Itchy Invasion: Blast those Petpetpets!

The Basics:

First, let’s go over what each part of the screen means. Your score is displayed on the upper left, while your mission number is on the upper right. There are six total, as you can tell. (We’ll talk more about that later, and go over each of the levels.)

In the middle is the important Pest-B-Gone meter! This meter refills once you complete a level—but if you run out during a level, you’re done! You have ten shots per fill, so make sure you keep track of how many you’ve used. When you’re running low, you will see a “Running Low on Ammo” warning.

The number of petpetpets blasted so far is shown on the bottom left, with the Itch-O-Meter in the bottom middle. Now, this is the second most important aspect of the game. If you fail to blast a petpetpet, your Itch-O-Meter will slowly fill up as all the unblasted ones accumulate! This is the “reverse” of the Pest-B-Gone, as this fills up while the other decreases. If the Itch-O-Meter fills up... you guessed it! The game ends. If you keep your Itch-O-Meter clear every level, you receive a 75 bonus at the end. For each petpetpet you fail to blast, 5 points are subtracted from this bonus. If 15 petpetpets pass you, the game is over.

Itchy Invasion has six levels, each with an increasing number of petpetpets. In the first level, your job is to blast the petpetpets from the featured petpet of that level. The number of petpetpets you need to blast in order to advance increases level by level, starting with 25 in the first level. After the first level, two new petpetpets will be introduced in the following levels, making a total of five possible petpetpets.

Let’s talk about the two special robotic petpetpets that appear during the game. The green robotic petpetpet will refill your ammo, and the pink one will eliminate all petpetpets onscreen. Pretty cool, right? Take advantage of these two petpetpets, and you’ll make it through the game a lot easier. Not to mention, the green petpetpet is crucial to your completing the game.

Of course, you’ll be curious about the scoring and levels, right?

Noil- 25 petpetpets: Blechy (2 points), Itchi (4 points), Zytch (6 points), Green and pink robotic petpetpet

Warf- 28 petpetpets: The previous petpetpets, no new ones introduced.

Babaa- 30 petpetpets: Bumbluz (8 points) and previous petpetpets.

Puppyblew- 35 petpetpets: The previous petpetpets, no new ones introduced.

Meowclops- 38 petpetpets: Mozito (10 points) and the previous petpetpets.

Faellie- 40 petpetpets: The previous petpetpets, no new ones introduced.

Tips and Strategies:

Now that you know what Itchy Invasion is all about, try playing a few times and you’ll notice some things! In each level, the petpets appear in groups. In the first level, there are Blechys, Itchies, and Zytches. If it’s two petpets that appear, it will be the Blechy and Itchy. If there are three petpets (the maximum for the first level), then they will be Blechy, Itchi, and Zytch. This will always follow the same pattern throughout all the levels! The maximum number in one group is the number of petpetpets introduced to the game at that point. When there are fewer petpets than that, it will always be the ones worth the lowest number of points, then increasing. There will not be two of the same petpetpet in one group! For example, let’s say that we’re on the sixth level. You can see Blechys, Itchies, Zytches, Bumbluz, and Mozitos. If a group of five is coming up, then it will include everything but the Mozito. So, a combination of only Mozito, Itchy, and Blechy is impossible. Take advantage of this fact!

If you notice that the level is coming to an end, and that you only need a few more petpetpets, blast the ones that are worth the most points! You can see two groups of petpetpets at the same time. Say you only have five more blasts until the level is completed—let the first group appear and blast the ones worth the most points. Just leave the other ones! Don’t worry, your Itch-O-Meter will not fill if you do this successfully. Wait for the next group to appear, and quickly blast the ones worth the most points there. If you do this towards the end of every level, you will earn significantly more points. Otherwise, you could be passing up a Mozito for a Blechy!

The same “wait for the next group” concept can be used with the robotic petpetpets. If you’re running out of ammo, don’t panic! Say there are four petpetpets to blast in this cluster, but you only have four shots left. There’s no green robotic petpet in sight! Blast three of them, and wait for the next group to appear. Most of the time, the next group should have a green robotic petpet. Quickly blast it, and then blast the petpetpet from the previous group. You can continue your game without that Itch-O-Meter filling up!

If you’re really unlucky and running out of ammo, type “pest” for a refill! This works once per game. Whenever I play the game, once I start each level I type “pes”. Then, if I need to use it, all I have to press is a “t”! This will save time, instead of worrying about typing the whole word and blasting the petpetpets. I suggest using this code in one of the last two levels, if you need to. Chances are the green robotic petpetpets in the game should be enough.

I also find it useful to keep track of how many shots of ammo you’ve used by saying it out loud. (Hey, it sounds funny, but it works!) This is a better alternative to eying the meter. Try saving your ammo with the pink robotic petpetpets as well. Let two groups appear, and if there’s a pink robotic petpetpet in one of those two, it’ll clear all the petpetpets in the vicinity instead of you blasting them individually.

Remember, luck is involved as well; you never know what groups of petpetpets will show up. Hopefully you’ll be willing to give Itchy Invasion a try! With practice, you can be well on your way to an Itchy Invasion trophy. Now wouldn’t that be a nice addition to your lookup? ;)