Astro Blasters Tips and Secrets

OK, before we get to the list of targets and exactly how to get a high score like a million points or more, let's go over the list of tips, secrets and things to think about and maybe some things to avoid.

:: Points ::

Target Regular Lit

Hidden 50,000 ---

Triangle 10,000 100,000?

Diamond 5,000 10,000

Square 1,000 5,000

Circle 100 500

:: Things that will affect your score ::

• Your Astro Blaster Accuracy - If you ride alone, you have two blasters to choose from. Otherwise, you could be in for a rotten ride. When your blaster first becomes active, aim for a black part of the wall or ceiling and look for your red dot. Sometimes it will be pretty accurate, but often it won't be. So figure out what you need to do to compensate so when you fire, you know how to get your red dot in the black center of the 'Z' targets.



• Your Astro Blaster Strength - You want to get a feel for the intensity of the red dot. I have on several occasions, had a faint dot and when I fired at a target it just didn't have the same 'feel' to it and I never hit anything. If you find yourself in this position, use the other blaster. I have never had both blasters be bad.



• Ride Speed - no seriously. I have been on the ride early when the park opened and for a while, the ride was at a slower pace than what it seems to be normally. The ride also slows down or stops when wheel chair bound passengers or similar? are boarding. When the ride is moving faster, you have less time (and lose some accuracy) to hit targets. So you will hit less targets and hit them less often.



• Ride Stops - If you happen to have a ride stoppage (I think usually this is for wheel chair bound passengers getting on or off the ride), hopefully you are in a good spot. Try to aim for the highest point target you CAN HIT. Your other option is to get some practice aiming for a target you can't normally hit.



• Strange things are afoot at the CircleK - OK, old reference, but seriously, sometimes weird things happen. IE: once in the last room after racking up a decent score I couldn't hit ANYTHING. It was like my gun wasn't registering. Another time, both my wife and I couldn't hit the toy target in the last room that is 2 feet away. And we both fired about 10x each and it is easy to hit. I dunno why, but it seems to happen occasionally.

:: Things to remember ::

• There are only 85 targets in the game - or so some articles tell.



• There are only about 6? TRIANGLEs in the ride.



• You can hit a target again and again. You should be pulling the trigger repeatedly at everything you aim for. If you hit it, keep hitting it. You may need to adjust a bit, but once you are on target, you should be able to hit 2-3-4-5 times in a row, maybe more.



• Courtesy Points. For every 5 misses or something like that, you get a hundred points and the gun will respond as if you hit a target (light up and vibrate). So, 1 - if you have someone younger riding with you, just keep telling them to pull the trigger - 'Shoot the Zs'; 2 - sometimes it is hard to know for sure if you HIT the target or you got your courtesy points. That is why firing repeatedly can sort-of clue you in. This is good to know when you are aiming for Zurgs Secret Spot on his chest.



• Skip Circles ... Unless - There is really no value in shooting for Circles... UNLESS they are part of a nested set. In a few circumstance, shooting a circle will make another target pop up, or the circle target fall to reveal a higher value target.



• The alien in a box requires 3 hits on each target I think. It is a nested target with a square on the outside. You may have to hit it 3x for the box to open. Then inside a Diamond target appears. This one I KNOW you have to hit 3x to make the alien pop up with the TRIANGLE. Hit this often, then when he pops down, hit the Diamond 3x again and the alien pops up again.



• Secret Spot(s) - On the first Zurg, the secret spot is a dark hole like circle in the middle of his chest. Like other targets, you can hit it multiple times for more points. There supposedly is a secret spot on Zurg #2 in the last room, but I can not see it to confirm.



• Zurg - Hitting the squares around Zurg, seem to cause him to turn that direction, giving you more opportunity to hit the secret spot. If you can't, hit the squares as often as you can as your car moves away.



• Tunnels - There are several targets in the 2 dark tunnels. One tunnel is just dark, the other I believe has the streaming lights. There are supposedly TRIANGLES in the tunnels. I have seen only Diamonds. Keep your eyes open and shoot repeatedly.



• Broken Toy - The toy in the last room everyone talks about is behind you after you pass Buzz and Zurg. Turn your car and hit the circle to pop the toy with the TRIANGLE. Hit it multiple times.

If I have forgotten anything or you know of something else to add, please drop a line or comment.