skeletons will come out of the lava below you. Jump straight up and attack as they come near you. With proper positioning, you will knock them into the hole you jumped across. Go right again and another erupting volcano appears in the background. This one is like its predecessor, except there are nine fireballs to deal with. I think there are more if you have two players. Stay at the bottom of the screen while dealing with this. Now go right. A very large chunk of the top ground falls (statue and all). Good thing you were at the bottom of the screen. Another bridge awaits. This is the same as before, so run across and do a jump attack to kill the lone pig at the end. Get to the far right as a black pig will fall in. Knock this one down, pick it up, then get to the very bottom of the screen, around the middle of the bottom. Toss the pig to the left into its fiery death. Now, the portion of the ground you are on is about to fall away, so get about one character length from the bridge and jump to the right. You should land on safe ground. If not, keep trying to jump to the right to get off the falling ground. Keep going right and you will come to the boss of this stage. Boss: Rocky Your foe here is a big stone pig. Just keep attacking Rocky to kill him. You will notice that all hits you do on Rocky are Smash Hits. Don't let it concern you that Rocky lives even though you are doing Smash Hits. He is too big for regular attacks. When the fight begins, Rocky will be on the right side of the screen. Attack him until you knock him off the screen. Now move the far left edge of the screen. Rocky has only one attack. He jumps in the air and crashes down on the ground trying to crush you. When he jumps, you will see his shadow on the ground. Move to the left edge of the screen. Rocky will land right beside you. Attack now! Every time you hit him, he will be knocked back a bit. You will be able to hit him three times before you knock him off the screen. Now run back to the left edge again and wait for him to come down from the air again and repeat the pattern. Try not to touch Rocky with your body. Doing so will put you in a "smashed" state just like what happens if Rocky lands on you. Stage 2: Infested Tree ======== The vertical stage mentioned in the above section. You are on floating platforms that are slowly descending through a tree. You will always be on these platforms--there is no danger of falling off. You must attack the foes that appear. You can either attack them yourself or use your platform against them. To do this, place your character against the edge of the screen (for example, the top of the screen), press against that edge, then press the attack button. Your 'toad will send the platform across the screen in the opposite direction, damaging or killing any foes in its way. At the start, you will see large metallic insects on the sides. There are four of these bugs (two on right, two on left). Attack them to kill them. If you wait too long, they will start flying and try to sting you. Avoid the sting. NEW!! liddoxtc [liddoxtc@xtasynetwork.net] indicates that you can gain an extra life with these bugs. If you hit a bug five or more times, you gain an extra life. Big thanks to liddoxtc. After this, get to the left side of the screen. Two snakes will appear on the right. Use your platform to kill them. If you can't kill the top one with your platform (possibly out of range), wait until the snake stops snapping at you, then quickly rush in and combo it. After this, guide your 'toad through the spiked area, then you will come across eight bugs (four on left and right). If you are fast enough, get to the upper portion of the screen, above a column of bugs and do the platform attack straight down. You whould nail a slew of the bugs. Now you will come across a multitude of snakes. Here is how they will appear: 2L L/R= left and right respectively 1L, 1R 1,2= one or two foes 1R, 1L 2R In the case of the 1L,1R/2L,2R snakes, the first one mentioned appears first. After this, you will face the "rat cannons." Here, large rats will be fired at you from the side of the screen. You can not hit these rats, so what you must do is dodge them. As you and the rats are rather large, that doesn't give you a lot room to move, so what do you do? The way to do this is to do your platform attack. The rat(s) will pass through you without harming you. Here is how the rats will appear: *1R L/R=left and right respectively *1L *1R *1L 4R 1L 3L *Here, I mean that the rat appears on one line. A cannon will usually fire two rats at you before it goes off the screen. One rat will be fired, then another one later on. In the case of the three and four rats, these appear simultaneously (or ever so close to that) and are on multiple lines. Do your platform attack when the rat is near you. Guide your toad through more spikes, then deal with another group of eight insects. After this you will fight the magnet rats. These are large rats that hold a magnet. The magnet draws you to the rat, then the rat punches you. When the magnet draws you in, count one second, then attack. You will hit the rat and knock it away. There are four of these rats. They alternate sides, one on the left, then the right, etc. After this comes the laser bots. Stay near the top of the screen. There are four of them. One will come out and get near you. Attack it. It will whiz around the screen and get in another position. Attack again. It will keep whizzing every time you hit it until you kill it. As you attack, the bot will end up in a position on the other side of you, a little below you since you are at the top of the screen. Therefore when you attack, move down and face the other direction to be ready for the bot's new position. Laser bots (on this stage) take about five hits to kill. If you hit them so much that they get out of range off the screen, do a platform attack on them. After killing one, another one will appear a little later. After this one, two will appear together. Let them get lined up with you, then move out the way when they start opening up. One of them will blast the other one. Now attack the one that got hit. It should die immediately. Now deal with the other one. After this, two more snakes appears. You can only do a vertical platform attack here if you want to do such an attack, as spikes line the wall. Kill the snakes and proceed. Now you will come across some fans. The fans try to blow you into the wall spikes. There are a total of 12 fans. The first four alternate side, so press against them to keep from being blown away. The next four line the left wall. The fourth fan here pulls you in instead of blowing you away, so press away from the fan to keep from being pulled in. Try not to get too far to the right wall because. . . Another group of four fans appears later, lining the right wall. The first fan here pulls you, so press toward it. After the last group of fans, get your reflexes ready. Get to the top of the screen, in the middle of the top. The scrolling will increase in speed about three times what it was. What you have to do is guide your toad through the spike field. When this first starts, start heading toward the left to go down the path, then start going to the right. After this, you will have to do a quick left/right movement to get through some alternating length spikes. The pattern mostly goes as thus: long fall to left, long fall to right, quick left/right fall Get through this and you go to the bonus round. Bonus Round: Bowling Pins =========== A chance to get some extra lives. You can't "die" here in the true sense of the word, but if you lose all your life points, the round is over and you go on to the next stage. What you have to do is collect all the good bowling pins. Good pins are white and red or white and blue. Bad pins are black with skulls on them. Each red and white pin is worth 1 point. Blue and white pins are worth 5 points. Hitting bad pins takes away life units and your pin count, so definitely avoid these! Also in your way are rats riding the same platform you do. Touching these rats subtracts from your pin total. You get an extra life for every 100 pins you collect. Remaining pins are added to your score. All this is done at the end of the round. I have tremendous trouble trying to remember how everything is laid out here, so there will be sporadic updates to fill in missing areas: I am calling red and white pins, red pins. Blue and white pins are called blue pins. First up is a large group of red pins. They are laid out like this: X X X X X X X X X X X Then a line of red pins will be in the middle of the screen. There are about 14 of them. Now red pins will be at the top and bottom of the screen. Choose a side to get on and collect those pins. Another line of pins appears in the middle of the screen. After this, there is an alternation of pins at the top and bottom of the screen with pins in the middle of the screen. After this group comes your first rat encounter. Get at the bottom of the screen. The rats come in pairs, doing vertical zig-zag motions. When one gets near you, wait until it is at the top of its motion, then move past it, stopping in front of the other one. When the the other one goes up, go past it. Now move back so you have room to repeat this pattern with the next pair. There are five pairs of these rats. / X X / / \ \ / X \ \ X After this, stay at the bottom and get to the far left. Rats will start coming at you at high speed. They will come on one of three horizontal lines: the very top, of the screen, the middle, and the very bottom (where you are, most likely). So the first one will pass you with no problem; ditto with the second. After the second one, move up a bit so the third one goes past you. Now go back down and repeat. There are three sets of these. X <--- X <--- They are about 2 seconds apart. X <--- Now get to the middle of the screen. After this is a group of rats that alternate positions. First two of them will come at you, then one of them will come at you. The pair will appear on the top and bottom of the screen, while the loner will appear in the middle. After the pair of rats pass you (you ARE in the middle of the screen, right?), get to the top or bottom of the screen so the rogue rat passes you. Then get back to the middle to repeat the pattern. X <---- X <---- X <---- After going through three groups of these, they alternate. Now the lone rat will come first, then the pair. X <---- X <---- X <---- After this group, the rats will come in pairs, this time alternating between the top and bottom of the screen. So just move up and down to avoid them. X <--- X <--- X <--- X <--- After this, red pins will appear, alternating between the large group and the line of pins like at the beginning. After this, the pins will appear in zig-zag formation. Just get in line with them and keep moving to get each one. The zig-zag starts at the top of the screen, then proceeds in a diagonal line to the bottom, zig-zags some more into a diagonal line going back to the top. It repeats this way for a ways. After this, the black pins start appearing, so be wary. Get in the screen middle to collect some pins and avoid the black ones. Pins will start appearing in groups of six, alternating between the top and bottom of the screen. Two of the pins in these groups are black, so watch out. More to come later. Stage 3: Speeder Bikes ======== Excitebike fans rejoice! This stage will be the death of you until you memorize where everything is, but don't give up! This stage is divided into five sections. You enter a new section every time you cross the blue and white "finish line". Here you are riding fast speed bikes. You will only use the d-pad and the jump button here. What you must do is avoid the barriers that are placed throughout this course, as well as a few other obstacles. For the most part, barriers are signaled by flashing at the right end of the screen a few times before they materialize, so pay close attention to the right side of the screen. section 1: --------- Two long barriers will appear shortly. After you see them flash, count about two seconds, then jump. Now vertical barriers will appear. They will alternate between the top and bottom of the screen. There are four of these. Two at the bottom and two at the top. After this, single vertical barriers will appear and act like the above group. There are four of these. Now four long barriers will appear. Two will appear, then two more later. Now an group of long barriers will appear. The setup is 1,1,2. This means a single barrier, single barrier, two barriers. The two barriers appear soon after the single barrier, so after you jump the second single barrier, immediately jump again. section 2: --------- Now ramps are introduced. These are light-blue objects with a white arrow on them. These will help propel you into the air. To get even more height, press jump when you hit the ramps. A ramp appears soon after this sections starts. It is in the middle of the track, so get in the middle and use the ramp. Now pairs of vertical barriers will appear in quick succession. Starting at the bottom, they alternate between the bottom and top of the track. Two long barriers (a distance apart) will appear after this. You will now come across four ramps. This is how they appear: 2 4 1 3 So when you jump ramp 1, press up to go to the top of the screen (you will still be in the air). Once you jump ramp 2, press down to get to the bottom of the screen in time to reach ramp 3, then up again for ramp 4. Now vertical barriers will appear in threes. The setup is like thus: X X X They come fast, so be ready for quick vertical movements. section 3: --------- The tricky stuff starts now, with the introduction of air barriers. First one lone long barrier appears. Jump it. Now three air barriers will appear. DO NOT JUMP! A shadow appears under these barriers to let you know they are in the air. If you jump, you will be one crushed toad. Let the three barriers pass over you. Now comes a case of a long barrier on the ground, followed by an air barrier. So jump the long barrier, stay on the ground until the air barrier goes over you, then jump again. It continues like this for a three sets. The vertical barriers appear again, with a pair at top and a pair at bottom. After you pass a set of these, a ramp* will appear at the top, so start moving up to get ready for it. *This may be an air ramp, meaning you have to jump in the air to hit the ramp and use it. I'll verify this. Now you will come across three long barriers, but you have to be more timely with the jump. These barriers are placed far apart, but you have to get over them with one jump. What you must do is let the first barrier come near you a bit, then do a long jump (press and hold the jump button). You may should press forward to try to clear these barriers. Count about two and one-half seconds, or even three seconds to make this jump. Start counting when the first barrier flashes into existence. Now four sets of the paired vertical barriers appears. They start at the bottom and alternate between top and bottom. Now comes another long jump over three barriers. Now get the bottom of the screen quickly. You will see a ramp in the middle of the track. Ignore it! I repeat, ignore it! Right after this are three air barriers. Taking the ramp would have sent you right into them. After this is a "double ramp"--two ramps stacked on top of one another. This type of ramp is to help you do a super looooooooooooong jump. However, you have to hit this ramp the right way, or you'll jump too short and fall to your death in that pit of. . .of. . .um, peanuts. Yeah, that's it. Peanunts. Ok, peanuts, acorns, corn kernels, those big yellow things making up the lower floor, you get the idea. I can't really tell you what the "right" way is. Basically, try to jump into the area between the ramps, where one ramp touches the other. If you kind of coast through the air, slowly rising up, you have done it right. Now move to the bottom of the screen to catch another ramp that appears, then push up to get another one. section 4: --------- First up are three ramps, positioned like so: X X X After this are three air barriers. After them are the paired vertical barriers (four sets). After this are a new menace--the rat pods. These are floating green ships that ride on the course. You just need to dodge them. They are easy to get through, as they are like the rats that do the zig-zag motions in the bonus round. NEW!! liddoxtc [liddoxtc@xtasynetwork.net] comes through again with a great strategy for the rat pods. All you have to do is stay at the upper left corner of the track and the rat pods won't hit you. After this, things get beyond hectic. now you will make jumps that make you fall into the. . .peanut floor. There are no worries though, other than the fact that you are tearing up the peanuts, literally. Keep pressing the jump button while you tread through the floor. Eventually you will come across a gray peanut that is actually a ramp. It will jolt you back onto the following land mass, that is, IF you were pressing jump. You will also come across a part that has you jumping land masses. The track will be broken up and you will have to jump from land piece to land piece. Jump as far as you can. You should only land in the peanut floor if you are the end of a long jump. Peanut ramps occur about twice during this part, so try to stay on land as much as possible. If you hit the floor, press jump repeatedly so that you can catch the peanut ramp when it appears. section 5: --------- Get your thumb ready now. It will be red and sore after this one. Now you will have single vertical barriers appear. They will start at the top of the track and alternate between top and bottom. There are 22 of them. What's the catch here? For one, they don't flash into existence. They will just appear from the right side of the screen. That's not your problem. Your problem--you will notice five seconds after starting--is that you will suddenly kick into overdrive and go forward at really high speed. This means that you will have to move up and down very quickly to avoid crashing into the barriers. Get in the middle of the track, not the middle of the screen. You will make short vertical movements. I mean, really short. You won't go the very top or bottom of the track. Stay around the middle area. It will take a bit of time for you to get the hand of trying to move fast enough, but it will come to you. Just don't let your thumb slip. Stage 4: Karnath's Revenge ======== Here you have to jump on the big snakes and make it to the exit. Your only concern here are all the spikes that lie around the stage. Touch one and you lose a life. Use the jump button to jump. Press jump to grab onto a snake also. You can also press the d-pad toward the snake to grab it. There are four sections to this stage. section 1: --------- No spikes are in this area, so you are safe from danger. You'll start off riding a yellow snake (actually yellow and black, but I mention the one color). Grab onto it when it starts going up. Stay on it as it goes into the wall. When the grey snake comes out, get on it. When the gray snake moves down, stay on its upper body a second or two, then go over the side of it. You will see that it has made a type of pit for you to fall in. Grab onto it and ride it to the wall. Now jump onto the yellow snake that appears. When the yellow snake approaches some white rocks suspended in the air, jump on those rocks. Wait until a grey snake comes near you (it will be about five to seven seconds before it appears). Grab onto this snake and ride it to the next part. section 2: --------- Ok, now the spikes start appearing. You will enter riding the once grey snake you are on--it is now a bright color (yellow or orange). Jump onto the platform that appears. Do a small jump to get to this platform (briefly tap the jump button). A long jump will cause you to hit some spikes. Wait on this platform until the snake starts going vertically up. Jump and grab onto it. When the snake goes left, jump over the spike ball, then duck to duck under the next one. Let the snake go into the wall. When it goes in all the way, you will fall onto a now emerging green snake. Jump over the spikes in your way, and ride this snake to the wall. Jump up onto a yellow snake when it appears. Ride this snake to the wall, but stay near the edge of the snake (the edge being at the point where it makes a 90 degree turn to the wall). Now jump to the left to land on a fast moving green snake. Duck while riding this snake to go under a wall. When this snake reaches the next wall, jump up. Three short fast moving snakes will appear. Jump up on each one as it goes into the wall. Jump up from the final one to get on a normal speed long green snake. When the green snake goes down, push to the left. The snake will make a loop into the wall below you. Stay on the snake and let it finish its ride. When it goes completely into the wall, you will fall onto a yellow snake. Press left to say on the horizontal part of this snake. Stay like this until you see a green snake emerge from the right. Jump onto this snake to go to the next part. section 3: --------- Upon entering, another snake will be going up beside the one you are on. Jump to the left to grab this snake. You will go past a spike ball. Once past it, jump back to the right to grab your original snake. When this snake carries you to the left, jump over the spikes you see (small jump I believe) and let the snake finish its ride to the wall. Once it reaches the wall, press left and hold it. When the snake goes completely into the wall, you will fall onto three fast moving short snakes. The snakes are going to the right--which leads into some spikes. Since you are pressing left, you are not affected. After the third small snake goes away, jump up. When you come down, you will land on a long slow snake. Now you are coming to a tricky part. Jump over the spikes the snake curves around (small jumps for this next part, please. . .it's REALLY "spikey" at this point ^^) and get to the wall the snake is going into. Jump onto the red snake that appears. Let the snake carry you to the wall. Now start pushing to the right and jump onto the snake when it goes up. Let the snake finish its ride into the wall. When it goes completely away, you can either jump to be safe or just fall. You will land on a fast moving yellow snake. When it goes into the wall, jump again to get on a fast moving red snake. Jump up again when it goes into the wall to get on a slow moving snake. Jump over the spikes at your left. You will land on a fast moving red snake going to the right. Jump over the spikes at your right. When the snake goes into the wall, jump up to land on a fast green snake. Duck under the first spikes, then IMMEDIATELY stand and jump to the left over the four spikes. You will now go to the last part. Note: The above point can be troublesome. Ducking down and then trying to jump as soon as you stand up. You have to try to be going to the left while you are jumping. The problem is that you cut the momentum the snake gives you when you stand and try to jump. Just keep trying if you are having trouble, or e-mail me and I can try to give some extra advice. section 4: --------- Oh no. Now you are on ice. Slipping and sliding into spikes just makes for a lovely day. The first part is bound to get most folk. Jump over the spike at your left. Now you must SLIDE under the four spikes at your left. To do this, you must have enough momentum from the jump you just made. So when you jump over the lone spike, make sure you press left and far as you can and press the jump button to do a long jump. This should propel you enough to enable you to slide. In short review, jump over the first spike, then duck down afterward. If you are going fast enough, you will slide under the four spikes. Once past them (make sure you are past them before standing), grab onto the snake and ride it to the wall, jumping over any spikes in your way (small jumps). At the wall, jump when the snake goes away and you will come down on a purple snake. Jump over the spike at your right. Stay on the horizontal part of this snake (press left when it goes down to stay on the upper body) until a white snake appears above you. Get onto this snake and duck down the whole journey. When the snake completes its course into the wall, you will fall onto a purple snake. Duck under the spikes, then press to the left to stay on the horizontal body. When the snake goes up, jump and grab it. When the snake comes before some spikes, press left to stay just in front of the spikes, but not so much that you fall off the snake. When you hear the sound of a new snake appearing, jump to the left to land on a white snake. Let the snake complete its course. At the wall, jump up to land on a purple snake when it appears. Now jump to the right, then to the left when the white snake appears. Follow it until a purple snake appears, then jump onto this snake. Ride this snake until you see a gray snake appear beside it (both snakes will be going up). Jump onto the gray snake to go past a spike ball, then jump to the right to avoid another spike ball. Then jump left again quickly to avoid a third spike ball. When the gray snake finishes its course, you will land on a purple snake. Press to the left to stay at the wall. When the snake completely emerges, stay at the left and you will fall onto its body as it continues to move. Once you fall, let go of the controller. You will be hopping on the snake's tail while it is moving down. A few hops of this and you will go to the next stage. Strange, but true. NEW: Thanks to Kerhst, it IS possible to reach the exit if you ride the purple snake to the exit sign. You must get a running start on the platform with the spikes, or better yet, use the momentum given from the snake to get a running start. Then duck down and slide under the spikes to the exit. If you by chance forget to just let the game take over and instead try to make for the exit sign, use Kerhst's advice, elsewise just let the game do the work for you. Stage 5: Tracktors ======== Your foe here is Fuzz, fast on your tail with a buzzsaw equipped tracktor. You just have to keep moving without slowing down too much, or else Fuzz will saw you in half. There are also some hazards to watch out for as well, walls that need to be ducked under and holes that need to be jumped over. The way I am doing this is to mention each direction you will go. This will look blasted confusing. It will be infinitely easier once you memorize the layout. Following this is a map of the level for those desiring visible help. D--down R--right L--left U--up j--jump ->use A for this d--duck ->press down on the d-pad D,R,U,R,D,R,D,L,D,L,U,L,U,L,U,L,D,R,D,L,U,L,D,L,U2,R(d),U,R(ramp),U,L,D,R,D,L D,L,D3,R,D,R,D,R,D,L,D,L,D,L,D,L,U,L,D,L,D,R,D,R,U,R,U,R,U,R,U,R(j),U,R(ramp) U,R(ramp),L,U,R(ramp)4,U,L,D,L,D,L,U,L,U,L,D,R(j),D,R(j)5,D,L,D,R,U,R(d),U,R, D,L,D,R,D,L,D,R,D,L,U,L,U,L,D,L,D,L,D,R (d,j,d,j,j) You will notice numbers in the above directions. The numbers go with the following map. Each number indicates the beginning of a new map section. Ok, I have decided to try to map this level. As the level layout is too convoluted to attempt to make it one map piece, I have divided the map into sections. Each section has a number at two places (except the first section which has "start". The numbers are to try to make the connection of the sections more fluid. Section 1 has the number "2" at one end of the lines. In section 2, you will see the number "1" at the lower part of the map. This indicates that you are "entering" section 2 at that point. The maps are not drawn to scale, although I have attempted to try to get the lengths of segments reasonably close to their true length. section 1: start --------------| |---| |__| |____ | ----| | | |__ ____| | | | | |__ | | | | | |___| | | |___________ | 2 |--| | | | | | |___| |----- section 2: _____________ | | | | | | ----| | | | ____| | | _____| | | 3 / _________/ | | | 1-------d-------| Note: The entering of section 2 is not to scale at all. I just made the segment long to give me room to work with the rest of the map piece. Once you go up from the end of section one and go right, you will have to duck down fast. The wall in your way is close to the turn you make. section 3: 4 / _____/ | |_____ | | 2-----------------------| |____ / | ____/ |___ | | | ___| | ___| | / ____ ___| _____/ | | | | | |___| ___j___| | | | ___| | | | ___| | | |__________| Note: Again, the entering part is not to scale. section 4: ________ _____ | | | | | | | |___ |--- | | | | 3 | |___| | | | -------j----- | |____j ______ 5 section 5: 4------------- | | _____ ____| | | | _____d_____| | | | | |_____________| | | __________________| | ------------------ | __________________| | ------------------ ____ | | | | ____| |____ | | | | ____| |________| | | | |_________d___j___d__j___j_____ end Notes: The long horizontal parts in section 5 are close to scale. Whew! Ok, a few noteworthy things. *The ramps are just parts where you go sailing off the rail into the air and catch a rail on the wall. There is nothing to do on your part. This happens automatically. It is just something I put here let you know what is happening. *You will notice signs through this stage. Square signs reading "DANGER!" and diamond signs with exclamation points in them. These have a rectangle sign under them reading "RAIL OUT!". Danger signs indicate an upcoming wall that needs to be ducked under. Rail out signs indicate a hole that needs to be jumped over. Don't do the required action as soon as you see the sign. Do the action about two seconds after you pass the sign. *At the last R shown above you see d,j,d,j,j. You will continue to head to the right, but several signs appear. You will have to duck, jump, duck, and jump twice quickly. Bonus Round: Dominoes =========== Your second and last chance for extra lives. I'll try to do a hint guide here soon. Good dominoes are white with a red dot in the middle. Bad ones are black. White dominoes are worth one point. Dominoes full of blue dots are worth five points. The rats are here again too. The layout is real erratic here, so I'll try to give a guide later on. As far as the rats go, expect the zig-zag ones, the ones that appear as X X X and the paired up rats X X X X There is a new setup similar to the above but with a set of rats X X X X X X Stage 6: Final Stage ======= Here you are going down the tower to reach the Dark Queen. Besides some hazards, you main concern is the big rat named Scuzz that races you. You must beat him to the bottom of each section and set off the TNT to blow him up before he does the same to you. You can hit Scuzz to try to slow him down. Hitting him makes him hop a bit. Usually he'll hop into the wall and go backwards, giving you some time to get ahead of him. However, be careful. You can hit and him and actually knock him ahead of you! If you are falling through the air and he catches up with you, hitting him makes him go up a bit, thus keeping you a little ahead of him. There are three sections to get through: section 1: --------- Two laser bots appear here. They take just one hit to kill--that hit will be a Smash Hit. Wait until the first one fires, then hit it. Fall off the platform and kill the second one. You will notice heads in the wall. These shoot multi-striking fireballs; if the fireball hits you, it counts for multiple hits and can cost you quite a few life units (3 to 5, I think). Get near the edge of the platform above the head, wait for it to fire, then fall off and quickly proceed away from the head when you hit the next platform. Once you get past the heads, Scuzz pops out and the race is on. The essence of beating Scuzz is to stay on a platform as little as possible. Therefore, you should attempt to always hit the edge of a platform so you can fall off it as soon as possible. Short travel time on a platform is essential to beating Scuzz. Once you fall a few planks, you will have a long fall going to the left, followed by a long fall to the right. You will notice that the planks start out short and get longer as you fall. Stay in the air as much as possible. Don't hit a platform as that will slow you down trying to get back off it. Hit Scuzz if he is near you. If you are on a long plank and Scuzz is close behind you, turn to hit him when you are near the edge of the plank. Don't turn to hit him if you are near the front of the plank away from the edge that you must fall over. Hitting here at this point will make him hop and possibly let him fall over the plank (thereby getting a good lead on you) instead of bouncing into the wall and going backwards. Here are some diagrams to show what I mean: O - your character X - Scuzz A - the edge of the plank (the part you fall over) 1. O X A------------ 2. O X A------------ Diagram 1 shows a good point to hit Scuzz. You are over the middle of the plank. Diagram 2 shows a bad point. You are still near the middle of the plank. Hitting Scuzz here is risky as it may send him into A instead of the wall. After this, you will come across planks jutting out of the left and right sides of the screen. Essentially, you want to stay in the middle of the screen as much as possible. Again, this entails just barely hitting the edge of a plank so you can immediately come off it into open space. At the end of this is a long plank that you must go off the left edge to continue. Scuzz may catch up with you here if you are not far ahead of him. Be ready to smack him if you see him. More alternating planks after this, then another long plank that must be fallen off of on the left side. Then you will come across a moving bridge with a hole in it. Fall through the hole into open air until you reach the bomb. Stand over the bomb and press the attack button to blow Scuzz up for this part. You will now fall to the next part. section 2: --------- More laser bots here, plus the additional hazards of flying arrows. You will see black square space in the side walls. Arrows will fly out of these spaces in intervals. Time your falls. Getting comboed by an arrow and laser bolt is not good. After this comes a long fall (can't remember direction). More moving bridges appear. Three of them together. Getting through them gives you an encounter with more alternating planks (the ones where you should try to stay in the center of the screen). After this are more moving bridges and alternating planks, ending with yet more moving bridges. Get through these to get to the bomb and blow away Scuzz again to fall to the final part. section 3: --------- Yet more laser bots. The fireball shooters are here again too. There is another hazard to add as well. You will notice another kind of face on the walls too. It is kind of puffy, cute, and purple. Bubbles are floating around this face. This faces are wind blowers. They are situated opposite the fireball shooters. They try to blow you into the fireball shooters. Press toward the blowers to resist their wind. Once the fireball dissapates let the blower either blow you off the plank, or head toward the edge of the plank yourself. The extra power of the blower will make you move faster. After this barrage, you hit the alternating planks, followed by long planks going left and right (watch for Scuzz). Then more alternating planks, moving bridges, long planks, a slew of alternating planks, then more long planks. Watch for a double plank here that is rather hidden by some foilage. You will fall off a plank going left. When you proceed right, what appears to be a long plank is actually two planks--there is a hole between them. The hole is rather hidden. Once you fall through the hole, go left as fast as possible. This section gives Scuzz quite the opportunity to catch up with you because of all the long planks you encounter. This particular point will give Scuzz a good two seconds to get you, and because Scuzz is faster than you, those two seconds count heavily. Now comes more long planks going left, then right, ending with a long plank going left. Reach the bomb and blow Scuzz away for good. Now you will fall to the final section of the tower for your last battle. Boss: Dark Queen The Dark Queen returns to exact revenge. You will fall into an area with two planks above you. The Dark Queen will appear immediately upon you landing on the bottom area. She will appear in the middle of the area, so duck down as soon as you land. She will shoot a skull over your head. When the skull passes you, stand up and attack. Like Rocky, all hits you do on the Dark Queen are Smash Hits. Note: Make sure you don't move to the left or right while falling into this area. You are perfectly positioned to avoid the Queen's first shot by simply ducking down. If you move while you fall, the Queen will be able to get you with an angle shot. When you hit the Dark Queen, she will become a small tornado of light and move around the screen, landing in some other area, fully materializing and shooting another skull at you. She shoots the single skull, then becomes the little tornado again. As you can see, she has only one attack and is really an easy foe. There are five areas the queen appears at. She will appear on the two two planks above you. The other three areas are the extreme left, right, and center of the bottom platform. When the tornado is the bottom platform, stay close to it. When it flitters in one area, get directly over it and duck. The Queen will fully appear and fire a skull. You should be overlapping her lower area. . .um, let's NOT think too hard about how to interpret this ^_^; Her skull should fly over your head. Stand up and attack. Be sure you are directly overlapping the Dark Queen. Usually she will fire her skull shot on a horizontal line, but sometimes she shoots her skull shot at an angle. If you are improperly positioned, you will get hit. When the tornado is going to the upper planks, stand under the plank the Queen will appear on. When she actually materializes (her full color shows) , move away from the wall (you will be moving toward the center of the screen). She will have fired a shot straight down at you, which you have just avoided. Now jump at her and attack. She fires her shots slow and fast. Keep doing this until you beat her. Beat the Dark Queen and you win. Enjoy the ending! NEW! Thanks to Samsonite, it has been found that there are actually TWO endings in the game. I'll put his information here verbatim: "After you beat the queen, the game isn't over. There is TWO endings. When the toads are chasing down the flying saucer and the crosshairs are going up and down, you can actually hit the flying saucers with missiles. 3 hits and the UFO will crash. If the flying saucer doesn't get destroyed, you get the ending that says Silas Volkmire got away, but learned a lesson (or something along the lines of that.) If the UFO crashes, then it will get discovered in the Himilayas, but there's no sign of Volkmire." Aside: It's kind of weird that the queen gets all upset about you beating her, but still smiles when she finishes talking. Mabye she's "toadomasichistic". ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TIPS, TRICKS, AND SECRETS Extra lives and continues: At the title screen, hold: A + B + Down and then start. If the screen with the Battletoad flag flashes red, you have succeeded. You will now have five lives and five continues instead of three. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- CREDITS God--for the strength, life, and intellect to do this FAQ Kerhst--for the correction to the exit on lv.4 Guesty the man the myth the legend and ultimate sex god [megaman_x_2000@hotmail.com]--for the Take out the Trash and Push n' Crush Smash Hits information Sampsonite [weirdo_n@yahoo.com]--for the information on the second ending. liddoxtc [liddoxtc@xtasynetwork.net]--for the extra life trick in Stage 2 and the Rat Pod strategy in Stage 3. I hope you have enjoyed this FAQ. If there are any corrections, additions, etc. that you see that need to be put here, please e-mail me and let me know. Thanks for reading. dhousto6@bellsouth.net Dimetric Houston The End