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→Selena the Snake
Will completely clear the screen of enemies instantly. This will gain you 0 points. Your score multiplier will also be reduced to x1, as when losing a life. The only advantage of using the bomb instead of dying is that you keep all your powerups.
Will completely clear the screen of enemies instantly. This will gain you 0 points. Your score multiplier will also be reduced to x1, as when losing a life. The only advantage of using the bomb instead of dying is that you keep all your powerups.
If there is more than one extra bomb or extra life on the screen, it is often worth setting off a bomb to collect them.
===Temporary shield===
===Temporary shield===
[[Image:Enemies.GIF|thumb]]
[[Image:Enemies.GIF|thumb]]
[[Image:Pinwheel.png|thumb|left|Pinwheel and generator]]
===Paul the Pinwheel===
===Paul the Pinwheel===
'''25 points * your current multiplier'''. Single shot kill. Very slow. Do not follow you in any sense but drift aimlessly across the screen. All but harmless.
'''25 points * your current multiplier'''. Single shot kill. Very slow. Do not follow you in any sense but drift aimlessly across the screen. All but harmless.
[[Image:Diamond.PNG|thumb|left|Diamond and generator]]
===Dimmy the Diamond===
===Dimmy the Diamond===
'''50 points * your current multiplier'''. Single shot kill. Medium speed. Follows you around. Mostly harmless.
'''50 points * your current multiplier'''. Single shot kill. Medium speed. Follows you around. Mostly harmless.
[[Image:Square.PNG|thumb|left|Square and generator]]
===Shy the Square===
===Shy the Square===
That makes a single Cube worth a minimum of 350 points. However, it also means swarms of Cubes are dangerously difficult to annihilate as they take four times as many bullets to destroy.
That makes a single Cube worth a minimum of 350 points. However, it also means swarms of Cubes are dangerously difficult to annihilate as they take four times as many bullets to destroy.
===Sammy the Seeker===
===Sammy the Seeker/Indy the Butterfly===
'''10 points * your current multiplier'''. Single shot kill, follows you at high speed. Insultingly low score reward. In swarms, these are dangerous. Essentially identical to Indy the Butterfly, below.
These two enemies are essentially identical. '''10 points * your current multiplier'''. Single shot kill, follow you at high speed. Insultingly low score reward. In swarms, these are dangerous.
These enemies are small enough that they can actually get ''hidden by your glowing trail''. You may end up pursued by one of these and not realising it until you stop still for a millisecond.
===Dwight the Black Hole===
===Dwight the Black Hole===
Black Holes start out small. But they attract enemies. Enemies which collide with it get absorbed and the Black Holes get bigger. If it gets big enough, a Black Hole will explode, releasing a flurry of Seekers and Butterflies which will attack you.
Slow, often immobile. Black Holes start out small and are initially completely inert. If you shoot them, they become active.
If you shoot a Black Hole, it will shrink and eventually pop harmlessly. But the larger the Black Hole, the more powerfully it will repel your fire, so you need to go closer to it for your shots to connect. And also, the larger the Black Hole, the more powerfully it will ''attract you''. So sitting on the edge while shooting one is ''dangerous''.
Active Black Holes attract enemies. Enemies which collide with it get absorbed and the Black Holes get bigger. If it gets big enough, a Black Hole will explode, releasing a flurry of Seekers and Butterflies which will attack you.
If you shoot a Black Hole, it will shrink and eventually pop harmlessly. But the larger the Black Hole, the more powerfully it will repel your fire, so you need to go closer to it for your shots to connect. And also, the larger the Black Hole, the more powerfully it will ''attract you''. So sitting on the edge while shooting one is ''dangerous''. Especially as other enemies will come after you from the opposite direction.
But here's the kicker. The points value of a Black Hole is '''150 + (5/2)N(N+1) points * your current multiplier''', where N is ''the number of enemies who have fallen into the Black Hole''. That number, you'll notice, goes up with the ''square'' of the number of enemies. If you let enemies fall in, then shoot the Hole back to a manageable size, and repeat, you can get up to serious scores. I mean:
But here's the kicker. The points value of a Black Hole is '''150 + (5/2)N(N+1) points * your current multiplier''', where N is ''the number of enemies who have fallen into the Black Hole''. That number, you'll notice, goes up with the ''square'' of the number of enemies. If you let enemies fall in, then shoot the Hole back to a manageable size, and repeat, you can get up to serious scores. I mean:
===Selena the Snake===
===Selena the Snake===
'''100 points * your current multiplier'''. These innocent geometric creatures spawn simply to wander about the grid. Unfortunately, in great enough numbers, they can be quite a bother, as their bodies are both the length of about 4 of your ship and impervious to normal bullets (Super Shot bullets will pass through), so you're forced to destroy them. Snakes travel at a speed slightly lower than yours, and in a completely random path. One shot to the head is all it takes to bring snakes down.
===Ivan the Interceptor===
===Ivan the Interceptor===
'''100 points * your current multiplier'''. Pure evil. Interceptors move FASTER than you do and they DO home in on you. They also have a FORCE FIELD at the front which can absorb about five of your shots before they are destroyed. At close range, this makes taking them on directly impossible.
However. They can't turn and move at the same time. So if you wiggle a bit, or simply pull a U-turn when they get nearby, they will stop on the spot briefly and line up in pursuit of you again. And... the force field only works at the front. From the side or behind, they are single-hit-kills. The trick, then, is to get them EARLY, before they get your "scent", and otherwise to dodge fast.
Interceptors on your screen generally instantly become your number one priority.
===Trish the Triangle===
===Trish the Triangle===
===Indy the Butterfly===
'''150 points * your current multiplier'''. Individually, these are single-hit-kills and follow you rather slowly. However, two unattached Triangles which meet each other will spontaneously sprout a ''join'' between them, which acts like a spring.
You can't pass through the join, which makes a fleet of paired Triangles a seriously daunting proposition, as they complicate the playfield hugely. Shooting either Triangle pushes that Triangle and indirectly pushes the pair.
The join is invulnerable but pumping enough bullets into the Triangle at either end will sever it, hopefully for long enough for you to shoot them both and stop the join forming again (which can happen sometimes).
==Phenomena==
===Single spawn===
This is when a single enemy randomly appears on the playing field.
===Blizzard===
This is when a large number of identical enemies spawn all over the playing field at once. These can be dangerous as you can rapidly be engulfed unless you create yourself a safe spot somehow.
===Swarm===
This is when a large number of identical enemies spawn in roughly the ''same place''. Usually this is a single corner. Sometimes it is all four corners at once. Sometimes it is ''your location''.
Like blizzards, swarms take time to fully appear. Four-corner swarms of Butterflies or Seekers which go on for a very long time can become problematic as you get to the point where you are trapped against a wall with solid boundaries of enemies closing in on you from every direction, and not enough firepower to escape. This is one of the few occasions when you will have no choice but to die or use a Bomb.
Swarms centred on you are if anything more dangerous. As soon as enemies start spawning around you, you really do have to react VERY fast, instinctively even, if you want to escape. In most cases the trick to escaping is to pick a direction and MOVE FAST - ideally the current direction you're currently shooting, as that way will already be mostly clear. For Squares there's no need to panic, just hold still, choose a direction, and the Squares will move out of the way. For Snakes, wait to see which direction they all go before trying to move.
==External links==
* [http://worldofstuart.excellentcontent.com/grid/wars.htm Stuart Campbell's review]
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[[Category:Games]]
[[Category:PC games]]
[[Category:PC games]]