Maggot blaster 500

Welcome to the Maggot Blaster 500 guide! Here you will find details on all the weapons and enemies, as well as plenty of tactics to help you through this action-packed game.

Basics
Your goal is to stay alive, and kill the many enemies that will attack. Use the W,A,S,D keys to move around the world, and the mouse to point your gun. Notice that the camera will also move towards where you aim your gun, letting you look around your surroundings.

To fire your gun, hold down the left mouse button. Enemies hit by your bullets will take damage and die. Your aiming cursor grows and shrinks to indicate how accurate your weapon will be at the area you are pointing at.

You will find yourself standing in a field with a few buildings around you. Take a moment to practice moving about because soon the first enemies will reach you! There are two types of enemy in the first level; white maggots and red spiders. See the enemy section below for more details on them and the others you will meet.

Move your mouse so that your gun is pointed towards a group of enemies and hold the mouse button to fire. As the enemies get closer start moving away from them. Keeping mobile is key to your survival.

A graphic at the bottom of the screen indicates how many bullets are left in your gun. Once you have used them all you will have to wait a short time whilst you reload your weapon before you can fire again. You may sometimes wish to reload your weapon before it is totally out of bullets - do this by tapping R.

In the bottom left is a number showing your total ammo reserves. You will need to refill your ammo reserve by finding and running over green ammo crates.

On each level you will need to fend off attackers until the timer at the bottom left of the screen has reached zero. Once you have mopped up what resistance remains, the level will be complete. Note that you do not need to kill off the maggots in an area to complete the level.

Between each level you are given a chance to purchase new weapons to help you. After completing the first level you should have enough cash to buy a sawn-off shotgun. You should buy this as soon as possible, as having two weapons gives you a big advantage.

You can swap between your two weapons by tapping Q. Each weapon has its own ammo reserve, so with two weapons you can last much longer between needing to find ammo.

Explosions

There are many sources of explosions in Maggot Blaster, but they all have the same effects. Anything caught in an explosion - including you - will take considerable damage. If an explosion occurs very close to the wall of a building, that wall will be destroyed allowing you access through it. Careful use of explosions can give you a major advantage in battle. Careless use of explosions can easily end your life.

Explosions are caused by: Player-laid mines, the rocket launcher, shooting red barrels which are found on some levels, Exploder enemies either after being killed or when they reach the player.

Weapons

There are many weapons available to unlock in Maggot Blaster, each with their own features and uses. You start the game with just the submachine gun, but can purchase the others with the cash you earn by killing enemies. Once you have unlocked more than two weapons, you will be asked to select which two to take into battle before each level.

Submachine Gun

The basic starting weapon. Quite inaccurate and with low damage, but carries more ammo than any other weapon.

Sawn-off Shotgun

This weapon fires a blast of pellets which can hit many enemies at once. This is a double-barrelled shotgun, which means you are able to fire twice very quickly, but then must reload. The pellet blast is useful both for taking on large groups of weak enemies at a distance, or for firing it point-blank into a single stronger enemy.

Assault Rifle

An excellent upgrade to the submachine gun. Although it fires slightly slower than its smaller counterpart, each bullet does much more damage and is quite a bit more accurate over range.

Mines

A unique weapon that is deadly in skilled hands. Pressing fire will drop mines on to the ground which will then wait for an enemy to come near, before detonating in a deadly explosion. There is a short timer before each mine is armed, giving you time to get out of its blast radius. Mines are only triggered by enemies walking near them, but the resulting explosion can still hurt you.

Hunting Rifle

A weapon for steady hands. Although slow to fire and with limited ammo, the hunting rifle can destroy crowds of enemies if used with care. Each bullet will do huge damage, and can kill most enemies with a single shot. Against weaker foes, the bullet will over-penetrate their body and go on to kill more targets. The downside of the hunting rifle is that it is highly inaccurate when fired whilst moving. Stand still for a moment and it will become deadly accurate.

Rocket Launcher

The premier source of explosions. The rocket fired by this weapon will detonate exactly where your mouse cursor was positioned when you clicked; this makes it the only weapon that can fire through a crowd of enemies. The rocket launcher is tactically very useful both for destroying crowded groups of enemies but also for selectively demolishing walls to give you access to ammo or a quick exit from a nasty situation.

Pump Shotgun

Like its sawn-off cousin, this shotgun fires a powerful burst of pellets. Unlike its cousin it can fire many more times before needing to reload, and does a fair bit more damage with each shot. Unlike most other weapons which take a fixed length of time to reload, the pump shotgun's reload time depends on how many shells need to be loaded in.

Laser

Possibly the ultimate weapon. The laser fires a beam of deadly energy that quickly tears through enemies, and is perfectly accurate in all situations. The disadvantage to this weapon is its prodigious use of ammo, which forces the user to almost constantly be searching for the next ammo crate.

Enemies

Maggots

Health: 2 Damage: 1 Cash Value: 0

These adorable creatures are found writhing in groups on every level. They are less aggressive than the other enemies you will encounter, and will only attack if you approach them. Their bites hardly do any damage to you, but they will slow you down and make you easy prey for their larger friends. As maggots are also worth no cash to you when killed, you are well advised to simply avoid them when you can. If you find yourself forced to fight a group, they will die quickly to a spray of automatic gunfire or a couple of shotgun blasts.

Spiders

Health: 8 Damage: 3 Cash Value: 45

The first enemy you will encounter, and alone they are no great threat. However they tend to attack in large groups, where their numbers can quickly overwhelm you. Keep mobile, and avoid letting them chase you into a corner. Although vicious, their bite is fairly weak and you should be able to survive pushing your way through a group of spiders if you need to make an escape.

Beetles

Health: 35 Damage: 5 Cash Value: 200

Similar to the spider, but tougher and tend to attack alone or within a group of spiders. These beasts are worth quite a lot more cash than their weaker friends, so aiming to pick them off first may help you afford your next weapon that little bit faster.

Armored

Health: 220 Damage: 8 Cash Value: 150

Covered in thick protective plates, these enemies are especially hard to dispatch. Even a direct hit from the hunting rifle will not kill them off. Getting them hit by an explosion will help knock off some of their health, but even then it is a lot of work. This creature isn't even worth that much cash when killed, so a wise hunter might target more profitable or dangerous enemies first.

Exploder

Health: 15 Damage: Explosion - 80 Cash Value: 200

Exploders are weak, fragile, and can't even bite you; however they do explode. Instead of attacking you normally when they get close to you, this enemy will detonate itself doing very considerable damage. Its pulsing bulbous form is easily recognised, and should be picked off from a distance as soon as possible, as even when killed by you this foe will still explode. A hunting rifle or rocket launcher is especially effective at taking down exploders as they both allow you to hit it even when there is a crowd of other enemies in the way.

Squirmer

Health: 150 Damage: 10 Cash Value: 900

Purple, angry, and a serious threat. Squirmers give off a distinctive scream when they enter the area - when you hear it get ready for an intense fight. Squirmers move very fast, and hit very hard. Their fast movement is also their weakness, as they are liable to overshoot their targets if they move at the right time. Think of fighting a Squirmer as being a matador fighting a charging bull - the trick is not to get hit by the bull. If you have the nerve to stand still and take a good shot, the hunting rifle will dispatch a squirmer with a single bullet; but miss your shot and you had best switch to a more mobile weapon.

Survival Mode

The ultimate test of skill, and a chance to compete for the high score. Here you are allowed to choose from all of the weapons in the game and placed on a level and faced with never-ending waves of enemies. Over time the waves will get larger and contain more dangerous enemies. Your goal is simply to earn as many points as possible before eventually succumbing to their onslaught.

A big part of doing well in survival mode lies in selecting your weapons wisely. You have access to all the weapons in the game, but are still limited to carrying two in to battle with you. Experiment with the many combinations possible!

You may find that taking at least one explosive weapon will help you, as you will be able to blow holes in walls to make shortcuts to ammo crates. The rocket launcher and laser are a particularly potent combination as the explosions of the rockets can help you get access to the ammo that is so rapidly consumed by the laser.