Ai Senshi Nicol/Items

Health recovery

The following items all restore your health to some degree.

Red Apple	Blue Apple	Love Point	Flashing Apple
Red Apples are dropped by defeated enemies. They will restore a half of a life point, so you must collect two to increase your life meter by one bar.	Blue Apples are also dropped by defeated enemies, but they appear less frequently. They will restore a single bar to your life meter.	Love Points are like regular items that you will find distributed around each stage. They restore two bars to your life meter. Some are hidden.	A Flashing Apple will restore your life meter by four bars. They are only dropped by defeated bosses as your reward.

Konami Man will appear when you score 10,000 points, and then every 20,000 points thereafter (e.g. 30,000 points, 50,000 points, etc.) He appears from the bottom of the screen, and travels straight across to the top. If you manage to catch him as he is flying by, he will restore a full 12 bars to your health meter. If you have spare energy tanks to fill, the extra will carry over to the next energy tank.

Hidden enhancements

Item	Description
	Energy Tank: At the start of the game, you can only hold a maximum of 12 life points. For each energy tank that you collect, you can store another 12 points of life. You can only hold four energy tanks at maximum. Every tank that you collect beyond four simply fills your health meter by 12 points. Energy tanks are hidden on stages 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7. They are marked on the map by the yellow E icons.
	Cannon Shot: At the start of the game, your weapon fires a small energy ring. If you collect the Cannon Shot enhancement once, your weapon will be upgraded, and you will fire a spinning cross at your enemy. This cross does the same damage as the ring, but it can destroy two blocks. If you collect a third Cannon Shot enhancement, your weapon upgrades once more to the most powerful weapon, a large energy orb. The orb does twice as much damage, destroys three blocks, and it can pass through walls. Any Cannon Shots that you collect beyond that has no effect. Cannon Shots are hidden in stages 1, 4, 5, 6, and 7. They are marked on the map by the yellow C icons.
	Range Increase: Your weapon can only fire a certain distance before the energy dissipates. At the start of the game, your weapon's range is small, and you must stand 2.5 blocks away from your enemies in order to fire upon them. As you pick up successive Range Increase enhancements, the distance that you weapon fires will increase. The first one increases the range to 4 blocks, and the second increases the range to 6 blocks. The third increase you collect will allow your shots to travel to the end of the screen. Any Range Increases that you collect beyond that has no effect. Range Increases are hidden in stages 1, 3, 5, 6, and 7. They are marked on the map by yellow R icons.
	Fire Rate Up: At the start of the game, you can only fire one shot on the screen at a time. For every Fire Rate enhancement that you collect, you can fire one more successive shot on the screen at the same time. After collecting three Fire Rate Ups, you can fire up to four shots at the same time. Any Fire Rate Up that you collect beyond that has no effect. Fire Rate Ups are hidden in stages 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, and 7. They are marked on the map by yellow F icons.

General Items

Item	Description
	Cosmo Ball: Cosmo Balls are items that you can collect through each stage. When used, they will damage every enemy that is visible on the screen with two points of damage. To use them, press . Each ball can only be used one time.
	Astro Wear: These handy suits provide Nicol with a good deal or protection. They will absorb damage that he takes from contact with an enemy, or an enemy's projectiles. Each set of Astro Wear defends him against 20 hits. You can store up to a maximum of 99.
	Astro Pants: While Astro Wear is extremely useful to defend yourself against attacks, it won't help you if you have to wade through lava or water. Instead, Astro Pants are useful for that purpose. Each set of Astro Pants aborbs 30 points of wading damage. You can store up to a maximum of 99.
	Power Shoes: At the beginning of each stage, you walk at the lowest speed, and can jump a distance of 2 blocks. With each pair of Power Shoes that you collect, the speed of your walk and the distance of your jump will increase. The first set of Power Shoes will enable you to jump 3 blocks. The second set will enable you to jump 3.5 blocks. And a third set will enable you to jump 4 blocks. Any Power Shoes that you collect beyond that has no effect. You also lose any Power Shoes that you collected from the previous stage. Note that while collecting Power Shoes is helpful to jump over long distances, it can make jumping shorter distances difficult.