Mastering Hannah and the Ice Caves

Tip #1: Pay attention!

Don’t get any ideas that this is the kind of game that you can play straight through and get a high score. There are places where you need to move quickly and places where you need to move slowly and/or have prior knowledge of what you want to do. There are so many places where chain reactions will be set off that cause you to have to move quickly past an area because it gets blocked off. However, there are also lots of places where you have a choice between two or three arrows to hit, and if you do not hit the right one you will have no chance at completing the level. Make sure you know exactly what’s going to happen when you set off some dynamite or an arrow to maximize your chances of success.

Tip #2: Watch out for Snow Beasts!

These ferocious Snow Beasts are too big for Armin to get rid of, so there are only two ways to get past them. If Armin can go another way, simply jump over the Snow Beast with Hannah and escape. However, if Armin has to go through the area where the Snow Beast is, you’ll need to find some way to drop boulders onto the Snow Beast to get rid of it. Jumping over the Snow Beast with Hannah takes a little bit of practice, so make sure you get the hang of it before you start attempting the higher levels. You’ll first see one of these (shockingly enough) in the level Snow Beast Attack!

Tip #3: Make sure you go for all of the extra lives!

These extra lives really add up, and you’ll need all of them when you get to the higher levels. Look out for them on the levels: It’s Dynamite, Glacier of Doom, Frosty Cavern, Big Trouble, Stairs of Death, Zig Zag and Armin’s Task. That’s seven possible extra lives throughout the course of the game! And you’ll probably need all of them for some of the pretty tricky levels towards the end, especially the bonus levels.

Tip #4: Watch out for the monsters that move through the air!

This may not happen very often, but I’ve had a few attempts at getting a high score that were foiled because when I set off the arrow that would cause a chain reaction that would beat the level, it ran into one of these flying monsters. So, you eliminated an annoying monster, but you failed to beat the level. It can be extremely frustrating. The moral of the story is to make sure that whenever you launch any one of the arrows, the monster is in a good position for the arrow to miss it. In case you were interested, you do not get any points for killing one of these monsters. The first level that you’ll really run into this possible problem is Spooky Caves.

Tip #5: Watch out for sliding on the ice!

Armin and Hannah both seem to have a lot of problems with stopping themselves on the ice in the Ice Caves. This means that even when you’ve stopped holding down the left or right arrow key, they will continue to slide a bit, which might mean the difference between life and death. Make sure that if the level is not flooding, you take your time when nothing is happening to make sure that you do not lose a life because one of the characters accidentally steps onto spikes. You can minimize this by crawling instead of walking, as they slide less, or by tapping the arrow key instead of holding it down. Watch out for this problem in the level Glacier of Doom.

Tip #6: When freefalling through the air, do not, I repeat, DO NOT land exactly below where you fell.

There are lots of levels like Gunther’s Revenge and Hannah’s Solo Climb that have bits in which you jump off a cliff and fall down to another part of the level. In Gunther’s Revenge, falling straight down will make you hit a dynamite box that will launch the dynamite straight up at you. In Hannah’s Solo Climb, if you fall straight down you will land onto spikes. Even if you think you can skillfully set off the dynamite and then dodge it when it flies up at you, don’t bother. The measly number of points you will get for breaking the dynamite won’t make the difference between getting a trophy and not getting a trophy, so there is no point to risking your life. Make sure you watch out for freefalls, because a lot of them require you to move left and right while freefalling to land on platforms and such, so it is a good rule of thumb not to land directly below where you fell. Of course, there are exceptions, but you can figure those out for yourself.

Tip #7: Don’t get frustrated.

If you reach a level you can’t beat, and lose all of your lives on it, instead of starting the game from the beginning again and going for the high score, play the level you can’t beat until you can beat it. You should only try going for a high score when you can comfortably beat all of the levels. Also, if you find yourself getting angry, take a break from playing. There’s no point in playing the game if you’re not enjoying it, right? And trust me, if you take a break, you’ll be more successful, and success in this kind of a game usually translates into a trophy on your User Lookup. I was unable to finish the entire game in one go and I still managed a gold trophy, so it is definitely manageable with enough practice.

Tip #8: Make sure when you play, you have almost nothing else running on your computer.

This is one of the few games that still opens in a pop-up window, so TNT has the advertisements load at the bottom of the pop-up window as you are playing. These ads can cause some serious lag as they change, so to minimize issues from this lag, close everything other than the game that you have open, and when you see that the game is lagging, let go of all keys. Even if you need to be moving and doing something, it is more likely that you will die from the game suddenly fixing itself and you being unable to stop Hannah or Armin from moving than anything else.

Tip #9: When swimming with Hannah, go up for air as frequently as possible.

There’s no need to take risks when playing the game, because it’s hard enough to beat as it is. Whenever you see an air pocket, refresh Hannah’s air supply. You don’t want to be in a situation where you were doing really well and you forgot to recharge your air supply so you die underwater. This is especially problematic on the level Zig Zag, so make sure you recharge your air as frequently as possible.

And now, the tip that you’ve all been waiting for.

Tip #10: To earn 1,000 NP per play, quickly, you only have to beat the last bonus level.

After you have beat the entire game, and all of the levels are unlocked, you can just play the last level, ***Muahaha, and since it has 100 chests, you will get a score over 50,000 after playing just that level. It is a really fast level to beat, and you can probably beat the level in around one to two minutes. Then, just send your score and you’ll have made 1,000 NP. It’s not quite as fast as Kass Basher, but it is still one of the easiest games out there to make 1,000 NP in, assuming you’ve beaten all of the levels. On a side note, the game saves which levels you have beaten in the same way as Kass Basher, by computer, and not by username. So, if you suddenly realize that it has reset which levels you have unlocked, this is either because you changed your computer or you reset something on your computer which got rid of the saved unlocked levels.

So, the next time that you are looking for a new trophy to add to your User Lookup, an easy way to make 1,000 NP, or even just a fun way to spend your time, check out Hannah and the Ice Caves. You won’t regret it.