Escape from Zothar

Escape from Zothar: Game Play Manual

Story

While orbiting planet Zothar on a peaceful mission, your research ship was struck by an unknown source of energy and had to make an emergency landing. If you can find 50 fuel cells, you should be able to get it back off the ground. But you were battered, too, and while Zothar is an energy-rich planet that once supported an advanced civlization, it has since fallen into decay. The locals are combative and unlikely to give up the energy you need freely. Can you find enough fuel get back to your ship in order to escape this hostile world?

Objective

Collect 50 fuel cells scattered across the world, then return to the ship (top-left of the map, roughly the first screen) to escape and win.

Controls

Button Action
Arrow keys Move
Z Fire current weapon
X Cycle to next weapon
Z + X Open stats screen

Movement is tile-by-tile. The player cannot move into walls.

HUD

The top bar shows your current status:

Weapons

You start with the Blaster. Additional weapons are found as pickups in the world.

Weapon Damage Notes
Blaster 1 Starting weapon. Can damage lightly-damaged walls.
Ice Ray 2 Blue palette. Can damage medium walls.
Gamma Beam 3 Green beam. Can break hardened walls.
Plasma Beam 4 Highest damage. Breaks plasma-hardened walls.

Cycle through acquired weapons with X. New weapons are added to your list — you never lose one once found.

Rate of fire Your blaster has to recharge between shots. Collect fire rate upgrades to reduce the cooldown by about 40% each time, stacking multiplicatively.

Breakable Walls

Certain walls can be broken with the right weapon. Walls degrade over multiple hits before breaking. Each weapon type interacts with its own wall type — a Blaster shot does nothing to a Gamma-beam wall and vice versa.

Weapon Progression Hits to break Drop on break
Blaster → → 3 Coin
Ice Ray → → 3 Coin
Gamma Beam → → 3 Coin, Fuel Cell
Plasma Beam → → 3 Heart, Fuel Cell

Items

Items are found placed on the map or dropped by enemies and broken walls. Walk over an item to pick it up.

Item Effect
Coin +1 coin
Fuel Cell +1 fuel cell (need 50 to win)
Heart Restores 1 heart (up to your current max)
Heart Container +1 maximum hearts, fully restores health
Ice Ray Adds Ice Ray to your weapons
Gamma Beam Adds Gamma Beam to your weapons
Plasma Beam Adds Plasma Beam to your weapons
Fire Rate Upgrade Increases rate of fire (~40% faster per upgrade)
Speed Boost +1 movement speed
Shield +1 shield level (each level reduces all damage by 20%)
Backup +1 extra life; sets your respawn point to your current location

Damage and Death

When your hearts reach zero, one of two things happens:

Stronger enemies deal enough damage to knock you back one tile on hit (any enemy dealing more than one-third of your max hearts). You cannot be knocked into a wall.

Enemies

All enemies move toward you when within detection range and attack by walking into you. They respawn over time while you explore.

Each enemy type has three tiers rolled at spawn. Higher tiers have more HP and deal more damage and appear with a distinct colour palette. Damage is rounded to the nearest half-heart after scaling.

Alien

Tier HP Damage
1 1 0.5
2 1.5 1.0
3 2 1.0

Bad Bunny

Tier HP Damage
1 1 0.5
2 1.5 1.0
3 2 1.0

Skullman

Tier HP Damage
1 2 1.5
2 3 2.5
3 4 3.0

Gremlin

Tier HP Damage
1 2 1.0
2 3 1.5
3 4 2.0

Twisted Cell

Tier HP Damage
1 6 3.0
2 9 4.5
3 12 6.0

Bounty Hunter

Tier HP Damage
1 4 2.0
2 6 3.0
3 8 4.0

Crabby Claw

Tier HP Damage
1 12 4.0
2 18 6.0
3 24 8.0

Ouchy Tree

Tier HP Damage
1 10 3.0
2 15 4.5
3 20 6.0

Spider Eye

Tier HP Damage
1 8 4.0
2 12 6.0
3 16 8.0

World Regions

The map is divided into regions with distinct enemy populations and difficulty. Max enemies on screen scales with difficulty.

Region Location (tiles) Difficulty Enemies
Ship x 0–15, y 0–14 2 Alien, Bad Bunny
Mezzanine x 0–15, y 15–31 4 Alien, Bad Bunny, Skullman
Surface x 16–31, y 0–15 4 Alien, Bad Bunny, Skullman
Wastes x 32–63, y 0–31 8 Alien, Bad Bunny, Skullman, Bounty Hunter, Crabby Claw, Twisted Cell
Ruins x 64–95, y 0–31 6 Alien, Skullman, Gremlin, Bounty Hunter, Spider Eye, Crabby Claw, Twisted Cell
SE Spread x 96–127, y 0–31 10 Gremlin, Bounty Hunter, Spider Eye, Crabby Claw, Ouchy Tree, Twisted Cell

The Store

Vending machines are scattered around the map. Walk onto one to make a purchase — coins are spent automatically on the best item you can afford.

Cost Item Condition
50 coins Backup (extra life + respawn point) Always available
10 coins Full heart Only if health is not full
5 coins Half heart Only if health is not full

The machine checks your coins from most to least expensive. If you can't afford anything, or your health is already full, it'll tell you.

Hazardous Terrain

Some floor tiles damage or slow you on contact.

Terrain Effect
Lava −1 heart on contact
Acid −0.5 hearts on contact
Water Movement speed halved while standing on it; returns to normal on exit

Portals and Stairs

Tile Effect
Portal Teleports you to a linked destination elsewhere on the map. Be warned: finding your way back may not be easy.
Stairs (down) Descend to a lower area of the map.
Stairs (up) Ascend to an upper area of the map.

Walk onto any of these tiles to trigger the transport sequence. The camera scrolls to your destination as you arrive.

Tips