Nimmos Pond Avatar Guide

     With a little practice and following the tips in this guide, I would class this as one of the easier game avatars – you’ll need 4,000 points to get you there.

      Power-ups – will appear in bubbles after destroying lily pads.

     Hit 'View instructions' on the main screen before starting to familiarise yourself with the power-up icons.

          Health - very important to survival. If you take any damage, make sure to collect!

     Increased paddle power - Not important as you shouldn’t be paddling anywhere. Feel free to collect if it becomes annoying though.

     Bombs – Grab these ONLY if you have less than 3 (this is the number you start with). The number of bombs you have are shown above the Nimmos head in the bottom centre of the screen. Don’t confuse this with the super-powered bullets mentioned below!

     Rapid-fire bullets (green) - These are the default bullets the game starts with, only collect this at the start of the game if you haven’t yet got the yellow bullets.

     Multi-fire bullets (yellow) - These are your best friend. Remember, once you have the yellow bullets, do not collect green!!! You can upgrade your bullets to level 5 so keep collecting (the little number displayed next to the bullet type at the bottom of the screen).

     High-powered super bullets (brown-y red) - Do not collect this, whilst the description may sound good, it’s almost impossible to play with this bullet. If you accidentally collect it, restart unless you are quickly able to grab another bullet type.

     Reset speed - If you accidentally press up or down arrow keys, grab one of these to stop you in your tracks. Otherwise not important but can be collected if becoming annoying.

      Controls

     Use the left arrow key to turn anti-clockwise and (you got it…) right to turn clockwise. The arrow buttons are very sensitive so it may take a little getting used to.

     Up & down arrows will move the lily pad but I explain in the Tips section why you want to pretend these keys don't exist.

     The spacebar will fire bullets, unfortunately, you can’t hold the spacebar down to fire continuously so will need to repeatedly hit the spacebar to fire more than once. Particularly when you start the game with the green bullets, you may find it a little difficult to get the correct angle to hit the lily pad you are aiming for. If you gently tap left, right, left right (etc. etc.) whilst hitting the spacebar, you should be able to get the hits you need. Once you have the yellow bullets, this shouldn’t be so much of an issue as your bullet-spread is wider. The lily pads will flash when you hit them.

     ‘B’ button is for bombs, don’t get trigger happy to use a bomb, you only need to press once! The screen will flash white when used and destroy any close-by lily pads.

     ‘V’ button will stick the nimmo’s tongue out. This is how you collect the power-ups. The tongue will collect more than one power-up at once if there are multiple in its path so be careful if there’s a power-up nearby that you don’t want.

      Gameplay & Tips

     The aim is to get the yellow bullets as quickly as possible, although upgrading to level 5 is the ideal, even level 1 in yellow is pretty good. Obviously, this is largely down to luck so hopefully you get a yellow early on.

     When you hit a lily pad, it’ll flash slightly yellow; after a few hits, the lily pad will break into multiple teeny-tiny lily pads. They may look cute but still do damage so best to destroy them.

      Tip #1 – Don’t press up or down!

     Only use the left and right arrow keys. You want to stay in position in the middle of the screen and just rotate left and right. Moving the lily pad makes the game extremely difficult and un-predictable and you'll be out of health very quickly. If you accidentally hit up or down – unless you are close to the avatar score or can immediately grab a reset speed power-up – restart the game.

     Tip #2 – Fastest First

     Focus on the fastest moving lily pads first. These are the ones that’ll cause you the most trouble so it’s best to destroy them as soon as possible. Obviously, if you have a slower moving one about to collide with you, shift your attention to this one.

     Tip #3 – Bombs are your friend

     Remember the bombs. Try to save these for later levels and remember you can’t have more than 3. At some point, you’ll probably find a lily pad moving towards you faster than the speed of light with no chance of destroying it quickly enough – on the pending screen before the level starts, have your finger poised over the ‘b’ button in case you need to use the bomb immediately.

     Tip #4 – Don’t rush the power-ups

     Don’t collect the power-ups too fast. Fairly simple, if you don’t need something at that moment, don’t collect it. E.g. if you have full health and a health power-up floats past you, leave it alone! The power-ups will remain on the screen for the next level so save them for when you really need it. Disclaimer – this may cause mild annoyance and distraction to have so many power-ups floating around, but the shiny avatar will make it worth it, trust me!

     Tip #5 – No Damage to Start

     If you lose any health in the first 3 levels, restart the game. The game moves much slower at the beginning so it’s important to keep your health as high as possible so you’re not having to collect any health power-ups until later.

     Tip #6 – Firing glitch

     Sometimes when you hit the spacebar too quickly, the bullets don’t quite reach the edge of the screen. If you stop firing for a second so all the bullets leave the screen, it seems to reset itself and the bullets will go to the edge again

     Tip #7 – No Pause Button

     You’ll likely need between 15 – 20 minutes for an avatar run so be mindful that once you start, there is no option to take a break mid-game. Once you beat a level, the next one will automatically start after a couple of seconds.