===========================Crash Bash Walkthrough====================== ====Written by Aklite==== ===================== Table of Contents ===================== I. Introduction a. Intro b. Versions II. Basic game stuff a. Collectables b. Characters c. Game Types III. Walkthrough IV. Warp Room 1 a. Crash Ball b. Polar Panic c. Pogo Painter d. Jungle bash V. Warp Room 2 a. Beach Ball b. Tilt Panic c. Pogo-A-Gogo d. Space Bash e. Desert Fox VI. Warp Room 3 a. N. Ballism b. Melt Panic c. El Pogo Loco d. Snow Bash e. Metal Fox f. Dot Dash VII. Warp Room 4 a. Sky Balls b. Manic Panic c. Pogo padlock d. Drain Bash e. Jungle Fox f. Toxic Dash g. Ring Ding VIII. Bosses a. Papu Pummel b. The Bearminator c. Big Bad Fox d. Oxide ride IX. Warp Room 5 a. Splash Dash b. Dragon Drop c. Mallet Mash d. Swamp Fox e.Keg Kaboom f.Dante's Dash X. Regarding relics XI. Legal Info ===================== I. Introduction ===================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Intro Crash Bash was the first Crash game made by a developer other than Naughty Dog, and although it is not like or as good as the other Crash games, it is still fun, especially because you can play adventure mode with 2 players. The game play has entirely changed: you can now pick your character for the game, and you then must compete against other players in various types of games. Single player is fun, but 2 players is the best to play if you have someone to play with. Note: All of the points and times for gems are only listed for single player games. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Version history 1.5 (06/22/05): Fixed a couple errors in the format. 1.4 (06/12/05): Fixed a couple errors in the format of the guide, and fixed some general errors in the content. Made the format of the Table of Contents better so it was easier to read. 1.3 (06/10/05): Completed guide 1.2 (06/08/05): Completed the 5th warp room except a couple things, added a section regarding relics. 1.1 (06/07/06): Added version history, legal info, completed 4th warp room, and added bosses. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================== II. Basic game stuff ===================== ---------------------- A. Collectables ---------------------- -Trophies: Trophies are the most important items in the game. You get these by winning 3 rounds of the challenge for your player or team before the opposing players or team wins 3 rounds. Pretty easy to get. -Gems: Gems are obtained by winning a challenge with the odds against you. Some rounds are timed shorter, while some round require you to decrease your score to zero in a certain time, while your score is higher than your opponents. And some levels are both (pogo and dash) If you are on a team, gems are different on some rounds; in some you have a team score to decrease, such as the pogo pandemonium and medieval mayhem levels. -Crystals: Crystals usually change some element in the game making it harder for you. Some of these are easy, while some are a complete pain. Unlike the other 2, the difficulty of these completely varies. -Gold Relics: Gold relics are available to get after you reach the 4th warp room. To win these, you need to win 2 rounds in a row against the arena champions. As you can imagine, some of these are pretty hard. However, some of the levels change almost none from the trophy to the relic. -Platinum Relics: Same as above, but you need to win 3 rounds in a row. If you have trouble with the gold relics, try getting some of these. ------------------ B. Characters ------------------ I will list all the games for each character that they affect. The following games have no effect depending on the characters -Medieval Mayhem Actually, that's it. Not really a list though. All other levels have some effect on the characters, by size, agility, or power. -Crash/Coco The 2 main characters from the previous Crash games. They are well balanced in all stats for all games. ==Stats== -Normal in Ballistix -Average push in Polar Panic -Move quickly in Pogo Pandemonium -Have balanced speed and strength of tank shots -Good spin move in crate crush, average crate distance Tiny/Kong Kong hasn't appeared since Crash one, and Tiny was in Crash 2 and 3. In their games they usually have really strong moves and attacks. ==Stats== -Double shockwave in Ballistix -Long push in Polar Panic -Average move speed in pogo -Extremely strong, shortened range tank shots -Lousy kick in crate crush, but excellent throwing distance Rilla Roo/Dingodile Ahh, the 2 suckiest players in the game. I advise not playing as them, they suck at everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. ==Stats== -Normal in Ballistix -Real slightly better in Polar panic -Normal in Pogo -2 tank shots, but weak as hell (Weaker than Cortex and Brio's) -Really, really tiny better throw in crate crush -Real clumsy and stupid So don't be them, they're not good at anything Cortex/Brio My 2 favorite characters, or at least Brio. They are like crash and coco except for a couple small aspects. -Normal in ballistix -Normal push in panic -Normal in pogo -Long range slightly weaker tank shots -Far throw in crate crush -------------------- C. Game types -------------------- -Ballistix I hate, I just HATE ballistix. It is so annoying, 40 million balls flying at your goal while the idiot cpu's, or if you will, idiot teammates, are constantly shooting balls at your goal, overwhelming you. As the game progresses, there can be up to 7 or 8 balls in play, and to loose a single moment of concentration is to fail miserably. Oh yeah, in the game there are 4 sides with players, and you have to keep balls out of your goal -Polar Push These are a lot of fun; you are on a polar bear and have to push your teammates off the edge. Its especially funny to see the cpu's sometimes knock their teammates off the edge in 2 player, but as you'll learn in the game, that gets pretty common, especially on your own team. -Pogo Pandemonium Pogo games are pretty fun. In these games, you are on a pogo stick/Giant springs/Jetpacks/pogo stick and hop around coloring squares your color. To register your colored squares, you need to hit an explanation box. -Crate Crush In this, You have to throw crates at your opponents and kill them. This is a real crazy game, your running around like mad dodging crates while picking some up to throw back at your opponents. -Tank Wars These are a lot of fun too; you are in your own tank and have to shoot the other players. This is pretty fun, but it wears on you after awhile. -Crash Dash In this game, you race around a ring. You win by being the first to decrease your score (10) to 0. Each lap brings it down one point. You can get turbo's and missiles to help you. -Medieval Mayhem These are my favorite kinds of games, basically because of their variety. The funnest level in the game is ring ding, once you get there. The first time I played it, it took forever for me to beat, but it's my favorite level. ========================= III. Walkthrough ========================= This section will cover all levels and how to get all the items for each one. ========================= IV. Warp Room 1 ========================= ------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Crash ball Trophy difficulty: 1/10 Gem difficulty: 4/10 Crystal difficulty: 6/10 Aspects: Just a normal ballistix game Trohpy: The Trophy is pretty easy because this is the first level. Just use basic strategy. Not too hard Gem: The gem is annoying on all these ballistix, because your score is lower. Your 9 versus your opponents 15. This makes it harder, they have 40% more balls that can go in their goals than yours. But at least you only have to win one round. As long as you're not on a team you should have no problem here. Crystal: You have to win without your kick. This is pretty hard, but not too bad once you get used to it. You MUST hold on to L1 or R1 to get extra speed. Be sure to watch your opponents on the side: whenever a ball goes to them see if they are in position to hit it into your goal. The end of the game is really hard, because it hard enough trying to keep the barrage of balls out of your goal WITH the extra kick. Just keep practicing and eventually you'll get it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Polar Panic Trophy difficulty: 2/10 Gem difficulty: 4/10 Crystal difficulty: 4/10 Trophy: This trophy is easy because of the ice. If you get knocked back, you get saved most likely. However, so do your opponents. But at least you are smart enough to hit your opponents through the opening, whereas they are not smart enough to do the same to you. This trophy shouldn't be too hard. Gem: This gem is frickin hard because of the ice. You have to knock some ice, and then knock them out all in 30 seconds. The easiest thing to do is make an opening till that ray shoots down, then grab lightning and get rid of them all that way. Just make sure you get lightning the first time, because if you don't you likely wont have time to wait for it to shoot down again. Crystal: This crystal isn't that bad, the only problem is that lightning ray comes after only you. It proves to be annoying sometimes, but if you get zapped the ice will probably save you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- C. Pogo Painter Trophy difficulty: 3/10 Gem difficulty: 5/10 Crystal difficulty: 7/10 Trophy: The trophy is pretty easy, just grab exclamation boxes wherever they are. Be sure to get speed shoes if you get the chance, because they help tremendously, letting you move twice as fast. Another trick might be if one person is high above everyone else, just paint over their squares following them around and grabbing exclamation boxes you can get before them. Only do this if they are really high though, because they have a pretty good chance of getting the boxes before you, if not other players. Gem: You must decrease your score of 80 versus the opponents 60 in a minute. This really is not that hard, because you can easily score over a hundred in a minute 30. Crystal: There are mushrooms that pop up over the map. If you get hit by one, you loose. This includes your teammate. This is when teams get annoying, when you have 8 seconds left and your idiot teammate hits a mushroom, which has happened to me on more than one occasion. But compared to the later pogo crystal involving the same construct with different elements (i.e. another "don't hit these or you loose" game) this ones pretty darn easy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Jungle Bash Trophy difficulty: 1/10 Gem difficulty: 3/10 Crystal difficulty: 2/10 Trophy: Crate crushes are a lot of fun, and not too hard at all to do at all (except the last one). This is pretty easy, just run around grabbing crates, throwing them at opponents. TNT's do twice as much damage as steel blocks, but count down, so use them whenever you can. Nitro's also do the same damage, and a good strategy is if your opponent is next to a nitro, throw a crate at the nitro to do splash damage. Gem: You have 45 seconds to kill your opponents. This is really easy, because that's still half of the time you had for the trophy. This one should be no problem, if you're having trouble be sure to get tnt's whenever you have the chance. Crystal: This is so easy; there's just flying nitro crates that are thrown at you. The good thing about this is, you can just run around and the nitro's will end up hitting your opponents with splash damage. That's all I did and won it easy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================== V. Warp Room 2 ======================================== ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Beach Ball Trophy difficulty: 4/10 Gem difficulty: 6/10 Crystal difficulty: 7/10 Trophy: You have a magnet in this level, which is a lot of fun to use. However, you must know when not to use it. First off and most obvious, do not use it if it is going to shoot straight forward and there's no opponents there; it will just ricochet back. However, there is a strategy in doing this, where you can do that, and when it comes back, kick it into a side goal. However, if an opponent is on the side, try catching the ball on the corner so you can shoot it at an angle. This is much easier and more accurate. If you have trouble, forget the magnet and just use the kick. Gem: Another 9-15 game. This one is a little tougher, it might take awhile. My suggestion is ignore the magnet and just use the extra kick to prevent as many balls from going into your goal as possible. If you ignore the kick and just try to grab every ball, you're gonna miss some, and you can't afford that on this level. Sometimes the idiot cpu's will use the magnet and ricochet the ball off of a barricade from a player who got out and shoot it into their own goal. In this case, try to get out one of the guys on the side first. Just play this round more defensively than offensively and you will do fine. Crystal: Your players alternate between shields. In other words, they share a barricade that is the same one that forms when they are out of the game, and only one cpu has it at a time. This may not sound too hard, but the cpu's are also more skilled in this one too. And when you get down to one cpu, and they get the shield, you get screwed. Your goal is the only one balls can go in to. The magnet may help but watch it because an unexpected barricade might pop up and hit the ball back at you. You may seriously consider using the magnet for the side opponents, however, because if it ricochets it will just go into the top goal. The problem is that the shields are completely random, you never know when one will pop up. When down to the last person, grab a bunch of balls on the magnet, hope the shield doesn't pop up, and give them hell. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Tilt Panic Trophy difficulty: 2/10 Gem difficulty: 1/10 Crystal difficulty: 2/10 Trophy: The arena is tilting, but that's not really a big deal; it goes with the weight unless the big fish pops up. When the little fish plops onto there, the big fish is on its way, so get on the opposite end. After than charge your opponents to knock them off. Lightning is good, but so is the weight, because you can pass it on to someone for an instant kill. Gem: The gem is easier than the trophy because when you get that lucky round where you get lightning from the beam, you win. Just keep it away from them, and right before it strikes, get onto the edge of the arena that is closest to where they are. They slip off, die, and you win. However, you only get 30 seconds for this, so you have only once chance to get lightning. Crystal: This is almost no different than the trophy. The platform just moves more. However, the players seem to be more skilled, but at least you only have to win one round. Just hope for the lightning again. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- C. Pogo-A-Gogo Trophy difficulty: 1/10 Gem difficulty: 1/10 Crystal difficulty: 3/10 Trophy: The trophy is so easy because of this amazing strategy which is so easy to do. In this game, you surround an area with your circles to fill the center and add them to your score. However, there are also corners of the square with your color. This means you can count this as part of your square. So use this strategy: Get into your corner, and just jump in a small square around the very corner square to get 4 points every second. See the diagram below to see how to do it | |ooooooooooo |@@ooooooooo |o@ooooooooo ------------ Simply jump from end to end where the @ circles are. Be careful, however, because those corners rotate. Also, speedy boots help a TON. If you can maintain control to do it that fast in that small of an area, great, you get about 9 or 10 points per second. If you can't, just make a bigger square by following the next outside row to give you 9 points each time. Gem: Same as above Crystal: In this one you have to get more points than any other player in a single go to win. What this means is that the number of points you score at any one time has to be the highest of anybody. This isn't that hard, just get speedy boots, run around like crazy, and end by filling the center of a huge circle. Just get about 25 points in one score session and you'll pretty much win. This is one crystal where you can just get a huge score in the first 20 seconds, and sit through the rest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Space Bash Trophy difficulty: 3/10 Gem difficulty: 4/10 Crystal difficulty: 4/10 Trophy: Just like the other bash, but this time explosives blow holes in the ground. As long as you don't fall down them, sometimes your opponents will. Its actually kind of funny to throw tnt at your opponents and watch it sometimes create a hole that they fall down. Same thing happens often when them or you runs into a nitro. Gem: You have 40 seconds in this one, not making it too hard. Just blow holes in the ground like no other and with luck your opponents will run into them. Or do the same strategy as above, throw tnt right under them when they are jumping or throw steel crates at nitro's. Crystal: This crystal is the absolute most awesome, funnest crystal in the game. I love this crystal and played it over a few times. You have to win without picking up crates, but EVERY crate is explosive, which means a barrage of holes in the ground. Just run around, kicking tnt's everywhere and watch you're idiot opponents fall to their doom. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- E. Desert Fox Trophy difficulty: 3/10 Gem difficulty: 5/10 Crystal difficulty: 4/10 Trophy: These tank ones are a lot of fun, and difficulty and strategy depends entirely on your character. If you are brio or cortex, stay back and shoot shots at long range. If you're tiny or koala, get up close to your opponents and let them have it. Roo and dingodile just plain suck, and crash and coco uses a little bit of both the above strategies Gem: You have 40 seconds to kill your opponents. This is pretty hard, especially if you have dingo/roo and cortex/brio. Their shots are weak, so you may have to use mines. They will attack each other too, so use that to your advantage, and get 2 to fight each other while you get rid of the remaining one. After that, there will be one last player with a small amount of health. So just kill him. Crystal: Really not too bad of a crystal; all you need to do is watch out for those flying bombs. Occasionally, they will hit your opponents while aiming for you, and that's always nice. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================= VI. Warp Room 3 ======================================================================= -------------------------------------------------------------------- A. N.Ballism Trophy difficulty: 5/10 Gem difficulty: 7/10 Crystal difficulty: 7/10 Trophy: The trophy in this one is harder than the others because of those stupid shields. Often times, your opponents will get them before you do, because they seem to predict when and where the shields appear. Nothing is more annoying than when a ball is flying toward an opponent on the side of the screen, and then all of a sudden the ball curves towards you surprisingly. Also, be aware than when you have a force field, you can still get balls into your goal easily. All the force field does is helps get rid of balls in a certain radius in front of you. When it is beyond that, it doesn't do much good, so balls coming from the edge aren't good. If you have a force field while N.Gin pops up and shoots balls at your goals like crazy, then you're in real good shape. He shoots out about 13 or 14 balls when he does this, so it can get pretty wild. The best strategy is just to be ready when N.Gin shoots the balls at the goals, relay them into the side goals, and try to get the force fields while he attacks if you can. Gem: In this gem, you have 15 and your opponents have 20. This is a better ration, because you each have more points, and you have 5 less instead of 6 less than them. However, this does not make it the least bit better; this level is still very hard on the gem. This one is kinda based on luck; if you can get the force field when N.Gin pops up you can win much easier. What you have to be able to do is coordinate all those balls coming at your goal, and do not focus on the balls in the middle. Focus only on your goal, and ignore the rest. When you see a ball looking to come to your goal, go to it. If you just pay attention to the whole arena, you are just gonna end up going for balls you only think will come into your goal, like those that collide in the middle. Crystal: N.Gin attacks only your goal. This can be extremely annoying sometimes, because, although he shoots at all different speeds, sometimes he will shoot 5 times faster than when he does regularly, and when that happens, of course he shoots in the same spot making it easy to ricochet, but then you get the other balls from other players coming at you, and you get completely screwed. The best advice I can offer is to simply play the game, and if you are lucky, this will not happen. It does not seem to happen too often, but if it does be ready for it, and move around while staying in the area to get rid of those balls too. If you really want to get strategic, try hitting those balls to the top of the side players goals, to keep them up there, which may help to eliminate them getting right in the corner of your goal and shooting them without trouble. The guy across from you should not possess too much of a threat. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Melt Panic Trophy difficulty: 3/10 Gem difficulty: 5/10 Crystal difficulty: 4/10 Trophy: What makes this trophy so easy is because whenever the uka goes for one of your enemies, they almost always get hit by uka. And whenever they get hit by the ray, they almost always get frozen or turned into a snowball. This makes it easy for you to get them right at the start, leaving 2 players left. This really is not too hard; just don't get hit by uka's ray. Gem: You have to win in 35 seconds. Since you can get an opponent off in the first 5 or 6 seconds, you should be able to get the others off okay. Try to push them into uka's beam if you can, or push them under uka when he is about to melt a part of the arena. If he melts the arena while your opponent is standing over the area he is melting, they will continue to tumble on the edge if not fall off, giving you some more time to charge them and finish them off. Crystal: You have to win without being able to save yourself from falling. This isn't that hard, just stay away from the edges and use the same strategy as the trophy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- C. El Pogo Loco Trophy difficulty: 5/10 Gem difficulty: 7/10 Crystal difficulty: 8.5/10 Trophy: Use the same strategy as the other pogo levels, but watch out for roo. He drops tnt's nearby, and if you are anywhere within the 8 squares surrounding the square that the tnt is on, then you will get stunned. Also note that running into the square with the tnt on it also results in it exploding instantly, just like in crash 2. Also, you have the ability to surround an area to fill the center, but do not worry about that; it does not help very much. Roo will occasionally drop a square with 4 arrows. These are EXTREMELY helpful, because they fill every square above, left and right of, and below that square in a straight line, just like the arrows in the other 2 but in every direction. However, no matter where in the arena you get it, it will ALWAYS give you the same number of squares painted to your color (simple math) because for each square it moves down, another square is painted at the top, and each one to the left, another gets painted to the right, and vice versa. So every time you hit it, you get 15 squares painted your color. Gem: This is a harder gem. You just have to grab speedy boots like crazy before your opponents do. This is somewhat based on luck of where they land, because occasionally it will be impossible to grab boots before the comp. Use the same strategy as before, if there is one player that is absolutely dominating, just paint over their squares until you get near a box that you can get, and hit it. Doing this helps keep their score rising rate extremely low. Be sure to grab those 4 direction arrow squares too. Crystal: This strategy is extremely hard with 1 player, and with 2 players, it is near impossible. Roo will drop nitro crates, which will detonate in 1 second, and if you get hit or are in the area of effect you loose. With a teammate, if either of you gets hit, you both loose. There is a good strategy to use for this. Whenever you hear the laugh of roo, see where he is bouncing. If he is coming anywhere near you, then stand still. Once he drops the nitro next to you, then move away. If you are moving when he drops them, you might run into them or run into an area of effect. So use and master that strategy and you will be able to do it. Also, never go into the corner of the arena; he can corner you there. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Snow Bash Trophy difficulty: 3/10 Gem difficulty: 5/10 Crystal difficulty: 2/10 Trophy: The trophy is easy in this one; just wake the penguin and get in a corner. Jump when need be or move slightly to the side to avoid the boxes that fly at you. This alone will damage your opponents tremendously, if not kill them. Just do this for all 3 rounds and you should win easy. Just watch out for crates that fly at you, and other opponents coming after you. Gem: This one is a little harder than the trophy, because waking the penguin alone will not let you win. You need to also be throwing crates (of course TNT is the best approach) at your opponents. But still, be sure to wake the penguin additionally, and that along with throwing crates should not be too hard. Crystal: This is almost no different than the trophy. You slip just a little bit more than in the trophy. This barely affects you, so the crystal is easier than the trophy because you only have to win one round. Just use the same strategy as the trophy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- E. Metal Fox Trophy difficulty: 4/10 Gem difficulty: 5/10 Crystal difficulty: 6/10 Trophy: In this arena, the pattern of the area changes. The metal plates will continually be changing, and once you learn the pattern you can use this to your advantage, so that you are in position as soon as they change. The pattern is pretty easy to learn, there are only 4 different ways the arena changes. There are also bombs in this level you can grab that do half-damage. Gem: You have 40 seconds for this gem. Bombs help TREMENDOUSLY in this one. Be careful if you use mines, however, because the level might change on you, so make sure you know what will happen next. If you have brio or cortex, or dingodile or roo, it's almost mandatory that you use bombs and mines, because they have weak shots. Crystal: You cannot get hit by the falling mines. This is somewhat difficult, due to the changing environment, but you should be pretty familiar to the environment by now to at least have an idea of when the arena will change. The biggest problem is when the boxes fall on your head, which happens more often than you might think. Also, be aware in one of the level shifts, you can get stuck in a dead end, so be careful of that; it's happened to me before. Of course, if you get the bombs, you can get this level done fast and shorten the time you have to worry about those dumb mines. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- F. Dot Dash Trophy: 4/10 Gem: 6/10 Crystal: 7/10 Trophy: Ahhhhhh one of the racing games. These are kinda fun, but it's honestly a pretty crappy race. Look at the size of the race track. Well anyway, for all these racing games, the safest and best strategy is just stay on the very inside of the track, hugging the middle barrier. Don't turn too sharp, or you'll stop and possibly go backward. For this race, you don't even need turbo, just stay as close middle as you can, and keep a steady speed, ignoring the other racers; they will just knock each other off. Gem: You have 10 laps, everybody else has 8. You got a minute to do it in. Time may not seem like an issue at first when you end up getting 3 laps behind, but as you become better and near the end of the race, occasionally you will run out of time. For this one be sure to use turbo, but stay on the inside. If turbo is used right and you turn neatly enough, you can get 3 seconds per lap. You can only fill up your turbo bar all the way for about 3.5 or 4 laps though. Be sure to fill it up before using it, because short bursts of turbo that end on the bottom of the track will send you off the edge, and then you'll be completely screwed, because in that time you just fell another lap behind. Crystal: Don't get hit by a missile. I'm not sure if getting hit by your own missile ends it, but I know teammates does; that happened a few times. Of course, this is one of those annoying multiplayer levels, where if one gets hit, your both out. Well, sticking to single player, do the same thing you did for the trophy. Stick to the inside of the track and do not use turbo. This time, turbo is actually probably more bad than good, because it can send you to the middle of the track, which results in a clear target for enemy missiles. While staying as close to the center as possible, the enemy can be a quarter- lap behind you, and still not be able to shoot you. Besides the fact of being open, opponents never turn toward the middle. They turn only in the direction of their set course, so if they are racing right down the middle, as usual, then they will never aim toward the center, or they will screw up their pattern. After that, the only thing you have to worry about is a missile ricocheting off of the back wall, but that's not too hard to dodge. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================= VII. Warp Room 4 ======================================================================= Yes this warp room has the absolute most awful pogo and ballistix arenas in the game. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Sky balls Trophy: 7/10 Gem: 8/10 Crystal: 10/10 Trophy: This is one of the worse trophies in the game. First, it's a ballistix, so it's absolutely no fun whatsoever. Second, it's a frickin hard ballistix. The annoying tilting arena screws up the balls, making them all sway in a certain direction, half the time towards your goal. My best advice is to practice, use the shock at the appropriate time, and get used to the pattern that the arena tilts in, which is not too hard. Why this would help I have no idea, but at least you can be ready when all 10 balls come rushing into your goal. Gem: Yes even worse than the trophy. Another 9-15 gem. Of course you see how much the level sux, now you get to do it with a real disadvantage. I'll just say good luck with that, and make sure to hold down the L1 or R1 button, which you should have done since Crash Ball. Crystal: This crystal is AWFUL. It's likely the hardest in the game, though there are 2 other crystals, which suck just as bad. But this one is a terrible one. Get hit by a red ball, and you're out. What sucks is, your opponents make the red balls; they don't come out red. They use a special shockwave to turn them red. The absolutely worse part of this is when a ball is hit by the top player in the direction of a side player. From there, the side player hits it into your goal, and sometimes they are so close, there is a split second from when they hit the ball from when you do. Of course, the ball can turn red then, and you will be screwed. You could just let these possibly-dangerous balls into your goal, but that costs you precious points, which is a severe issue near the end when the comp's wise up and fight like no other. An additional problem is when a ball ricochets off the side bumper just enough so it goes perfectly horizontal across the front of your goal, making it near impossible to dodge, if not impossible altogether. Or, with plenty of luck, that won't happen to you too often. Oh yeah, and the only good news, which is really good news, is each player only has 10 points. That helps in the fact you don't have to hold out as long. Alright, now for a strategy. When a red ball is created, no matter where it is at, stay in the middle of your goal. Surprises will happen, so if your on the left side of your goal while the red ball is on the right, it can move almost horizontally into the left side of your goal (the more horizontal it is, the more space it will take to get to the left side), giving you very little time to move right. So stay in the middle. Don't worry, if that doesn't make sense now, it will when you play it. Stay in the middle, and when a red ball comes directly at you from the left side, move right. If it goes to the right side of where you are, move left. And if it goes to the left side, stay where you are, as long as it is not coming towards you. The problem is, whenever a ball comes from the left side, you usually have the urge to move to the right no matter where it heads. Learn not to do that. Be careful when a red ball and a normal ball come into your goal at the same time near each other; it is probably the best idea to let them both go. Assuming that, using those strategies and practicing a lot, you should be able to get past that part. Then comes the worse part: the end. When one comp is dead, one more comp should not be far behind, while the other still has a lot of points. After the second one dies, the last comp fights for their life, going insane and hitting near every ball that comes to their goal. By this point, not too many balls turn red, actually I don't remember any more than 1 or 2 during this period, if even that, but the comp is fighting like crazy, and you are probably pretty weak from paranoia of normal balls turning red, or both coming in too close together. Once you become better at the first part, and fight like mad to win the final part, you win the crystal. Good job, you got the worse crystal in the game, done and over with. Note: The comps seem to get easier the more you play this, so just play over and over and you might notice they let more and more balls go in their goal. Also, in multi-player, if one player gets hit by a red ball, only they are out; the other one can still play. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Manic Panic Trophy difficulty: 3/10 Gem difficulty: 5/10 Crystal difficulty: 2/10 Trophy: In this panic, you can pick up bombs and launch them at your opponents. This can make it easier but, of course, your opponents can launch bombs at you also. When you get hit by a bomb, you loose your bear. If you get hit a second time, your gone. If you can, try to get 2 opponents next to each other, and launch a bomb at one. With this, you can knock them BOTH off their bears. Still, while the comp's are not on their bears, they do pretty good. You'll become pretty annoyed when you get knocked off with a little nudge when off your bear, while they seem near impossible to, due to the fact that they only use half their charge bar per charge. So just grab another bomb and finish them off. As always, there is lightning, and that's a major help of course. Gem: This gem is the second hardest one in the game for polar push (of course, the first hardest was the stupid polar panic, that ice is a pain). Use bombs like mad, and if you get lighting, which happens surprisingly often, be sure to get 2 of them off. After that, just bomb the other one. You likely have enough time to use that strategy, just be quick in knocking opponents off to get 2. Crystal: You have to win without your bear. This is easy once you bomb your opponent's bears. Just watch out for their bombs, because your dead if you get hit. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- C. Pogo Padlock Trophy difficulty: 5/10 Gem difficulty: 7/10 Crystal difficulty: 9/10 Trophy: This level sucks. There are 3 new things that are likely more pain than good to you. First off, if you step on your own square, you loose all the squares you have. Second, if your shot with a missile, all your squares turn to the color of whoever shot you. Obviously, the same goes for you, but you'll likely get shot more than you shoot. Third, you can padlock your squares, which is actually good, but often the comp gets it before you. At least if you padlock them, you can step on your own. Anyway, for this game, first a couple tips. Shoot opponents with a ton of squares with a missile if you get a chance. Second, be on the lookout for missles. The most important item, as always, are speedy-boots. The padlock is good, but hard to get and still pretty slow. So go with the boots. Actually, a great thing about this level is because the comp's are always so stupid, they step on their squares quite a bit. Nothing is more annoying than them stepping on their own square right before getting hit by one of your missiles. So, this level sucks, but it's not too hard to win. Gem: Ah, another pogo gem. These get pretty annoying by now, especially in this level. Stick with speedy boots, you are gonna need them. If you can get missiles, go ahead and do that, but ignore the padlocks. They are too annoying to chase down. Also, make sure not to take too long to shoot your missiles. Remember, you only have a minute, and time is occasionally what keeps you from winning. Crystal: This crystal also sucks. You can only get squares by shooting your opponents with missiles. Obviously, go after opponents with the most squares. Once you get some, immediately find a box, because they will get painted over FAST. I have taken about 15 squares from an opponent, and 7 seconds later when I get a box, I only score 2. At least one good thing about this level is you do not loose your squares by stepping on your own, probably because your not re-painting them. So to win this crystal, be good with shooting missles, and quick to grab exclamation boxes. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Drain Bash Trophy difficulty: 5/10 Gem difficulty: 7/10 Crystal difficulty: 8/10 Trophy: This bash is AWESOME! You can get weapons to shoot at your opponents, which is so much fun to do, and besides that, it does massive damage (each shot does as much as a tnt). Trophy is pretty simple, just follow what you did for the other bashes, and get weapons whenever you get a chance. However, don't spend the whole game looking for weapons, they are not that necessary. When your opponents get weapons, they shoot them all at once, so the worse that will happen is you get hit once. Gem: You have 30 seconds to do this one. Grab the weapons and use them. Them. The best weapon to have is the homing energy orb. You get 3 shots, so if you use each shot on an opponent once, you got them all at half health. If you get the missiles, try to be in between or next to at least 2 opponents to hit them. You get 2 shots with this too, so it is pretty useful. The other weapon, the shockwave, it like a faster version of the energy orb for bringing opponents to half health. Activate it when you are as close to all 3 as you can get, and make sure you hit all 3 opponents. Use weapons and tnt, play like a maniac, and you can win. Crystal: You can only open special crates by throwing them. Harder than it sounds. While this flaw is not too hard to get by, your opponents also seem to be a lot stronger in health. After you kill 2 opponents, and have one left with seemingly plenty of time, then they die very slowly. Also, they are always looking for weapons, so their grabbing health as they do that. This is annoying. I finally won with 8 seconds left, and I had to hit them with a tnt. Regular crates will hardly do the job near the end. Weapons and tnt are the only way. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- E. Jungle fox Trophy difficulty: 3/10 Gem difficulty: 7/10 Crystal difficulty: 1/10 Trophy: This level is fun, because its one big open tank arena. More freedom, but also a lot less cover, so be careful. Mines have a circular area effect, instead of going vertical and horizontal, making them a little less useful. You get missiles in this game, which are amazing and do massive damage (half health, as always). They travel real fast too (less than .5 seconds from one end to another). As the game progresses, the idol in the middle will begin to launch off and hit people. They do half health as well, which is great if the person getting hit is not you or a teammate. Real easy trophy, just grab missiles when you get a chance. Gem: 30 seconds to win. Grab missiles, and try to get the opponents on the bottom of the screen for when the idol comes to attack (idol always attacks on the bottom first). Crystal: This crystal is ridiculously easy: the Idol in the middle attacks, but they attack opponents too, so you got it easy. You can dodge, and they can't. Enjoy this one. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- F. Toxic dash Trophy difficulty: 5/10 Gem difficulty: 8/10 Crystal difficulty: 8/10 Trophy: Do the same as the last race: Stick as close to the center as you can throughout the race. There is a new weapon, the shockwave. You're gonna hate this weapon because it can send you backwards. An opponent rushes up to the side, uses the shockwave, and you fly backwards and off the edge, while they gain a lap. Just dodge opponents that have these. There is a monster that will arise in the middle, and send little toxic things running backwards on the track, but if you stick to the middle you won't hit them. As usual, save the turbo bar until it is full, so you don't careen off the edge from a quarter-bar of turbo. Gem: Yeah, it's a pain, but there isn't much help I can offer except practice it a lot, get turbo a lot, and dodge the shockwaves. Crystal: Man this crystal is annoying. If you get hit off the edge, you get slime in your engines, resulting in about 5 seconds of just puttering along, unable to get very much speed. The solution: DON'T GET KNOCKED OFF THE EDGE. Get knocked off 3 or 4 times, and you probably lost. Just be careful and don't fly off the edge. Turbo may be best saved altogether for this level. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- G. Ring Ding Trophy difficulty: 5/10 Gem difficulty: 5/10 Crystal difficulty: 4/10 Trophy: This is my favorite level in the game. It's also the only medieval mayhem level you get without unlocking. You pop balloons of the same color as you to score. You can get vacuums to get your balloons towards you, or useless hover shoes, which lets you not be effected by the ring. For the trophy, its pretty basic. Just pop balloons of your color. When you first play, it is annoying because you are not used to where your balloons are at compared to where you are to pop them, so that's why the difficulty is 5/10. If you need to, grab vacuums and hit the black balloons. Hover shoes are utterly useless. Gem: This time you should probably grab vacuums and black balloons. If you can get all balloons your color and have a vacuum at the same time, you can score about 10-15 points, assuming you don't get hit by the cpu's, which will be after you. Crystal: Don't hit balloons that are not your color. This isn't too hard, the only problem is when you are going for your own balloon, and a cpu hits the black balloon, and turns it a different color right before you hit it, and therefore you fail. Watch out for that, and you will win easy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================= VIII. Bosses ======================================================================= I saved the bosses till last because most of them are pretty easy and do not require much strategy. I also put them before warp room 5 because there are no bosses after that room. Most people can just beat them on their own, but I still put this in for people who need it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Papu Pummel Difficulty: 3/10 This boss is pretty easy, especially since you don't have to drain all his health. Dodge the flipping squares, then watch out for little crashes. Kill those, then throw a crate at Papu. Do that 3 times, and boom, you win. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- B. The Bearminator Difficulty: 5/10 Bearminator is real easy: The bears are easy to push off. The only reason it is hard is the last round with the bears. 3 bears, and half a platform. Anyway, first time, shove off the bear, shoot the missile. Second time, shove off the bears on a 75% platform, shoot the missile. 3rd round, try shoving off 3 bears on a 50% platform. Not easy. Stay on the very right, wait till he shoots them, and after they land, get to the top left. When the bears shoot, get to bottom left. Then, shove one then run. Then go back and shove another, and run, and finally get the last one. Don't stick around once you shove one off, because the other 2 bears will shove you off. Then grab the final missile and shoot him. You win. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- C. Big Bad Fox "When you open the door, you OPEN the door" -Sophomore history teacher Difficulty: 6/10 For this boss, Moe and Joe are in a gigantic wall-type thing with guns. First round, there are 3 cannons randomly shooting strong, short range shots. Get in front of the ice chunks, and move left and right, dodging and shooting. Easy. Second round, 4 cannons shoot weak, long range shots. If you shoot in between 2 of them, you can get them both pretty easy. Assuming that, 4 shots lets you win. After you shoot the first 2 cannons, get right up next to them if you ever need cover. Last time, 2 missiles shooting cannons. Watch out for them. They are easy to dodge, but if you get hit, then you get HIT. Shoot them, and then you have to kill Moe and Joe in tanks. It gets easier the more you try, because at first they are darn near invincible, but as you go on, they end up having the same damage taken as any other player. Plus, you have missiles, so it's easy to hit them. Also, if you die, you just respawn to the beginning of the tank wars, so it's easy. But you will most likely die after the first part, since your health is low, and their at their darn-near-invincible phase. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- D. Oxide Ride Difficulty: 8/10 The first part of the level is fun and appropriate, but the second part is ridiculous and stupid for a boss battle. First part of the level, you are chasing Oxide through space with obstacles and junk. Shoot the small mines you come across, and you can shoot nitro's if you want, though it is not necessary. Don't bother shooting oxide. After you get through, onto the second part of the fight. Welcome to our favorite game type.... BALLISTIX! What a fine way to end the game, huh? Enjoy this fine last fight, which sucks to every end, but of course, the more you play, the more he will suck, letting more balls get into his goals, and them doing more damage. Those wonderful red balls are back, so you will enjoy shooting those. ======================================================================= IX. Warp Room 5 ======================================================================= ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A. Splash Dash (requires 17 gold relics) Trophy difficulty: 5/10 Gem difficulty: 7/10 Crystal difficulty: 4/10 Trophy: This is a different kind of racing one. In this one, you are underwater riding some sort of sea-creature type thing. You can jump, which is necessary to get around this clam thing in the middle. This is harder than the other dashes because of, of course, that stupid clam thing in the middle. Your opponents rarely hit it, while it shoots out right at you, knocking you right off the edge. Once you play this a few times, you will get used to it, and it should now be too hard after that. Just takes some practice. Gem: As always, 8-10. This one is somewhat annoying, because of the above, clam is pushing you off. Just be ready to jump like mad. Usually I'm jumping the whole time just to be safe, unless I need to have the right timing to jump over a rod that is already sticking out. Crystal: The clam goes faster. Rods come out faster, circles around faster, everything is faster. It is really not that bad; I won it first try. It's easier than the trophy because you only have to win one round, and you should be pretty used to the level by now. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- B. Dragon Drop (requires 19 crystals) Trophy difficulty: 3/10 Gem difficulty: 3/10 Crystal difficulty: 9/10 Trophy: This level is a ton of fun. You have to pick up gems and throw them at a target, and the further back you are, the more points you score (there are score zones). Just run up and grab gems, then haul back to the 5 zones and shoot the target quick. The target is actually pretty forgiving, the gem can bounce anywhere, and as long as you were the last one to shoot it, if it hits the target, you get the points. Watch out, however, because the computers can grab the gem from mid-air. Once 45 seconds are up, another gem appears, and by that point you can just hang back by the 5 mark, because plenty of gems will fly back there. Then, just grab them and shoot quick. Gem: Use the same strategy as above, but be quick, and be sure you are Scoring all 5. Crystal: The last of the 3 awful crystals. To score, you have to shoot from the zone that is flashing. It is 100% completely random, but make sure you are shooting like mad, and when the 5 flashes, that's your chance to catch up, so when 45 seconds are up, and 5 is flashing, head back there and stay there and if you are fast, you can likely score at least 2 gems from there, but you have to be quick about it. So once you get used to how annoying this factor is, and you can rush to each area and shoot while moving, you can win. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- C. Mallet Mash (requires 21 gold relics) Trophy difficulty: 4/10 Gem difficulty: 7/10 Crystal difficulty: 3/10 Trophy: This level is so much fun. My second favorite level in the game. You have to hit mushrooms to increase your score. The longer you wait for them to explode, the more points they give you. To win, just go after the gold mushrooms every chance you get; they are worth a ton. Use shockwaves in huge clumps. Real basic stuff. Gem difficulty: This gem is sometimes hard when one comp just owns all, and gets their score down to zero before you even get halfway. Get every question box that you can get before the comp, and if a shockwave, go for clumps of 4 or more mushrooms, or if you see a gold mushroom, get that plus whatever other mushrooms you can. Also, try to steal comps mushrooms if you can. This one won't Take too long, as long as there isn't a comp which goes insane. Crystal difficulty: Beware of opponents shockwaves. This is not very hard, just play like you did the trophy. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- D. Swamp Fox (requires 23 crystals) Trophy difficulty: 6/10 Gem difficulty: 7/10 Crystal difficulty: 6/10 Trophy: Man I hate swamp fox. It is the worse, and as a matter of fact, the only bad tank wars game. You are in a swamp, you can't move your turret: your cannon only shoots forward, and the opponents are frickin' hard in this one. There is a good strategy, which works most of the time. Right when the game starts, the person to the right of you may move upward. When he does, move over there and just sit. Chances are, the other 3 will get into a melee, killing each other while you just sit aside, and mop up afterward. Be sure to use the shield every time you get a chance; you will need it. Try to dodge whenever you can, because you can't use the shield indefinitely. Gem: This is so annoying because the above strategy wont work as well; you have to kill FAST. Actually, it's best to go to the corners, and shoot one opponent repeatedly till they die. Try sticking a mine in the middle of a couple opponents to damage them bad. In this one, mines stay there till the round is over, or until someone hits them. They are not time mines. Crystal: Kind of annoying. That tiny torpedo don't move very fast, but it is very easy to forget about it. Sometimes it will trap you in a corner, so always be moving. All I did for this one was first went to the lower right. When It got near, I went to the upper right. When it got near there, I went to the left corner, but slight lower, and when it got close there, I went up and back to the upper right. From there I started shooting opponents, because they were weak by now. If the torpedo gets too close, just move back to the bottom, and finish your opponents off from there. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- E. Keg Kaboom (requires 25 gems) Trophy difficulty: 3/10 Gem difficulty: 2/10 Crystal difficulty: 3/10 Trophy: This level is a lot of fun, and besides that, you will never score higher on any level in the game (I have gotten in upwards of 500 points). The trophy is basic, just run around, near huge clumps of barrels. Not too hard. If your fuse gets behind you by more than about a couple feet in game, then just run over it to get it right with you again. Be sure to do that when running by barrels. You will get used to it real soon. Gem: The odds in this one are a complete joke. This is so ridiculously easy. Crystal: Dodge the bomb. This is easy too, just stay away from the edges and you are good to go. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --------- F. Dante's Dash- requires 27 trophies (trophies from every level) Trophy difficulty: 5/10 Gem difficulty: 6/10 Crystal difficulty: 8/10 Trophy: This level is insane. That volcano, once you get used to it, is more of a help than an obstacle. It will launch out these fireballs that randomly hit the inside of the arena, then roll outward. Once you learn to see where these will go and dodge them, they help a lot; almost every time the volcano erupts, at least 2 opponents hit the fireballs. Sometimes it takes 3 of your laps for them to finish one lap. Gem: Kinda tough at first, but its real easy to pull up to them. They fall off as much and are just as dumb as in the last one, so just get a good race and you'll be fine. I even fell off a few times, but I barely beat Tiny to the finish line. Crystal: This crystal is so annoying. Not because of the giant bird thing, but because your opponents are, as always, better in the crystal. There is always 1 opponent who never falls off, never gets shot by other opponents, and therefore, wins. You get shot with a missile more than anyone, of course, and that bird is such a pain sometimes. Once you pull in first, it's always there to make you tumble and fall off the edge. Well, not much advice I can give, except grab missiles and shoot whoever's in first. Watch out for that bird. Save turbo till the last 3 laps. Yup, this crystal sucks. Good luck. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ======================================================================= X. Regarding Relics ======================================================================= I did not put relics in here on purpose, because there is little advice that can be offered for them. There is nothing more to do for relics than stress the strategies already listed, and practice a lot. In case you haven't gotten relics yet, gold relics require 2 wins in a row against harder opponents, and platinum requires 3. Obviously, these can be hard, especially platinums. To get platinums, you can hardly get lucky, although you can somewhat on golds. To win platinums, you have to have completely mastered a level, and know how to do every little thing perfectly. These may not seem too much harder than gold relics, but trust me. They are. ======================================================================= XI. Legal ======================================================================= Copyright (c) 2005-2008 Daniel Halverson This guide may not be used for any other reason than your own personal and private use. It may not be used or reproduced on other websites, magazines, or publicly distributed in any way.