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Strategy

This page provides a comprehensive guide to Mr. Do! strategy. Arranging this page into a sensible format is not easy. After all, it's really just a series of tips that could appear in any order. I've decided to divide it into the same sections as in the Description page. There's also a Golden Rule which should be read first.

In the sections that follow, "scene 3" means scene 3 only; "scene *3" means scenes 3, 13, 23, etc.

Click on one of the following icons for more details.


Golden Rule	Mr. Do!	Red Monsters	Diggers	Letters	Munchers	Food	Apples	Cherries	Diamonds	Scenes

Golden Rule

One simple rule dominates the game of Mr. Do! for all but the first few scenes. The rule is, always aim to move towards the top of the screen. Once there, move to a point immediately above an apple, and stay there. You will find that the diggers, in digging straight up towards you, dislodge the apple, which will fall on them and kill them. As soon as the apple starts falling, find another apple to move to and repeat the process.

Obviously, this technique will require some adaptation to the individual circumstances of each scene, but if you follow the basic idea, whilst preparing to be flexible, you should find your high score increasing. Sometimes, it seems just too simple; the diggers dig up towards the apple, commit mass suicide, and the scene is over within a few seconds.

The other main advantage of moving quickly to the top of the screen is for killing letters. You are in prime position for knocking off letters as soon as they appear.

This rule is amplified in some of the sections which follow.

Mr. Do!

Mr. Do! has six possible orientations. He can face left, right, up or down. When facing up or down, his feet can be pointing left or right. Since the ball is always thrown in the direction of the feet (see later in this section), this left-right orientation can be important. If you are facing up or down, and want to change your orientation, move slightly to the side you want your feet to point and then move back again. You will find your feet facing the opposite direction.

If Mr. Do! passes horizontally beneath an apple, the apple will wobble and fall, but only after Mr. Do! has passed. It is also possible to move downwards directly beneath an apple, then move out of the way just before the apple drops. You have time to move downwards two rows before the apple falls and crushes you. This can be a useful method of shaking off a red monster that is chasing you; the red monster is either crushed by the apple or is forced back.

It is worth studying the way Mr. Do! throws the ball. It is thrown from the shoulder, forwards and downwards (i.e. towards Mr. Do!'s feet). Once you are familiar with the way the ball travels you can throw the ball with a lot more accuracy, for example, you can fire past a junction of corridors and know which way the ball is going to go. This is very useful on scenes such as scene *9. In heading for the top of the scene, you have to cut through the horizontal corridor through the centre of the screen. After passing the horizontal corridor, if you turn-and-fire at the right point, the ball will move along the horizontal corridor in the right direction and quickly kill a red monster.

The following tips may help with regard to throwing the ball:

It is possible to throw the ball through a solid wall! To see this, dig a tunnel towards an existing corridor, but stop just short, so that Mr. Do!'s hand is just poking through. If you then press the fire button, you'll find that the ball bounces along the corridor, even though you haven't broken right through to it. This is extremely useful, because it means that you can shoot monsters without them being able to catch you. This technique is most useful for shooting letters. If you're near the top of the screen, as soon as a letter comes out you can shoot it "through the wall" without any risk of it catching you.
On some scenes you can throw the ball at the very start, before you start moving, and always hit a red monster. This works on scene *3, for example. On other scenes you can hit a red monster by moving slightly and then firing. For example on scene *1 you can point Mr. Do! upwards and then fire immediately. On some scenes no early firing is possible, e.g. scene *0.
On some scenes, if you know a letter is coming out right at the start, you can fire, either immediately or after a small movement, and hit the letter.
When setting an apple trap early on in a scene, before heading for the top of the screen, you have to wait a second for the apple to drop, before nudging it. This is a good time to fire the ball at one of the chasing red monsters. If you can get this right, it's the quickest way to get to the top of the screen whilst still setting an apple trap and shooting a red monster. This technique takes a little practice. Turn-and-fire too soon and the apple hasn't yet started wobbling. Turn-and-fire too late and you get squashed!
If a red monster is coming straight at you along a corridor, be careful when you fire. If you fire prematurely, the ball may escape in an unwanted direction and the red monster will catch you. Be sure that the corridor has no other corridors branching off it between you and the monster. The monster will often run away after you have fired, increasing the chances of the ball escaping. Sometimes the monster charges at you at great speed, causing you to fire in panic, and then halts, again increasing the changes of the ball escaping. If there is a maze of corridors, wait until the monster is almost upon you before firing.
If a digger is digging straight towards you, and there is solid earth between you and the digger,a guaranteed way to kill it is to turn to face the digger and hold the fire button down. The ball with keep bouncing against the earth until the digger is almost upon you, and will then kill the digger. This technique is particularly useful for finishing off the last digger in a scene, when they can move very swiftly. Do not be tempted to move towards the digger whilst firing in this way. It almost always results in losing a life.
The first ball is special in that, after it has struck something, a new ball appears immediately. This is very useful for you, because it means that you can kill two red monsters very quickly. Be careful not to waste the first ball by firing it against a wall and catching it. If you do this, it will not return immediately after the next time you fire it.

Red Monsters and Diggers

The behaviour of red monsters and diggers is complex and unpredictable. Only experience can teach you how they are likely to react in a given situation. A couple of facts can be observed here, however:

The later the scene, the more frequently red monsters turn into diggers. By the time you reach scene 30 or so, they will usually dig towards you, even if there is a free corridor which they could run along without digging. This can be very useful, because it means you can concentrate on moving above an apple (see Golden Rule) without worrying about red monsters running along a corridor around the apple and catching you.
Red monsters "dither" beneath apples. That it, if an apple is falling, or about to fall (i.e. "wobbling"), any red monsters beneath it usually move rapidly to and fro beneath the apple, until it falls on them and squashes them.

If a digger is digging straight towards you, and there is solid earth between you and the digger, a guaranteed way to kill it is to turn to face the digger and hold the fire button down. The ball with keep bouncing against the earth until the digger is almost upon you, and will then kill the digger. This technique is particularly useful for finishing off the last digger in a scene, when they can move very swiftly. Do not be tempted to move towards the digger whilst firing in this way. It almost always results in losing a life.

One situation which is difficult to handle at first is when you are in a horizontal corridor with a number of red monsters, with an apple separating you and them. They tend to dig upwards and around the apple, and will quickly catch you if you let them do this. There is a solution, however. Move downwards a fraction. This is enough to encourage the monsters to dig downwards. You can then push the apple, or move upwards, and the monsters will be squashed by the falling apple.

There are various technique you can use during the end game to kill a red monster that is following directly behind you. Firstly, avoid corridors. If moving along a corridor, the red monster will always catch you. If you are digging, the red monster will approach quickly, but not quite catch you. It will follow on your tail. At this point you require nerve and patience. If you change direction, it will catch you. If you continue in the same direction, however, it usually at some point changes into a digger and falls behind for a second or two, before catching you up again. This is your chance. If you have the ball in hand, you can quickly turn and shoot the red monster. If not, you can change direction. Aim to head under an apple or towards the nest. If you can pass under an apple, the red monster will probably dither and squash itself. If you can reach the nest and eat the food, the blue muncher phase starts and you're saved.

If a red monster is following you, but not quite "on your tail", you can escape by passing under an apple. There are two possibilities. If you pass straight under the apple and continue horizontally, the red monster will usually "dither" and get squashed. This is not guaranteed, however, especially in later scenes when you are one letter short of an extra life. The alternative possibility is to turn downwards directly beneath the apple, move one or two rows down, then turn off horizontally again before the apple falls. This will almost certainly kill the red monster. If it doesn't, it will delay the red monster, leaving you with time to escape. This can only go wrong if the red monster is already "on your tail", in which case it will catch you when you turn downwards.

Letters

However good you become at Mr. Do! you will always get killed occasionally. Sometimes so many red monsters turn into diggers that there is no escape. The only way of building a really big score, therefore, is to win plenty of extra lives.

Getting the Right Letter Out

You control when letters come out. The currently highlighted letter comes out when you eat the food or when you pass a multiple of 5,000 points.

Always be aware of what letters you require. At the start of each scene, check which letters you require. This way, as soon as a letter comes out, you will know whether to go for it or not. Note that once a letter is out you cannot tell whether you require it or not.
Always be aware of the current score and the current highlighted letter, so that when you pass a multiple of 5,000 points or eat the food, a letter that you require comes out.
Letters E and A do not come out as frequently as the other letters. This is because, in the complete cycle of letters being highlighted E-X-T-R-A-R-T-X, E and A are only highlighted once, but X, T and R are highlighted twice. It is therefore desirable to get E and A to come out whenever possible. Given a choice, get letters E or A out in preference to X, T or R.
If your last points on a scene take you past a multiple of 5,000 points, and the letter is not out, a letter will come out at the beginning of the next scene. If the letter is out and your last points take you past a multiple of 5,000 points, a letter will not come out at the beginning of the next scene, unless these last points were scored by squashing the letter with an apple.
A letter at the beginning of a scene may or may not be a good thing. On scene *3, for example, it's usually good, as you can shoot the letter easily. On scene *9 it's neither good nor bad as it's difficult to get the letter anyway. On scene *4 it's bad because you can't easily get the letter but it can greatly hinder you.

Killing Letters

Generally speaking, the best place for you to be is near the top of the screen. This way, you are ready to shoot any letters as soon as they come out. Try to avoid the very top row of the screen, as you can get killed by a letter coming out on top of you! This works best where there is a horizontal corridor along the top row of the screen, namely scenes *2, *3, *5, *6, *7, *8 and *9. It doesn't really work in scenes *1, *4 and *0.
Be aware of the behaviour of letters. Generally, they will always chase you if you do not have a ball in hand, but run away when you do have a ball in hand. Sometimes you can use this knowledge to your advantage. If you are near the top of the screen without the ball and a letter comes out, it will usually run off to the side and then down, by which time it is out of range of the ball. If you break through to the top corridor, you can tempt the letter towards you. If you time it right, the ball will reappear just before the letter catches you, and you can shoot it.
Don't be too greedy when a letter comes out! One of the great skills of the game is having the restraint not to shoot a letter when you're in danger from red monsters. The ball is your last line of defence against red monsters, and in shooting a letter you'll be without the ball for a couple of seconds at least. Always be sure that you are defended from red monsters before loosing the ball at a letter.
Before shooting the last letter for an extra life, it can be worth pausing for a second or two if the situation is safe (i.e. you're near the top of the screen and positioned above an apple). A couple of seconds can be long enough for some diggers to dig up to the apple and squash themselves, earning yourself a few more points. You can often score an extra 4,000 points in this way. Earning the extra life is your priority, however, so don't take any risks, either of getting killed or of all the diggers killing themselves and ending the scene prematurely. If in doubt, shoot the letter and earn the extra life!
One feature of the game that is not immediately obvious is that it gets harder when you only require one more letter for an extra life. For example, red monsters are more likely to transform into diggers at the start of the scene, and are less likely to "dither" beneath apples. Scene *8 always seems particularly hard in this situation; you usually get one digger immediately, often two, and it is very difficult to get to the top of the screen. There's not much you can do about this, however. Don't take any risks like relying on a "dither". Be prepared for immediate diggers. It might be worth refraining from shooting the fourth letter before a difficult scene, but this is a strategy I haven't tried yet.
Mr. Do! can pass through a letter whilst it is munching an apple! This is usually done as a "dare", but occasionally can be useful. If a red monster is chasing you on one side and a letter is approaching from the other side, with an apple between you and the letter, it would seem there is no escape. However, if you push the apple towards the letter, the letter will eat the apple. You can then pass straight through the letter then turn round and shoot it. There is then an apple between you and the red monster, and you can escape.
It is not easy to kill a letter by squashing it with an apple. This is because letters tend to turn towards and eat the falling apple. However, if you time it right, letters can be squashed with apples. When the letter is returning home and there is an apple on the top row, you can set a standard apple trap for the letter. Just as the letter is about to turn the corner and eat the apple, push the apple. You'll find the letter gets squashed. This earns you 500 points more than shooting the letter. Furthermore, if it was the last letter required for an extra life and you pass a multiple of 5,000 points, the same letter will appear at the start of the next scene.
Another way of squashing a letter is by using an off-centre apple. Early in the scene, prepare an apple by pushing it slightly away from its starting position, so it overlaps two columns. Later, after eating the food, dig a wiggly path, starting at the bottom of the screen, up to the apple. When you reach the apple it will fall, squashing everything in the two columns it overlaps. It is possible to squash the letter and three munchers in this way, scoring 6,000 points in the process.

Muncher

Once the munchers are out, you have three ways to survive the immediate danger. The first way is to kill the letter. The second is to kill the three munchers. The third is to kill all remaining red monsters and diggers, thus ending the scene (you can also end the scene by eating all the cherries or finding a diamond, but these are extremely unlikely). The munchers move quickly, and you only have a very short time to decide which strategy to adopt.

Consider first whether you are in imminent danger. If the munchers are very close or if the screen is a tangle of corridors, you can quickly end the scene by shooting the remaining red monsters and diggers. This is easy if there is only one left, and often possible if there are two left.

If you're not going to end the scene in this way, you have three methods at your disposal. Which you choose will depend on whether you require the letter, whether it is the only letter you require, and which letter it is (E and A being more useful). The three methods are the Running Away method, the Looping method and the Isolation method.

The Running Away method entails running away from the munchers, turning and firing to pick off the leading muncher. When shot, the leading muncher turns into an apple, which the second muncher eats. Do this twice more, and only the letter is left. A fourth shot kills the letter. For this method to work, you need a long, simple corridor to run along. Alternatively, if there is a large expanse of earth available, you can dig your own corridor, but of course digging is slow, and the munchers move very fast! If the screen is a mess of corridors everywhere, you will find the munchers can take different routes towards you, or take short cuts. They then have a tendency to "double up", that is, for two or three munchers to move along together, rather than one behind the other. See the next paragraph for how to deal with "double munchers". The other disadvantage of the Running Away method is that you're not guaranteed to get the letter. You can find that you shoot all the munchers, and then the letter heads off back to the top of the screen too quickly for you to shoot it! If you can organise your path so that you're heading towards the top of the screen followed by the letter, this won't happen. Alternatively, if you're in a very long simple corridor, you can fire at and hit the letter even when it's moving away from you. One advantage of the Running Away method is that you will get at least 2,000 points.

Click here to see an illustration.

If a double muncher appears, or, worse still, a treble muncher, you have problems. When you shoot one, the other overtakes it instead of pauses to each the apple that has been created. Before you have time to loose the next ball, it can catch you. Follow the techniques above to avoid double munchers. If it still happens, you have various options, but you must act quickly. You can hastily change to a Looping or Isolation strategy. Alternatively, head for the nearest apple. If your timing is good, you can drop the apple on the double muncher, killing both and scoring 2,000 points into the bargain. Otherwise, drop the apple before the double muncher. One half of the double will pause to eat the apple, thus restoring things to a standard one-after-the-other situation.
The Looping method entails digging a circular path that almost but not quite loops back on itself. As the letter goes past, you can shoot it through the wall. As long as you've planned this properly, it's the most reliable way of shooting the letter. It can only go wrong if the loop is too short so that the first muncher has caught you before the letter has gone past. The disadvantage of this method is that you only score 500 points.

Click here to see an illustration.

The Isolation method involves separating the letter from the munchers, then moving towards the letter and shooting it. This requires great familiarity with the movement of munchers and letters, which only experience can bring, but is enormously satisfying when it comes off. An example will illustrate this best. Imagine you're on a relatively intact scene 8. You eat the food, and the munchers come out and move towards you, heading to the left, around the top of the figure '8'. As soon as the third muncher has started moving, move to the right around the opposite side of the top of the figure '8'. If you get it right, you'll see the letter pause awhile, as if thinking, then move right, in the opposite direction to the munchers. You can then move right towards the letter and easily shoot it.

Click here to see an illustration.

Once you've finished the Blue Muncher phase, you're in the End Game. If there are more than two red monsters or diggers left, you'll find it very difficult to escape them. Therefore, if you have time during the Blue Muncher phase, try to kill off one or two red monsters or diggers.

Food

There are two reasons for eating the food. You score a large number of points (8,000 on scene 22 and above), and you trigger the release of a letter and the munchers. Either one of these is a good reason for taking the food. Together, they make it so advantageous that you should almost always eat the food if you have a chance.

Always keep half an eye on the highlighted letter, so that when you do eat the food, you don't get a letter you already have. E's and A's are highlighted less frequently, so try to take them in preference to X's, T's and R's.

There are two situations where eating the food is hazardous. Firstly, if a letter is already out and very close to the nest. If you eat the food, three munchers will materialise very close to you, and you may get killed. Secondly, if lot of earth has been eaten away, making a complicated maze of corridors, you'll find the munchers harder to kill, because they have a choice of routes towards you, and can cut corners as they approach. There's a particular danger of the dreaded double munchers, or even treble munchers. In either of these hazardous situations, one option is not to eat the food, and this can be the best option. However, 8,000 points for the food is very useful, and you may have a red monster on your tail which you can only shake off by eating the food. See Blue Muncher Phase for how to deal with these situations.

Apples

Apples have two uses: blocking monsters and squashing monsters.

The "apple trap" is the most fundamental and important technique of the game. To set an apple trap, first locate a suitable apple. Positioned below the level of the apple and one column to the side of it, dig upwards. When you're one row beneath the level of the apple, dig sideways underneath the apple and let the apple fall. Turn round and nudge the apple slightly so it slightly overlaps the vertical column you have just dug. This is an apple trap. The red monsters will follow your route as far as the apple, and then find their way blocked. They will usually congregate below the apple for a while, and then dig beneath the apple. Before they start digging, give the apple an extra push. It will fall on the red monsters and kill them.

Click here to see an illustration.

Having set an apple trap, you do not have to remain beside the apple. An alternative is to move upwards to a point above the apple. This gives you all the usual advantages of moving upwards, but the red monsters will still dig under the apple and kill themselves. The disadvantage is that only red monsters next to the apple will be killed; any red monsters moving up the vertical corridor towards the apple will survive, whereas they would be killed if you were there to push the apple. In all but the early scenes, this disadvantage is usually outweighed by the great advantage of advancing up the screen.
A third alternative is, having set an apple trap, to ignore it. Just carry on with other things. There is still a good chance that the red monsters will dig under the apple and kill themselves. There is a risk that they will dig in the opposite direction, but even then, you will have delayed them quite significantly.
When setting an apple trap, it is best to only nudge the apple very slightly, so that it overhangs the corridor by a couple of pixels only. The reason for this is because Mr. Do! can squeeze through the gap, but the monsters can't. This can occasionally be life-saving in the later stages of the scene, if being chased by monsters.
Apart from the apple trap, the other basic technique of the game is standing above apples. As already mentioned in the Golden Rule, if you can move to a point above the level of the "nest" and position yourself directly above an apple, chances are that diggers will dig straight up towards you, dislodge the apple, and kill themselves. This technique only really works in later scenes. In early scenes, red monsters are more likely to run along the corridors and catch you that way. For this technique to work well, you must be positioned precisely above the apple. A pixel or two either side is not so effective. The only reliable way to position yourself that precisely is to point Mr. Do! upwards or downwards. This ensures that you are aligned with the screen "column", and as long as you haven't dislodged the apple you will be in perfect position. The ideal position is one row below the top corridor, pointing upwards. Then, if a letter appears as a result of the points scored by squashing diggers, you can shoot it immediately.
Occasionally, "double apples" can appear. These are two apples, one partially overlapping the other. This can occur when the letter is shot and two overlapping munchers turn into apples. Treat these with caution, because they cannot be used to squash monsters - if you push a double apple, it breaks.

Cherries

Eating cherries is usually a diversion from the main business of killing the various monsters and gaining extra lives. However, they can be important in various ways:

Eating the odd cherry at 50 points each will not get you into the high score record books. However, if you can eat several groups of eight cherries, at 850 points each, the score soon adds up.
If you are a few points short of the next multiple of 5,000 and you want a particular letter, you can wait until the desired letter is highlighted, then eat the requisite number of cherries to reach the 5,000 multiple and get the letter out. This is advantageous in that you have complete control over eating cherries, whereas there is always an element of luck in trying to drop apples on monsters.
If you are in trouble in a scene, you might be able to escape by eating the last cherry. It's not often that you can do this, however, except in the first few scenes. More common is the situation where the monsters eat the last cherry, ending the scene before you want to!

Diamonds

Your heart starts racing! Your palms start sweating! A cry goes up from all who are watching! It's a diamond! It's impossible to ignore! Every nerve bends towards the goal of reaching the diamond and winning the ultimate accolade!

Any Mr. Do! addict will recognise this scenario. Diamonds are in fact quite rare, and so feature low down on any list of tips. If you're really serious about getting a high score, my advice is to ignore all diamonds! They make you panic, and tempt you into foolish risks. I've lost more lives in trying to reach a diamond than I care to think about. However, they can be useful, and many players feel an obligation to do their utmost to reach all diamonds, so the following points might be useful.

Try to stay cool. It's difficult, I know! Evaluate the situation. It may be impossible to reach the diamond, in which case you should ignore it. If you think you can reach it, don't just charge straight at it. Plan a sensible route. Don't ignore any red monsters chasing you. You have time to shoot them or drop apples in their path.
The scene ends if you reach a diamond. This can get you out of a tricky situation sometimes.
Diamonds are worth 8,000 points. This is usually worthwhile in itself, extra game notwithstanding.

Scenes

Early Scenes

I call scenes 1 to 10 the Early Scenes. Once you become reasonably adept at the game, these scenes should present no problems. Getting killed should be a rarity. Your objective in these scenes is to get as many extra lives as possible. The secondary objective is to amass as many points as possible. As a rule of thumb, aim at getting five extras in the first ten scenes, that is, one every two scenes. A points target is less easy to specify, but 140,000 after scene ten is good going. 120,000 is poor.

The main features of the early scenes are that diggers do not appear very often, and that everything moves relatively slowly. You have time to think and plan ahead.

Middle Scenes

Scenes 11 to 15 are the Middle Scenes. They are a sort of transitory phase between the Early Scenes and the Later Scenes.

The main feature of these scenes is their unpredictability. In scenes 1 to 10, you can be pretty certain that not many diggers will appear. From scene 16 onwards, you can be equally certain that the red monsters will transform very quickly. In scenes 11 to 15, however, you just can't tell what will happen. Sometimes a red monster will race along the corridor; sometimes it will turn into a digger and burrow straight towards you.

Later Scenes

Generally speaking, each scene can be divided up into a number of distinct phases: I call these the Opening, the Middle Game, Eating the Food, the Blue Muncher Phase and the End Game.

The Opening lasts from the beginning of the scene up to the point where you manage to move above the level of the nest. The Middle Game lasts up to the point where you Eat the Food, or manage to reduce the number of red monsters to one or two. The Blue Muncher Phase lasts from the moment you Eat the Food until you kill the letter or it disappears. The End Game lasts as long as the last two red monsters survive.

Later Scenes - Opening

Right from the start of each scene, you should aim to move above nest level. If you can do this, you have an excellent chance of surviving the scene. How you do this is largely a matter of experience. You'll need to develop a different strategy for each scene.

It is usually possible to shoot one or two red monsters whilst moving to the top of the screen. One some scenes, if you fire right at the beginning of the scene, before moving at all, you will always kill the first red monster. On other scenes, you can kill the first red monster by moving slightly and firing. Again, the precise strategy depends on the scene.

Generally speaking, the red monsters do not transform into diggers until you have had time to move to the top of the screen. If this happens, all well and good, the battle is half won. Sometimes, however, particularly if you are one letter short of an extra life, they turn into diggers right at the outset. If this happens, survival becomes a lot harder. As a general rule, if a digger blocks your way, you should immediately change direction and look for another route to the top of the screen.

The most common cause of death is diggers appearing right at the outset. Sometimes you get two diggers coming at you from different directions. In these situations there is a good chance you will die. If this happens, don't panic. If you're doing well, you'll have plenty of lives left and a chance to regain the life you lost. If you're going to die in this situation, it's important to take a few of the enemy with you. If you can kill two or three red monsters, there will only be five or six left when the scene restarts, and you'll have a much better chance of survival.

Later Scenes - Middle Game

Once you've passed the nest level, you're in the middle game. Once you've got the knack of this, it's easy. You just stand directly above an apple and wait for the diggers to dig up towards you and kill themselves. You must stand directly above the apple. A pixel or two either side is insufficient. The best way to do this is to point Mr. Do! so he's facing up or down. This ensures that he's directly aligned with the apple.

The middle game also provides opportunities for killing letters. Your ideal position is in the second row from the top. Don't break right through to the top row. As soon as a letter appears, you can stick your hand through the wall dividing the top row from the second row, and fire off the ball to kill the letter.

If you have time, you can prepare yourself for the next appearance of a letter. Point Mr. Do! upwards, just below the top row. If Mr. Do!'s feet are pointing in the wrong direction, adjust his position (see Mr. Do! section). However, be very careful doing this; this slight motion will divert diggers from their upward path, and they will avoid the falling apple. You can only adjust your position like this if the diggers are some way away.

Before taking a pot-shot at a letter that has just appeared, check there is no imminent danger from red monsters or diggers. The few seconds in which you'll be without a ball are a vulnerable time. One of the great skills of the game is knowing when it's safe to take a letter, and when to keep the ball.

Later Scenes - End Game

The End Game is defined as that part of each scene where there are only one or two red monsters or diggers left. At this point, the monsters become very fast and clever, and there are probably few apples left. You must concentrate on survival. Refer to the Mr. Do! and Red Monster sections for tips on finishing off the last red monsters.

All comments welcome! Please email [email protected]