LaserAge Strategies

CATEGORY

GENERAL
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General Strategies

Don't get hit!  This sounds obvious, but I find it critical to stay at the maximum power level for the wave I'm playing.  This way I can kill aliens faster and am much more likely to make it through the crux waves.  Doing this requires a slower, more conservative technique but seems to get me further.  Even losing a power level or two can be deadly.

Generally this means that I try NOT to grab the power-up at the beginning of the wave, but rather the end when it is less likely to fall surrounded by bombs and when I'm not being attacked. When trying to grab the power-up in this situation I find I usually lose two or three power levels just to grab the one power pack - a big net loss!  With confidence, I find I can sometimes grab the power-up early on, but rarely do so when learning a wave.

Conservative play also means avoiding getting trapped by sheets of alien bombs.  Stay away from the sides, shoot to create large holes or tunnels of bomb-free zones that provide safety zones. Starting with wave 8?, try to look not at all the alien bombs in motion, but rather the holes or safety zones where they're not.

Try to start most rounds about two thirds of the way towards the left.  I generally find this to be the safest place until you know the rounds well enough to anticipate where to start.

Learn for each round the general sequence of play.  Most waves don't change much from game to game - there's not much random behavior, so consequently one can learn strategies on a wave by wave basic simply by rote.

Generally go for the predictable moving, most aggressive aliens first, then pick off the slower, more erratic aliens next.

Fairly obviously one usually dies.  The only thing left then is your score.  I guess there are different techniques to boost one's score that I haven't even started looking at, I won't be much use there.  Try other links for possible additional ideas.

From the great LaserAge Strategy web site, I heard that going for the Power-up Early in a wave - before shooting down any aliens - nets one more points.

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheater Mode

Although I've certainly never used it much, cheater mode is essential for learning how certain aliens behave or for figuring out how to work through tough waves that take forever just to get to.

Simply enter your name as "cheater" and the following keys become available:

Key Description
0-9 Set power level between 0 and 9
i Set invincible mode (you become impervious to alien bombs)
u Return to uninvincible mode
n Advance to next wave
p Return to previous wave

The only real cheat I've found is to use a seriously old or overtasked computer. Alien bombs fall really slowly providing one lots of time to react and scheme. Unlike the sanctioned cheater mode, it doesn't do much to improve one's real skill though - just your score.

Develop Skills

Mousing

FEDERATION SHIP
- Use up & down, not just right & left
- Learn size of openings one can squeeze through

Ut wisis enim ad minim veniam, quis vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim.

POWER-UPS

See the Wave Guide for a list of which waves provide power-ups and what the maximum one could have by the end of the wave.

Taking advantage of the various power levels: 

1- 

4- You now have one (and soon two) side rockets that auto-fire periodically.  Make sure they don't accidentally trigger a power-up drop when you weren't ready for it!

6 - Green Ball 'o Fire - 

7- as with 6, but now you can fire faster!

8 - Brown/redish bubble

9 - Green sword of "the force" - strobes on & off- learn to use this.

15 - Now the force also throws bombs, so once again you can lead where the actual bombs go.

Max frequency

Stops on contact/diffuses/pierces upper levels

Miscellaneous

Look up once every five minutes or so and focus on something at least 50 feet away to give your eyes a break.  Flap your hands around to rest yer poor fingers.

Running on a full sized screen gives you better visualization of bombs and how close they really are.

I suspect the mouse is much better than playing using keystrokes.  I suppose this is a religious issue though.

Playing the sound can reinforce what is going on.  At one I learned my bombs didn't always cause damage to alien ships which only became apparent to me via sound.

LaserAche can eat up your life.  Don't neglect your family and loved ones, nor your kayak, mountain bike and skis.

- slow (small yellow) vs faster (red/green/blue) bombs - avoid faster first
- clear tunnels/safe zones/even into next round
- Step back from one or a few bombs & look for holes/tunnels and go for those - round 6 is 
first example of this
- Some rounds you NEED to be out of way or get there w/in a few seconds, e.g. 10, and esp. 
19, depending on skills
-Hit bird son their way down, not up

pacmen shoot just after starting back up, never near 
their zenith 
- Don't get too tired & jerk to right/left when real issue is unexcersied finger/over-tire
d mind
- Aggressively go for blue diamonds - targetting them is risky but gets them faster - 
eventually they'll corner you
- Get stuff that crimps yer style: paints you in a corner
- purple stuff acts as a shield
- Initially target more predictable/slower aliens
- Behavioral changes in aliens (e.g. round 44 shielded mine layers get faster; bombs change 
color/go faster in round 55 from little red guys x; Big guy gets faster in round 49; Round 
53 drops both blue and yellow bombs; 62 is first round to have variable speed bombs
- Lead bombs: stack them up knowing alien will walk right into them (some aliens never 
alter direction)
-Use pauses between rounds to set up
- generally start rounds 75% way to left
- Often initially there is time to do stuff before bombs start falling or smart aliens 
target you: if you have rapid fire weapons (e.g. Jed-eye Knight force beam) you can sweep 
minor players off the field
- Leave up your bombs to help you in the next round.
- find verticle tunnels, since horizontal movements are tougher to micro adjust
- Don't lose two power levels to grab one; sacrifice or learn to avoid intial boms in the 
air that knock a power level apple off the tree too fast; earlier than you are ready to 
grab it.
- Stay still and fight it out - don't always run
- Max one loss of power level per second
- make small corrections, not fast big ones; relax
- clean yer mouse

Low Key Suggestions

Flash of white means you are hit

Brownish-yellow red means they're hit - not always when you think they shoudl have been 
(esp w/ large expando bubble bombs)