/\/\1000/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | Table of Contents | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ 1000 - Table of Contents 2000 - Introduction 2100 - About Myself 2200 - About this FAQ 2300 - Version History 2400 - Legal Information 2500 - Credits 3000 - Gameplay 3100 - Mission 3210 - Basic Research 3220 - Advanced Research 3230 - Hybrid Research 3200 - Controls 3300 - Scoring 3400 - Power-Ups 4000 - Game Modes 4100 - Single Player/Co-Op 4110 - Basic Research 4120 - Advanced Research 4130 - Hybrid Research 4200 - Game Speeds 4210 - Normal Speed 4220 - AT Speed 4230 - 2xAT Speed 4300 - Grudge Match 4310 - Gameplay 4320 - Tips to Win 5000 - Enemies 5100 - Basic Research 5200 - Advanced Research 6000 - Tips and/or Tricks 7000 - Common Questions /\/\2000/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | Introduction | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ 2100 - About Myself First off, welcome to my FAQ! This is my first one and I am very excited to be writing this FAQ about such an awesome game as Blast Factor! I have searched every where online for walkthroughs, tips, tricks or strategies but to no avail so I had no other choice: make one. If you have anything you would want to add to this FAQ, email me at jaredseverson at gmail dot com with the subject 'Blast Factor FAQ' and I will try to respond as quickly as possible. 2200 - About this FAQ This FAQ is not neccessarily a walkthrough as it is a large tips guide to help even the most seasoned player obliterate all enemies and save every specimen possible! If you are looking for how to beat down your friends in a grudge match or what is the best way to score big points, this is the FAQ for you. For a quick way to get around this FAQ, push 'Ctrl' and 'F' then type in the 4 digit numeric code corresponding to the section you want. 2300 - Version History 9/20/2007 - Started writing this FAQ 9/24/2007 - FAQ finished, need to do Scoring section still and want to add more tips to different sections, submitted to GameFAQs.com 9/27/2007 - Added contact information under 'About Me' section, finished scoring section and tips section 9/28/2007 - Added Power-Ups section, updated enemy information 2400 - Legal Information This FAQ is copyrighted by Jared 'jive sukka' Severson and can only be used on GameFAQs.com. This FAQ can not be redistributed or reused anywhere besides GameFAQs.com. If you need to reference this guide in anyway, please link to GameFAQs.com. 2500 - Credits I would like to thank a few people for making this FAQ possible: Sony - for making the greatest gaming systems possible! Bluepoint Games - for making one of the greatest games on PS3! GameFAQs - for making it possible for the little guy become famous through writing guides for videogames! Me - for being awesome enough to write this FAQ! /\/\3000/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | Gameplay | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ 3100 - Mission The mission in the game is to clear out an entire 'specimen' by destroying the enemies in all of the 'cells.' Depending on how you do in any cell determines what cell difficulty you will go to. Here is a small diagram to help out. 3210 - Basic Research Hard Hard / Cell \ / Cell \ Hard / \ Hard / \ / Cell \ \ / Cell \ \ Starting / \ Medium __\ Bonus __ Starting / \ Medium __\ Boss Point \ / Cell / Level Point \ / Cell / Cell \ Easy / / \ Easy / / Cell \ / Cell \ / \ Easy / \ Easy / Cell Cell You will start the game at the Starting Point. If you beat the level without dying and in the goal time you will advance up one cell to either Hared or Medium depending on what cell you are on. If you die, don't beat it in the goal time or both, you will go down a cell to either medium or easy depending on what cell you are on. If you hear a noise with the cell turning red, it means you are close to the goal time. If you hear a louder, longer noise with the cell turning red again, you missed the goal time. After the 3rd cell, you will go to a Bonus Level. You can not die on the bonus level even if you run into one of the enemies. The goal of the Bonus Level is to destroy all 40 enemies as they appear with the least amount of shoots and the biggest chain. At the end of the Bonus Level, you will see a screen telling your total bonus (more information on that in the Scoring section). The second Starting Point is considered a check point so if you lose all your lives you have the option of starting there. After the 7th cell, you will fight a boss. All bosses are pretty much the same minus their speeds and enemy quantities. After you beat the boss, the specimen will explode and the your specimen score will appear. 3220 - Advanced Research Hard Hard __ Hard / Cell \ / Cell Cell \ Starting / \ Survival / \ Medium __ Boss Point \ / Cell \ / Cell Cell \ Easy / \ Easy __ Easy / Cell Cell Cell You will start the game at the Starting Point. If you beat the level without dying you will go to the Hard Cell, there are no goal times. If you die, you will go to the Easy Cell. After the second cell, you will go to a special Survival Cell where you will fight against an unnumerable amount of waves of enemies. If you survive, you will both go to the Hard Cell and get a nice bonus: Life Protection. If you do die, your survival bonus (covered more in Scoring) is left intact! After the two next cells which will either both be Easy or Hard,you will go to a Medium Cell which is the checkpoint in Advanced Research. After that you will fight go to one of two bosses depending on the specimen, one that hooks on to the walls and another that flies around. After you beat the boss, the specimen will explode and your specimen score will appear. 3200 - Controls The game only has a few buttons for in game use. Left analog stick is used for moving around. You can move up, down, right, left and everything in between. Depending on how far you push it determins your speed. Right analog stick is for shooting. You can shoot up, down, right, left and everything in between. Please note that you can shoot left while moving right or any other combination, moving and shooting do not effect eachother. Your bullets will not pass through enemies or allies but will bounce slightly off walls, allies or hard shelled enemies. The L and R trigger buttons deploy you repulse. The repulse is an energy field that can push back nearly anything and slows down time for one second. It is infinite but takes time to charge so use it sparingly. The final move requires you to actually move the controller. If you take controller and tilt it right or left, a wave will appear on screen pusing moves enemies to either the left or right. Be careful when doing this since the controller has a habit of being very sensitive when you don't want it to be and very insensitive when you need it to be. 3300 - Scoring One of the biggest accomplishments in this game is to get the high score and understanding the scoring system can be a big help! Here are a few things that will help you get the top score. - You get points from killing enemies primarily. All enemies have different point values and the harder cells always contain more enemies. - When killing an enemy and another enemy is killed in the blast radius, you will get more points. This is called a chain. You will know when you are doing this when under your score some numbers will come up in blue; that is your chain score. - We all know death in games is bad and this game is no change. If you survive past a cell, you will get 1 added to your Survival Bonus. The Survival Bonus is an amount of points that is multiplied by the number of cells you have survived. The amount of points goes up as you progress and can eventually add up to several thousand points a cell. - In Basic Research, you get to do a Bonus Stage. That is one of the top ways to get points in Basic Research. There are three things to do to get a good score here: kill everything, chain as much as possible, and only shoot when possible. At the end of the cell you score will be multiplied by a certain percentage determined by your kill ration, hit ration and chain ration. I always make sure to kill all of the enemies, that is my top priority since I think it is the easiest. I try to use the fewest amount of shots as possible by getting very close and using my repulse as much as possible to help aim my shots. Chaining usually just happens since all of the enemies disappear after a few seconds and bounce around randomly. - In Advanced Research, you get to do a Survival Stage. In this stage you get the opportunity to kill a very large amount of enemies. Although you won't get much extra like the bonus stage, you get the chance of scoring a few extra normal chains to get some nice points and access to the hard cells. But best of all you get Life Protection which protects your Survival Bonus should you die. - The best way to up your score very quickly is to not die for an entire specimen. Doing this doubles your score for that specimen. Note its your score for the specimen NOT your entire score. Should you do this for several specimens in a row, the bonus will act like a Survival Bonus and multiply by 3, 4 or 5 times plus depending on how long you can survive. The Specimen Survival Bonus is a great asset. - The final best way to get a good score bonus is to play higher speeds. You get bonuses for each speed (20% for AT, 50% for 2xAT) that get applied before your Specimen Survival Bonus. 3400 - Power-Ups During the course of your adventure, you will come across several special weapons. You will see a button like object float around the screen. Shoot it and it will become one of several power-ups. It will float around for 8 seconds before disappearing or last for 8 seconds should you get the lucky chance of picking it up. It is always best to pick up the power-ups as soon as possible so you do not lose it. The game gives them out at pre-determined points and they are USUALLY best to be used then. Of course, you can make the choice as when it is best as to use it. Note that powe-ups do not carry over to the next cell. Triple Shot - This one is pretty self explanitory. Your bullets split into three separate bullets. You can have three bullets hit the same person and it will count as three hits. This power-up is unlimited for 8 seconds. Homing Shot - This shot is also self explanitory. Your bullets will go randomly towards differing enemies and other power-ups. This works very well against Back Repel and Back AR since it can hit them without them needing to stunned. Does not work very will with Big Chains though since it will hit them themselves and the surrounding enemies sometimes. Also, for some reason, it will try to hit power-ups and lives that are floating around but we all know that you can't kill a life. This power-up is unlimited for 8 seconds. Mega Repulse - This power-up is not really an upgrade for your gun but an upgrade for your repulse. For one repulse, you have the ability to destroy anything within range of your repulse. This is my favorite power-up since you are able to save yourself big time in moments of distress. Whenever I get this power-up, I try to save it as long as I can just in case I need to in an emergency. This power-up is one time use only. Bounce Shots - This power-up makes all of your bullets able to bounce off of the walls at a much higher rate. It is extremely easy to just fill the cell with bullets in seconds using this power-up, truely, the most powerful shot you can get. Only available in Advanced Research. This power-up is unlimited for 8 seconds. /\/\4000/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | Gamemodes | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ 4100 - Single Player/Co-Op 4110 - Normal Speed The game in normal speed is the original game and great for beginners or trying new techniques. You go from one cell to another as explained above. You get three lives and gain one at every Bonus Level, 7th cell(right before a boss) and after a boss. If you are shot or run into a baddie, you lose a life. When all of your lives are gone, you lose. Single player and co-operative have pretty much the same gameplay except for three things. First, there are more enemies in co-operative. The more players the more things to kill. Second, your repulse takes longer to recharge. If you have four people going at it, you will really need to conserve your repulse as the recharge takes a few seconds. Third, lives aren't as important. As long as 1 player makes it to the next round, all players will come back to life despite you having no lives. A good thing to do in co-op have someone be the group leader. This may sound lame, but having someone being able to call some shots might make the game easier. For instance, if a wave of enemies appears completely around you, the leader can say 'Right' and everyone will just shoot right, go to the right side, and the leader will then be in charge of doing a wave to push everyone left. This is a tactic I use with my friends (guess who is the leader?) and we usually can beat the game in no time. 4120 - AT Speed In AT speed, the gameplay speed is increased by 15%. This is nice for average players who are fairly confident in their skills. Since the game speed is increased, the goal times for each cell has decreased. The big bonus comes after you destroy a specimen: a 20% increase to your specimen score! How is that for a reward! 4130 - 2xAT Speed 2xAT speed is like it says: twice the speed of AT speed. Gameplay is increased by 30% which is great for experienced players going for the gold. The goal times for this mode are even lower but the rewards are greater! You now get a 50% increase to your specimen score after defeating the boss! This is the best way to go for that high score you so desperately want. 4200 - Grudge Match 4210 - Gameplay In a Grudge Match, 2 to 4 players square off in an epic battle of blaster rays. You still can not shoot the other players but you can shoot all the other baddies appearing in numerous waves. It really isn't so much a battle as it is a test of survival. Each player gets 5 lives and must outlast the other players. Keep your eyes open for power-ups and lives to tip the game in your favor and the match is in your hands! 4220 - Tips to win - Your repulse behaves a bit differently in grudge match mode: it pushes your opposing players now! Feel free to get nice and close and hit them hard to push them into a group of enemies for a quick kill! - Tilting the controller still works here too! It is always for an easy kill if you just give a quick wave to the board but be weary of what is pushed at you during that as well. - Power-ups can easily turn the tide of the match in your favor. Try your hardest to get these before an opponent. Remember: it is better for it to expire after 8 seconds then for an opponent to get it. - Watch out for lives! With everyone having only a limited amount of lives, those things are worth more then gold! Snatch them up especially fast to lengthen your killing spree. - Certain enemies react negatively to your repulse or wave. Get nice and close to an opponent and use them on those bad guys to get them coming for you both quicker, just be sure to get out of the way fast. /\/\5000/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | Enemies | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ *Legend* Name: Name of enemy Description: What it looks like Notes: Things to remember when fighting it Speed: From 1 to 10 with 10 being the fastest Health: About how many hits it takes to destroy it Repulse: How the enemy reacts to your repulse Wave: How the enemy reacts to your wave 5100 - Basic Research Enemies Name: Platelet Description: Small, red circle Notes: Groups together usually, very common Speed: 4 Health: 1 hit Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Stack Basic Description: Stack of Platelets Notes: After first hit, breaks into several Platelets Speed: 4 Health: 1 hit(then it turns into Platelets) Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Platelet EX Description: Small, white circle Notes: Groups together usually, very persuing Speed: 8 Health: 1 hit Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Stack EX Description: Stack of Platelet EXes Notes: After first hit, breaks into several Platelet EXes Speed: 6 Health: 1 hit (then it turns into Platelet EXes) Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Platelet AR Description: Small, purple circle Notes: Groups together usually, very persuing, speeds up when hit with repulse Speed: 8-normal / 10-repulse Health: 1 hit Repulse: Speeds up Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Stack AR Description: Stack of Platelet ARs Notes: After first hit, breaks into several Platelet AR, does not share advantage with repulse like Platelet AR Speed: 6 Health: 1 hit (then it turns into Platelet ARs) Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Platelet AT Description: Small, green circle Notes: Groups together usually, very persuing, speeds up when hit with wave Speed: 8-normal / 10-wave Health: 1 hit Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Speeds up Name: Stack AT Description: Stack of Platelet ATs Notes: After first hit, breaks into several Platelet AT, does not share advantage with wave like Platelet AT Speed: 6 Health: 1 hit (then it turns into Platelet ATs) Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Big Bang Description: Large, purplish meteor Notes: Nothing special about him Speed: 2 Health: About 10 hits Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Big Time Description: Blue ball with yellow spots Notes: Can go underwater Speed: 3 Health: About 10 hits (invincible underwater) Repulse: Pushes back (uneffected underwater) Wave: Pushes to the side (uneffected underwater) Name: Big Tip Description: Metal cirlce surface, orange glowing underside Notes: Invincible on surface, must flip over with wave Speed: 4 Health: About 10 hits (invincible unless flipped over) Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side and flips upside down (can not be flipped right side up) Name: Big Mine Description: Metal doughnut Notes: When killed, shoots out body pieces in 4 directions Speed: 1 Health: About 10 hits (explodes) Repulse: Pushes back, stops exploding body pieces Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Big Chain Description: Gray circle with protruding lines Notes: Invincible, must be killed by killing an enemy nearby, produces different kinds of Platelets, does small repulse if shot Speed: 5 Health: Invincible, must be killed by killing an enemy nearby Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Back Repel Description: Metal head with yellow tail Notes: Invincible head, must be stunned with repulse first to kill Speed: 9 Health: 1 hit (invincible unless stunned and shot in tail) Repulse: Stuns and makes it turn around Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Back AR Description: Metal head with purple tail Notes: Invincible head, must be stunned with repulse first to kill Speed: 9 Health: 1 hit (invincible unless stunned and shot in tail) Repulse: Stuns and makes it fall forward Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Bouncer Description: Yellow ball with blue protruding dots Notes: Bounces off everything irradicately Speed: 10 Health: About 5 hits Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Bouncer AR Description: Purple ball with yellow protruding dots Notes: Bounces off everything irradicately, speeds up when hit with repulse Speed: 10-normal / 10-repulse Health: About 5 hits Repulse: Speeds up Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Bouncer AT Description: Green ball with red protruding dots Notes: Bounces off everything irradicately, speeds up when hit with wave Speed: 10-normal / 10-wave Health: About 5 hits Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Speeds up Name: Radical Description: Nearly identical to Bouncer, Bouncer AR and Bouncer AT Notes: Can not kill you, found only in bonus levels, disappears after a few seconds Speed: 7 Health: 1 hit Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Boss A Description: A white sphere encased in metal Notes: Spins around and shoots out white charges in different patterns, when it opens up different enemies appear and also appear randomly while it is spinning, stays stationary in center of screen, you must shoot the white center when the metal encasing opens Speed: Variable - depends on specimen Health: Variable - depends on specimen Repulse: No effect Wave: No effect 5200 - Advanced Research Enemies Name: Platelet ATR Description: Small, blue circle Notes: Groups together usually, very persuing, speeds up when hit with repulse and wave Speed: 8-normal / 9-repulse / 10-wave Health: 1 hit Repulse: Speeds up Wave: Speeds up Name: Stack ATR Description: Stack of Platelet ATR Notes: After first hit, breaks into several Platelet ATR, does not share advantage with wave and repulse like Platelet ATR Speed: 6 Health: 1 hit (then it turns into Platelet ATRs) Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Big Blast Description: Metal circle with orange line around it Notes: Does not persue, very large explosion area Speed: 1 Health: About 10 hits Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Big Repel Description: Yellow and blue ball with yellow spikes Notes: Able to use repulse Speed: 4 Health: About 10 hits Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Mini Tip Description: Small, metal body with red fins Notes: Invincible on surface, must flip over with wave, flips back over very fast Speed: 6 Health: 1 hit Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side and flips upside down (can not be flipped right side up) Name: Swarmer Description: Small green body with yellow outline Notes: Persuant, stays in group Speed: 5 Health: 1 hit Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Bouncer EX Description: Orange body with blue fins Notes: Bounces off everything irradicately Speed: 10 Health: About 3 hits Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Bouncer EX AR Description: Purple body with yellow fins Notes: Bounces off everything irradicately, speeds up when hit with repulse Speed: 10-normal / 10-repulse Health: About 3 hits Repulse: Speeds up Wave: Pushes to the side Name: Bouncer EX AT Description: Green body with orange fins Notes: Bounces off everything irradicately, speeds up when hit with wave Speed: 10-normal / 10-wave Health: About 3 hits Repulse: Pushes back Wave: Speeds up Name: Boss B Description: An orange circle half encased in metal Notes: Crawls on walls shooting out red beams, will speed across cell to other side and turn around, enemies come out with its beams and when it goes across the cell, you must shoot the orange circle when it is going across the cell Speed: Variable - depends on specimen Health: Variable - depends on specimen Repulse: No effect Wave: No effect Name: Boss C Description: A small circle encased by a larget circle Notes: Goes at you across the stage in patterns, release enemies after it goes at you, you must shoot the inner circle when the outer circle opens Speed: Variable - depends on specimen Health: Variable - depends on specimen Repulse: No effect Wave: No effect /\/\6000/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | Tips and/or Tricks | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ - There are quite a few enemies that react negatively to your weapons. Remember the reaction lies mostly in the color: green speeds up at waves, purple speeds up at repulses and blue speeds up at repulses and waves. This rule applies to Platelets and Bouncers. - Each enemy has a blast radius that effects other enemies. Usually the bigger the enemy the bigger the explosion. Use this to your advantage! Taking out all of the Platelets around a Big Bang can kill it with no reall work. - There are a few enemies that can produce enemies for you to kill nearly indefinitely. Bosses do this the most so you are able to up your score very quickly just by killing the little guys over and over. Plus you can make chains very quickly with bosses. - Repulsing and waving enemies together makes it easier to attain chains. Do this to get easy kills and easy points. - Practice, practice, practice. Playing this game a lot will only make you better. Be sure to play the harder cells even if you lose so you get more experience with the tougher cells. - You are only graded on hit/miss ratio during the Bonus Stage. Other than that, you can go trigger happy. Shoot at anything that moves to save your skin but also pay attention to your shooting. Your gun can 'overheat' and slow down its fire rate. There is no visual cue that this is happening unless you notice the slow down in fire rate. The way to fix it is just stop shooting for a second and your gun will get fixed instantly. - Pay attention to when enemy waves spawn. Was it time based (like 10 seconds into the cell they appeared, you had no effect) or was it event based (like you killed all of the enemies to make the next wave appear)? Knowing this can help you prepare for next wave. - Pick a side and stick with it. After starting off a cell fight to one side of the cell, turn around, and fight to the other side. This way you have a battle plan. - About to finish off a wave and don't know where to go? Majority of the time you can go back to the middle and be fine there. Very rarely will an enemy spawn in the middle but be on the lookout should one start there. It is a good practice to do a small circle in the middle shooting around, preparing for your next slaughter. /\/\7000/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ | | | Common Questions | | | \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Q: Why write a guide over a short game? A: Well, this game may be kind of short but it is deep. You can easily have a run where you get 100,000 points in the first specimen and another where you get over 800,000 the next time! With the additional online ladder you have a spot at greatness. Q: Why not give a walkthrough for every individual cell? A: For me to do that, it would take a considerable amount of time replaying cells over and over, trying to get to the last hard cell in specimen 7 of Basic Research. I felt general tips and tricks would be the better way to go. Q: How come some Bouncers have a speed of 10 but it says they speed up for waves and repulses but that speed is 10 as well? A: I put them at 10 since they are the fastest thing in the game and they donn't change speed when hit with wave and repulse but they don't slow down. They usually just go right for you when you do it but I wanted to follow the color rule under the Tips section. Q: Are you any good at this game? A: Good, yes. Great, no. I don't have the time to devote to games so much any more so I can't practice a lot. I play mostly multiplayer with my wife and to say the least, she knows the controls. I am usually the one who has to clean up a cell after everyone is dead. Q: Are all the add-on's worth it? A: You bet! For less then half the cost of a new game you get a terrific experience! Plus, if this games makes enough money, maybe they will release an online add-on...here's hoping! Q: What is your Playstation ID? A: It is 'jivesukka' just like my GameFAQs name. Q: Why are you so into this game? A: Hell if I know.