HOW - TO - PLAY Fantasm Soldier Valis (Telenet, 1986) Author: John Hassink (johnhassink@hotmail.com) Date of creation: September 2006 Feel free to e-mail me with questions, remarks, supplementary information, thank-you´s or whatever suits you. I will seek to answer as fast and as best as I can. Which may not be too swiftly, mind you, because I´m one of those nearly extinct, barbaric cavemen without home access to the internet. Ofcourse, you´re free to distribute this document as much as you can, but if you really have to modify anything in it, please contact me first, or state what you have changed in the text itself before copying it and giving it to someone else. Some hints and tips to get you started * To enter a password, wait at the title screen for the game to show you a scroll of one of the stages and play some music. Then press [ENTER], and you can give the password by using the cursorkeys. When you´re done, press [ENTER] again. * You can make a double jump any time you desire, but it needs practice to learn when to press UP once more while being in mid-air and before going down again. You can do it straight upwards as well as diagonal. However, some platforms will still be too high above you even to double jump to. * You can change the direction you´re facing (thus -attacking) while jumping. * The glowing balls which often appear when you destroy an enemy will increase your energy when taken. When your energy-meter has reached the end of the bar, you will gain a level. If you sustain damage which causes your meter to run below it, your level will decrease again. Only one ball at once can be on screen, so when you are busy collecting energy and a ball has popped up in a difficult or impossible place, leave the area until the ball is out of sight to make a better reachable one appear shortly. Maximum level to gain is 255. * When you run away from an enemy or enemy projectile so far that it gets outside of the screen, it will always disappear. This can be useful throughout the game, for instance to reach difficult platforms or to isolate and take on a single enemy (to gain levels). * Bumping into an enemy or projectile will cast your body to the left or the right, depending on the place of impact. This can be truly aggravating at times, but you can try using this effect to reach certain places. Although the best way to reach a platform ofcourse remains the non-damage inflicting one. * There are two types of “permanent” items in the game, namely the offensive and the defensive type. The offensive ones are obviously the weapons. You will keep them when you have cleared a stage, but you can only have one at a time in your possession. The defensive ones are the armour and the heart. When wearing the armour, enemies will also be harmed and when they touch you. I´m not sure about the purpose of the heart. You will lose both armour or heart when you clear a stage. * The aforementioned objects in the game will always remain on the spot where you found them. Even if you´ve already taken a certain object, it will be back there when you return. Keep that in mind when you accidently bump into a weaker weapon than the one you were equipped with, or into a heart when you wanted to keep the armour. * Sometimes, an item with temporary effect will appear. Like the enemies, projectiles and glowing balls, they will have disappeared if you leave the screen. The items and their effects are: - CIRCLE: All enemies on the screen will be destroyed and no new ones will appear for some time. - VASE-LIKE (?): You will be temporarily invincible. However, you will still be “thrown away” when you bump into an enemy, but not when you get hit by a projectile. - FIERCE-LOOKING FACE: All enemies will turn white and become very strong. Obviously needs to be avoided. This item will sometimes remain in the same place where you found and evaded it. * The red arrow at the downright corner of the screen points out the direction you have to go to reach the “boss” of the current stage. If you go a different direction than the one which is displayed, alternate directions will be given in time, so you don´t have to follow it continuously. * I discovered a warp in STAGE 4 which brings you to an alternative place, but there I only found a warp back to... STAGE 4. Maybe there´s more to be found, but I haven´t investigated it yet. Perhaps a nice challenge for you? I discovered the warp when I was running leftwards and fell down from a platform, but the location of any warps could well be arbitrarily, strange game as this is. * There is one 100% sure warp be found, and that´s when you use the password for stage 5 and the BM-weapon. It´s listed in the password-section at the end of this document. See the “Stage 5”-section for more information. * The types of weapon you find appear to depend on the weapons you collected before. Even the stages seem built differently when you´ve followed a certain route. If anyone knows something about any existing logic or system about this in the game, I would be happy to know. All the credit for this will of course be yours. * All enemy projectiles in the game can be removed by shooting at them. * All boss creatures must be hit in the head (at the front or -when possible- the back), with exception of the STAGE 4 boss. * When you defeat a boss creature, you will be presented with additional levels and the energy that comes with it. You get 10 levels for the first one, 15 for the second, 20 for the third, and so forth. STAGE 1 Weapons: BULLET, HIGH BULLET You start without the ability to fire projectiles. Because having to kill enemies at close range makes you vulnerable, the best way to go for now is to duck and keep slinging your sword while the enemy approaches you. Head right and you will find BULLET. Now you don´t have to duck-attack anymore. Proceed to the right until you see a red hole in the ground. This leads to the sewers. Fall into it, and keep going down until you reach the bottom. Head right again, fall down and go right. On a platform, you will find an ARMOUR. Double jump to it. Further to the right you will find HIGH BULLET. Now you´re in business. Leave the sewer upwards, to the “ground floor”. Go right until you reach a grey area. In a certain part of this area, only the weaker types of enemy will appear. It´s the section in between the most left pyramid-formed stairs and the two telephone booths at the right. This is the perfect place to rapidly gain levels. I advise to fight until you have a level above 200. Running around to gather glowing balls all the time might become tedious after a while, but doing so once at the beginning makes your life much easier throughout the game. When desired level is reached, head right. Don´t take any BULLET-icon you see along the way (green square with a B in it), because it will negate your High Bullet again. Enter the first hole to the sewers you see. Head right, fall down, and keep right again until the arrow points as well. Follow the arrow. You will be running right most of the time, with a lot of enemies to ignore. If you want to gain level, here you get enough opportunity to wait for the jumpers to land behind you, then kill them and catch the glowing ball. After running right for a while, you will encounter the first boss-creature. Boss: GUY WITH AXE This guy wants to get close to you all the time. Firing at his legs or chest will cast him back. Every time he bursts out a huge amount of projectiles, duck and auto-fire on his legs to keep him away from you as far as possible and to remove his bullets. When you get the chance, jump and fire to hit him in the face and then fire at his legs or chest to force him back. Time your jumps carefully, especially when he´s getting close. STAGE 2 Weapons: HIGH BULLET, SPREAD BULLET You´ll be wearing a nice new suit. However, I fear it has only cosmetical (and I guess story-telling) function. You can go look for the SPREAD BULLET, but I always stick with HIGH BULLET, for it is more powerful. Not much more to say, follow the arrow to find the boss. Boss: FLYING DEMON He will start off by carpetbombing you. Shoot your way through the projectiles, do not jump, and run towards him. Now you simply use the following strategy: Always position yourself directly under him and wait for him to start firing left or right. Immediately sneak up behind him (not too close; his wings can cause damage as well). Jump up to hit him in the back of the head as much as possible. When he turns around to face you, quickly get below him again and repeat the routine. Remember that you can change direction while jumping. STAGE 3 Weapons: HIGH BULLET, LASER BULLET, FIRE BULLET When you are obedient to the red arrow from the beginning, you will probably not find a new weapon, but reach the boss with your mere High Bullet. So, stray a little and try to find one of the better two weapons. I always go for the FIRE BULLET, because it appears to be a little bit stronger than LASER BULLET. Both weapons are very useful, however, as they pierce through enemy fire. Boss: WEREWOLF Must be the hardest boss in the game. His fashion of attacking resembles that of the Guy With Axe, but this one jumps as well, which ables you to run past him. He doesn´t jump very high though, which makes getting behind him a very risky business. To me it seems best to treat him like you would the Guy With Axe. STAGE 4 Weapons: HIGH BULLET, SPREAD BULLET, LASER BULLET If you´ve picked up Spread Bullet before and you resent that, run right from the beginning and you will find High Bullet, as well as a heart if you go even further right. When I was in this stage with only High Bullet, I found the BM-weapon in a section in between rock walls. I did not find any other weapons here, but maybe I´m not looking well enough. Strange stage, this is. When walking leftwards, against the direction the arrow pointed, I reached an area situated somewhat under a rock ceiling you can´t jump through. At the left was a wall that can´t be walked through. Here, I found a BIRD-CREST. It belongs to the items which are lost after clearing a stage. I did not find out what it does. Boss: REIKO Very easy. Her weak spot are her legs. You can hit them by ducking and firing, but there is a better way of defeating her (especially when you have a better weapon than High Bullet or Spread Bullet): Remain in a corner of the screen and keep firing. Do not duck or jump. You will dispatch of all her projectiles before they even reach you whereas the fact that she jumps a lot will cause her to be hit all the time. STAGE 5 Weapons: BM (?) The very beginning of the stage is a nice opportunity to regain lost levels, as the residing enemies are weak. When you use the password for this stage which gives you the BM-weapon, there is a WARP to be found. From the beginning, go up a bit and to the left when you can, and eventually you will find an armour. Go even further to the left, bump into the wall and you´ll enter the warp. Here, you have to walk left through a long passage, and after falling down and walking to the right for a while, you will see two white statues that look like monks. First, you could go right to pick up a strange ITEM, which looks like a shield and seems to belong to the same type as the heart, armor and “bird-crest”. By the way, there is also a BIRD-CREST here, somewhere in the middle of this section. You can pick up one of those items and go left to the statues again. Stand before the left one and jump to exit the warp. You will find yourself very near to the final boss, and undone of any item you might have picked up (have I already mentioned that this is a strange game?). Just keep right to reach the boss. The following alinea describes how the stage is usually built. I´ve seen it built differently, though, but if you search left or right, you will probably find the BM-weapon. Besides that; going up for a long time and eventually right is a sure way to find the boss. Go up 5 or 6 screens, where you can head right to find an ARMOUR. If you only find an empty room, you need to go up a little more. After you´ve found the armour, go up one screen and then left. You will find an excellent weapon, the name of which is abbreviated with “BM” (maybe I should try to find the manual of this game sometime). The place you find this weapon is also a good spot to regain levels, if you´d find that necessary. However, after you´ve found the BM-weapon, return to the centre of the stage and proceed to go up until the arrow changes direction. Follow it (now, really?) to find the final boss... Boss: ROGLES Dispatch of his projectiles and wait for him to jump. Get behind him (not too close) and fire a few times at the back of his head. When he turns around, keep firing (don´t jump or duck) until he jumps again. Repeat this technique and he will soon be defeated. I hope this walkthrough has helped you. SOME PASSWORDS STAGE 1, LEVEL 3, HIGH BULLET 3 2 1 0 0 4 1 3 0 0 STAGE 2, LEVEL 255, HIGH BULLET 2 3 3 1 3 4 2 6 6 1 STAGE 3, LEVEL 255, HIGH BULLET 3 4 5 2 4 6 3 7 7 2 STAGE 4, LEVEL 255, FIRE BULLET 3 6 6 2 4 6 3 7 7 2 STAGE 5, LEVEL 255, FIRE BULLET 6 7 8 1 5 7 4 8 8 3 STAGE 5, LEVEL 255, LASER BULLET 6 6 6 1 3 4 2 6 6 1 STAGE 5, LEVEL 255, BM-WEAPON, WARP NEAR 7 1 0 7 7 8 6 0 0 5