Millipede/Walkthrough

Millipede has all of the qualities that made Centipede so popular and it adds even more to slow down Centipede experts. Trick strategies that work so well in Centipede are not practical here. Millipede is best played in the classic shoot-em-up style. Strategy is still a part of the game, but it's much more involved than just building a trap or a block in Centipede. These strategies assume that you're already good and want to improve. In this case, it is assumed that you start at 300,000 points, the highest starting level.

Attack Wave Cycle
The core of the game progression in Millipede is defined by the attack wave cycle, just as in Centipede. Each attack wave consists of 12 millipede pieces appearing at the top of the screen. In the first attack wave, all 12 pieces are linked together in one millipede chain. In the second wave, the chain is 11 links long, and there is one single millipede head. This continues with each successive wave adding one more unattached head, until the 12th wave consists of 12 separate millipede heads with none linked in a chain. After the 12th wave is completed, the cycle starts over with a fresh fully chained millipede.

An attack wave repeats if you lose a life before killing all the millipede pieces. An attack wave is completed when all the millipede pieces (plus any added via the Side Feed) are destroyed. When this happens, a swarm may begin (see below); the next attack wave doesn't begin until the swarm ends and screen is free of beetles. On non-swarm waves, this time can be extremely valuable to clear out mushrooms from your movement zone.

Spider Wave
Once your score exceeds 100,000 points, the first wave of each attack wave cycle behaves specially. Instead of the normal limit of two spiders, up to eight spiders may attack at once! The millipede chain is shortened by a number of pieces equal to the extra spiders, making it a bit easier to kill.

As soon as the wave begins, move to the top row, two columns over from one side. You can shoot all of the spiders entering on that side right away. Move to the center to kill the remaining spiders. If you can't shoot the millipede yet, wait on the side for the next group of spiders to come out.

When you have a clear shot at the millipede, shoot it all at once so you don't have to chase heads while dodging spiders. It's best to end the wave as quickly as possible rather than hunt spiders for points.

Swarms
Five different times during the cycle of 12 millipede attack waves, you will be bombarded by a swarm of insects. These waves are a major source of points.
 * 1) After the 2nd millipede: Bee swarm
 * 2) 6th millipede: Dragonfly swarm
 * 3) 8th millipede: Mosquito swarm
 * 4) 10th millipede: Bees and dragonflies swarm together
 * 5) 12th millipede: Bees, dragonflies, and mosquitoes swarm together

During these swarms, special scoring applies for shooting bees, dragonflies, and mosquitos. Each insect kill of those types (even types not actually swarming, for example a single bee randomly dropping during the mosquito swarm) is worth a minimum of 100 points more than the previous kill, to a maximum of 1000 points. Triple scoring from DDT applies as well, so DDTing a mosquito or dragonfly will immediately max the swarm value at 1000, and DDTing a bee will register at least 600.

It's very important not to die during one of the swarms. If you stay alive, a swarm can be worth up to 30,000 points later in the game. To prepare for a swarm, don't shoot the last head until any spiders and beetles are near the side and leaving the screen. Clear a path to a DDT bomb if possible, so you can use it to kill several insects at once. It will quickly build their value to the maximum of 1000 points each. Concentrate on one thing--shooting as many bugs as you can. Don't waste time clearing mushrooms until after the swarm is over. As your score increases, the length of the swarms also increases, making them worth lots of points.

Scrolling Wave
On the ninth millipede wave, immediately after the mosquito swarm, the mushrooms begin scrolling down very quickly, roughly one row every two seconds. They don't stop unless you kill the millipede, shoot a DDT bomb, or lose a life. You have to do one of these three things quickly, or you'll be overwhelmed by mushrooms on the bottom.

First try to hit a DDT bomb. It's a good idea to clear a path to one before the wave starts. If you can't use a DDT, try to kill the millipede before the mushrooms get too low. As a last resort, die on purpose.

The scrolling wave follows the swarm of mosquitoes. If you can shoot a lot of mosquitoes in the swarm, the mushrooms scroll way up the screen, and you'll have plenty of time to kill the millipede while the mushrooms come back down. Remember, if you scroll the mushrooms way up the screen, you won't be able to fire very fast. You'll have to take single shots, making sure you hit the millipede each time.

Beetles
Beetles present many problems. They come out of the side and move along the bottom of the screen. After they've gone about a third of the way across they randomly pick up a column and move into the mushrooms. They never go all the way to the end before going up, however.

Beetles don't come out on the spider waves. On the other waves, they don't come out until you shoot at least one piece of the millipede. They also don't come out during the side feed. Since shooting a beetle makes the mushrooms move down one row, you should just leave them alone. You can avoid having the come out by not shooting the millipede until it gets near the bottom, then kill it all at once. After you reach 400,000 points, the beetles speed up, so you have to be more careful around the sides when they come out.

Flowers
When a beetle runs over a mushroom, it turns into a flower. Flowers can be both good and bad. They stop any stray shots, which helps you fire faster, but they can block your movement and make the millipede reach the bottom faster.

Flowers can't be shot; the only way to get rid of them is to let the spider eat them. You can get rid of a single flower, however, by using a trick with the mushroom scrolling. At the beginning of each attack wave, the mushrooms scroll down one row as the colors change. Just before they move down, sit under the flower you want to get rid of. The flower will be forced to scroll into your shooter, and will instead disappear. The same trick works in reverse if you sit just above a flower while shooting a mosquito, forcing the flower to scroll upwards into your shooter.

Side Feed
The side feed in Millipede is easier to handle than it is in Centipede for two reasons: Millipede is much more forgiving in detecting collisions with the heads, which allows you to move between them more easily, and the side feed never gets ridiculously fast, which is a nice improvement over Centipede. The side feed starts out slow and reaches a peak level, and once it reaches its peak it doesn't start over like Centipede does.

At its fastest, the Millipede side feed can still be cleared. The most important thing is not to rush. Clear most of the mushrooms from the gray area, then stay towards the edges. Shoot the stray heads near the side and you can hit the ones coming out of the side right away.

Clearing the mushrooms should be your highest priority. The worst thing you can do is die and leave tons of mushrooms in the gray area--you'll just start the side feed again. If necessary, you can just keep the side feed going and shoot heads for quire a while.

Mushroom Growth
After the fourth millipede of each attack wave cycle, the Mushroom forest will undergo a period of growth. The growth itself is not random; it is determined by a famous algorithm known as the "Game of Life." Those rules are as follows:
 * 1) Any mushroom with fewer than two neighbors dies, as if by loneliness.
 * 2) Any mushroom with more than three neighbors dies, as if by overcrowding.
 * 3) Any mushroom with two or three neighbors lives, unchanged, to the next generation.
 * 4) Any empty space with exactly three mushroom neighbors comes to life.
 * 5) Any mushroom adjacent to a DDT bomb becomes poisoned
 * 6) Any non-poisoned mushroom adjacent to a poisoned mushroom dies
 * 7) Flowers cannot die, but do count as neighbors towards the growth of mushrooms.