Invasion of the Fuzzles - A Guide to Evil Fuzzles from Beyond the Stars

"So, what's the game about?" you ask.

Here's the scenario: Suddenly, as you were innocently doing your job disposing waste, the Virtupets Space Station is attacked by evil Mutant Fuzzles! Now it's up to you, Zygorax, to patrol the space station with your X-Scrub 4000 Walker Bot and shoot the Fuzzles with your laser cannons.

"Wow. Sounds exciting. But how does it work?"

As you drive forward, Fuzzles and small spacecraft fly at you and you have to shoot them down with your mouse. You don't have to worry about ammo (infinite supply), so shoot away! At the end of each level, your points (aka hits) are tallied and you can spend them to buy upgrades. This means you don't get points for NP until the end of each level!

The levels get longer each time and new Fuzzles come along which are harder to kill. (For more info see the section: What kinds of Fuzzle are there?) There are also little green boxes that pop up in the middle of screen. They're multipliers. The higher the first number, the more "hits" or points you get. 1x2, for instance, gets you 2 extra points, 2x2 gets you 4 extra points and so on. Hits are important, because the upgrades you can buy at the end of each level cost. Upgrades range from 10 to fifty points at the beginning, but as you reach better types of upgrade, they can be as expensive as 250 hits.

"So, what kinds of upgrades are there, then?"

- Hull

This is like your health points. Every time a Fuzzle or a spacecraft hits you, you lose 4-7 hull points of hull integrity. Yep, that's what it's technically called. When you've got none left, it's game over. You can buy hull integrity in units of 10 points here. Cost: 10 hits.

- Shields

These cost the same amount as the hull points and the shield you from attacks. It says 'cover worth 20 hull integrity' but don't be fooled: This doesn't mean you get an extra 20 HP. What it does do is make it harder for Fuzzles to attack you. Not all of them can get through but when they do, they don't take points off your shield but off your main hull integrity. So keep an eye on it, you can still get killed even with shields. They seem to last forever, though, so don't buy more than one. The twist? You have to activate it first (which can be difficult when your screen is full of Fuzzles). Cost: 10 hits.

- Droid Repair

If you buy this, droids will add 1 point to your hull integrity every 3-4 seconds. If you have more droids, they will add more points, so two sets of droids will add two points every 3 seconds, three sets will add three points… Cost: 1st set: 25 hits, 2nd set: 50 hits and so on.

- Radar

This adds little lines to the side of your screen to help you see Fuzzles coming from the side. When a Fuzzle is outside the vertical lines it draws, a little bar on the left or right side lights up. However, I would not buy this, particularly in earlier levels since it's a waste of hits. You generally haven't got time to look at the little bars when Fuzzles are coming at you. Cost: 25 hits (only once).

- Mega Gun

This is the most important upgrade! Without this, it takes multiple clicks to shoot all colour Fuzzles except red. Every time you reach a new level, you need to upgrade your gun, or else you have to shoot the new kind of Fuzzle twice, which makes you lose a lot of time! However, guns are expensive. I'll show you how to always have enough hits in the strategy section. You can only upgrade your gun 5 times. You start with gun level one and you can upgrade it to level 6. However, the Fuzzles still get harder and harder to kill, so in later levels (7+) you'll have to shoot them multiple times anyway, but it helps to have a good head start. Cost: Level 2: 50 hits, Level 3: 100 hits, Level 4: 150 hits and so on.

- Smart Bomb

This clears the screen of Fuzzles and spacecraft. Again, you have to find time to activate it in the bottom left of the window, by which time chances are the Fuzzles will have already left their teeth marks in your Walker Bot. You don't get any hit points for all the Fuzzles you killed either. Cost: 10 hits.

- Stun Bomb

This stops Fuzzles attacking you. They will still appear and you can still shoot them, but they won't damage your hull in any way. This doesn't apply to the little spacecraft, though! Stun bombs also don't last very long and you have to activate them. Cost: 10 hits.

"Alright, so I know the basics now. But what's the best overall strategy?"

Shooting:

- Go for the spacecraft first. They will crash directly into your Walker Bot, whereas the Fuzzles will lurk around in front of it a bit first.

- Then there are those little green boxes that pop up every once in a while. Always click on them if you have time – they'll give you more hits. Plus Fuzzles have this knack of always appearing just behind them! If there's a Fuzzle / spacecraft in the same place as green rectangle, you'll shoot them and the box will move to somewhere else.

- You don't have to be accurate! You can be a whole centimetre (2/5 inch) off and you'll still hit what you're aiming at.

Upgrades:

Don't spend points on anything but Mega Guns until you can't upgrade it anymore. Trust me – otherwise you won't have enough points to buy the next gun in the level after because generally, in later levels you can't earn enough points to buy them (aka 200+) and then, it's getting harder and you'll need those extra seconds it takes to shoot them twice. Later, when you've maxed out the guns, I suggest first adding hull integrity until you reach about 80, then spending your points on Stun Bombs and Shields. Buying one or two sets of droids is also a good idea, but you shouldn't need them if you've got plenty of hull integrity anyway. Remember, you only need to last one level at that stage before you can buy more again!

"But what do I do if I still haven't got enough points to buy the next Mega Gun?"

I suggest simply double-clicking the latest kind of Fuzzle. That will be the kind you'd need to shoot twice. Then you can also spend some points on hull, shields or droids (see above).

"So what different kinds of Fuzzle are there then?"

For each level there is a new kind of Fuzzle and you need the latest gun to kill them (Level 1 Fuzzles: Gun level 1 etc.). Each Fuzzle appears in two levels. If you shoot them with a gun with a lower level than they are, they will (normally) turn in to red or yellow Fuzzles. If you manage to turn them into an even higher colour, congratulations! I can't believe you made it to level five with gun level one… They also come in different shades in each colour.

Level 1 & 2: Red Fuzzles

Level 2 & 3: Yellow /Orange Fuzzles

Level 3 & 4: Green Fuzzles

Level 4 & 5: Brown Fuzzles

Level 5 & 6: Blue Fuzzles

Level 6 & 7: Grey Fuzzles

"Great, now I can do really well! Can I get an avatar from this game then?"

No, sadly TNT hasn't released one yet. I'd love an avatar with a big staring Fuzzle on it, though.

"Oh well. Tell me this at least: When do I get 1000 NP from playing Evil Fuzzles?"

That's easy to work out. Since the Neopoint ratio is about 2 (for every 100 points you get 200 NP), you need about 500 points to get 1000 NP from the game. So after level 3 or 4 you ought to have enough.

Thanks for reading this guide! I hope you now know how to play Evil Fuzzles form Beyond the Stars now and enjoy it! Once again, I think it's excellent for stress relief.

Yay, I'm in the NT! This is my first time ever... Comments appreciated.