Chip's Challenge/Levels 1-20

This is a walkthrough for the computer game Chip's Challenge, written by Chuck Sommerville and others. It shows how to complete every level (well, not yet). Note that Microsoft's version (the most well-known) differs from the original in many respects. Some of these differences are bugs which allow shortcuts to be taken. When these differences occur, the walkthrough will explain both ways.

This walkthrough frequently uses directions such as "north" and "west". The direction north means up. A notation such as N12 means to move north twelve squares. An intersection is where you have a choice of directions to take.

This page will give the walkthroughs for level 1 (LESSON 1) through level 20 (TOSSED SALAD).

Level 1:LESSON 1
Get all the chips and keys in the starting room. Choose a door you have the key to and get everything behind that door. Repeat this until you have been through all the doors. Go through the chip socket on the north wall to the exit.

If going for speed, get the keys and chips in the main room (clockwise starting with the red keys), go through the NW blue keyhole, and follow the keyholes counter-clockwise (skipping the second yellow). Before you get the greens, go back and do the second yellow. Do the right green first. The best (known) time you can get is 83 seconds remaining.

Level 2:LESSON 2
Get the two chips to the east. Push a block vertically and then west into the water. Push the other block into the water at the same place. (Remember, after you push the first block in, step on the dirt.) Go counter-clockwise around the blocks, avoiding the bugs. Pick up the two chips as you pass them. When you get the second chip, go west and north hugging the wall. Go through the chip socket to the exit.

The only thing that will increase your speed is to follow the bugs' line going from the third chip to the fourth. Also, get the top chips first if you push the blocks up or vice versa. The best time is 90.

Level 3:LESSON 3
Get the flippers. Go into the water and get the chip and ice skates. Go onto the ice and get the chip and fire boots. Go through the fire and get the chip and suction shoes. Go onto the force floors and get the chip. Follow the path on the west or east side of the force floors until you find the exit.

To increase speed, get the ice skate after you get the chip next to it and the fire boot before the chip next to it. The best time is 89.

Level 4:LESSON 4
There are four exits from the starting room: the north, east, south, and west directions. You must complete the east, south, and west sections (in no particular order). Once you have completed them, you will be able to pass the chip socket on the north wall and go to the exit.

West: Go along the path. Whenever you come to a blue button, press it. When you get the chip, return the way you came, again pressing the blue buttons as you come to them.

South: The middle block has fire under it. The rest have chips under them. Push the blocks to get the chips, but be careful not to push a group of four blocks together or you may not be able to get all the chips.

To go faster, move the SE block south, the SW block west, and so on in clockwise fashion.

East: The path splits into two paths. Each of these paths splits again. At the end of each of the four paths is a chip. Get the four chips. Whenever a green wall is in your way, press the nearby toggle button.

To get faster, recognize when you need to press the green button, and press it on your way (except once when you will have to go out of your way to press it on the bottom). The best time is 116.

Level 5:LESSON 5
Go along the path to the north, and step on the green button. When the ball below you is west of the green wall, push the green button again. This will stop the ball from stepping on the red button and cloning fireballs that block your path to the red key. Go back south, head west, and take the red key. Go back and open the red door. A glider is caught in the east side of the room. Step on the trap button to the west of the glider to release it. The glider will get caught in another trap. Press the trap button to the left of that trap. The glider will run into the bomb in front of the exit, destroying it and allowing you to pass through.

To save time, only press the green button once. You will still have the fireballs, but they will be easy to avoid without waiting. The best time is 85.

Level 6:LESSON 6
Go straight west through the fake blue wall. There are chips west of you, but invisible walls block you. Go north and through the rightmost blue wall. Go west three squares, and down through the blue wall. Get the chips. Return by the way you came. Go through the chip socket and to the exit.

To go quickly, memorize what you must do and don't push the fake walls that are real. The best time is 94.

Level 7:LESSON 7
Go through the teleporter. Go past the thief and get the chip. Return and go north through the teleporter. Get the flippers and go south through the teleporter. Go west through the teleporter. Cross the pop-up wall, but do not get the fire boots. Go through the water and ride on the force floors. When you get the chip, go east. You will run into a thief and lose your flippers. Go south through the teleporter, and then west through the teleporter. Get the fire boots and go north through the teleporter. Cross the pop-up wall and the fire. Ride on the force floors and go west when you get the chip. You will lose your fire boots to the thief. Go through the teleporter. Go through the chip socket and to the exit.

To go faster, take the minimum number of teleport moves to get where you want and memorize this. The best time is 139.

Level 8:LESSON 8
Go east three squares, then north four, and south eight, making a path in the dirt. Before the teeth monster arrives, go one square east and retreat back west onto the gravel. Wait until the teeth monster stops moving. Go along the gravel north, leading the teeth monster into the path you created. Go east and enter the area where the teeth monster was. The teeth monster will not be smart enough to figure out how to leave the path and get you. You can now easily get the chip and go east to the exit.

For a quick version, go straight over four spaces and down one, and then rush to get the chip and right to the exit. This doesn't always work. The best time is 96.

Level 9:NUTS AND BOLTS
Get the yellow key from the room to the south, avoiding the fireballs. Get the chip and go through the yellow door, holding the arrow key down. You will cross the force floors, break through the blue wall, and enter a room with four blocks. Push the blocks into the water to get the red key. Open the red door.

From the red door, move east, south, west, north, west, south, east, north, west, south, and east. You should now have obtained the chip in the room. To leave, move east, south, west, north, west, and north.

Cross the force floor, stepping on the green button. Step on the green button again. Go north, avoiding the fireballs, until you get the blue key. Go south to the door area. Open the blue door and get the yellow key. Toggle the walls with the green button (south of the key area) and get the green key from behind the yellow door. Toggle again, and get the red key from behind the green door. Toggle one last time, and open the red door. Slide on the ice, being careful not to collide with a fireball.

When it is safe, get the chip west of you. Continue west until you see another chip. Get that chip when it is safe. (Getting these two chips can be easier if you go around on the gravel to the other side, right next to the chip. You will also be able to see if bugs are near.) Leave the bug area by the path to your west. When you come to the chip surrounded by blue walls, go through the south wall to get it. Return to the bug area.

On the south side is another passage. Staying on the gravel, go to the entrance. Now, you need to push the blocks into some bombs to open a passageway. From the gravel, move like this for the first block: S4 W2 S2 E2 S1 W1 N1 W1 S2 N1 W2 S2 E2. For the second block: N2 E4 N1 E2 S1 W5 N1 W1 S2 N1 W2 S2 E3. To get a chip: W1 N2 E6 N3 W1 N2. For the third block: S2 W1 S2 E1 S1 W4 N1 W1 S2 N1 W2 S2 E4. For the fourth and last block: W2 N3 E3 S1 E3 N3 W2 S2 E1 S1 W4 N1 W1 S2 N1 W2 S2 E5. Get the two obvious chips, and push the block to get the hidden last chip. Return to the bug area. Go through the chip socket on the east side. Push the block onto the button to release the fireball. Cross the trap and enter the exit.

The only way to get faster is to do this over and over again and to optimize the block pushing. You will be able to do some parts quickly sooner than others, especially the chip two paragraphs above. The last paragraph may seem hard, but it just seems natural after doing it four to five times. The best time is 306.

Level 10:BRUSHFIRE
Move like this: S4 E4 N4 E12 S3 W3 N1 W7 S7 W1 D3 E8 N1 E10 S10 E4 N2 W1 N3 E1 N2 W1 N6 E3 S18 W5 N2 W10 N7 E5.

There are no shortcuts. The best time is 51.

Level 11:TRINITY
Start off by going west over the force floor. Now, whenever you come to an intersection (including one where a force floor would just push you back), move south, south, north, east, north, north, north, west, north. There is a fireball guarding a red key at the end. Get the key and leave south. Then, go west, south, south, south, east, east. Get the yellow key and exit east. Then, go east, north, north, east, north, west. Get the blue key and exit east. Go south, south, north, west, south, west, north. You should arrive back where you started. Open the doors and get the flippers, ice skates, and fire boots. Get the chips at the ends of the water and fire paths. Go along the ice path and turn left. Get the chip and head straight east. Go through the chip socket, and continue until you reach the exit.

For speed, recognize the layout of the forcefields and keep moving. There are some "traps", when an area only has one forcefield leading out. Avoid these unless you want to go there. Try to get the keys right when you get there; don't wait for a specific position. The best time is 211.

Level 12:HUNT
Fortunately, you don't need all the chips in this level. Okay, go north and around the wall to the edge of the level. Now, get as many chips as you can without making an openinig into the path in the chips, where two teeth monsters reside. You already made one hole on the north side; keep the teeth monsters away from that hole! Since teeth monsters can't move diagonally, it is safe to get the corner chips. When you're done, the Chips Left counter should read 107. Find the teeth monsters. When they are as close to you as they will be, run to the other side of the level and quickly race into middle section of chips. Go around and collect more chips, again being careful not to make an opening. (The teeth monsters should be confined to one side of the block of chips, unable to reach the side where they could get in to where you are. Neat, eh?) When you have enough, go to one of the exits in the middle.

The key to speed is to keep getting chips. Some other strategies are faster and less safe. You don't always have to keep the monsters away. Try not to seperate them. The best time is 270.

Level 13:SOUTHPOLE
Keep going south (holding down) until you reach the exit.

Level 14:TELEBLOCK
Collect the red key and go through the teleporter. Open any door except the east door. Push the block into the teleporter. Enter the teleporter from a different direction than the one you pushed the block from. Push the block into one of the water tiles. Teleport twice to return to the block area. Go back into the area you went before, get the red key, and push the block as you did before. Get the chip. Teleport twice. Now repeat this process for the other doors. Since the east block room has no red key, you must do it last. When you are done, teleport once from the chip room, go through the chip socket and to the exit.

To save time, start with the north door and go counter-clockwise. After the first block, push two into the teleporter before following. After the second is pushed go 90 degrees counter-clockwise and then push both blocks in. The best time is 203.

Level 15:ELEMENTARY
Get the red and blue keys, and go through the four doors in the corners of the room. In each of the four rooms, push the block into the bomb. You will get a key behind the bomb and a tool that was hidden under the block. When you've done that, do the four doors that lead into hallways of fire, water, ice and force floor. In each of these, you need to find three chips and a key. Go the following directions at each intersection, retracing your steps at dead ends (that is, when you get a chip or key):

Northwest (force floor): east, south, north, west, north, south, south, north, east, west.

Northeast (fire): west, west, south, east, north, east, north, south, south, west, south.

Southwest (water): south, south, east, south, east, north, west, north, south, east, north.

Southeast (ice): east, south, south, east, east, west, north, south, north, west, north. When you are done with the southeast area, you should be in the lower right. Step on the spy and your ice skates will go away. (So will all the other boots, but you don't need those anymore. Or did you forget something? :-O) Now step back right and you can slide back to the center at twice the speed! This doesn't work on the force floor maze because the loss is greater than the gain here.

Open the last blue door and step on the chip socket. Push the block from the main room onto the brown button. Open the red door and go to the exit.

Speed is crucial to completing the level, let alone scoring well. The only way to get faster is to memorize these combinations. If you have more than ten seconds left, consider yourself lucky. The best time is 89.

Level 16:CELLBLOCKED
Move E4, S12, E4, N4, E4, N8, E4, N8, W4, N4, W20, S4, W4, S16, E4, S8, E20, N4, E4, S4. And you're finished.

Level 17:NICE DAY
Go northwest to a group of six chips, and get them. (Be careful of the balls and walkers, of course.) Go straight east and collect another group of six chips. Go south until you reach a long squiggly line of chips. Get all the chips in this line. Now, head for one of the corners of the level (either southwest or southeast, whichever is closer). If the green toggle walls are closed, wait for them to open. Head to the corner and enter the exit.

Because of the random movements of the walkers, this level is more made of luck and alertness. If you get all the chips in this order and get through the toggle blocks without pausing, then you will get the best time possible, 83.

Level 18:CASTLE MOAT
Go along the only available path until you reach the area with the blocks. Head through the block area to the northeast part of the level. There is a block in the middle of a vertical wall. Push the block two square east, then two squares up into a corner. Push the block along the north wall aside, getting the flippers underneath. Go back to the southwest part of the level and leave the block area east. Cross the water, and go to the south side of the mass of blue walls. Go through the chips sockets to the exit. The best time is 553.

The solution given above is a hidden shortcut which will only be found by careful searching. To do this level the long (and more obvious) way, you'd need to bridge the moat. This can be done with six blocks. You need to push them to the moat and along it, blowing up the first four bombs. The last two push up to the north side and to the east, where the moat is only two squares wide.

Level 19:DIGGER
Okay, stay off the dirt unless I tell you otherwise. Go along, collecting the chips, and turn north at the intersection, and west at the next intersection. When you come to the end of the line of chips, retrace your steps back to the intersection, and this time go east, and east again at the next intersection. Now, when you get to the end of the line of chips, the last chip is not safe to take, because a teeth monster is right in front of it. Notice, however, that east of the room the teeth monster is in, there is a curvy path. Go north of the path, and east onto the dirt. The teeth monster will move into the path. When it has gotten as far north as it can, go west back to the main path. Now get that chip, and the teeth monster will not be able to figure out how to reach you. (They always try to move directly towards you.)

You should have 87 chips left at this point. Go north, and get the five chips at the intersection. Go west, south, east, south, south, and south at the intersections. You'll pass by one lone chip adjacent to the path; get it and keep going. Again, the last chip is guarded by a teeth monster. So, go east of that curvy path, and trudge south through the dirt, and back to the main path when the teeth monster is as far east as it can go. Get the now unguarded chip.

You should have 46 chips left now. Retrace your steps until you see a path of chips to the east. Get them and continue north. Another path of chips to the east will appear. Get them, and go back south. Follow the path of chips to the west. Go west at the intersection, retrace, north, west, retrace, north. You now have all the chips, and the exit right at hand. Go in.

Speed comes when you memorize what you need to do. If you can get the teeth pattern down, you can risk collecting the chips in front of them. This route will earn the best time, 171.

Level 20:TOSSED SALAD
You don't need any of the chips in this level. Even though the CHIPS LEFT counter says that you need to collect 15, there is no chip socket guarding the exit. This means that no chips are needed.

From where you start, go east a bit, north a bit, and east (crossing a chip) into a one-cell-wide passage. When you come out go south and cross the gravel. (There is a block cloner here. If you spend too much time in the first part, the block will clone, trapping you. This should not be much of a problem since you don't need to get all the chips) Enter through the teleporter.

Go along the south passage. You will have to wait for the tanks to move and the toggle walls to open up. Be careful not to run into the tanks. At the end of the passage you will get a red key. Return and when you get back to the teleporter, go along the north passage and open the red door.

As you continue along the path you will go over some force floors into a room with chips surrounded by fire. Go through the path at the southeast of the room, crossing the ice. Go down and get the fire boots, and go on the force floors. Continue south and east. You will come upon a long, thin west-east passage with a ball bouncing in it.

Wait for the ball to reach your end and bounce away. Then follow the ball, and when the passage opens up, go north before the ball rebounds and hits you. Go and cross the force floor and fire, and head west and over the force floor for a free ride south.

Now you need to get by the tanks to the south. To do this, stand at the east (or west) wall containing the tanks. Wait for the tank below you to move away, then move one square south. Wait for the next to move, and then move one more square. (The first tank is heading back to where you are, so move quickly.) Continue until you have passed all the tanks. Get the yellow key and return using the same method. Now, to get by the balls to the north, start on the eastern wall. When the first ball bounces away, keep going north until you've passed. Open the yellow door and continue to the exit.

If you want to get all the chips on this level, then in the initial area you must go around and get ten of them. Also, after you get the fire boots you must double back and get the four chips surrounded by fire. The last is in the final area with the balls and tanks, but you can just pick that one up. The best time is 340.

For speed, don't get the chips not directly in your path. The path is straight-forward, except at risky points. For speed and thrill, jump in ahead of the ball after getting the fire boot. Don't take the force-field south at the end. Run straight through the tanks instead of going to one side (or moving three spaces north or south on one side instead of moving one).

Level 21 and beyond
For the next 20 levels, go to Levels 21-40

For the 20 levels after that, go to Levels 41-60

For the 20 levels after that, go to Levels 61-80

For the 20 levels after that, go to Levels 81-100