3. Enemies and Obstacles

[Iron Blue Arremer]

3. Enemies and Obstacles

3.1. Obstacles

Grey Blocks can be moved by pushing them. They are found in every area.

Cobwebs will slow you down and catch any enemies or damsels that move into them. You can burn them down with torches or cut them apart with a blade. Also, if you move through them, they will slowly dissipate, but if another creature is in them, they are stuck in it forever. They are found in the Mines.

Water is completely harmless on its own, you can't drown, and neither can a damsel or enemy. You will be able to jump continously, though, and higher as well. Dropping a bomb into water will drain it, especially if you destroy the walls containing it. Water is only found in the Jungle.

Trees have two unique things to them. First, you can climb them as if you had Climbing Gloves, meaning you can cling to the tree in whatever height you want. Secondly, the branches work like dropthrough platforms. Trees are in the Jungle and Temple.

Ice blocks are solid, but you don't have as much grip and, of course, can slip along it. This is obviously found in the Ice Caves.

Dropping and breaking platforms can be very dangerous - usually they are above an endless pit or spikes. Keep in mind they will not respawn when you plan your jumps. These 2 types of platforms are found in the Ice Caves.

Living Blocks are only found in the Worm. You can destroy them by whipping them, but they will respawn after a few seconds and are quite capable of crushing you.

Spikes will kill you instantly if you fall on top of them. You can walk through them or jump into them from below, however. They are found in every area.

Arrow Traps will shoot an arrow as soon as anything moves 4 squares in front of them. This can be you, an enemy, an item like a pot. The arrow deals 2 damage. You can pick it (or if it hit a body its shaft) up and throw it. They are found in the Mines and the Temple.

Powder Boxes are brown crates with red skulls and bones painted on them. If they take damage, fall down or if there's something causing tremor nearby, they will go off and explode like a bomb. However, you can walk over them or push them without any danger. They appear in every area.

Boulders only appear if you trigger them by taking an Idol in the Mines. They are too high to regularly jump over, so use a rope or get up on a ledge. They will crash through the stage, destroying parts of it in the progress, and also crushing everything.

Tiki Traps are probably one of the most dangerous traps in the game. The brown statues will shoot out spears at whomever gets close to them - including enemies and damsels. Getting impaled by one of these is instant death. You can fake approaching them as once they start pulling back into the trap's body, you can safely touch them. If you hold the run button while approaching, you even can get them to come out faster. You run into them in the Jungle and the Temple.

Acid is only in the Worm. It basically works like water, but will slowly drain your health away. It also spawns poisonous bubbles that will damage you if you touch them. Just like water, you can easily drain acid pools by bombing the walls containing it.

Springs are found in the Ice Caves and on the Mothership, and can be very easy to overlook. Luckily, they're not very dangerous. It causes you to involuntarily jump up.

Mines are in the Ice Caves. If a creature walks over them, they start beeping and after a second or two, they will blow up in a bomb explosion.

Turrets are only available in the Mothership and the "I feel a psychic presence"-mutated Ice Caves, and there only inside of the alien ship parts. They will aim towards you and fire plasma shots at you. However the projectiles are easily avoidable.

Forcefields appear in the same areas as Turrets. They are pink walls of doom, and if you touch them, you instantly die. You can place a bomb near the top or bottom generator to blow it up.

Crush Traps are shaped like spikey blocks with a big eye - their shape is very reminiscent of Thwomps from the Mario series. They can only move vertically and horizontally. As soon as you move in one of their paths they will fly towards you with high speed, potentially pushing you into a wall or other obstacle and crushing you. You can use these traps to destroy enemies like Mummies or Anubis. You find them in the Temple.

Ceiling Traps are only found in the Temple, and there only if you pick up the Idol. If you haven't bombed a path outside before picking it up, this trap will be your certain doom.

Spiked Balls only appear in hell. Only the ball itself will be able to harm you, you can stand safely in the range of the chain without the balls touching you. If you want to destroy one, bomb the black box the chain is attached to.

Lava is an instant death trap, immediately blows up bombs dropped into it and destroys items that fall into it. It also spawns Magma Men. You can drain lava pools by destroying the walls containing the pool, making it easier to cross them.

[Iron Blue Arremer]

3.2. Mines

Snakes will crawl along a surface. They will not drop down ledges. If you walk too close to them, they will bite you for 1 damage. Their habitat is the Mines, but they can also appear in pots.

Cobras are the blue version of snakes, and do the same snakes do, but they also occasionally spit a blob of acid into the direction they're facing. They can be inside of pots like their green cousins.

Bats will hang on ceilings. If you approach them, they will trigger and fly towards you. Due to their diagonal path, it can be a bit difficult whipping them. When you use the run button, you trigger them from further away.

Spiders hang on ceilings and drop down if you enter the square below them. They then will jump towards you. They can be hard to spot at times, especially if they're covered by the HUD or the level is dark. Naturally they occur only in the Mines, but can also appear inside of pots.

Spinner Spiders hang in a web near the ceiling and will lower themselves towards the floor. They will choose a random distance between ceiling and floor, so be careful when passing them.

Giant Spiders are what one could consider the "boss enemies" in the Mines. There is only one Giant Spider at most at a time, unless the mutator "My skin is crawling" is active, which then will have 4 or 5 of these critters sitting in a sort of "den" right next to each other. They will always sit on a ceiling with two cobwebs beneath them. Just like normal spiders, these will drop down on you if you walk under them, or if you hit them with something. Once dropping down, they generally behave like their smaller cousins, jumping towards you, and they occasionally shoot out a cobweb.
They take about 8 or so hits with a whip or jumps on them without any upgrades. An easy tactic is to throw a bomb directly beneath them into one of their cobwebs, instantly killing them. Once destroyed, they leave behind some money and Paste, a must have item.

Skeletons can be really annoying, because they have just about the worst timing possible to spawn. If you see bones and a skull somewhere on the ground, it has the chance of being undead. If you get close to it, the skeleton will assemble and walk towards you, dropping off of ledges in the progress. You can easily avoid getting surprised by them by jumping on top of them, using your whip or throwing an item when approaching a bone pile.

Scorpions are quite dangerous. If you get close to them and they are looking towards you, they will start jumping at you with crazy speed. They take two hits with your whip or jump to kill, and are also found in pots occasionally.

Cavemen are the first humanoid enemy you might encounter. They casually walk along whatever platform they are. If they see you, they will start charging towards you, and try to punch you. This will also have them drop off the platform they were on before. You can use this to your advantage to lure them into traps or the likes. They have 3 health.

3.3. Jungle

Tiki Men are an alternate version of the Cavemen wearing a tiki mask and holding a Boomerang. They will throw that at you once they see you. If you jump on them, they drop the weapon, but will pick it up immediately after waking up. If they do not have any weapon to pick up after being hurt, they will act like normal Cavemen.

Frogs are blue and will jump towards you in high arcs, trying to crash you, while their orange cousins, the Fire Frogs, behave the same. However, if you hit them, they will flop onto their bellies and after a few seconds, blow up like a bomb.

Giant Frogs are, well, giant frogs. They can be considered the "bosses" of the Jungle, and will spawn normal frogs. They take several hits and when killed, occasionally leave behind Spring Shoes and some treasure.

Mantraps are walking flowers with sharp teeth. If they touch any creature, they will eat it and then become unconscious for a moment. Touching a live plant will cause instant death, so try to avoid them if at all possible.

Piranhas occasionally appear in water. If you enter the pool they are in, they will rush towards you and try to eat you. They can be taken out with a whip smack. If you are facing a pool with many more piranhas, you can also use a bomb to drain the water, which instantly kills them.

Old Bitey is another boss-like enemy, however, this guy is much less common, as he only appears in the "I hear rushing water..."-mutator. Old Bitey is a HUGE piranha that can kill you in one hit. I don't know if he drops anything, I never was able to kill him.

Killer Bees appear occasionally and only if the Jungle stage has a hive area in it. They will fly towards you.

The Queen Bee is yet another boss enemy, and only appears if a hive is around, just like her minions. She can be distinguished from the other bees by her bigger size and red eyes (normal bees have green eyes). If you are able to kill her, she will drop the Royal Jelly, and some treasure.

Snails are almost completely stationary. They shoot acid bubbles that float upwards slowly.

Monkeys are very annoying enemies - while they cannot harm you directly, they will jump onto your back and steal gold, ropes or a bomb from you. If they take a bomb, it becomes live, so get the hell outta there.

Jiang Shis only appear in the "The dead are restless..."-mutator. They are basically spiders that are always live.

Green Knights appear only in the Haunted Castle. They act like Cavemen, but do not take any damage from normal attacks, you'll have to use bombs to blow up their armor. If you do so, they turn into normal Cavemen.

The Black Knight is the boss of the Haunted Castle and holds the Shield. Once you are in his vicinity, he will try charging towards you, and jumping around like crazy just like angered shopkeepers do. If you manage to get behind him, you can damage him, or you can use a bomb. Once he is dead, you can pick up the Shield.

Vampires only appear in the "The dead are restless"-mutated levels, and will generally act like bats, hanging from the ceiling and being triggered if you walk near them. Once you are able to knock them out of their bat form, they will turn human and jump around like crazy. They can take a LOT of punishment, but a bomb takes them out quite easily. Upon death, they will always drop a Cape.

Bacterium appears in the Worm. It crawls along the walls, ceiling and floor and will damage you if you get into their way. You can stun them for a moment when using your whip. If you take damage from them, they will die instantly, however.

Worm Eggs are only in the Worm, they are green blobs that explode into Worm Babies if you're in their vicinity.

Worm Babies appear in the Worm. They are either already live or spawn from Worm Eggs. They will try to crawl towards you, but they fall off ledges and are quite easily taken care off.

Enemies that appeared previously and return: Cavemen, Skeletons, Bats

[Iron Blue Arremer]

3.4. Ice Caves

Yetis walk around on a surface. If you get near them, they will punch you and fling you across the stage, which is not very advisable since the Ice Caves all end with bottomless pits. You cannot harm Yetis with your whip, you have to either use another weapon or jump on top of their head to knock them out.

The Yeti King is basically the "boss" of the Ice Caves, but he will only appear in the "I smell wet fur..."-mutators of the Ice Caves. He will stomp the ground and cause icicles to fall down. It's hard to take him out, but if you do so, he can drop a Compass, Spiked Shoes, and money.

Mammoths are big, fat and very strong cousins of the Cobra. They, too, will walk along a surface and occasionally shoot. This time it's not acid, but a freeze ray shot, so if you get hit by this, you will turn into a block of ice. The Mammoth is quite capable of crushing you in this state if it walks over you, and other enemies too can kill you in one hit. These critters take a lot of hits, and are invulnerable to stomping on them unless you have Spikes Boots.

Aliens are the green little buggers that drop out of UFOs once you destroy them. They walk along the floor and jump towards you if they see you.

UFOs fly around randomly (though generally towards you if you are close to them). If you are underneath the UFO, it will fire a beam that destroys the block it hits underneath. If you hit the UFO, the Alien will jump out and use a parachute to descend, while the UFO wreck will fall down and explode like a bomb.

Alien Tanks are only found in the Mothership. They will drive around and fire bombs at you. Although the name might be putting you off of it, you can jump on their heads to break them.

Alien Lords appear in the Mothership and the "I feel a psychic presence..."-mutated Ice Caves. If you are close to them, they will fire purple projectiles at you that can easily kill you. Usually, they are behind forcefields. Once you've taken them out, tossing a bomb at them or using your shotgun does the trick. Upon death, they drop a Jetpack.

The Alien Queen is only in the Mothership, and is the boss, always found to the top left of the stage. She often is accompanied by an Alien Lord nearby, Alien Tanks, Turrets and Forcefields. Like Alien Lords, she will fire purple psychic blasts that instantly kill you. However, she also has an attack that will cause a target to appear on you and have you take 1 damage, but you can avoid that by not standing in one place too long. Just like with the Lords, a bomb is easily the best method of killing her, which will award you a Plasma Cannon.

Enemies that appeared previously and return: Skeletons, only in the Worm: Bacterium, Worm Baby, Worm Egg

3.5. Temple

Hawk Men are among the most common enemy found in the Temple. If they spot you, they will jump around like crazy and attack you. Try to approach them from behind, as if they do catch you, they are quite capable of catching you in a loop of damage you cannot escape.

Croc Men are like Hawk Men, just that they are able to teleport (usually when they take damage). They take three hits, but their teleportation can put them pretty much anywhere and makes them very dangerous.

Magma Men spawn from Lava pools. You can see that one of them is about to spawn if the lava starts wobbling and a little orange fireball pokes up from it. The Magma Man will then jump out as a ball, walking around, then jumping around some more, before disappearing. I don't think you can kill them.

Scorpion Flies will fly towards you. It's rather easy to jump on top of them, which then takes off their wings and transforms them into normal Scorpions (just with 1 health left). Keep away from those you took the wings off of, cause Scorpions are quite dangerous.

Mummies appear almost in long corridors, and if you find them somewhere else, they probably just dropped out of that corridor. These guys are VERY tough, and if they spot you, they start spitting a swarm of flies at you. One fly will take off 2 health, and it's very hard to dodge consecutive hits. Upon death, they drop 2 rubies, and they instantly die from a flash with the Camera. Since you usually do not have a Camera, your best option is to use a bomb to either kill them or create a passageway to flee through.

Anubis spawns exclusively in Stage 4-1. He will float through the level and, if he spots you, start shooting purple psychic blasts like the Alien bosses do. Using bombs with Paste is your best option, he takes 2 blasts. You can also use a lava pool, a Crush Trap or a Tiki Trap to kill him. Upon death, he drops the Sceptre, which you need to enter the City of Gold.

Anubis II only spawns in the City of Gold, and only if you pick up the Book of the Dead. Unlike his first iteration, Anubis II will summon red skeletons throughout the level and not directly attack you. If you do not kill him, he will actually follow you through other levels, so make sure to kill him.

Olmec appears exclusively in 4-4, which is Olmec's Lair. He is the final boss of the game, a giant golden statue of a head. Olmec's pattern is quite easy - he will float towards you, and then try to crush you. If you are close to him, he will drop down faster, breaking floor tiles below him. Of course, if you get crushed by him, you die. He also spawns random enemies occasionally, which are indicated by golden fireballs shooting out of his forehead.
The only way to kill him is to drop him into the lava pit below the floor. You have two options, which are bombing a chasm down, or having him crush himself down there. Latter is faster, cheaper, but also riskier. Have him create a chasm that is just 1 or 2 tiles wider than he is, and avoid his crushing by walking from side to side. Don't cling to Olmec's side as being put between him and a wall will kill you as well.
After killing Olmec, use ropes to get back out from the chasm, and be VERY careful for Magma Men spawning from the lava pit, and the enemies Olmec has spawned while you were getting him down there. If you exit the room, you will have beaten the (normal) game. Congratulations!

Enemies that appeared previously and return: Skeletons, Cobras, Scorpions, Cavemen

[Iron Blue Arremer]

3.6. Hell

Vlad is only found in 5-1, at the top of his tower, which will be either on the far left or the far right of the stage. He behaves exactly like any other vampire, but can be differentiated by his red suit, and the white hair. Upon death, he drops Vlad's Cape. Vlad's Amulet also is usually found in a nearby wall.

Imps are flying in basic patterns. They carry a pot they will drop fire from if you are beneath them, which can spawn Magma Men.

Devils are a lot like Cavemen, but you cannot jump on them due to the spikes on their heads.

Succubus are one of the most insidious enemy in the game. They disguise themselves as damsels, and if you try to pick up the fake damsel, they will start attacking you and suck off your life. Apparently Succubi cry out for help more regularly than actual damsels, but your best bet is to simply avoid picking up any damsels in Hell.

Horse Head and Ox Face are the 2 guardians of the final boss, King Yama. I'm not quite sure if they can do anything other than move. If you kill them (easily done with a bomb or a few shotgun shots), you will get a whole box of bombs from each of them (that's 24 bombs for both!).

King Yama is the true final boss of the game, and 5-4 is his throne room. He is a very difficult boss to face, and is sitting high up in the stage on his throne. Unless you have the Jetpack or Vlad's Cape, this boss is incredibly difficult. He has 2 phases. In all three of them, his will slam his fists into his throne and cause rocks to fall - even if you killed his fists. On the right side of the room, there is a chain leading up to the top (and exit of the room), and the area right to that chain is always safe of the falling rocks.
You NEED a Shotgun, Plasma Cannon or bombs with Paste in order to win this fight, else you cannot. In order to damage him, you need to hit his head. After a few hits (2 or 3 bombs), it will detach itself and start flying around the room, shooting fireballs. Again, the safe spot on the right side allows you to keep away, since his head will not fly over there. After another 2 or 3 bombs on his face, he will die.
While fighting Yama, keep in mind that there is a lot of spikes on the platforms, and there's many enemies such as Bats, Vampires and Devils hanging out in his lair.
Once defeated, you have beaten the true boss of the game, and unlocked Yang, the tutorial instructor! Congrats!

Enemies that appeared previously and return: Bats, Vampires, Jiang Shi, Skeletons

3.7. Special

Ghosts will appear if you take longer than 2 minutes and 30 seconds playing through a stage, or if you take the Idol in the "The dead are restless"-mutated Jungle stages. It will appear from one side of the stage and home in on you. Touching it is an instant kill, but it's fairly easy to maneuver around it. It also kills damsels and followers. If it touches a gem, that gem will turn into a diamond worth 5000 gold.

Shopkeepers can be easily angered, and once they are, they are probably one of the deadliest, if not THE deadliest enemy in the game sans the final boss. They will jump around like crazy and fire their shotguns at you. They have 4 health and can be very hard to hit.

Scarabs are found only in "I can't see a thing" levels, they're the little shining bugs. They fly away from you if you approach them. Picking one up gives 5000$ (in the Mines) and will extinguish the light. They also can be killed.

Golden Monkeys appear once you sacrifice an idol on an altar of Kali. They will jump around and literally poop gold nuggets. It's up to you if you want to keep it or not.