General Progression[edit]
Each asteroid follows the same general progression.
- Arrive in the asteroid cavern, travel right to the fortress entrance.
- Navigate the fortress, attempt to locate and collect the password disk.
- Locate and defeat the fortress boss.
- Fly on to the next asteroid during the bonus round.
Asteroid Cavern[edit]
Every asteroid stage begins in a cavernous region that leads to the fortress entrance. Throughout this cavern, you will attacked by the native inhabitants of the asteroid, as well as discover crates from which you can obtain items. Each cavern is linear, stretching far to the right, so there are no chances of becoming lost. You must simply survive long enough to reach the fortress, and this can be difficult in the later asteroids. Some caverns appear to have split paths where you must choose which way to go. Since you can only advance to the right, and never back track to the left, once you have made your decision, you are committed to it. Some locations in the cavern allow you to warp to different platforms by pushing up or down. There is one other aspect common to every cavern; the existence of secret rooms. Every cavern has a location where you can find a hidden elevator that takes you to a secret room. Some secret rooms have messages scrawled on the walls that may help you solve some particularly difficult aspect of the fortress. Other messages are meaningless. Some secret room will even have crates. Finding the secret rooms is not required, but it can sometimes provide Layla with a shortcut into the fortress.
The Fortresses[edit]
Each fortress is a complicated maze of hallways and elevators. The idea in each fortress is not to visit every single hallway, in fact this is impossible to do in most cases. It is really to figure out which hallways are necessary to travel, and which elevators bring you closer to your two goals; the locations of the password disk and the fortress boss. Just as in the caverns, you can never backtrack along a path that you've selected, you can only move forward. Some fortresses have hallways that wrap around continuously. Some of the elevators do not travel linearly from one location to another, especially in the later fortresses. You may find that after riding an elevator up, you find yourself on a lower floor than the one you just left. If you do not use the maps provided by this walkthrough, it would be wise to do your best and map your progress on your own, so as to keep track of where you've been and where you have yet to visit. The very maze like nature of each fortress is the challenge around which this game is based.
Bonus Rounds[edit]
When you successfully defeat a fortress boss, you will ride a few elevators upward to reach your Space Jet and escape to the next asteroid. During your travel between the asteroids, you are treated to a bonus round where your only objective is to destroy as many space craft as possible. You can not be damaged by colliding with the space craft, so don't worry about getting struck by them. Focus only on positioning your ship to as to be able to destroy as many craft as possible. If you manage to destroy an entire squadron of craft, you will receive a bonus. If you successfully destroy consecutive squadrons, the bonus continues to increase until you happen to miss a craft, at which point the bonus resets. These bonus rounds are strictly for fun and have no effect on the overall outcome of the game besides your score.