Wingnut 2: Cheats, Tips, Tricks, Help
EASTER EGGS - Hidden Planes:
GENERAL NOTES: There are hidden aircraft that can be recovered in the game (such special "hidden" features are called easter eggs in the computer industry). Some of them you can only find by accident (if you find hidden aircraft other than by bombing a time-rift, please send me an email with a screen-grab so I can update this list). Anytime you find a pyramid, try bombing it until destroyed; on some levels pyramids will yield an aircraft. The new aircraft will be available as soon as you land, so it makes sense to pick them up as soon as possible/feasible in a level that has them. Additionally, these "hidden" aircraft (at least up to game build version 2.0.4) will be incorrectly identified (wrong name) in your aircraft line-up -- because the game doesn't have the programming to accurately describe them as what they are...
Level 5: Rock you like a Hurricane
-- a B2 Steath Bomber is available by bombing the ground in the area marked (red circle) in the picture below.
ABOUT THE STEALTH BOMBER: this bomber is slow flying and consumes a lot of fuel (esp in afterburner mode), but comes already loaded with a super-heavy punch
in terms of bomb-power and bomb-spread, plus will be the first of your aircraft in the game to be able to use missiles. It comes with a pair of missiles, an 8-pack of
bombs (listed as a single bomb in the aircraft description), and a simple 2-barrel gun.
UPGRADES: you can upgrade the gun with the machine gun upgrade
(once). You can upgrade the missiles (up to 8 times), which can make it a
very effective anti-enemy-aircraft platform to protect the carrier
(at least until you get F-14/F-15 aircraft and get them upgraded). You can upgrade shields
and fuel capacity, just as with any other aircraft. Best used as a
heavy bomber, the bomb-damage power as delivered will match that of
any other aircraft in the game (including the A-10).
Changing Play Modes
Hold down the option key and click the play button in the main menu to trigger a special menu for play-mode selection (survival vs. campaign modes, etc). Tip credit to Bruce.
STRATEGY TIPS:
- Save your games at the start of each level!
- Always try to get any aircraft factories first if a level has
any, so the enemy can't build additional air units that you'll have to
fight.
- Carrier Shield Boost upgrades should not be picked up until your
carrier already has damages (and preferably when the carrier can't
be damaged further because you've downed all the enemy
aircraft.
- Complete Renewal upgrades (generic floating plane) can't be
picked up unless you have sheild damage -- but if they get picked
up, they fully refill your fuel as well. If you are low on fuel but
are uninjured, you may want to take on some damages to enable the fueling
aspects of this upgrade.
- It is easier to hunt down the Baron's associates (the ones which
appear just before the baron, such as Isobel Fresa) with missiles
than with guns.
- The general rule for when the baron or his special minions will arrive
is fairly simple at the "easy" difficulty levels of the game -- usually when
there are less than four ground or less than four air units left. Do yourself a
favor and finish off the ground units first.
- Some aircraft don't have much firepower, no matter how much you
upgrade them (Dessault Rafale comes to mind). This aircraft usually
have longer reach distance with their weapons though.
- The A-10, upgraded fully with guns & bombs, plus with extra fuel
and shields, is a superb solution for most situations that involve
ground/sea units.
- If you aren't careful about how you upgrade, you may get "stuck"
at a particular part of the game. If this happens, go back several
levels and change which aircraft you use upgrades on, even if it
means launching aircraft just to recover goodies and then landing
them again because they aren't ready for the kind of battle at hand.
When you get back to where you were stuck, you might get through
this time. No, I haven't managed to get through level 33
yet.
- The goodies awarded for beating the baron's motherships and/or
the snakes is not the same each time you play a specific saved
level. You may find that you get 3 shield recharges the first time
you play a specific level, but 2 bonus stars plus 2 missile upgrades
a different time (even from the same saved state)..
- Location, Location, Location: Where the carrier is inserted into
the playing field can change each time, which can radically change
the game (hint: This is especially important on level 13). Where the
warp field (exit) is can also (and frequently does) change on any
saved level.
Bruce from Freeverse was nice enough to clue us in to the fact that (at least as of v2.0.1 & higher), the warp field for carrier-exit always appears within a fixed distance of where the carrier is at the time the exit is triggered.
- If you use an extended keyboard, consider remapping the keys
that control motion to the extended keypad -- it's easier to fight
that way in my opinion. You can change the key assignments in the
SETTINGS menu of the main game screen.
- There are many things which can be bombed for extra points
and/or goodies which do not show up as a target on your radar.
Generally that includes anything that looks like a cargo container,
almost all tents, all piers, any red glowing squares, all
construction equipment, any parked aircraft.
- When battling the Baron, get his last vessel down to just shy of
dying, then trade aircraft to the one that needs upgrades the most
-- so it can take advantage of the goodie-bonanza that may follow
his destruction.
- After killing the Baron's final aircraft or snake for any level, circling
the carrier after it arrives atop the warp field (instead of landing immediately)
will slowly refill your fuel tanks. This can give you enough fuel to go retreive
additional goodies that you failed to collect before. It will also permit you
to enter the next level with a full tank of fuel, so that particular aircraft can
be immediately useful at the next level.
Strange Bonuses: Power Charge Upgrade
Never explained clearly in any of the manuals, the Power Charge Upgrade (looks like a shiny shotgun to me) supposedly trades your machine gun for a higher-power weapon that proportedly lets you "build-up" a stronger firepower burst to unleash on demand (see reference: Freeverse Discussion Board Thread: Power Upgrade). As for how to do the "build-up", the method is beyond me. It does appear that if you get a Power Upgrade followed by machine guns, the stronger weapon remains but without extra-build-up capabilities, now re-enabled as rapid-fire. It would also appear to have a secondary effect of permitting your aircraft to fuel faster when circling the carrier at the warp-exit at the end of the stage.
Bruce from Freeverse chimed in (in an email) that the Power Charge Upgrade, when charged up, will make your shots do 2.5 to 3 times the damage of the aircraft's standard shots, but is mutually exclusive with machine guns.
