Chip's Challenge/General hints

Chip's Challenge:

Level Pack 2:

This is a list of general hints for the game Chip's Challenge. Although things like hidden items under floor do not apply to the original Chip's Challenge, they are used frequently in custom-made level sets, and are therefore included here. A reference to "level xxx" means the level of specified number in the original Chip's Challenge.

Use force floors or ice (if they take you in the right direction) as often as possible.
If you are going across force floors or ice, when you hit a force floor, you can step off the force floor in ANY direction. It will only work for one square but might help your score a lot.
Try collecting things on your way to others. This will work for block pushing as well, and is one of Warwick Anderson's most frequently used block magic tricks.
When you are dealing with random monsters, plan a path through them (usually you can pretend they are not there). If you die, continue to try your route.
Be careful when pushing blocks on ice/force floors. They can squash you if they slide onto your square. Blocks can be pushed on random force floors.
You can block monsters with blocks.
You can wait until bugs/paramecia are one to the left/right (opposite to the direction they follow) with one behind you and then push the block/get the chip or boot/open the door/step on the dirt, etc. The monster will go in circles. Try this on level 141.
Learn the patterns of the monsters. Knowing how the monsters move will help you to bypass them when moving near them.
You can cause monsters to collide to send them to otherwise unreachable places.
Teeth are very dumb. They follow you but they don't have the sense to go around walls. If they have a choice between horizontal and vertical, they will always go vertical.
Many people recommend exiting and restarting the game in order to get the full level bonus and/or full first second. This is very cumbersome. An easier way is to go to the nearest timed level (make sure you are not in any danger) and let the clock run. As soon as the clock ticks, go to the next/previous level and you'll receive both!
Hidden fire/water/chips/keys/bombs/force floors/ice/blocks/sockets/doors/buttons/walls/pop-up walls/hints/thieves (under the floor) will not be effective when you initially reveal them. However, clone machines under anything make it a wall, dirt will still work like dirt (but not be "stepped on"), hidden exits/traps will respond immediately, and hidden teleports and toggle walls will not operate (teleport you anywhere or open/close, respectively).
Some monsters do not move. They will kill you only if you step on them.
Extra chips don't help you.
Bugs and walkers avoid fire, gliders go through water, and fireballs go through fire.
Monsters avoid random force floors.
A trap button hidden under anything (even floor!) will be "held down".
There may be multiple Chip characters (Chips) in a level. If any of them die, the level ends.
The level also ends if any "Chip swim" tiles (tiles which depict Chip swimming in water) are destroyed/killed.
Pressing two tank buttons or toggle buttons at the same time has no effect. Try this on levels 96 and 121, respectively.
To get past teeth, you should have a sense of rhythm.
Putting one block in position while you get another and then pushing the first block to the destination (while taking over the second) will increase your time on block pushing levels.
Anything under water (including an exit!) will be obliterated if you swim over it or if a glider runs over it. The same applies to a floor tile under water if a monster steps over it.
Although monsters on ice/force floors move at the same speed as you would, they cannot boost. Use this to get ahead of monsters in circles, and be careful if you are following behind a monster on a force path/ice slab.
In the Atari Lynx version, boosting is non-existent.
Sometimes it may be a better idea NOT to have suction boots or ice skates, for the sake of speed. A classic example is level 15.
If you or a monster step(s) off a trap button, it will remain "held down" for one more move. You can experiment with this on level 124, although it does not increase your time.
A Chip under the floor is not killed by a monster.
Be suspect of an exit that appears open to you. (e.g. secret traps may guard it, and you may have to hold down the trap or make a monster wipe it out (probably requiring the passage of the chip socket) to get to the exit.
Be familiar with what an exit looks like. Sometimes fake exits may be placed in a level to fool you!
If there are extra chips, get the nearest chips required until you are finished. Don't forget there may be chips on the way to the exit.
You can go through more than one socket.
You can skate through ice corners, provided you are ON the ice that you are skating off of, and that destination side adjacent to the corner is free.
Teleports read from right to left, and from bottom to top. If the destination teleport is blocked, you'll go to the next one. If they are all blocked, you'll slide across the teleport to the other side. If that is blocked as well, you rebound back to where you were.
You can boost out of teleports.
You move faster when you override force floors than when you are simply riding on a force floor path.
Monsters move before you do. Therefore, if you have a monster heading toward you and it is one square away, you will get hit before you can move. Two squares away is a safe distance. This system is different in the Lynx version and contributes to your ability to score higher than is achievable on the MS version on level 113.
While you must step on dirt created by a block pushing into water, you do not need to do so when a bomb detonates. On the Lynx, however, you must wait one move before continuing when water is bogged down or a bomb blows up. The block must sink, and the bomb debris must clear.
While only one clone machine or trap can be triggered by a specific button, multiple buttons may trigger the same machine or trap.
Be suspicious of large numbers of the same type of button in a level. There may be a system where the opening of a toggle wall/changing of the tanks/cloning/releasing of a trap may trigger a mechanism which prevents you from completing the level. For example, such a mechanism may kill a Chip or prevent access to a boot, key, chip, exit or other specific location in the level. Although mechanisms like this are not always detrimental, people sometimes make levels containing systems like this that must be avoided for successful completion of the level.
You can boost right past a monster, even if it is one square away from you.
If something is missing, try looking under the floorboards...
Some levels are possible to beat without the chips, even if they are seemingly "required". These levels are called "busted". Three "busted" examples are levels 20, 39, and 46. In fact, some levels request chips where none exist and the player must find the way around the chip socket, or there may be none at all.
Levels that are based on block-pushing are called "Sokoban" or "Pocoman" levels. These games are "block-pushing" games in which certain items have to be put on specific spots. A characteristic of a so-called Sokoban level is a lot of blocks in a level or a few blocks in a section of a level that have to be pushed into specific spots, such as onto trap buttons, water squares, bombs, or more elaborately, used to block a specific mechanism which prevents completion of the level otherwise. The upper right, lower left, and upper left areas of level 132 are examples, in which case you have to blow up the bombs to get the green key or push the blocks into the water. Sokoban levels are not common, but they are usually very difficult to optimize due to the intricacies of block-pushing.
Sometimes levels are based on a particular feature and the solution has something to do with the name of the level. Level 133, "BLOBDANCE", is such a level. You are in a sort of blob dance and you must dance with the blobs to complete the level.
Some levels require a specific sequence of events to occur in order to complete the level. Using level 132 as an example again, if you unlock the blocks at the lower left first, before releasing the teeth, you will not be able to get to the last block (guarded by the teeth), since you no will longer have a blue key. Generally, in situations like this, if you can trade a boot/key for the same boot/key, it will usually pay off be correct if there is something else along with the "clone" boot or key (in this case, the remaining block required).
Blocks are stopped by spies, dirt, fake walls, chips, or ice corners (in the case that you couldn't cross).
Be aware of the configuration of tiles that surrounds a blank tile or other tiles that you can enter, such as water, doors, fake walls, bombs, sockets, or dirt. There may be hidden goodies. Some of these tiles that stand alone, out in the open, can also contain goodies.
Chips, keys, boots, or blocks can be present under one other! However, 2 keys or 2 boots cannot be on the same square and will cause an error if stepped on. A key on top of a block tile might also cause an error.