Finding Fun, Fighting Foul Freaks: Fling Fuzzles Far

When questioned about the tragedy, Dr. Frank Sloth, Virtupets founder, CEO, master, controller, chief, and ruler had this to say.

“I WILL DESTROY YOU!”

Word around Grundo’s Café has been positively worrying, as the café-goers seem distressed about the loss of the garbage dock that draws more public affection than anywhere else on the Station. I know this because it’s the only garbage dock on the Station. Ha-ha.

Never fear, faithful Neopians, for Zygorax, the blue Grundo normally in charge of cleaning up the filth, has been chosen by his peers to go into the X-Scrub 4000 Walker Bot (boy, that’s a mouthful), and face certain doom against the vicious hairballs. We’ve established radio contact with Zygorax, who has given us some tips, tricks, and vital information about blasting Fuzzles. See if I care, though, I’m not the one down there destroying those vicious creatures!

First, let’s get acquainted with your Walker. Walker, Zygorax, Zygorax, Walker. Wheeee! Anyway, in the Walker you’ll be able to see a nifty view of your vital systems all at once, or the Heads-Up Display. The Heads-Up Display is essential for optimal Fuzzle termination. In your upper left, you can see the odometer; you can see how far you are from the next Virtupets Shop. The top right shows you the amount of points you’ve gathered thus far, and you can press the red X to eject, thus ending the game. Down in the lower left corner, you can select one of the active enhancements (Stun Bomb, Smart Bomb, or Shields). The hits you have in the current round and the Virtucreds you have are displayed just to the right of that, and farthest to the right you can see information about your passive enhancements (Mega Gun, Hull Integrity, and Droid Repair).

The basics of the game are relatively simple: click the Fuzzles as they come at you! Modern X-Scrub technology allows you to see a green reticule of where you’re aiming for extra precise stain removal. Watch out for mines as well; some smart guy in accounting thought that they would be useful in event of an extremely uncommon Fuzzle attack. Obviously, they weren’t, so give them a blast of your laser too! As you destroy enemies, a green box appears in your targeting area; you can click this to gain a bonus amount of hits! The number of hits you get through this bonus accumulates as more and more hairballs are destroyed, but if you miss a shot or a Fuzzle gets you, it sets back to zero. My suggestion: get the bonus when you see the words ‘Approaching Station’ in the top left of your Heads-Up Display.

When you complete a round, you can stop and rest up at a Virtupets Shop. Good thing Dr. Sloth used his ever-expansive genius and put them in the garbage dock! Sloth’s stand on selling his Virtupets products is simple; charge a lot! Even though Zygorax is fighting for his life, he’s still charged every Virtucred possible for the upgrades necessary for the Grundo’s survival. Your hits in a round are transferred to Virtucreds at a 1 to 1 ratio; every hit earns you one Virtucred.

So, how to spend these points? It helps to know WHAT you’re buying, so here’s a description of the items available to you.

-Hull Integrity: Hull Integrity is your health, so it would be beneficial to buy some if you are running low. Your health cannot exceed 100. It is also wise to buy some of this when approaching a tough level.

-Shield: This is an active item that requires clicking on its icon in the lower left. When you click on this, you’ll be given a 20-health shield, useful for tight spots. Buy some when you have credits left over and save it up for the tougher levels.

-Droid Repair: Buying a few of these allow your Walker to regenerate; the more droids you have, the faster the rate of healing. It's useful to get a few so that your ship can always be in tip-top shape. This is more cost effective than Hull Integrity; it can constantly provide repairs for a one-time fee.

-Radar: In my opinion, the worst enhancement. It can warn you when Fuzzles are coming from the sides. It’s useful for novice players, so they can tell where things are, but once your reflexes build up, you won’t need to know in advance where Fuzzles are (since you can immediately destroy them).

-Mega Gun: The most crucial enhancement, the Mega Gun ups the power of your Scrub blaster. As the levels progress, the Fuzzles will take more and more hits to destroy. However, if you upgrade your Mega Gun, they will still only take one hit. This is why it’s crucial to get enough points in a round to buy the next Mega Gun upgrade. After the Mega Gun is maxed out, the game will become much more difficult.

-Smart Bomb: It’s useful in the later levels when the Fuzzles take more than one click to destroy. Use this when there are a few Fuzzles on screen and there’s no way you can kill them all without losing your bonus points.

-Stun Bomb: Stuns the Fuzzles to allow you catch up with their barrage of fur. I prefer the Smart Bomb because it’s the same cost.

Go through all the levels destroying mines and Fuzzles and collecting bonuses. Always have enough Virtucreds to buy the Mega Gun upgrade at the end of the round. When your Mega Gun is maxed out, buy Droid Repair and Shields. Buy Hull Integrity whenever necessary.

Turn the sound off if it’s distracting to help you. I prefer playing on medium mode, so that the game still runs at an average speed but the Fuzzles aren’t too small to hit. Remember if you need to attend to something, you can always take a break when your Walker is docked at the shop.

Good luck, and go save the Virtupets Garbage Dock!

Whee, second article! Thanks to everyone for the encouragement!