Ruins Rampage: a Basic Guide

Ruins Rampage is a Grand Theft Ummagine style game, where your objective is to retrieve the elusive Golden Scorchstone. You can play as one of two infamous Desert Scarabs, Zina or Horace. (Tomos and Nabile are currently busy elsewhere...)

The movement is in the same style as Grand Theft Ummagine, so while they are brilliant thieves, the Desert Scarabs seem to wander off until you stop them. (You'd think those big pointy things sticking out of the ground might be cause for concern?) If you are new to this style, take some time getting used to walking, stopping, and turning whilst moving. You can switch between two types of key setup. I just stuck with the default set.

Timing is essential, as I will indicate later on. There is no "wrong" way of playing the game; if you get stuck, go back, and look over everything carefully. You start off with 5 lives, and your maximum health value of 100. You cannot gain any more lives, so these are extremely precious. Health only changes in multiples of 25, so it is very precious.

Once you have loaded up the game, you will see many weird and wonderful things... (well, a gold coin and a scarabug.) They are listed below.

Coins: They are important if you want that high score and/or trophy. Make them the first thing you go for in each room. You will need to get every single one, so if you accidently block off one by hitting a switch too early, you might want to restart.

The Mummified Negg: (See that pile of bandages?) It will restore 50 health points. If you have 25 or 50 health, get one of these. (You have no choice in the matter. Well, you do, actually. But you should take my advice. Or I can say "I told you so" in advance.)

The Scorchstone: (Ooh, gold!) Lots of points, it sits on the switch that removes the final set of spikes that obstruct your exit. (You can stay as long as you want. If you really want to. But maybe the Scarabugs will get you. Maybe.)

Doors: Go through these. They will take you to other rooms. (You are not a ghost.) The golden doors are your start and your finish.

The Tiles: If you look closely at the ground, you will see raised tiles and lowered tiles scattered around levels. The raised tiles are switches. Almost every switch needs to be stepped on, although some are there to block off your coins/neggs. The lowered tiles are traps, which drop you onto a spike pit. Be careful, sometimes they are hard to see. (Remember that switches look like traps once you have stepped on them. Remember which are the switches; they are safe to walk on.

Raised Blocks/Boxes/Ornaments/Statues: You can only walk on the lowest of the raised blocks, and you can't use them as stairs. (You can't climb over anything. Or jump. Or use any tools to aid you. Like I said, the Desert Scarabs are only good at stealing. Nothing else really.)

Spike Pits: Fall in one of these, lose a life. (And get holes in your clothes.)

Raised Spikes/Holes: Try not to walk into the spikes. They hurt. In fact, you will lose a life. Some spikes can be lowered by switches, and vice versa.

Levers: These reset all spike traps in certain rooms. If you make a mistake, retrace your steps and correct it by stepping on the lever.

Fire Pits: This is where timing comes in. Walk across them when there are no flames showing. (Or you will lose 25 health. And burn your feet.)

Arrows: These are constantly fired from traps. There are a few rooms in which you will get fired at upon entering, so get ready to move straight away. More timing is needed to manoeuvre in between them.

Fireballs: The most dangerous trap. They float back and forth, and will do you 50 damage. (If you have 25 or 50 health when you get hit by one, you lose a life. I told you so.)

Guards and Scarabugs: Guards walk back and forth, and Scarabugs walk around in squares. (Not circles.) They move fairly slowly so you should have no problems. (I assume they do damage, I never tried bumping into one. Why would I? They don't look like the type for a friendly chat.)

Scarabugs do 25 damage, the Guards do 50. (I decided not to judge by appearances, and go and say hello. But I turned out to be right. They called me names.)

So you want a step-by-step walkthrough? Sorry, this is not a spoiler. I will give hints and tips, but it is so much better when you feel you earned that gold trophy all by yourself.

I will pick out three rooms in particular to point out a few things in.

The first is the fireball corridor room. This room has two fireballs, but one of them travels in line with a door. Fireballs freeze position when you leave a room, so if it is chasing you to the door, it will be there to greet you when you come back. Give yourself time to run back before it returns. (Or get full health, and walk through the fireball. This method may result in singed eyebrows.)

The second room is the trap room. You will notice this one when you take a step forward, and suddenly a trap appears beneath you. I have figured out the route to take. (But I want you to suffer like I did, having to restart because I kept falling into spike pits, so I won't tell you the exact path to take.) A good idea is to take note of where is safe to step, and work out the route. (e.g. 2 left, 2 down, etc... subtle hints are much more fun, don't you think?) There are 2 switches in this room which can be safely activated. The rest bring up raised spikes, which block your path. (You pretty much need to walk on every set of holes.)

The third room is another puzzle room. There are 6 sets of spike holes and switches. You have to figure out where to walk to get through safely. (If you find yourself stuck later on, chances are, you missed a switch in this room.)

Now you should have more than enough help to guide you through the game! Good luck, and if at first you don't succeed, you obviously weren't following my advice! :-P