Recently released on the PSN for the PSP, and reviewed here not too long ago (click here for the review). It’s frankly a pretty complicated game to get the hang of. So, since I managed to finish the normal mode a few times and almost finished the hard mode a few times, I thought I’d give a few pointers to people who are new to the game and have no idea what to do.

I was at that point once, and it took me a while to get a proper hang of it. Even now, I’m not THAT great, but I can get okay scores, and I still have lots to learn, but there are a few tips I can give to help new players.

Read on!

Monsters
The Food Chain
One really important element in the game is the food chain (you know, that picture on the top of my post?). Basically, each monsters eats something. Slimes eat nutrients, omnoms eat slimes, lizardmen eat omnoms. On the mana side, Spirits “eat” mana, Lilliths eat spirits, and dragons eat EVERYTING, other than mana and nutrients. Also, Wookiemons eat spirits, and different colored wookiemons kill each other. One important thing to pay attention to here is the fact that once a monster is summoned, its HP drains automatically, so you have to make sure the monsters eat enough to stay alive.

One thing you have to do is balance out the food chain. Making too many of the stronger monsters will mean less of the weaker ones since they’ll all get eaten, and eventually no more of the weaker ones means no more of the stronger ones since they’ll have nothing left to eat. Also, monsters reproduce. Some lay eggs, others just… shit other monsters out… This will help you keeping the food chain going.

Slimes/spirits
The slimes are easy to use, because they have an incredibly easy to manipulate pattern. When they hit a wall, they change direction. Putting them in enclosed rooms guarantees they’ll never leave from there unless you open the room up (which you should do on). Slimes transport nutrients. They take them from one part, and move it to the next nutrient block they come across. Using they’re simple pattern, you can send them where you want. Good slime control=healthy dungeon. Spirits work the same way, but they transport mana instead.

Omnoms/lizardmen
Not much to say about them. Early upgrading of both will make you live through most of the stages with little to no trouble, and they’re definitely going to be your main fighters. keeping them not too close toghether is a good idea, since lizardman eat omnoms. It’s fine to let them eat some occasionally, but don’t push it too far or you’ll have no more omnoms.

Liliths
At first i was confused. Mana is a tough ressource to get a hold of. To get mana, you either have to kill heroes, or hope that heroes will be using spells. But having finally used a sizable army of liliths myself, I realized their power. They require enough mana in one block to summon. Once they’re out, they do a bunch of things. They eat spirits, they reproduce quite a bit, and they shit webs. The webs stun heroes that touch them for a few seconds. But the best part about liliths, is their attacks. They attack anywhere in front of them (as long as there’s no wall blocking their way), from a distance. Having enough Liliths in either a large room at the entrance (some people might tell you that’s a bad idea, but I like it >_<) or in a narrow corridor can destroy just about any hero in seconds(especially if they have webs lying around). Proper use of Liliths can make Badman conquer the world in no time.

Dragons
Just a note here.. I don’t like Dragons. They eat everything, and they randomly shoot fire in front of them killing anything in their way. I’ve heard of people able to get through the game with dragons, but I frankly don’t know how. And they require lots of mana, so I can’t really justify it. But the later dragons are quite powerful, so maybe i’m just stupid >_<

Wookiemon
Getting a wookiemon out is a simple task. Get enough nutrients for a lizardman in a wall, and then remove all surrounding walls and dig that one out. A rune will appear. This rune can drain hero mana as long as it has mana itself, and if you poke it you get a wookiemon. These units give stat boosts to every other monster in your dungeon. Getting a bunch of them in the further reaches of your dungeon will give a sizeable boost to your strength. If there’s mana around the rune, you can choose to get spirits out to boost the power of the rune, which will result in stronger wookiemon, and stronger wookiemon give bigger boosts to your troops. Proper use of them will  make your army kick ass. Just make sure not to make different-colored wookiemon near each other, if you do they’ll murder each other.

Also, getting a enough mana in one panel(the same type of panel that will release a dragon), and removing all surrounding panels, will start you with a wookiemon rune that’s already in an upgraded form(not max-upgraded, but better than red wookiemon).

Dungeon building
I’m not incredibly well-versed with dungeon building, but here’s a few basic tips.

1. Lots of small looping rooms makes for easier unit building and easier nutrient transportation.
2. Making multiple routes, like a labyrinth, will make for a stronger defense. That will make heroes encounter more monsters, and putting Badman as far away from the door as possible will make him much easier to defend as well.
3. Don’t make too many  slimes. You have to leave enough nutrients remaining on the walls to build a proper army.
4. Killing your own creatures. It can actually be a good idea. If some creatures are near death and close to walls, poking them to death will give nutrients to all the walls around which you can use to your advantage.

Upgrading
An important aspect to the game is proper upgrading of your monsters. Upgrading doesn’t affect monsters that are already summoned, but it affects any monster summoned after the upgrade. The most important upgrades are omnoms and lizardmen. Fully upgraded omnoms will get you through a few stages. Fully upgraded lizardmen will get you through the later stages. The other monsters are “optional” upgrades, though slime upgrades boosts their speed and makees nutrient transportation a LOT better. And upgraded Liliths do more damage and such, which, if you use them properly, will PWN everything. The most important thing here is proper timing in your upgrades. You have to make sure to keep enough dig power to get extra dig power in following stages, but still be able to do enough upgrades.

First few stages walkthrough!
The first thing you want is for  proper nutrient placement next to the starting point. What you’ll want to do here is one small and closed room with enough nutrients around, andenough slimes in the room to spread the nutrients. Ideally you’ll try to have a lizardman out(one lone lizardman PWNZ the first 2 stages), otherwise a few omnoms. No more than 40 dig power should be used here. After killing the hero, do not do any upgrades.

Once the first stage is done, time for the second stage. If you have a lizardman out, just go to the door and make the hero come out, he will get killed by the lizardman for sure. Otherwise try to get a few extra omnoms out. After killing the hero be doing upgrades this time, fully upgrading your omnoms. Keep the rest of your dig power.

From here on out you should be making a lot of small rooms, building up your omnom army. By the next 2 stages, having fully upgraded lizardmen out will be very important. I’d also try to start upgrading liliths as well if you have a good supply of mana by stage 4-5.

You’ll continue the game building a maze in your dungeon to make Badman harder to access, and make maintaining the food chain. After the first few levels, you can make up your own strategy, and if you don’t use too much dig power each level you’ll get a lot to use on the following stages.

Check out this series videos!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IX5pjjxmtw I got quite a few tricks from watching this person’s videos. His series of “How to complete Holy Invasion of Privacy” videos go through all the game, and it’s pretty useful to see someone else do it if you have no idea what to do.

**UPDATE**
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dk8FfyGp_So
well i guess dragons really do have a use… wow >_< this method seems to require some luck(being able to get enough mana for a dragon on your first kill), but it’s pretty impressive.

Final thoughts
In the end figuring out your own strategies is the way to go. But a few basic guidelines can definitely help you out. This is a very interesting game, and well worth checking out. For anyone looking for someting unique.

Of course, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask and i’ll do my best to answer!

jobocan Games, Handheld, psp, Random, strategies, tips & tricks