																																																																		General Info
This is an unfinished beta version of my world "Harry's Adventures in the Bardo World."  The game has been built and finished for over a year, but I have never gotten around to finishing the story, and I don't know when I will, so I'm posting it as is.  There are 18 levels, but no story in this version.

This world is intended to be the sequel to my earlier world, "Harry Resurrects the Goddess," so I assume that players have already played and beaten that world.  This world is harder, and many of the techniques learned in "Goddess" can be applied in "Bardo World."  But there are also several unique challenges in this world, challenges that require new techniques and creative thinking.  I had already spent hundreds of hours playing Harry worlds when I built this world, but I had to learn some new techniques to play this one.  If you like to figure things out for yourself, have fun with it.  For those who like a little help, there's a "Tips and Tricks" section below.

																																																													Acknowledgments
First, though, I want to acknowledge the people who helped give this game its "look," so here are the credits for the graphics:

All sets credited to Episode 1 mean that they were made by Ben Spees and friends for the original game.

																	Foreground Tileset Creator    		Background Tileset Creator
Level 1				Episode 1																																				 ebbtide
									2						ebbtide																																							  ebbtide
									3						Episode 1																																				ebbtide
									4 					harryfan23																																	   harryfan23
									5						Episode 1																																				ebbtide
									6						Episode 1																																				Episode 1
         7      Episode 1                                    ebbtide
									8      Episode 1                                    Nebogipfel
									9      Episode 1																																				kidzsoft
							10						Episode 1																																				Episode 1
							11						Episode 1																																				ebbtide
							12      Episode 1                                    Episode 1
							13      Episode 1                                    Episode 1
							14      Episode 1                                    ebbtide
							15      Episode 1                                    Episode 1
							16      harryfan23                                    harryfan23
							17      Episode 1                                    Episode 1
       18      Episode 1                                    ebbbtide

Other acknowledgments: Of course, thanks to Ben Spees and his crew for creating the original game.  Special thanks to ebbtide, since so many of the cool graphics are borrowed from his "goofworld."  Thanks to Nebogipfel for the idea I based level 12 ("Nebogipfel's Idea") on (to see the level that inspired it, download "Gateway, Episode 1.5" and check out level 4).  Thanks to my sons, Andy and Dan, for test-playing and for turning me on to Harry in the first place.

																																																												Known Problems
You probably will encounter an error message after you complete level 17 that says "error determining registration status".  If so, use the enclosed saved game to move on to level 18.  This is the only problem I'm aware of as of now (September 7, 2002).


																																																												Tips and Tricks
																																																						General Tips on Harry 
The stapler appears in Harry's right hand, which often allows him to sit in doorways, behind pillars, etc. and "fight from cover" by picking off enemies who can't hit him. I built a lot of rooms in ways that allow you to take advantage of this.

On many tilesets you can shoot staples and even soda cans through thin walls (walls made by putting edge pieces together with no square pieces in between). This form of fighting from cover can really help you. Even on tilesets that don't allow this trick, you can often fire through corner tiles. Experiment. 

You can occasionally get robots to shoot each other. One technique is "herding" mobile robots, and is explained below. But you can also sometimes roll around outside rooms and take advantage of angles. Always be on the lookout for opportunities to use this trick.

The order you play rooms often matters. When there is a choice of ways to play a level, if you're stuck by the way you're playing it, try playing the rooms in a different order and see if it helps.

Every sprite has a weakness. Learn their weaknesses, and whenever possible fight them in situations where you can exploit their weaknesses. All of the robots and machine guns are susceptible to being picked off with the "circle and shoot" technique. Run a circle around the robot or machine gun, occasionally stopping the circling and rolling backward away from the sprite in a straight line to fire off a couple of quick shots. Repeat the process until you blow it up. When fighting more than one of these types of sprites at the same time, circle the whole group. With mobile robots, the whites and reds, when you circle the whole group, they will tend to group in the center, and will often shoot each other.

Blobs are best fought by luring them backward into narrow doorways or hallways, where they get slowed and sometimes even stuck. The gold blobs are so passive you can usually just run from them instead of fighting them, but you usually have to fight the aggressive greens and reds.  Also, blobs can't pass through "blocked space" tiles (such as desks, etc.), so you can trap them behind blocked space tiles and pick them off at leisure.

Ghosts are tough in tight spaces--where you can't see them coming--but are fairly easy, even when fighting several groups of red ghosts at the same time, in wide-open spaces. Whenever possible, run to an open space when ghosts attack. Remember to run backward in search of open space (toward an area you have already cleared of enemies) not forward (where more trouble awaits you). 

One cool thing about ghosts: when the last ghost in a set dies (the 4th in a set of greens, or the 6th in a set of reds), it splatters and damages anything close to it.  You can take huge advantage of this by counting ghosts and knowing which one is the last of the set, and then luring it next to an enemy sprite and shooting it when it is right next to it, damaging or even destroying it.  I build a lot of rooms to let you take advantage of this, so always be on the lookout for opportunities.

																																																	Tips and Tricks for Bardo World
I know some people consider it "cheating" to use the level editor to scout levels and/or rooms before or during play, but I don't, and I encourage you to do so.  Not only will it let you know the shape of the rooms and what enemies lie ahead, but it will also help you manage ammo (which is very important in this game).  You can look ahead and see what kind of ammo re-supplies are available and budget accordingly, which is often crucial since in this world I tend to put out just enough ammo to get the job done (and occasionaly not enough--expecting you to resort to mystery vials to try to get ammo).  It can also help you look for opportunities to use angles to make sprites fight each other.

I don't much like gold staples, and find them pretty useless except for fighting ghosts, which take only one staple to kill and don't require much accuracy.  Keep in mind that for the most part I expect you to use gold ammo only for fighting ghosts.

I give you a lot of soda cans early in the game, but I'd strongly advise you to use them very sparingly before level 12.  For the most part, the game is set up so that you're expected to use staples to fight the machine guns almost all of the time prior to level 12, and use soda cans most of the time afterwards.  There are exceptions, but for the most part avoid using soda cans early, or you'll find yourself short when you really need them late in the game.

Don't shoot coworkers, even those that throw darts, test tubes, or AOL disks!  It costs you corporate favor and since there are many Ubermanns late in the game, you can't afford to lose corporate favor.  Also, the green "fire" that Ubie shoots costs you comfort, but the red "fire" takes corporate favor.  If you run out of corporate favor, you lose the entire game, so beware!

																																																																			Level-by-level tips

Following is a quick overview of special techniques or tricks on some of the levels.  I don't claim that it tells everything, but it should help a lot.

Level 2: In the long thin section resembling a beaded necklace where you have to fight ghosts, run up or down after each ghost you shoot (being careful not to run so far down that you draw the next set of ghosts).  This technique comes in handy over and over in Bardo World (i.e. situations arise where ghosts will overwhelm you if you sit still to fight them, but become fairly easy if you use the running trick described here or the "splitting" trick described in the Level 4 tips).

Level 3, to conserve ammo, after you take out the green ghosts at the beginning of the level, draw the blobs to the right side of the hallway, and then go over to the left wall and take off down (you won't have to fight any of those blobs or the yellow bots that follow, and you'll roll right over the key.  Practice the "fan and pain tile" sections--they're easy with a bit of practice.  You can fight the set of ghosts at the bottom just after the fans from the comfort tile, a trick you can employ often in the game.  Fight from comfort tile whenever you can, this is an especially useful trick once you have the "Power of the Swivel," so be alert for opportunities.

Remember also that staples will penetrate walls a bit when fighting ghosts in tight spaces.

Level 4: don't shoot any of the machine guns, just run through the green side of the yin-yang as fast as you can, avoiding fire and picking up the keys.  On the red side you'll need to learn a new technique, which I call "splitting" herds of ghosts.  The ghosts come in sets of 4.  The first group you'll have to fight 4 at a time, but after that you can split them, by shooting when they appear, and running back to a cleared area, outrunning the ghosts.  Then slowly scoot back to the area where the ghosts were, and fight them one at a time.  This technique is essential not only on level 4 but in many other places in the game, so learn it here.

Level 6: Figure out the cryptograms, which are straightforward substitution ciphers (and can easily be cracked by using the letter frequency chart--EATIONSHRLDU...), and they will tell you how to get into the secret rooms.  You can probably still beat the game without figuring out all the devious stuff on levels 6 and 9, but it will be much harder if you don't.

Use caffeine to get through the fire pipe gauntlet.

Level 7: Don't fight any sprites you can run from (always good advice in Harry). The section with the cannons in the long thin hallways is easier than it looks at first.

Level 8: This is a very hard level, much harder than level 10 of "Goddess" ("The Waste Land"), which it was inspired by.  I expect you to fight all of the machine guns with staples, not soda cans.  Run up and left a bit at the start and you can escpae the first rush of red blobs without damage.  The easiest way to play the level (and it's still a bitch) is to go counterclockwise around the edges until you reach the copier at the bottom left by the exit, then go up and in clockwise.  You may have to use mystery vials to get ammo, but you can save a ton of ammo by tricking the red robots into falling into wormholes instead of fighting them.

Level 9:  Figure out the anagrams, they'll tell you how to get into the secret rooms.  Again, you might be able to beat the world without figuring out how to get all the stuff in the secret rooms, but it will be very difficult.  Getting the  "Power of the Swivel" is a huge help, especially for the last room in Level 17.

Level 10: Another extremely difficult level.  The first room can be played with little damage if you start by immeditely going down-left and then circling the outer edges of the room counterclockwise.  Save ammo by leting the red robots and wall gun shoot each other as much as possible.

I expect you to fight all of the machine guns in this level with staples (with one exception noted soon), so don't use up soda cans.  You probably will need to use mystery vials to get ammo, although you can save a lot of ammo by taking advantage of the "last ghost splatter-effect" I mentioned in the general tips section.

The last ring with the blue guns might seem nearly impossible at first, but a technique I didn't discover until I was building this level makes it easy: Fight the first one with staples, but after that take advantage of a unique feature of cafeine pills: when you are on caffeine, you can blow up robots and machine guns just by pressing against them!  It'll take you 5 caffeine pills or so to make it around the outer ring of level 10 this way, but it makes it easy.  This same trick pops up several other times between here and the end of the game, remember it when things look desperate.

Level 11: Pick off the blobs from cover before you enter the first big room with machine guns, blobs, and ghosts, and then use the same caffeine trick from the outer ring of level 10 here.   If you're careful 2 pills will do the job.  

The eight-pointed star rooms that start appearing here and then re-appear throughout the rest of the game allow you to fight enemies without risking damage, even though it doesn't look like there's any "cover" if you take advantage of angles.  Experiment.

Level 12: Probably the hardest level in the game, although I've made it much easier than it was originally.  This one just takes practice.

Start by running up and right and sitting just right of the soda machine.  You can shoot the blue gun up and left from the cover provided by the soda machine while the copier protects you from the blue gun below right. After you blow it up, roll down and left and hide behind the pillar and pick off the other blue gun from cover.  After fighting these two machine guns with staples, fight almost all of the rest with soda cans, and from here til the end of the game, you'll want to fight most--but not all--of the machine guns with cans instead of staples.

Go up first.  Then go do the rooms on the right.  Don't forget to save your game before you go left.  Persevere, this is probably the hardest level.

Level 13: You can make your life much easier by doing the bottom first.  After you beat that room and get wormholed back to the start and get full comfort, beat all of the other door guardian machine guns, and grab the keys, and then run back into the bottom room and go through the wormhole again, getting full comfort again.  You'll have extra blue keys that you can use creatively to make the level much easier.

Level 14: Go immediately up and left and hide behind the table, then pick off the blobs from behind the table.  Try to use the "last ghost splatter" trick in the first big room as often as possible to save ammo.  Fight machine guns with soda cans.  In the third big room, postioning is the key to beating the ghosts, and all of the enemies in the room can be fought from cover.

Level 15: Go up first.  Fight from cover whenever possible (and it's possible a lot).  All of the Ubermanns can be fought without taking damage if you carefully pick your spot to fight from.

Level 16: the map (found with the tab key) is helpful on any level, but is essential in a dark level like this.  Consult it often.  The fire pipe gauntlet at the lower right of the level can be passed without damage and without caffeine with practice, get the hang of it, because you'll be spending a lot of time there.

At the top right, after you clear out the ghosts and move the ramp into position, intentionally fall into the wormhole, which will take you back to the fire pipes.  Then you can go through them and get to a comfort floor, so you'll have full comfort again before moving on.  Do this as often as necessary both here and in the room near the top left corner.  The wormhole will cost you 72 points of comfort (half of full comfort), so always jump in before you get down to half comfort.  

The Ubermanns in the "Heart of Darkness" at the center of the level can be fought entirely from cover.

Level 17: Pick off the machine gun in the first room and then roll up just to the right of the scientist's desk to fight the hidden ghosts.  Then use the caffeine trick (two pills should do it) to get past the machine guns and get the keys.  You can pick off all of the yellow-to-red robots from the first comfort floor.  You can beat the first Ubermann from the doorway, without damage.

The small-room ghost gauntlet is tough, but use the running trick from level 2 to survive it.  When you get into the first big room with the copier and all the ghosts, just shoot 1 staple at the red ghost.  Then run circles around the perimeter of the room, shooting only the one "new" ghost that appears after the previous shot, and leaving the others alone.  This will take a long time, but will make the room easy.  If you accidentally shoot more than one, you can "herd" them back together by running circles around the perimeter and not firing until they group up again.  This technique is the key to all of the rooms on this level that have large numbers of ghosts.

In the triangular room with two Ubermanns, there are places you can fight both without taking damage, experiment and find them.

The last room may seem impossible, but you can fight a lot of the sprites by using the "Power of the Swivel" while sitting on comfort floor.  Blow up the machine guns at top left and bottom left with it, and then use it to weaken Ubermann until he starts throwing test tubes and then just sit and wait, and he will blow up the machine gun at the lower right of the room for you with test tubes.  Don't use the power of the swivel anymore after that, because once the ghosts start coming out of Ubie it's not a good weapon for you, but at that point, there should only be one machine gun left (the one at the top right) and Ubermann won't take that many more shots.

If you get the "error determining registration status" error message at the end of the level, use the enclosed saved game to move on to level 18.

Level 18: I monkeyed around with the level physics, so expect weirdness.  This is a tough level too, and since it's the last one, I won't give away its secrets.

Well, that's it for now, I guess. Have fun.  If you have questions or comments, post at Help is on the Way at Ambrosia or try writing me at murph119@attbi.com

Peace, harryfan23




