Fighting in the Stars: Your guide to Nova Battle

We'll start with a general overview of the game. Your character is a Golden Nova, controlled by your mouse and possessing an automatic firing gun. Now as you move around, your gun will fire the opposite direction, like you're pulling it along by the handle. To lock it in place (firmly grasping the handle, so it doesn't spin) just hold down your left click button. Double clicking will activate your shield, but we'll get into that later.

The goal of this game? Complete each level (they get progressively harder by the way ;)) until you come up against the evil Mechanova, and vanquish that scoundrel! To collect points and finish levels, you need to kill enemy novas. You also want to collect gems (a gem will appear after you kill an enemy nova). Gems give points and allow you to upgrade your weapon. You want to collect as many gems as you can; you should be able to get at least 90% of them up until the last few levels.

Upgrading Weapons: You upgrade your weapon by using up your “gem points” which you earn by collecting gems in the levels. All the upgrades are good! I suggest getting them in order of cheapest first, most expensive last. The upgrades are as follows:

3 way shot: Shoots in 3 directions, costs 3,000 gem points

2 way shot: Shoots in an additional 2 directions. Costs 8,000 gem points

Shield bonus: Makes shield last an additional 5 seconds, costs 9,000 gem points (The in-game instructions contain a typo)

Cannon Shot: Makes main shot much stronger, costs 10,000 gem points

Back Shot: Adds a line of fire in the opposite direction, costs 15,000 gem points

Hyper nova: Bomb, kills all enemies on the screen, press space bar to activate, costs 2,500 gem points (use on level 8, 9, 10)

Difficulty: There are three difficulties in this game, easy, normal, & hard. As you'd expect, as the difficulty goes up so does the speed of your enemies, their rate of fire, and points awarded. If you want a high score, play in hard. If you just want to beat the NGC, try normal. If you've got something stuck in your eye, try easy (it's the only difficulty you can survive while constantly blinking).

Level Walk Through:

Level 1: Simply kill 30 of these pesky novas. Try to collect 25-30 gems. After 18 gems, your shield meter will be full (see the blue bar at the bottom?); double click to activate your shield. This makes you invincible until it wears off. Have fun running into the enemy! From now on, you'll want to activate it as soon as possible in all levels.

Level 2: Now you need to kill 40, and a new enemy makes an appearance, Mechanical Novas- the first that can fire back. Make sure you dodge their fire; you can only survive 2 hits before you die! As before, try to collect a good number of gems; 35-40 should be your target. You might have noticed a yellow gem appear in this level. Did you get it? This nova power-up shoots massive fire in all directions, as well as making you invincible for a time. It usually shows up around the same time your shield meter fills up; try not to use both at the same time.

If you've collected enough gems, you should be able to buy the 3 way shot after level 2. Do so. If you don't have enough, consider restarting, or buy it after level 3.

Level 3: Survive for 1 minute 15 seconds; it doesn't matter how many you kill. You should still be killing as many as you can, though! Fire Novas also start appearing; their bullets will track after you and they take two hits to kill.

Buy the 2 way shot after level 3; you should have enough if you've been collecting all the gems.

Level 4: Again, survive for 1:15, this time they add arrow-throwing novas. These aren't that big a threat; their arrows travel quite slow. They can take awhile to shoot through, though, so try to sneak up on the sides or behind them.

Level 5: Survive for 1:15. Attack novas leave mines in their wake; be careful not to run into them. They're much easier to dodge, since they don't move, but can be bothersome when sitting on a gem. Consider that gem lost; it isn't worth the health point!

Buy your shield bonus after level 5, and enjoy those extra 5 seconds!

Level 6: Kill 100 Pulsar novas. Pulsar novas are the first enemy that doesn't target you; they shoot directly towards the center. The bad thing is you frequently need to go through... that's right, the center of the screen. So they aren't doing you that much of a favor; be careful avoiding them.

Level 7: Kill 100 dark Novas. This is the worst enemy so far; it jumps out of invincibility mode to shoot off 3 shots (in easy, it only shoots 1, normal 2), then goes back to being invincible! Try to stay away from them when they're about to shoot; the outside of the screen is your friend! Don't forget to venture towards the center for gems, though. You still need them.

You'll want to buy a Hyper nova for level 8. If you've got enough gem points for it, buy the cannon as well. Hyper nova comes first though.

Level 8: Survive for 1:15 again. Use your shield as soon as you can, an unexpected visitor is about to appear. A miniature version of the final boss will appear, but simply run over him in your shield to kill him. Towards the end of the level he'll appear again; that's when you blast him with the Hyper nova!

Buy another Hyper nova after level 8, you're going to get another visitor! Buy the cannon or back shot if you have enough; again, make sure the Hyper nova comes first.

Level 9: Kill 140 novas. Do the same thing as level 8, killing him with the shield the first time and bomb on his second appearance. Stay focused; there are lots of things flying around!

After level 9, restock your Hyper Nova and buy anything you have left.

Level 10: Time to face the Mechanova, and I'm afraid you'll have to do this one on your own! One little note: simply firing at him will increase your shield meter; take advantage of it!

Tips for increasing your score:

-Try to collect all the gems you can; each one is worth points.

-If you can complete the game without losing a life, you might consider sacrificing one in level 9. Play until you've killed 130 so, then die. You can restart the level and earn another 100k points!

-Try to collect the gems in a string, without a large time gap between collecting two of them. You get more points for gems collected like this (thanks godzimir).

There you have it, a well rounded guide to a pointy game. Good luck flying your nova. I, along with the rest of Neopia, hope you're successful in defeating the Mechanova. But remember, he doesn't have to be beaten in 10 minutes! Take breaks between levels, for the sake of your wrist, I beg you...