 How I Blasted 201 Magmata
by master_algie
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An Ominous Introduction
Not a Tyrannian soul, not even those of the profits and soothsayers, foresaw the peril that would pour from the majestic Mt. Nugga-Ugg one very normal prehistoric day. As busy Tyrannians bustled to and fro in leisure and in business, the mountain of a millennium’s dormancy underwent a heinous transformation. In a horrific rumble, the grand peak blew off its top, divulging a melting bowl of livid, boiling magma, and down tumbled smoldering rocks, scalding red-hot cinders, and fuming floods of lava. Homes were ravaged and frenzied Tyrannians all about scurried and scampered to elude the blazing boulders which hurtled violently towards the ground. The nation was amid a hectic, disorderly game of dodgeball; things were looking grim.
Alas, one bold, noble Alien Aisha found it within him to alight from his Kreludan neighborhood, and zoom off to save the poor, distraught victims of this crisis. Armed as he was with the latest high-tech weaponry and boundless ammunition, this one courageous neopet of some five feet in height was confronting one monstrous volcano of some five thousand feet in height. All odds stacked against him, the hero gritted his teeth, drew out his guns, and faced his triumph or his doom…
The Fundamentals of Gameplay
In Magma Blaster, you embody the anonymous Alien savior. Disregarding the scorching cinders and lava flow, you must fire at the assortment of rocks which protrude from the erupting volcano. Destroy them before they can harm the innocent Tyrannians pacing below. The emergence of the volcanic rocks occurs at varying force and direction, and consequentially you must have masterful aim. You will have to proceed as such, obliterating all rocks, until the vicious volcano settles down and the calamity comes to an end. Wow, you could be here all night! Good luck – you’ll need it. Controls
You will be employing two tools to decimate the volcanic rocks. Foremost, you must guide your mouse around the area to aim, dragging a visible bluish “ring” to match up with the targeted rock. Left-click to shoot. Secondly, your keyboard will serve to modify your gun according to the rock at hand. Each of the six modes of your gun correlate to six types of rocks, and only with the corresponding mode will you be able to shoot and succeed. The six modes are accessible via the numbers one through six on your board: 1 – plain, rounded, light brown stone 2 – blue eggplant design with red midsections 3 – shell-like, furry orange spiral 4 – dark brown, circular double platform; the base and second layer of a toasted pyramicake 5 – metallic blue-gray sporangia stemming from a central point 6 – thick, steely oval ring Lives
The endangered Tyrannian populace in Magma Blaster is represented by five folks who mull left and right over the screen, and these folks represent in turn the five lives you will endeavor to maintain. You are not penalized if an individual is crushed by a rock, but if the full five are killed, it’s, you guessed it, GAME OVER. Mwahahaha! Scoring
When you fire at a rock, it will disintegrate if even so much as a sliver of the blue of your ring is touching it. Pairing up your ring with a rock target perfectly will earn your +4 points, and this gain will be flashed alongside the hit. A shot which is coarse or partially off but does burst the rock is worth +2 points. Precision and caution should be exercised to maximize your +4s and make as few +2s as possible. It all comes with practice. Levels
Magma Blaster is sectored into five stages of ascending difficulty. The diversity of rocks and the number of blasts to pass increases in each following round. Also, acquiring a specific quantity of points (20+20r where r signifies the round number) in a level will grant you access to a bonus round before the next normal level.
| Level 1 |
explode 10 rocks to progress |
bonus at 40 |
rock types 1, 2 |
| Level 2 |
explode 15 rocks to progress |
bonus at 60 |
rock types 1, 2, 3 |
| Level 3 |
explode 20 rocks to progress |
bonus at 80 |
rock types 1, 2, 3, 4 |
| Level 4 |
explode 25 rocks to progress |
bonus at 100 |
rock types 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 |
| Level 5 |
explode 30 rocks to progress |
bonus at 120 |
rock types 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
There is no need to be hasty or feel rushed in the five conventional levels. To ensure +4s, I fancy allowing each rock to reach its maximal height, and I exterminate it as its upward momentum dies and it is rendered immobile, right before the fall commences. As the rock is totally still, you can hover the ring right over the rock and BOOM. Focus on shadowing it fully with the ring so that the rock is out of sight, then click. The bonus entrance necessitates a full set of +4s for the given number of rocks to advance. However, there are a couple of techniques by which you can cancel out any +2 blunders and tack on vital points near the end which make a major accumulative difference.
The key to these techniques is that a level does not cease when you’ve simply met your rocks-to-continue goal; it ends when you’ve accomplished this and, also, all rocks have been removed from the screen. The volcano persists to spurt rocks until your last rock to satisfy the goal has been blasted. The basic strategy is to count your way to the number of rocks to pass minus one. Once you’ve done that, nab the final rock only just before it can complete its descent. Expectantly, other rocks will have been excreted as this rock slid down. You can raze all these for additional points! There is another less reliable but certainly useful tactic I often like to implement. If your last rock is accompanied by a constructive number of extra rocks, blast the lot and proceed. My standard accepts two or three extra rocks as sufficient, but if you are playing on a slower computer, you’ll want to modify this standard. If you are not pleased with the number of rocks, let one drop, and let more drop one-by-one and only snatch a rock right before the end of its plummet when the additional rocks hovering above tote up to your standard. As usual, nab these extras. In the process, though, one of three things will happen, in order of declining favorability: a. No interruptions will occur, and you’ll finish the stage with ease. b. The level complete pop-up will materialize, but the rocks will continue in their course. c. The level complete pop-up will materialize, and the rocks will evanesce. The b. and c. circumstances are quirks resulting from the impact of the rocks with the ground. I have discerned no way to prophesy which of the three will be. a. is ideal, b. is problematic but its obstruction can be rounded, and c. is just too bad. To get around b. you can fire while the pop-up is spawning from the middle, and once the pop-up has engorged to its full extent you can rapidly click into the bonus and garner the rest, before tending to the newly spurting bonus rocks. The extra rocks from the normal round which you collected in the bonus will be counted towards your bonus round score.
This approach bears hazard, so use at your own risk. All-in-all, it benefits my scores, but you may or may not find it functional. In the case of c. you would’ve been as well off or better off gathering the sub-standard amount of extras. You must, in addition, beware the jeopardy this places your five terrorized Tyrannians and hence your lives in. Once your quintet has been reduced to a solo dude, only allow a rock to fall if is to land a safe distance from his body. You have to be a ruthless and egocentric git to survive the remorse, for you are sacrificing the lives of these poor souls for the selfish gain of your final score. How cruel and barbaric! Erm, yeah, I do it all the time, o vile, greedy me… Bonuses
In the bonuses, you are given fifteen seconds to eradicate as many rocks as you can manage. The factors of rock type, and of the wee, wee Tyrannians are directly transferred to the bonus rounds from the regular rounds, and to be sure you can see the troubled folks hustling back and forth in between the sessions of blasting. Rocks look to arise at a much quicker rate in the bonuses than in the standard levels, thankfully. I haven’t substantial advice for the bonus rounds. Here, my gibbergab instruction will do little to aid you. Adroit maneuvering must do it all. Shoot the rocks hastily as you can; your destruction will cause the volcano to eject more frequently. Accuracy is difficult at high speed of annihilation, and regular practice will bring better procurement of +4 blasts. I target one rock per second, fifteen per bonus, but typically get more. Settings
For best performance, there are several settings I propose you play in. I would advise a laser mouse over a ball mouse if at all possible – aiming is so much easier. You’ll be able to guide your ring with greater efficiency and accuracy. A clean, vacant desk free of clutter which might collide with your mouse or elbows is great. Play in a placid, halcyon, quiet environment with minimal disturbances. The speed of your game can have a consequence over the potential you have to do well. Sensibly, I’ve sectored this analysis into two parts. Fast – fast/new computer, small size, low quality, all needless programs exited Characteristics: rocks surge from the volcano at a rapider rate and descend more quickly Advantages: due to a larger quantity of bonus round rocks, the bonuses are particularly productive; mouse movement is minimal; good for WCers, for plays occupy less time Drawbacks: because of the zippier procession of the graphics, you will not be able to attain as many extra rocks in the standard stages; the smaller scene demands superior aim Slow – slow/old computer, fullscreen, best quality
Characteristics: rocks surface from the volcano less swiftly and larger quantities can form on the screen at any one time as the rocks drift down pokily Advantages: masses of extra rocks can be reaped from the normal levels; aiming is more facile Drawbacks: bonus rounds will provide fewer rocks, thus lower bonus scores; the mouse must be moved more than in fast to cover respective ground; plays take more time
Balancing the pros and cons, I find fast settings to be more beneficial. Not only do I feel the bonus benefit of fast outavails the normal round benefit of slow, faster played Magma Blaster games mean more games which may provide the high score you seek, and more trials in a certain extent of time. Preferences will vary, though. Test both sets of settings out, maybe weighing the potential in opposing browsers, too, and after an accrual of scores you’ll be able to determine which is most apt for you. Perhaps you will be fondest of a sort of median between fast and slow, or you may conclude that there is no discrepance. Establishing your idyllic setup and sticking with that setup will make a tremendous difference. A Mystifying Conclusion
His noggin abloom with the sagacious tips of Magma Blaster connoisseur Algie, the Aisha exercised all of the pointers he’d been granted in a peculiarly hot, grueling battle. In spite of countless close calls and the desolation of innumerous Tyrannian homes, his adept eye and arm held off the ferocious magma throughout the full duration of the disaster, for a whopping total of 804 points. Holy smokes – that’s 201 magmata! Landscape seared but people unscathed, the gallant Alien alighted without a word and zoomed off in his space shuttle, vanishing in a streak of light which illuminated the now dark and subdued sky like a sun’s younger cousin. Who was this laudable, valiant foreigner, how did he accomplish the infeasible on that fateful date, and why did he choose to retreat from his magnificent deed before fame and gratitude could bless him in return? To be fully honest, the world may never know.
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