============================================================================ Battle City FAQ -- NES By Orochi K kartelkertra caramail com v Final August 12, 2002 ============================================================================ Credits: - Sashanan for all the nifty info he sent in. - CJayC for posting this guide on his website. ============================================================================ © 2002, Orochi K. All rights reserved. This FAQ is for personal use only. Do not distribute it or use it for profitable purposes. If you want to post this FAQ on a website, e-mail me before doing anything and don't forget to send me the URL to the said site so I can create a disaster there beforehand. Plagiarism is a crime, just ask. If you have contributions, questions or just want to offer some feedback about this guide, e-mail me at the same adress and put "Battle City" as the subject. Failure to do so means your e-mail will just be ignored. Me hate Klez and spam ? You understand ? ============================================================================ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- GAME OVERVIEW ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Battle City is an action game where you control a tank and your objective is to destroy all the enemy tanks around you, while ensuring that your base isn't attacked. Your base is represented by the phoenix symbol and is always found at the bottom of the screen while the enemy tanks will appear at the top of the screen. The game is in top view. There are various items which also appear from time to time. One of these (the star) enables your tank to become more powerful and thus allows you to cope with the nightmare that the later stages are. But, of course, you return to normal once you lose a life and thus, you'll have to do your best to remain alive. Anyway, the game is very long but it needs only a short FAQ. No walkthrough is needed for this kind of game as it is very straightforward. Of course, the difficulty is another thing. Hope you enjoy my guide and it is of any use to you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONTROLS/FEATURES ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ~ Press the directional buttons to move about. You cannot move diagonally but can move up, down, left and right as long as nothing is blocking your way.. ~ Brick walls can be destroyed by firing at them. You will notice that the enemy tanks will also destroy the walls to move on and to reach your base as quickly as possible. ~ Grass doesn't count as an obsctacle. The tanks will appear to pass below it. ~ Steel walls cannot be destroyed normally but you can do so once your tank is at Level 3. ~ Water acts as an obstacle to your tank but your bullets will go over it. So, you can be on one side of a water patch and still destroy a tank which is on other side. ~ Your tank can level-up through Stars (refer to "Items" section). There are 4 levels in all. Additional notes and the fourth level (which I missed the first time) have been sent in by Sashanan). Level 1 : Default (you start as this and return to this level after dying) Level 2 : 1 stars Level 3 : 2 stars Level 4 : 3 stars At level 1, your tank is just a decent one with weak firepower. I guess that's why it's called default. At level 2, it gains becomes slightly stronger. Your bullets also come out faster, thus allowing you to face enemy tanks. Trying to destroy enemy tanks from a distance become relatively easier as opposed to the chore of doing the same thing with the Level 1 tank. At level 3, your tank becomes considerably more powerful. One bullet is enough to destroy a brick wall and you can even destroy steel walls. You are also faster and have the ability to fire 2 shots in quick succession. At level 4, your shots again gain in power (bricks disappear in a breeze) and you can now clear steel walls too. However, according to Sashanan again, the bigger enemy tanks still take 4 shots to disappear in a puff. Also, the tanks don't gain in speed as they move across the levels. It's just an impression, so don't let that fool you into turning into Rambo. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ITEMS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Grenade - All the enemy tanks will explode. It is always better to wait before taking it such that a maximum number of tanks will be destroyed. According to Sashanan, the disadvantage of picking up the grenade is that you don't get any points for all the tanks that are subsequently destroyed. Thus, if you are playing for the score, it would be wiser to grab it only when there are a few enemies on-screen (or maybe a couple near your base and it would take forever to backtrack). As a side-note, you get 500 pts whenever you get the grenade even if there are no tanks on-screen. Star - Makes your tank stronger. Stars have an accumulated effect. Your tank can evolve into a gigantic one with awesome firepower. You can fire bullets in quick succession and the shots themselves travel faster. Shovel - Increases your base's defense. The brick wall will turn into a steel one. Thus, your base is invulnerable during that time. In addition, any gaps that may have been caused by enemy tanks are filled by the steel wall, as pointed out by Sashanan. As I later found out myself, the gaps remain full when the steel wall reverts back to normal again. Nice! Clock - Immobilizes all enemy tanks for a short period of time. You may then safely destroy those. Once you've grabbed a clock item, it affects everything. Even tanks which appear after you've taken the item will be immobilized, provided the effect is still being observed. Helmet - Makes you invincible for some time. Your tank will be surrounded by a barrier and can take anything as long as the latter is present. Tank - D'oh, a life-up! Don't miss those, you'll need them! :) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ENEMY TANKS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are 4 types of enemy tanks throughout the whole game. At the start of the game, you will logically encounter more A and B tanks but as you reach the later stages, tanks C and D will literally flood the screen! :) Tank A : These tanks are very easy to destroy and are quite slow. Firepower is basically the same as yours when you start the game. Destroyed in one shot. Tank B : These are the fastest tanks in the game but they are weak defensively. They can be very annoying though as they'll travel across the whole screen within seconds. Destroyed in one shot but they are fast enough to avoid your bullets, so be careful! Tank C : Slightly stronger versions of Tank A and faster (but not as much as B). These tanks also have the ability to fire two shots in quick succession (same as your Level 3 equivalent). Tank D: Very sturdy tanks but they are also extremely slow , so you can try to take advantage of this. These tanks also require several shots before they explode. As pointed out by Sashanan, Tanks D merely represent an obstacle to your own tanks. They don't necessarily make for your base since they are so slow. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- HINTS & TIPS ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are a few hints and tips which will help you in beating the game. ~ Be always on the look-out for tanks which will try to get to your base. When this happens, backtrack immediately and take care of those tanks. Remember, it's Game Over if they shoot at your base. ~ A cheap way of playing would be to remain at the top where the tanks appear (they will do so to the left or to the right, and also in the middle of the screen) but keep in mind that you can also lose this way if 2 or 3 tanks show up at the same time. ~ If an item appears but you have to deal with some dangerous opponents, scrap the item. Who knows what may happen while you are heading for that item?! ~ At Level 3, you can destroy the steel walls. But don't forget that this may be beneficial to the enemy tanks by allowing them to pass through easily. Thus, don't abuse your new-found strength. ~ As stated by Sashanan, the number of tanks per level is fixed at 20. If you used the grenade(s) to get rid of certain tanks, these don't show up in the overview screen after you beat the level. ~ Don't let yourself get surrounded by the enemy tanks. This never works and you will just lose. Of course, this doesn't apply when you are invincible. ~ And finally, don't let the first stages of the game fool you. You will soon find out that the enemy tanks have a good AI. In the first stages, they may just run into you but later, some tanks will try to get you to follow them and a few others will then head to your base. You have been warned, Battle City isn't an easy game. ~ You obtain a life-up at 20,000 points (thanks to Sashanan for that info). In previous versions of this guide, I had written that these lives become available at every subsequent 20,000 points too but sadly, I was wrong. ~ Finally, if you are thinking about a score objective, Sashanan was able to net 80,500 at Stage 15. If you want to send me your score, feel free to do so. My personal achievement is at about 60,000 but I rarely play for score. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- OUTRO ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, that's all there is to this guide! Battle City is a simple game but that doesn't mean it is easy. As a matter of fact, it is almost impossible to beat this game unless you take the time to get used to any situation during the earlier stages. If you have questions, contributions or just want to give me some feedback, e-mail me and remember to put "Battle City" as the subject. If you don't do so, I will think your e-mail is a virus or something like that and will thus delete it (or block you address if I'm in a bad mood!). Thanks for reading! © 2002, Orochi K. All rights reserved. - EOF -