Hi,

It has come to my attention that almost every player is running around stocking up on items all of the time on advanced difficulty. This came as a complete surprise to me as I thought getting through the game while carefully managing your resources was part of the fun. There are some tricks I use to pull this off, and I have realised that there must be many subtle little tricks out there which make little parts of the game easier, even if just for one screen. If you have a trick, share it!

1. Rocks run out fast. So start advanced by picking up a flail from the armoury for free! It's great against mutants and ok vs. bats. Kills all guards in 1 hit. Also kills robot guards DEAD - they don't stand up from flail like they do from crossbow or rock.

2. To keep rock counts up, get the cross bow as soon as possible (I go fireball - shield - stoneball to start so I grab that bow). You never have to have a tedious henchman fight again and you can save many rocks in all of the RTDC levels (there tend to be more enemies per screen, and less resources to pick up in the new levels)

3. Since the last update, bombing a guard kills it but doesn't let it respawn. Question - are there other critters that can be killed by a specific weapon other than the stoneball that stops them from respawning?

4. In that laboratory room with all the lasers and before the sewer, exit by doing a downwards jump to the left from the last platform with a rat on it. This rat often eats 2 elixirs, so stoneballing it can be profitable.

5. in the courtyard room to get to the hedgemaze, you can get to the hedgemaze quickly by doing a long jump across the middle of the screen to land back on the rope.

6. Boots are the best vermin killing tool in the game - you never run out of rocks again as you just downjump everywhere to stomp the little bastards. I never tire of this.

7. The henchman in the potion factory is best killed with a flail to the ankles. otherwise it is just tedious waiting on the ladder and rushing out to pull one chain at a time, up to 6 combinations to check is too boring! Kill the henchmen and the level is a cinch.

8. Make sure you have a flail before going to the observatory. otherwise you use up too many rocks knocking pails out of the way.

9. If you run out of elixirs you can easily stoneball 3 things a level to ease passage through. Health is a free resource that you get every level. Use it. Also don't be afraid to run through snakes once in a while rather than wasting a rock on them if you don't have boots yet - you can take it.

10. Bombs and a shield work well vs pails if you don't have a flail on you. Shovels are bad because they can randomly jump over your swing.

11. Always running jump onto ropes when they are at the midpoint and swinging towards you. you won't miss a rope again. If you have difficulty with the rope in graffiti, try getting off it with a downward jump

12. Wine cellar has tons of places where you can down jump through large loops of the level on the way down.

13. Many areas limit the number of rats until one drops off somewhere or walks off the screen. so if you have 3 rats out of 3, don't kill them and just jump over them. You then won't have rats coming down the rope randomly when you don't expect it.

14. Watch for mutants sliding down ropes in the giant tree.

15. crossbow is best for killing bats, but flail is ok and you can get luck with the shovel or spade.

16. the green things in the potion factory thrown by the henchman can be broken with flail or shovel, as can barrels in the brewery. Can logs be destroyed by a weapon? I've never tried.

17, heading straight up in iron spire under a line of windows shooting straight up is easiest. you can move up and down to avoid the other birds. shooting them all is just too wasteful.

Thats all I can think of for now, but there are so many little tricks in every level like shooting snakes in the kitchen with a crossbow if you fall out of the chute that are simply smarter ways to play. Lets hear what other people know that some of us may have missed! I only learnt about bombs hidden behind the clock in the clock tower today!

18 If you hit a rock henchman's rocks with a sword, you knock them back in the opposite direction!

19 Sword can kill 2 bats at a time if you time it right

20 Sword can be used to spilt a broom, then you can jump through it. Just don't try to jump on a rope afterwards lol.

21 Sword kills guards dead, they are knocked over and don't get back up.

22 Sword just counts as a rock hit vs an eye. I should time it though to see if it takes longer for the eye to recover.

23. Any weapon can kill guards and keep them dead, except for the crossbow, which just knocks them out for a few seconds

24. Don't ever take long jumps in the hedge maze to be faster. Always walk around and pay attention to snakes. You will see them if you look close enough. Also, listen carefully and you'll hear the vultures scream in the distance. They might blend with the background, so watch out.

25. In the hedge maze, try to take an exit that is close to one of the walls at the left or right side, so when you get to the next area, you'll know which direction the vultures are coming from.

For more tips, see this topic.

unless you've got boots on :)