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DX-BALL
FAQ/WALKTHROUGH
By mnb_0000
Version 1.1
DATE: 8-5-04

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. Legal Garbage
2. Update history
3. Basic game dynamics
4. The Powerups
5. Scoring
6. Level Strategies
7. Cheats
8. Credits

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1) LEGAL GARBAGE
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You may read and print this FAQ. You may share this with anyone as long
as you don't get any money and no one else does either. You may link
indirectly through GameFaqs to this FAQ but you may NOT link directly.
You must ask me for permission if you want to use this on your website;
my address if mnb_0000@hotmail.com.

this FAQ is copyright 2002-2004 Matthew Benedict. All rights reserved.
All copyrights mentioned in the guide belong to their respective owners.

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2) UPDATE HISTORY
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Version 1.1: Updated strategy for level 47. Made FAQ 79 characters per
line.

Version 1.0: Basic game dynamics, power-up descriptions, cheats, and
strategies for all 50 levels.

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3) BASIC GAME DYNAMICS:
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1. Object of the game: Get rid of all of the bricks that you can destroy
with your current power-ups. You must keep the ball from falling past
your paddle or you'll lose a life.

2. How to get rid of bricks: You use your ball to get rid of bricks. If
you have a blaster, you can also use that.

3. The controls:
- Moving the mouse moves the paddle.
- A left click fires the blasters.
- A left click also releases the ball from the grab paddle.
- Press P on the keyboard to pause the game.
- Press CTRL+ALT+ESC to minimize the game.
- Press ESC to end the game.
- Press ALT+F4 to close the game.

4. Types of bricks:
a) Colored bricks: These are the regular old bricks and are easy to
destroy with any ball. They take one hit.

b) Exploding bricks: These are not too common after the first few
levels. They destroy themselves and any bricks next to them when you hit
them.

c) Pink bricks: These are invisible until you hit them or get a "zap
bricks" (see power-ups). They take one hit to destroy with anything once
they are visible.

d) Yellow bricks: These are indestructible with a normal ball or a
blaster, but an exploding brick or a powered-up ball can take them out.
Sometimes, these have pink on them, which means you must hit them once
to turn them yellow and finish the level. You don't have to destroy
these unless you zap them and turn them orange.

e) Gray bricks: There are light gray, middle gray, and dark gray bricks.
Dark grays take one hit to destroy from a normal ball or a blaster,
middles take two, and lights take 3. When hit, they turn the next shade
down. If you get a "zap bricks", all gray bricks turn dark gray, making
your life much easier.

5. If there is only one brick left on the screen and you can't hit it,
don't fear! Eventually, a lightening bolt will come out and zap it!

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4) THE POWER UPS
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Some power-ups are designed to help you out, but not all of them. The
red ones are considered to be bad, and they seem to show up more than
the blue ones. Gray ones could be good or bad, depending on your
situation.

BLUE POWER-UPS

1. Blaster. This is not a great power-up IMO. You get less points for
destroying bricks with a blaster than you do with the ball. Still, it is
useful for those times when you have 2 or 3 bricks left and your ball
won't cooperate, or when theres a lot of gray bricks and your ball has
no power-ups.

2. Grab Paddle. When you have this, the ball "sticks" to your paddle
when you hit it until you click the mouse. Very useful for making the
ball go where you want it to go.

3. Thru Bricks. This is a very useful power-up for your ball. It allows
it to go through bricks, destroying any kind of brick in one hit,
instead of bouncing off like a normal ball does. It also increases the
point value of each brick.

4. Fireball. IMO, the most useful power-up. When you hit a brick with
this, it acts as if the brick was an exploding brick. It destroys any
brick with one hit and increases the point value of each brick. This
cures "small ball" as well.

5. Multiply Exploding. This is only useful in levels with exploding
bricks. It takes whatever is above, below, and to the right or left of
any exploding bricks on the level and replaces them with exploding
bricks.

6. Detonate exploding. This sets off all the exploding bricks on the
level, if any exist.

7. Zap bricks. This is very useful when you have no power-ups or when
invisible bricks are giving you grief. It makes all yellow bricks
destructible, turns all gray bricks dark gray, and reveals all invisible
pink bricks.

8. Extra Life. This gives you an extra life, at the cost of any paddle
upgrades other than size. That means you lose blasters and grab paddle.

9. Level Skip. This brings you to the next level at the expense of any
possible points in the level you are on.

10. Slow ball. Slows down your ball and also fixes "small ball".

GRAY POWER-UPS

1. Paddle enlarger. This makes your paddle bigger. It is useful to get
one or two of these, but getting too many increases your chances of
picking up an annoyingly-placed death.

2. Paddle shrink. These bring your paddle size down a level. Only get
them if your paddle is too big.

3. Split ball. Each of your balls becomes two balls. This is good if you
can keep track of both, but usually I just let the extra one go to avoid
the chance of missing both.

RED POWER-UPS

1. Shrink ball. This isn't so bad, unless you have a fireball, since it
gets rid of that power-up. However, you keep the "thru bricks" ability
even with a small ball.

2. Falling bricks. This can be bad if you have no power-ups, but it is
easily countered with a "thru bricks" or a fireball. In fact, it can
even help you if you have a "thru bricks", since it makes it easier to
aim for the bricks.

3. Fast ball. This can be bad if you have a small paddle or if you get
it at a bad time. It instantly speeds up your ball to max speed. If your
ball is already at max speed, all that happens is you gain 100 points.

4. Super Shrink. These are evil. They reduce your paddle to the smallest
possible size and make it a nightmare to keep the ball in the air. Avoid
it whenever possible.

5. Kill Paddle aka "death". If you pick this up, you lose a life
instantly. These are annoyingly common and often fall right along with
your ball, forcing you to lose a life automatically. This happens more
often if you have a large paddle, though.

POWER-UP COMBOS

1. Blaster + Thru Bricks
When you shoot your blaster, it will go through the ENTIRE ROW of
bricks, including yellow bricks and pink bricks. This method of
destruction is the fastest, but is also worth the least points. It is
also rare.

2. Fireball + Thru Bricks
The ultimate brick destroyer. This leaves a 3-by-3 trail of destruction
through any bricks it touches, making the level seem all to easy. Too
bad you can't keep power-ups into the next level.

3. Thru Bricks + Falling Bricks
The falling bricks make it easy to aim, and the thru bricks cancels out
the desired ricochet effect that the game tries to create with the red
power-up.

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5) SCORING
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-Every power-up is worth 100 points, including the red ones (even death
is worth 100 points).
- Hitting a destructible brick with a normal ball gives you 8-12 points.
I don't know exactly how this works.
- Getting a fireball or a thru bricks increases the number of points per
brick (I think its around 16-20).
- Destroying a brick with the blaster decreases its point value (4-6
points).

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6) STRATEGIES FOR THE LEVELS (with names when appropriate)
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I have only actually played up to level 34, but, using the level editor,
I will attempt to write strategies for the other 16 levels.

Level 1
This level has alternating diagonals or bricks, between colored and
exploding. Getting a brick detonator will finish the level for you, as
will a multiply exploding once you hit one of the exploding bricks. All
in all, a very easy level.

Level 2
This is a slightly more difficult level, as a few yellow bricks and some
pink bricks enter the fray. The pink bricks are all around the bottom of
the bricks, but hitting the first row of exploding bricks gets rid of
them. If you get a multiply exploding in this level, you can complete it
by hitting an exploding brick.

Level 3
First get rid of the colored bricks in the middle and the exploding
bricks, and hope for SOMETHING that can get rid of the yellow bricks. If
you can't get rid of them, you'll have a hard time hitting the bricks
above them.

Level 4
This level has a lot of invisible bricks; they completely surround the
exploding bricks. You should attempt to repeatedly bounce the ball along
the right wall, hitting the invisible bricks and revealing them. Then,
try to get the ball to destroy the ones it reveals. If you get a
multiply exploding, you are in luck; just hit the exploding bricks and
all the invisible bricks AND all the outer yellow bricks go with them!

Eventually, you will get either a multiply exploding or an exploding
detonator. If you get the latter, pick it up and hope that you get
something that can destroy the outer yellow bricks. If you do, just
destroy the rest of the bricks with ease. If not, good luck.

Level 5
There are invisible bricks between the rows of colored bricks here.
However, this level is very easy because you can bounce the ball up the
right side and it will stay on the top of the bricks for a long time.
While its up there, you will probably get a fireball and/or a thru
bricks, which will make your life easy.