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. A reference to "level xxx" means the level of specified number in the original Chip's Challenge.


 * Use force floors or ice (if they take you in the right direction) as much as possible.
 * If you are going across force floors or ice, when you hit a force floor, you can step off the force floor in ANY direction. It will only work for one square, but it immensely helps your score.
 * 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 on ice/force floors. They can squash you if they slide onto your square. Blocks can be pushed on random force floors.
 * You can block monsters with blocks.
 * You can wait until bugs/paramecia are one to the left/right (opposite to the direction they follow) and one behind you, and then push the block/get the chip or boot/open the door/step on the dirt...etc. The monster will go in circles. Try this on level 141.
 * 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. If they have a choice between horizontal and vertical, it will always go vertical.
 * 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 next/previous level and you have both!
 * Hidden fire/water/chips/keys/bombs/force floors/ice/blocks/sockets/doors/buttons/walls/pop-up walls/hints/thieves (under floor) will not be effective when you reveal then first. However clone machines under anything make it a wall, dirt will still work like dirt (but not be "stepped on"), hidden exits/traps will respond immediately, and hidden teleports/toggle walls will not take you anywhere/open or close.
 * Some monsters do *not* move. You will only die if you step on them.
 * Extra chips don't help you.
 * Bugs and walkers avoid fire, gliders go through water, and fireballs go through fire.
 * Monsters avoid random force floors.
 * A trap button hidden under anything (even floor!) is held down.
 * There may be multiple Chip characters in a level. Any one of them being killed ends the level.
 * "Chip swim" tiles (Chip swimming in water) also apply to the previous criteria.
 * 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, 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.
 * Anything under water (including an exit!) will be obliterated if you swim over it (or if a glider runs over it). The same applies to floor, provided a monster steps over it.
 * 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/ice skates, for the sake of speed. A classic example is level 15.
 * If you/a monster step(s) off a trap button, it is still "held down" for one more move. You can experiment with this on level 124, although it does not increase your time.
 * A Chip under the floor is not killed by a monster.
 * Be suspect of an exit that appears open to you. E.g: Secret traps may guard it, and you may have to hold down the trap or make a monster wipe it out (probably requiring the passage of the chip socket) to get to the exit.
 * Be familiar with what an exit looks like. Sometimes fake exits may be placed to fool you!
 * 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 can boost out of teleports.
 * You move faster when you override force floors than when you are simply riding on a force floor path.
 * Monsters move before you do. 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. 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, 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 the opening of the toggle wall/changing of the tanks/cloning/releasing of the trap may trigger a mechanism that stops you from beating the level, such as killing a Chip, stopping access to a boot/key/chip/exit or specific location in the level. It is not always this way, but people do make levels based on avoiding whatever.
 * You can boost right past a monster, even if it is one square away from you.
 * If something is missing, try looking under the floorboards.......
 * Some levels are possible to beat without the chips, even if they are seemingly "required". These levels are called "busted". 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 "block"-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/push the blocks into the water. 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, and the level's solution has something to do with what the level is named after. Level 133, "BLOBDANCE", is such a level. You are sort of in a blob dance, and you must dance with the blobs to complete the level.
 * 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 a boot/key for the same boot/key, it usually pays off, and is correct if there is something else along with the "clone" key/boot (in this case, the remaining block required).
 * Blocks are stopped by spies/dirt/fake walls/chips/ice corners (when you couldn't cross).
 * Be attentive to a configuration of tiles that surrounds a blank tile(s) or other tiles that you can enter (such as water/doors/fake walls/bombs/sockets/dirt). There may be hidden goodies. Some of these tiles that stand alone, out in the open, can also contain goodies.
 * Chips/keys/boots/blocks can even be under each other! However, 2 keys or 2 boots cannot be on the same square, as an error will occur if you step on them. I do not think a block can be under a key, either.