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TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1.1 Getting Started
1.2 Playing the Game
1.3 The Upgrade Screen
1.4 The Shop
1.5 Further Upgrades
1.6 Achievements
1.7 The Mystery Shop
1.8 Strategies for Getting a Better Score
First off, I see that there are some certain problems some people have in the game where they cannot start it after they get to the first item shop. What you have to do is buy the first three items IN ORDER, so the preloader would be first. You can't buy items, then load the game, that's so unnatural! That's why you get stuck (even though it's a fake loader, sorry Tony).
So in this Walkthrough, I will explain to you how to be successful in this game, while being competitive, meaning you get to the end of the game much faster than your friends and you will get bragging rights. =P
1.1Getting Started:
The god in your head wants you to buy a shop, but you can't. What does he do? He gives you $1000 as a loan to pay off your buying the shop expenses. However, he wants it back as soon as you get enough money (epic foreshadowing). After you get to the shop menu, do these three things in order to progress to the game:
1. Buy the preloader ( this will load the game AGAIN... >_> )
2. Buy the menu buttons (this will give you the option to play the game)
3. Buy the save system (this will save your game when you stop playing)
Afterwards, you will have no more money to buy things with, so now, you will have to do things on your own accord. Will you get money specifically to equip your ship? Will you use it to pay off the creepy deity's loan? That's for you to decide. As soon as you start playing, the clock is ticking for the amount of seconds you've put into playing the game ( Whether you can see it or not =P )
1.2 Playing the Game:
It's the game in Upgrade Complete. You play it. It's a space ship shooting game where you are the (currently white, pixely) ship in the bottom middle of the screen, and your enemies are the ones that appear from the top of the screen in random placements. Press the spacebar to fire your weapons, and use the A,D keys to move your ship from left to right. When you destroy an enemy, they will drop one coin worth a random amount of $400 each. While this doesn't seem like much at first, higher waves make this seem almost too much money. Once you defeat all of the enemies, you will exit out of the game to the upgrade screen, and your next level will be significantly harder: more enemies, which means more money. Phailing means at least one enemy has successfully escaped your ship and has moved to the bottom of the screen. This means you will have to repeat the same wave in order to progress farther.
1.3 The Upgrade Screen:
This is where you go to upgrade your ship by means of attaching weapons or support equipment around it. Some fire, some help your ship in some means. You can have up to 12 weapons on your ship at one time. When you buy one, simply drag the object to the red area and click on it to drop it. The weapons and support need to be in the red area in order to be able to be used in further waves. To upgrade your equipment, simply click on one and click on UPGRADE on the middle of the screen. If you don't have money, keep playing the game to acquire more coins. Here is the list of the weapons and support, as well as their buying and upgrading costs to build, plus Yours Truly's insight on the particular item:
Fires straight shots at the enemy. Upgrading it will make the rate of fire faster and stronger. While it is great that it eliminates the first waves of enemies attacking, having too many can be considered a mistake, because there are better weapons out there that go hand-in-hand with this gun.
DOES NOT NEED TO CLICK TO FIRE. Shoots a constant bolt of lightning that gradually damages the ship in range that it attacks. While this weapon is incredibly useful, it is useless by itself. It needs 2-3 more of the same weapon in order to have positive effects. With this in place, it would take .5 seconds for the three bolts to destroy 4 enemies, even though these bolts branch out.
DOES NOT NEED TO CLICK TO FIRE. Fires a number of homing rockets at the enemies in range. Upgrading increases the damage and the rate of fire that it produces. While being very expensive, it is a must-have for any ship that want's to progress quickly. A couple of fully-upgraded missiles will get you very far. HOWEVER, they will not fire at the front lines, only those in the back of the wave. This is why you need either guns or lightning with the missiles, because if you have just missiles, they will all fire at the back, leaving those in the front have a field day escaping. 3-4 would be perfect.
This will increase your ship's overall speed in moving. Upgrading will further increase the speed. You can attach more than one Speed Panel unto the ship. While this is helpful in moving around, there is no need to have too many. Two is at most the highest you may need, as it will conflict with the overall fire power of your ship. Remember, you have a limited number of parts to attach.
1.4 The Shop:
This is the main method of buying upgrades to further build unto Upgrade Complete. Every time you buy an upgrade, your progress in the game will increase slightly ( whether you can see it or not =P ). Getting 100% progress will allow you to gain entrance into the Mystery Shop. Here is the list of upgrades you can buy from the shop:
Preloader (already bought)
Menu Items (already bought)
Save System (already bought)
Title Logo -- price: $900 Gives "The Game" a title
Menu BG Image -- price: $2000 Gives "The Game" a background
Progress Bar -- price: $2200 Allows you to see your progress
Achievements -- price: $1800 Allows you to see your achievements, as well as earn them. Get this early.
Mute Button -- price: $1800 Allows you to mute Tony's horrific and amateur (Sarcasm =P) music.
Armor Intro -- price: $2600 Nope. Not even in this game can you escape the grasp of the almighty shield intro.
Copyright Text -- price: $1800 So Tony doesn't get copied games all over the net.
Game Timer -- price: $4000 Allows you to see how much game time you put forth into Upgrade Complete.
Music -- price: $2600 Allows you to listen to Tony's creative and outstanding copied music.
1.5 Further Upgrades:
After you buy the features in the shop, you can upgrade some of them even further by going to the menu. You will see UPGRADE buttons around the screen. Clicking on one of them will increase the complexity of the feature significantly. In layman's terms, making it look better. While costing more money than buying parts, upgrading these will increase your progress bar by some degree. Here's the list of the upgrades and the progress increases:
The Game: Successfully beating "The Game" will leave your initial progress bar at 64%.
Performing specific feats yield achievements, which you can use them for bragging rights. Well, they aren't that special... except for maybe "supership". That took a while to get. Remember: to get your achievements, you first must buy it lol. Here's the list of achievements you can earn, with the method to get them:
Achievements Unlocked: Unlock all achievements
Wave 1 Complete: Win the first wave of enemies
Wave 5 Complete: Win the fifth wave of enemies
Wave 14 Complete: Win the fourteenth wave of enemies
Wave 20 Complete: Win the twentieth wave of enemies
Super Ship!: 12/12 parts all fully upgraded.
Spangly!: Buy all upgrades to Upgrade Complete
Upgrade Complete: "Win" "The Game"
1.7 The Mystery Shop
Once you have at least 100% in your progress bar proceed to the Mystery Shop. Once you have clicked on the button, *SPOILERS* and then *SPOILERS*, making it very dismaying. Afterwards, you can pretty much do whatever you want, since the time stopped at your score. Less means better, and means the strength of your bragging rights.
1.8 Strategies for Getting a Better Score:
Here are some helpful tips for getting a considerably-higher score. Of course, the whole situation is up to you, but these hints will reduce some seconds off your score:
--Stick to beating the game!
Progressing in the main part of the game not only increases your progress, but increases your money income as well. Use your money to strengthen your ship and progress farther and faster. Do this above all else!
--Make your move without hesitation!
The clock is ticking even if you aren't doing anything, so know what you are going to do on a split second's notice. Constant idle will cause your score to be unreasonably high.
-- Focus more on beating the enemies than getting money!
You will get plenty of money later on, and progressing farther will increase your income rating by a large margin. So focus on beating those baddies, not the floating gold items in the sky! ;-)
-- Put some of your weapons on the bottom![b]
All on the top isn't necessarily the best option. When your enemies are heading dangerously close, your bottom weapons are what you are going to rely on. Having no bottom weapons can result on some enemies sneaking away and stealing your chance for reaching the next level. When all else fails, use missiles!
That concludes this seemingly-long walkthrough by Shintetsu. Oh? You want to know MY score? Well, my honest-to-goodness score was 536 seconds. This was after 5 different games being played. Just take what I just taught you here, and soon enough, your score will get much better! ;-)
For me, I used a gun/missile combination. Guns are actually quite powerful once fully upgraded due to their quick rate of fire; I had six of them fully upgraded and they stripped away enemies in no time.
