Chip's Challenge/General hints

This is a database for general hints for the game Chip's Challenge. Although things like hidden items under floor do not apply to the original Chip's Challenge, they are used frequently in custom-made level sets, and are therefore included here.


 * Use force floors or ice as much as possible, as long as they move Chip in the correct direction.
 * If you are sliding and you hit a force floor, you can step off the force floor in any direction. In the original Lynx version, a step backwards was not allowed, and this was "lost in translation", which caused several levels to be "cooked", or officially, "busted". The next sliding square, or the first from solid ground, will always take Chip in that direction, but on the next, he can override the floor again.
 * Try collecting things on your way to others. This will work for block pushing as well, and is one of Warwick Anderson's most frequently used block magic tricks.
 * When you are dealing with random monsters, plan a path through them (usually you can pretend they are not there). If you die, continue to try your route.
 * Be careful when pushing blocks onto sliding obstacles; they can squash you, or any other killable Chip. Blocks can be pushed on random force floors.
 * Blocks can not only be used to redirect monsters, but also to stop entrance of a monster into an undesired area or to slow it down.
 * You can wait until a bug or a paramecium is one space diagonally from you, following an obstacle you can remove (such as dirt or a chip), and then remove the obstacle to force him to go in circles. Try this on Underground.
 * Learn the patterns of the monsters. They will help you.
 * You can collide monsters to send them to otherwise unreachable places.
 * Teeth are very dumb. They follow you, but they don't have the sense to go around walls. They flank Chip either horizontally or vertically, and vertically if tied, every two turns.
 * Many people recommend exiting and restarting the game in order to get the full level bonus and/or full first second. This is very cumbersome. An easier way is to go to the nearest timed level (make sure you are not in any danger) and let the clock run. As soon as the clock ticks, go to the desired level and you have both! This technique is officially called clock setting, and is required only in MS CC.
 * Almost anything, if revealed on the lower layer of the grid by Chip, will not produce an effect the first time, and is simply revealed and will work as normal if Chip touches it again. The tile, however, will still affect monsters or even sliding blocks in the normal manner if they try to step on the square. However, clone machines under anything make it a wall, hidden exits or traps will respond immediately, and hidden teleports or toggle walls will not function. In the case of teleports, they act as ice tiles, and as to toggle walls beginning the level on the lower layer, they will only work if the tile on top was a monster. All tiles on the lower layer will be removed by monsters.
 * As an extension of the above, if Chip steps on a space with two tiles on it, and neither is removable by stepping on it, the lower one will be erased. If the top one is collectable, the lower tile will have no effect except in the criteria above. If the bottom tile is the only one collectable, it cannot be collected except in the case that water is the top space, in which case Chip must use a block to reach the item.
 * Some monsters do not move. You will only die if you step on them.
 * Extra chips don't help you, so don't take them.
 * Bugs and walkers avoid fire, gliders go through water, and fireballs go through fire. All monsters avoid random force floors.
 * A trap button hidden under anything is held down. A connected trap under the floor will not function the first time Chip touches it, even if it is not open.
 * There may be multiple Chip characters in a level, and the one which actually moves is the one furthest south, and furthest east if there is a tie. Any one of them being killed ends the level. Swimming Chip tiles, which look exactly like Chip swimming, are also mortal, but Burned Chip tiles, in the visage of Chip killed by fire, and Drowned Chip tiles, that of Chip drowned in water, cannot be killed and act simply as walls.
 * Two tank buttons or toggle buttons hit at the same time have no effect. Try this on levels 96 and 121, respectively.
 * To get past teeth, or even sometimes blobs, you should have a sense of rhythm.
 * Often putting one block in position while you get another and then pushing the first block to the destination (while taking the second over) will increase your time on block pushing levels.
 * Although monsters on ice/force floors move at the same speed as you would, they cannot boost. Use this to get ahead of monsters in circles, and be careful if you are following behind a monster on a force path/ice slab.
 * In the Lynx version, boosting is non-existent.
 * Sometimes it may be a better idea to not have suction boots or ice skates, for the sake of speed. A classic example is level 15.
 * If an item steps off a trap button it is holding down, the trap is still open on theturn where it leaves the button, but not on the next turn. You can experiment with this on level 124, although it does not increase your time.
 * Be suspect of an exit that appears open to you: Secret traps or obstacles may guard it, and you may have to use some sort of abnormal solution to remove them in order to get to the exit.
 * Be familiar with what an exit looks like. There are three "fake exit" tiles, one with Chip inside an exit, and two exits with a different border. These act as walls, as do exits on top of clone machines, which are unfortunately indistinguishable.
 * If there are extra chips, get the nearest chips required until you are finished. Don't forget there may be chips on the way to the exit.
 * You can go through more than one socket.
 * You can skate through ice corners, provided you are on the ice that you are skating off of, and that the other side is free.
 * Teleports read from right to left, and from bottom to up. If the teleport you go to is blocked, you go to the next one. If they are all blocked, you slide across it to the other side. If that is blocked as well, you rebound back to where you were.
 * You move faster when you override force floors than when you are simply riding on a force floor path, particularly when you are stepping in a perpendicular direction.
 * On every turn, monsters move first, in a specific order called the monster order, along with sliding blocks, and finally Chip. Therefore, if you have a monster heading toward you, and it is one square away, you will get hit before you can move. Two squares away is a safe distance. However, boosting will allow Chip to escape from this type of situation. This system is different in Lynx, and contributes to your ability to score higher than the MS score on level 113.
 * While you must step on dirt created by a block pushing into water to allow anything else into the square, you do not need to do so when a bomb detonates. In Lynx, however, you must wait one move before continuing when water is bogged down or a bomb blows up. The block must sink, and the bomb debris must clear.
 * While only one clone machine or trap can be triggered by a specific button, multiple buttons may trigger the same machine or trap.
 * Be suspicious of large amounts of the same type of button in a level. There may be a system where pressing the button will cause some type of deadly effect, either directly or by destroying a vital item required to complete the level. It is not always this way, but people do make levels based on avoiding whatever.
 * If something is missing, try looking under the floorboards…
 * Don't always trust the level designers, as some levels, noted earlier, are busted and do not require the chips requested. Levels 20, 39 and 46 are three examples. In fact, some levels have even requested chips when there are none, and you must find the way around the chip socket, or there may be none at all.
 * Levels that are based on block-pushing are called "Sokoban" or "Pocoman" levels. Both of said games are pushing games in which certain items have to be put on specific spots. A characteristic of a Sokoban level (the more common reference) is a lot of blocks in a level (or a few blocks in a section of a level) which have to be put in specific spots, such as trap buttons, water squares, bombs, or elaborately, to block a specific mechanism that stops you from completing the level otherwise. The upper right, lower left, and upper left areas of level 132 are such examples, where you have to blow up the bombs to get the green key in the northeast, and push the blocks into the water in the northwest and southwest. Sokoban levels are not common, but they are usually very difficult to optimize due to the intricacies of block-pushing.
 * Sometimes levels are based on a particular aspect, or the level's solution has something to do with what the level is named after. Level 13, "SOUTHPOLE", is such a level, as the generally accepted though not fastest solution, as specified by the hint, requires Chip to simply hold the south key.
 * Some levels require a specific sequence of events to complete the level. Taking level 132 again, if you unlock the blocks at the lower left first before releasing the teeth, you will not be able to get to the last block guarded by the teeth, since you no longer have a blue key. Generally, in situations like this, if you can trade any item for a duplicate, it usually pays off, and is correct if there is an extra item collected (in this case, the remaining block required).
 * Spies, dirt, fake walls, chips, and the wall sides of ice corners block the passage of blocks.
 * Be attentive to a configuration of tiles that surrounds a blank tile(s) or other tiles that you can enter, such as a door. There may be hidden goodies under that space. Some of these tiles that stand alone, out in the open, can also contain goodies.
 * Chips and blocks can even be under each other, but keys and boots are unofficially allowed only under chips and blocks, not under each other, as the Transparency Glitch will occur if you step on them. In the case of two keys or a key and a boot, however, you can remove the lower layer with a monster or a block. While this glitch does not exist in Tile World, and they will work as normal, the general difficulty of playing such levels makes this not advisable.