Saturn Bomberman Contents I - Introduction and Version History II - General Information III - Floor Guide IV - Conclusion and Credits I - Introduction... Well, one of the best multiplayer games in the world has come to the Saturn, in perhaps its greatest incarnation to date, with up to 10 players on screen at once...and what am I doing? Writing a faq for the Master Mode...aone player game! So, after weeks of playing, I present 'A Master Mode Floor Guide'... Version History - (note, P means just the score was updated) 1.0 - first draft, only floors 1-10, 1.1 - all floors complete, small info section added, 1.3 - General Information fleshed out, meanies, hints added, 1.4 - General tide ups, corrections to floors 3P, 6, 12 and 14, 1.5 - Stats info added, corrections to 3P, 4, 5P, 6P, 8, 10P, 16, 19P, 1.6 - Corrections to 4P, 6P, 8, 10. II - General Information (taken from the Saturn Bomberman Instruction Manual) 'Master Mode is a solitaire game that tests your ability to work through the mazes which lead to the evil Mr. Meanie. But just clearing the mazes isn't enough, you have to get past the Bosses Mr. Meanie has posted along the way. To clear a maze, you must squelch the enemies that roam the corridors. Bump them off and look for the descending ladder which takes you to the next area' On the top of the screen, is a number stats. From left to right, these are; Time, Level, Score, and Basic Items Heart, Bombs, Flames and Skates. Time - Each floor must be completed with in 3 minutes, or your game will end (no continues). When the floor is finished, you get 50 points for each second left on the counter (always rounded down to the nearest second, when they appear after the 2 minutes mark). A 'Hurry' reminder will appear on screen when there is only 30 seconds left. Level - This just shows the level you are currently on (this is the number that will show, if you are on the top 10 players table). Score - This is your...score. Points are obtained in 3 ways; killing meanies (whether normal or bosses), time (see above), and a few items (see below). Basic Items - The 4 basis items are very important, and can be picked up along the way, under blocks. You start of with 0 Hearts, 1 Bomb, 1 Flame, and 2 Skates. Hearts allow you to survive hits from your own flames, and attacks from meanies and Bosses, Bombs are the number of bombs that you can have on the screen at the same time, Flame is the length, from the bomb, that the explosion will reach, in all four directions, while Skates are how fast you walk. At the bottom right of the screen, is a space for any Special Items you might pick up. These consist of: Kick - allows you to kick a planted bomb, in a straight line. Just walk into a bomb, and you will kick it automatically. You can stop the bomb at any time, by pressing either of the side buttons. The bomb will also stop when it hits a block (hard or soft), a meanie, power up, or another bomb. Power Glove - this allows you to pick up, and throw, a planted bomb. Only bombs you are standing on can be picked up (ie. you have not moved after planting a bomb). You can hold the bomb for as long as you like, throwing it 3 places with pressing A. The bomb will bounce one place for each time it lands on a block. Remote - this allows bombs to be planted, and detonated whenever you wish, by pressing B. There are 4 other items that can be collected: Jacket - this gives you 10 seconds of invincibility, Sandals - this decreases you Skates by 1, Apple - worth 1000 points when picked up, Ice Cream - worth 4000 points when picked up. Meanies - Apart from the five bosses, there are 8 different types of meanies in the master mode: Suns - the most common, (worth 200 points), Blues - look like rubber bombs with feet (worth 100 points), Jellys - wobbly blue things (worth 10 points), Balloons - purple...balloons (worth 300 points), Legs - 4 legs and chewing bubble gum (worth 200 points), Bears - well, I think they look like bears (worth 200 points), Ducks - ...they've got the bill? (worth 500 points), Brows - oh, bushy (worth points). After completing the game (or died trying), a stats page will come up. This will give your total score and time, techinque score, and a grade. Technique is still an unknown, though it might have something to do with the number of bomb you lay, in relation to the number of soft bolcks and/or meanies. The grade is a letter (from S to A) and a nice descriptive word or two, summing up your overall performance. The grade are as follows: S - Baby Bomber...'No one can stop me' if really bad!! R - Kid Q - Wannbe...zig-a-zig ahh :) P - Beginner O - Novice N - Junior M - Amateur L - Apprentice K - Almost Then grades J through to A are levels 1 to 10, though I've only reached grade D, Level 7. Other helpful hints; - don't pick up too many skates; too much speed with end up with you trapping your self, - lay bombs in intersection, so as to get the most flame from a bomb, - if you have just reached a floor for the first time, pause the game to have a good look around (press XYZ if the pause icon is in the way), - during play, watch the meanies and bosses to get to know how they move, and there different forms of attack, - against the bosses, your movement and lay out of bombs can effest the way they attack. See the appropriate floor below for more specifics. - Chaining bombs well is the secret of getting the best scores; practise this on all the modes (the key to victory in Battle mode is chaining bombs together...that and a good punch in the side of your friends!) For the Floor Guides below, I will refer to the floor in row: column form. A row or column is a row or column, only if there is atleast 1 space or soft block in it. Therefore, looking at Floor 1, it has 11 rows, and 9 columns, though row 1 and 2 have only 1 space each (though there still referred to as 1:5 and 2:5), row 3 has 7 spaces, and so on. III - Floor Guide... FLOOR 1 Power Ups - Skates (3:2) Heart (11:2, 10:7) Bomb (9:3) Flame (7:7) Meanies - 3 Suns, 2 Blues Notes - Get the near 4 power ups first, then work on getting the meanies together. This can be done by clearing all the blocks on row 7, first 7:4, as the nearest blue is going up (so as not to kill it yet), then by laying a bomb between the other two blocks (either 6:7 or 7:7), when the Sun moving vertically reaches 4:5, and the two blues are coming down, towards row 7. From there, you have 2 choices; walk up to 5:5, and lay a bomb there, then at 7:5, or lay a bomb first at 7:5, then at 5:5. Both methods, if done correctly, will chain the bombs to kill all 5 meanies together, but the second method, while making you lose a heart, will give you more points, as the suns will be the last 3 to die, instead of the first 3, as with method 1. After that, get the skates in the top left corner, then Exit (the scores below were done without getting the skates, therefore saving time). Points - (method one) 9800, (method 2) 10700 FLOOR 2 Power Ups - Bomb (11:3) Heart (9:8) Flame (4:3) Apple (4:7) Meanies - 6 Suns Notes - This is the most consistent floor in terms of points. First get the bomb and heart, then go up to the soft block with the flame, and lay a bomb, as the last Sun meanie passes 3:3. The bomb will explode, missing all the Suns. From there, pick the up flame, then follow the suns to the right, laying a bomb at 3:5 and 3:7, opening up the apple and the Exit. Keep following the Suns, and lay a bomb at 5:9 to trap them all. Pick up the apple, head for the Exit, and watch the chain! Points - 10350 FLOOR 3 Power Ups - Jacket (9:4, 7:7, 9:10) Apple (10:1) Ice Cream (11:11) Skates (3:2) Heart (1:13) Meanies - 9 Legs Notes - Blow the top Jacket first, but not the other two. Pick it up and lay bombs at 7:7 5:7 and 3:7, then move to the middle of row 7. This should chain all the Legs together. From there use the 'Continuous Flame' trick, and another Jacket, to get the four other power ups. Points - 21450 FLOOR 4 Boss - Bom Jin Notes - Time will get you half the points for this level, the other have will come from hitting Bom Jin's head, while he is separated from the body. He will change more often if you keep close and above him. The floating head can only be hit while flying low, so as soon as he changes, lay bombs in a chain to trap - when the main body explodes, it will have a extended flame, so stay awake. While hes flying high, you can't hurt him, so let the rubber bombs explode, as the head won't come down until all of them have gone. Don't get too upset if they bounce off screen for a while; theres not much you can do about it. Also, your bombs can keep him up longer, so just be patience. Don't stand right underneith him as he come down. Points - 15850 FLOOR 5 Power Ups - Apple (6:1, 2:9) Ice Cream (1:1) Bomb (7:5) Heart (10:9) Meanies - 6 Jellys Notes - As the meanies are only worth 10 points each, don't worry if you find it hard to chain them together. Your score is going to be made up half form the ice cream and apples, and the other from time. Points - 12730 FLOOR 6 Power Ups - Flame (11:7) Kick (7:9) Skates (4:11) Heart (5:15) Meanies - 2 Jellys, 8 Suns Notes - Try to get as many of the Sun meanies into one of the corner spaces. This can be done by first getting rid of the 9:2 and 9:16 soft blocks, then bring one of the left Suns to the right, done by laying a bomb at 10:1, destroying one, but letting the other free. Do the same with the 2 central Suns, one at a time, by placing bombs at 10:11 and 9:10. Then repeat in a similar manner with the other Suns, destroying at most 7 at the same time (use the kick to push the bomb into the corner space). The below score was done by placing at bomb at 10:1, as a Sun is coming up, making you lose a life, but getting both of them into he right hand space. Try it with the other two. Points - 14720 FLOOR 7 Power Ups - Glove (9:9, 7:7) Flame (6:5) Heart (5:7) Bomb (2:1, 2:11) Ice Cream (10:13) Meanies - 4 Suns, 6 Balloons Notes - Make sure to release the left and right side meanies together, laying a bomb along the 7 column, bottom to top, collecting the 6 at the bottom, and the 2 at the top (or as many as you can). Be careful not to destroy the soft blocks around the top left or right corner, as this will end up giving the meanies more excess. Points - 20600 FLOOR 8 Boss -Deugon Notes - Avoiding the staff, the flying twirl, and the line bombs is easy. The most points will come from hitting Deugon just when hes about to shoot the white bolts: try to destroy the bolts together. He seems to throw this out more often if you lay your bombs in the intersections, 3 verticaly, then 3 diagonaly towards him. Still trying to perfect this. Points - 18550 FLOOR 9 (note that I am counting the columns with only a generator in, as a column) Power Ups - Glove (9:6) Jacket (8:6, 4;6) Flame (5:3) Skates (5:9) Meanies - starts with 4 Suns, 4 more will appear, via the generator, when there is 1 or 0 suns on screen (giving a maximum of 5 on screen at one time) Notes - THIS is the best scoring floor, by a long way. Start off my picking up the bottom Jacket, and go into the inner rectangle, laying a bomb a space between each over (at 7:6, 7:3, 5:3, 5:6, 5:8 and 7:8). This will get rid off all the blocks and Suns. Pick up the flame, then move to the top left of the screen. Watch one of the generators, and as soon as you see a Sun meanie appear (they start off very small), lay a bomb where you are, then walk to the other side, laying one more bomb on the way (careful not to destroy the Jacket), and another at 1:10. When they chain, it should kill 3 meanies, leaving one going across the bottom of the screen. From there, go to 5:2, just below the top left generator, and again, as soon as you see a meanie appear, lay bombs as before, ending up at 5:10. When they chain, it should kill all 5 meanies. Then repeat. Bewarned, that the speed of the meanies increases, the more often they are generated, so the surviving Sun of the first part will reach different spaces. The first few times, it will be killed in the lower half, but later on, it will have to be kill in the higher high of the screen. Make sure to lay a bomb, for example, at 5:2, 5:4, 5:8, and 5:10, so as to ensure his demise. Do this as many times as you can. If your bombs miss, and you end up with 2 or more roaming around, don't panic, just try to trap them as soon as possible. When the time reachs about 20 seconds, you've got time for one more round. If you end up at a bad time (under 20), go for a 4 kill, by just laying bombs along row 5, missing the first step. From there, pick up the second Jacket, and plant a bomb infront of the generators, chaining the three together normally, then use the "Continuous Flame" trick to chain the fourth. Points - 66650 FLOOR 10 Power Ups - Glove (11:6, 9:11) Ice Cream (10:12, 9:8) Flame (8:5) Bomb (6:14) Kick (8:14) Heart (1:17) Meanies - Starts with 5 Blues, and 4 legs (the generator will produce a legs, when there is less than five meanies on screen, up to a maximum of five) Notes - Kill the lower 2 blues together, then using the glove, destroy the the 4 blocks in row 7, then kill the 3 blues. From there, stand in 11:11, and use the glove to destroy the blocks at 1:12 and 3:12, by throwing 3 bombs off the screen. This must be done quickly, so to chain the bombs; pick up the first bomb, throw it, the plant, pick up and throw straight away 2 more times. When thats done from one onto 7:14 if you haven't already. Make your way to row 7, stand on 5:14, and throw a bomb to the left, trapping the five legs (you may have to move to the left of row to bring the top 2 down). Once killed, the generator should kick in, just wait for all five to come out. Leg meanies follow you about slightly, so keep around about 5:14. Each collection of 5 meanies should take about 30 seconds. On the last one, instead of throwing a bomb, walk up to about 3:13 when all 5 are in there, and make your way to the generator, laying a bomb at 5:7, 5:5 and 5:3, chaining the generator last with the meanies. Note that by that time, the meanies will be very fast. Try also throwing bombs up, from column 1...timing is hard, especially latter on. Points - 29100 FLOOR 11 Power Ups - Skates (6:9) Bomb (10:15) Heart (6:12) Remote (1:17) Meanies - starts with 9 Suns, and 4 Ducks (once one generator has been destroyed, and there is less than 5 meanies on the screen, the other generator will make Suns, up to a maximum of 5 Suns) Notes - Kill the ducks together by planting bombs at 5:9, 3:9, and 1:9 (make a run for it!), then kill of the 3 Suns on the right (chaining if possible with the generator), getting the remote. Head to the left, chaining the 6 Suns, then plant bombs at 1:1, 1:5, 5:1 and 5:5, so as not to destroy the generator, but trapping the meanies together. Detonate the bombs when all 5 Suns are out. Each set of 5 Suns should take about 30 seconds. On the last one, lay a bomb first at 5:1, then walk left and down, planting a bomb at 3:1, 5:1 and 5:5, again, trapping all the meanies, and destroying the generator last. Remember, that on the last chain, you don't need to stand near; wait to detonate at 1:9. Points - 29300 FLOOR 12 Bosses - Jockey Notes - Points can be got from when Jockey falls asleep; chain bombs around him, so don't to hit him (thus waking him up), but to chain his dream man together, arund him. Jockey is more likely to fall asleep the more he drinks (after collecting 2 flames). Points - 30500 FLOOR 13 Power Ups - Skates (11:7) Gloves (11:10) Bomb (1:6) Remote (1:12) Heart (11:3) Sandals (2:3) Ice Cream (1:17, 9:15, 11:17) Apple (11:16, 10:17) Meanies - 6 Blues, 5 Jellys. Notes - Fairly simple. Chain the first 5 blues together, then pick up the remote, and make your way to the left or right. If your high on hearts, save time and just kill of the Jellys on the left (using the glove for the lower one), leaving the heart at the bottom. Points - 22000 FLOOR 14 Power Ups - Flame (11:7) Glove (11:5, 11:11) Bomb (9:9) Kick (7:16) Apple (1:2, 3:2) Ice Cream (2:15, 1:17, 3:17) Meanies - 3 Ducks, 8 Brows. Notes - Chaining the 3 Ducks is possible. Plant a bomb for 11:7 as the Duck above it reachs its starting point 6:7, as its coming down. When thats done, blow 9:9, then chain 2 bombs, one at 11:6, the other at 11:8, hiding at 10:11. From there, try to chain the brows on the left, then on the right. Note that brows follow, so use that to your advantage. Points - 21750 FLOOR 15 Power Ups - Flame (10:7) Kick (9:7) Glove (11:4) Skates (7:7) Apple (4:1, 8:9) Heart (7:1) Sandals (7:10) Ice Cream (7:13, 7:15, 1:17) Meanies - 6 Jellys, 3 Brows Notes - As you can see from the points and number of ice creams, just try to get through as fast as possible, not destroying the power ups. Use the glove to speed your progress. Points - 18860 FLOOR 16 Boss - Miyahgi Notes - Try to destroy as many of his blue fireballs together. Only the small ones can be blown up (the large can not). When he starts jumping, he will always shoot 8; try to get them at the start for the biggest chain (hitting Miyahgi at the same time). As with Deugon, laying bombs vertical, then towards him diagonally, seems to make him shoot more often. Points - 30650 FLOOR 17 Power Ups - Heart (11:6) Remote (9:8) Glove (9:10) Kick (8:7, 8:11) Bomb (2:5) Sandals (2:9) Skates (2:13) Meanies - 14 Suns Notes - Pick up some of the lower central power ups first, leaving the 2 soft blocks on row 11 as they are. Try to chain bombs around the edge of the screen, trapping all 14 Suns, using the kick and glove to get the bombs in the right places. For example, put a bomb in each corner, then one in-between each pair. Points - 33200 FLOOR 18 Power Ups - Glove (11:7) Kick (11:11, 7:9) Sandals (7:6) Flame (7:5) Bomb (7:13) Heart (8:15) Meanies - 16 Bears Notes - It is possible to chain all 16. Destroy as many soft blocks as you can, with out killing any bears. Then, wait a while, and watch when they all form into a smaller space, then chain bombs to trap them. For example, if they all end up at one side, lay bombs down in, say column 7, 9, or 11. Points - 29000 FLOOR 19 Power Ups - Remote (11:7) Kick (11:11, 1:11) Glove (10:7) Skates (6:1) Flame (6:17) Sandals (1:7) Meanies - 16 Suns Notes - Get the remote and kick, but leave the other near 4 (11:6, 11:12, 10:7 and 10:11) soft blocks there. First get the middle regions Suns into the inner. Destroy the blocks in row 9, then lay bombs at 9:8 and 9:10. This will force the 4 suns into the inner trap. Detonate the bombs when there out of the way. Then work on the outer regions Suns, one at a time, in the same fashion, using the bombs to guide them into the centre. Once all there, plant atleast 2 bombs, either in 5:7 and 7:7, 5:9 and 7:9, or 5:11 and 7:11, then detonate. Points - 32700 FLOOR 20 (at last!!) Boss - Dragoon Notes - The most clever of the bosses, acting alot like the computer controlled opponents in Battle mode. Trap him my laying bombs in a square around him, so theres no where to hide. Hit him early so he changes to his full dragon form, where from then on, he'll throw double the amount of flaming dragons. Lay bombs in one row, so as to chain as many of the flaming dragons as possible. Don't leave killing off Dragoon to long; start on him with at least 30 seconds left. Points - 43150 IV - Conclusion and Credits... ...so thats a total of...515010. Now, if only I could get all those maxs in one go...my little life would be complete. But do remember that this is just the best way I HAVE FOUND to get points; theres certainly better ways, and if you beat any of my scores, let me know, and if your method is better than mine, you'll get credit in the next version. Thanks must go to Alex and Rik, for being great Bomberman email-pals. Visit Alex's Bomberman SS shrine at http://wso.williams.edu/~aeatonsa/bomb/index.html Luigi "BAT" Coppola...level 7 Bomber! idontknowiguesssoidontsleepidream