Magax: What I've Learned From the Destroyer

HAUNTED WOODS - One of my favorite games on the site is Magax: Destroyer. That’s the avatar I currently have set (until those happy days I get the NT star avatar, of course) and I try to get a trophy every so often. Then when I spend a good amount of time on the boards, I usually get a neomail asking for tips on how to get my avatar and sometimes people who actually want me to get it for them *sighs at those people*. So, I’ve decided to write a little guide on what I’ve learned from playing Magax: Destroyer. It may not be the perfect guide, but it easily gets me 3k each day, so I hope it’ll help you get that avatar you’re wanting or that shiny trophy!

When you start playing, it’s best to make the screen around the large size (1024x768) because having it too small messes up how well you can see the enemies, navigation, etc. and too large slightly slows Magax down and can sometimes confuse you a bit while playing and cause you to lose some hp.

At the beginning of each level, try leaving the green energy orbs until you get closer to the end. Each one recovers damage equal to one hit from the enemy ghosts as well as adding five points to your score. Because of the extra points, it is a good idea to collect them, but leave them for the end of the level when you only have a couple of foes left since you might need them after you play through the level a bit and take on damage.

When attacking, it’s a very good idea to keep a close eye on the radar. This shows you where all your enemy ghosts are in the whole level, and can prepare you for when you’re closing in on them. If you see you’re approaching a large cluster of enemies, fire a few times and turn the other way to stop and avoid running into them. If you’re right next to a big cluster, keep turning back and forth, firing your green beam, so you neither get too far to see them nor too close to run into them. Also, when you see on the radar that you’re nearing an enemy and don’t have enough time to shoot them, swerve with the up or down arrow and avoid them. This is most useful against the Jubjubs.

The Chias are easily my least favorite opponents in this game. When you near them, they fire off what I’m assuming is ectoplasm that can do the same amount of damage as if you’d run right into them. The problem with swerving to avoid this, though it is often successful if you’re skilled at it, is that they fire it at different speeds. One could fire a very slow one that you easily avoided and immediately after shoot one that you absolutely can’t avoid. The best strategy to use with these is drift somewhere around the border of still having them in view and not. That way, you can still shoot them, while having a very easy time avoiding the decreased blobs of ectoplasm they throw at you. It’s best to get rid of these as soon as possible, but be warned that your attack will sometimes go through them and hit anything that may be in back of them instead, giving you a moment of vulnerability where they can attack.

When you hit a Jubjub, it will split into three different (and smaller) Jubjubs, which is why it’s good to know that swerving move when around them. While this doesn’t seem very good, keep in mind you score five points each time you hit an opponent, so instead of the normal five points, you get a total of twenty points from just one Jubjub. After you hit it when it’s the larger Jubjub, it’s fairly easy to hit two or all three of the little ones with one try.

The Aisha you really don’t have to worry too much about. Unlike the Chias and Jubjubs, they have no special ability, so all you have to do is avoid flying into them and you should be fine.

The last enemy in the game is Hubrid Nox himself. Occasionally during the game, he will float in on his storm cloud and cast one of three spells. The first is the fireball, which momentarily engulfs you in a ball of fire. There is no way to avoid this or make it less damaging, but it does do less damage than the ghosts, so it’ll allow you an extra hit before you fall. The second is the ice ball, which freezes you solid. This is a bit worse, since you can run into multiple enemies and take on normal damage for each hit, but if you keep going back and forth with the arrow keys when he hovers by, you might be lucky enough for him to freeze you going back the way you came and avoid most of the enemies. The third is enlargement, where Hubrid makes your foes larger. The good thing about this, while it does make you more likely to run into them, it also makes them a whole lot easier to hit.

And the last thing I’ve encountered while playing this are the glitches. Both of them can cause you to immediately lose, which is why they’re very annoying and there isn’t a shiny trophy on my lookup. The first is the more likely of the two to happen, when dots freeze themselves to the radar. This more often happens when you defeat a large group of opponents at the same time, so be careful where you’re shooting. Since you can only advance when you’ve defeated all the opponents in the level and the radar monitors how many are left, a dot ticking to the radar is an enemy you’ve already defeated so there’s no way to remove it. With no way to remove it, the game doesn’t let you advance. The second and less common is when Hubrid freezes you and sets you on fire immediately after, and I mean so fast you probably weren’t even done being frozen when you’re set on fire. What happens here is the frozen effect stays even after the ball of ice is gone, and since you can’t move you can’t defeat enemies either, which leads to you having to end the game.

There you have it, I hope that helps! Just keep practicing and don’t get discouraged when you lose, you’ll get the hang of it eventually! But if you have any further questions, (or comments, got to love the feedback), feel free to neomail me.