LEVEL 23: BLOBNET
PASSWORD: HUVE
TIME LIMIT: 500
CHIPS REQUIRED: 88

Adventure Index

SUMMARY: This level contains 88 chips...within a gravel-surrounded honeycomb of deadly Blobs.

EXPERIENCE: OH fuck, I hate this one. This level introduces the most dangerous enemy of all, the Blob. Blobs move completely randomly, meaning that you can't predict any sort of pattern or lure them into a trap. You risk your life whenever you come within one square of a Blob.

The strategy and hints section of the game's help files lists this level in particular, urging 'patience'. It's the correct strategy. Rushing through this level is a recipe for disaster. That shit might have flown in Digger, but it ain't gonna work here.

Stay in the gravel as much as possible. I recommend starting at one side of the level and working your way across one row at a time, moving lower as you collect the chips. As annoying as it is, only make your move for a chip when there is no Blob within one square of it---to do otherwise risks death, and with 88 chips in the level, the probability of carelessness-induced death is very high. When you have to cross floor to advance, do so quickly and with the same kind of patience.

Things actually get better as you start gathering chips. Blobs tend to congregate in large numbers, yeah, but they also leave more wide spaces in the corridors, too. By the time you have all the chips, you should be able to head for the exit at the center of the level without much difficulty.

This level got me just a wee bit frustrated. Like, screaming-racial-epithets-into-a-paper -bag frustrated. Not even uziwave's audio track Calm Minds and replacing the death audio file with sound bytes from Goodfellas could soothe my rage.

SCORE: 371 seconds remaining, 15210 points.

TOTAL SCORE: 174500 points.

If the next level, Oorto Geld, is anywhere near as frustrating as this, I will hang myself.