Erin's Extreme Avatar Guide: Chia Bomber 2

The Basics

You play Geoffrey Chia, a tenacious little character that launches water balloons at chia bombers attempting to take over his neighborhood! Use your arrow keys to navigate Geoffrey around the game and use spacebar to fire. The game lasts for 12 rounds, and each round features a new variety of bombers with different hit points.

One important thing to note is the closer Geoffrey gets to the bombers, the faster his balloons will travel. Bombers can also fire at you (and their balloons are filled with mud - gross!), so be careful! The closer they get to Geoffrey, the faster their balloons will travel toward him as well. Running into a bomber or getting hit with a bomber’s mud balloon will cause you to lose a life.

Another vulnerability you have is that you can only have one balloon on screen at a time, meaning if you shoot from across the screen, you’ll have to wait a considerable amount of time before you can shoot again. This isn’t one of those games where you can just hammer the spacebar to win. I recommend shooting short-range rather than long-range for this reason. The same rule applies to bombers as well.

There are five types of chia bombers to watch out for, and all have different hit points. This means some of them require multiple shots to be eliminated from the board.

Green – 1 hit point. This is the weakest of the bombers and often the easiest to hit.

Blue – 2 hit points. These bombers are a little sneakier, but they’re not too bad.

Yellow – 3 hit points. Yellow bombers are clever. They’ll start dodging your hits and they can reverse directions much more quickly.

Red – 4 hit points. These are extremely challenging. Not only does it take four hits to eliminate, but it also trips you up with directional changes and trickery.

Black – 5 hit points. The most dreaded of all the bombers. They’re sneaky, fast, and they take five hits to go down. You’ll see the most black bombers on level 12.

This may sound like your typical action game, but you have another weapon to use against chia bombers: mines. You have five mines to use per level, and you can drop them where Geoffrey is located on the board by pressing “M” on your keyboard. Mines eliminate a chia bomber from the board no matter how many hit points it has, which can be extremely helpful in dangerous situations, like if you’re trapped in a corner by two black bombers. However, eliminating bombers with mines does sacrifice points. More on that later.

But, just like Geoffrey Chia, the chia bombers have mines to use as well. Watch out for these as you move around the level! If you cross over a mine planted by a chia bomber at any point, you lose a life. Mines planted by bombers are always red, while mines planted by Geoffrey are always green. You can cross over green mines anytime, so don’t hesitate to use this to your advantage.

The game begins with Geoffrey in the bottom left corner. Level 1 is relatively easy because all of your chia bombers are green, meaning they can be eliminated with only one shot.

Scoring

At the end of each round, your score is calculated by how many bombers you eliminated with water balloons, added to how many bombers you eliminated with mines, plus your total lives left. Eliminating a bomber with a water balloon worth more points than eliminating a bomber with a mine, which can make the game very challenging.

You receive 1 point for every bomber you eliminate. At the end of each round, the number of balloon eliminations you have are multiplied by three, and the number of mine eliminations are multiplied by two.

Many people say you should not use mines for any bombers on levels 1-8 because it keeps you from getting the avatar score. I am a little more lenient with my mines, which we will discuss below.

Mine Usage Strategies

There are two main strategies to getting the avatar for this score. I ended up using a mix of both, because each has its own advantages and disadvantages.

The first strategy is to play it safe. When beginning level 1 at the bottom left corner of the screen, immediately place two mines around yourself to the right and on top. This way, you only have to fire and keep track of bombers coming from two directions, and if a bomber gets too close to you, it will be destroyed immediately by a mine. This method has the disadvantage of sacrificing your bonus points at the end of the levels, so I suggest you wait to do this until at least level 5.

The second strategy is for more aggressive players. Stay at the top of the screen and wait for a bomber to move vertically toward the top or bottom. Then, chase that bomber down and destroy it as quickly as you can! Remember not to get too close to bombers that take multiple hits to eliminate, like red and black.

Strategy: Starting at the Top

Once you are down to your last bomber on level 1, you can trick the game by going up to the top left corner. Eliminate your last bomber while still in the top left corner and hold the right arrow key down. Keep holding the right arrow key throughout the level transition and into the beginning of the next level. At level 2, you should start at the top left of the screen instead of the bottom left, which gives you a much better vantage point for sniping off bombers. Keep moving to the right and charge while shooting until you’re about to collide with a bomber. You’ll be sure to eliminate plenty of them this way! Additionally, this method will net you extra points because you will use fewer mines.

I recommend players use this method until the later levels (around level 7) when the bombers have more hit points and take longer to eliminate. A lot of expert players have mastered this method and use it throughout the game, so pick which strategy works for you and go for it! When you get to level 10, I recommend you start on the bottom left and surround yourself with mines on the bottom right and top. This will likely save your lives multiple times.

Tips and Tricks

If you lose a life on level 1, start the game over. You will need as many lives as possible to get through the final round (level 12) with all those scary black bombers.

Holding the spacebar will result in faster shots, especially as you charge. It’s kind of an obvious tip, but I know a lot of players that don’t take advantage of this method.

I hope these tips help you on your path to avatar glory! Good luck out there, and stay extreme!