Layla/Asteroid 5

Cavern
This cavern is a little more straight forward than the previous one, but it is still a challenge. Two new enemies are worth noting. The large slow moving fish are easy to attack, but difficult to avoid when cruising around at high speeds. They can do a lot of damage to Layla, so it is best to destroy them or jump over them entirely. Another enemy is an odd orb that moves around in a wave like motion. Destroying this orb takes many shots, but if you succeed, you are automatically awarded a portion of life back, without the need to chase after any food. There are a few dangerous sections to this cavern, including a series of low lying ceilings with spikes that fall to the ground as you run under. You need to stop at the end of each section, or you risk running into an enemy and sustaining more damage. Press down while moving at full speed to stop immediately and shoot the enemies that approach you. Reaching the entrance to the secret room requires that you break the two blocks above the spiky ground and drop down on top of the spikes. You'll have to remove the right crate in order to access the spot on the floor that contains the elevator.

Fortress
This fortress is by far the most complex fortress that you have encountered, and second only in confusion to the final fortress on Asteroid 8. There are so many non-linear elevators in this stage that lead to various places around the fortress that it is ridiculously easy to get lost. On top of that, this fortress introduces the first two never-ending hallways. The hallways on the second and fourth floor wrap around and continue forever to the right. It is important to note where you are while you follow a map. Surviving the enemies in the fortress is another challenge. Although the Bazooka isn't normally very useful, it will be your best friend in this fortress, against the tall walking robots. Rely on it heavily here.

This fortress contains not just one, but two required "items." One is the password disk of course, while the second is the rescue of Layla's sidekick. The password disk should be your first concern, because if you make one wrong move from the fortress entrance, you will forever be unable to gain access to the password disk again. As the map indicates, there is absolutely no way to return to the section of the map where the disk can be accessed once you leave it.

Rescuing your sidekick is a little more forgiving unless you take the wrong elevator from the fourth floor. At first, it may seem like the elevator on the map marked with a "c" is your best bet, but if you take this one, you will be prevented from reaching Elise. Instead, you must continue moving along the fourth floor until you find a gap in the floor. You must stay on the upper path of the floor in order to reach the gap, or you will become trapped in a dead-end on the bottom and have to find your way back to this floor. You must fall down this gap and you will suffer the consequences associated with that; the reduction of your health and the halving of your ammunition. However, this is necessary to complete the game.

Once you have arrived in the fourth basement, you must advance to the next elevator and drop down to the "!" on the map. You will find what looks like another boss fight chamber, and you will see Elise trapped behind bars while a creature that resembles the first boss appears. The thing to realize in this case is that you are not required to defeat this creature. All you need to do is simply jump up and land on the small ledge in front of the cage, and shoot the bars of the cage like they were crates. At that moment you can jump in and collect Elise, and then drop down to the elevator entrance on the left, and take it up. From here, there is one more challenge before you reach the boss. The final hallway consists of a tunnel with obstacles that fall and rise from the ceiling. The only guaranteed safe method of passing through this area is to activate your Barrier item. Turn it on before you encounter those obstacles and race to the final elevator.

Boss
This is a new boss type that you have not seen before. It is a plant like creature that appears on the ceiling, and drops down to attack on a long stalk before retracting and climbing back up. The good news is, Axes are very effective against them. The bad news is, they move up and down so quickly that it's difficult to time your throws to hit them properly. If you have Elise with you, bare in mind that you will end up throwing not one, but two Axes. This can help you to a degree, but it also makes you exhaust your supply of Axes faster. If you only hit one creature, you'll need to continue fighting until you've hit the other, even though another head will appear in the first one's place. It is possible to hit both of them with one attack and end the fight instantly.