After beating Barbuta and really enjoying it, I decided to give Bug Hunter a try next- I don’t play many strategy games and there are so many options and variables I was finding it a bit overwhelming- however this video is really useful I feel like I’m understanding a bit of how to use the game’s tools, or at least one successful way to use them!
This strategy is effective for speedruns but I can tell you right now it is not easy to use at all. The biggest problem you have with this is that you can't reliably get more than two or maybe 3 energy cubes at once, and you have to use your movement to collect them. AND, if you fail to get enough to spend even once you will most likely lose. This strategy only works while the bugs are early in their evolution. Every time you fail to kill every bug on screen, they cycle further, making it that much harder for you to get a kill, and they're already guaranteed to cycle forward at least once. It's much, much easier if you get even a single support module, and the four cube modules are tremendously powerful. The cubes do block the enemy from spawning, however, which is nice. It's not something you can rely on unless you're doing this, though.
I’ve never been a speedrunner but lately I’ve been thinking about trying to come up with a route for Mini & Max. I can’t wait to see the kind of speedruns that spring from this game, as so many of its games feel perfect for it.
Especially now that the glitch that lets you clip out of the closet is gone - definitely an amazing timesave, but I was hoping to see people try and plan out cool routes for the actual game lol
i just got cherry on this! :) (sorry if you also did and this comment is outdated lol) here are the mechanics i didnt fully understand at the start but that are very handy to know + some advice: 1) you can push bugs into energy cubes to kill them. the energy cube wont make a big explosion like normal but only damage the bug pushed into it. you can also push bugs into holes to kill them. you can also push them to line them up, so you can kill 2 bugs with one shot. 2) if youre standing on an elevated position, you can walk immediately into/through an adjacent bug on lower elevation to squash it. even insta-killing purple beetles who normally have 2hp. you can also do this with a jumping action. 3) there are 3 types of larva: blue, purple and red. these can evolve into 2 different types of bugs per color, a total of 6 unique bugs. when 2 different types of bugs have been introduced, no more different types of bugs can spawn/evolve. a BIG part of my strategy is to prioritize which color larva to kill in order to manipulate what bug types i have to deal with. in my opinion red is hardest to deal with since it has bats which are very hard to kill, and the other spike guys who are somewhat hard to kill. purple are mid because its a roulette between either the purple beetles who are very hard to kill, or the purple squid which is one of the easiest enemies. blue is the easiest because both the blue bearded guy on mountains and crying anti-energy guys are easy to kill. so always make sure no red can evolve, and purple also if able. blue larva should be lowest priority. if one type of bug has already evolved make sure to prioritize killing larva of the other colors, so you only have to deal with one bug type with an ability, while the other bug types STAY easy by not having abilities. 4) your win condition is killing a certain number of bugs within a time frame and killing eggs do not count as killing bugs, so you should always try to kill bugs in their last stage before they evolve into eggs if possible, since eggs require you to kill them anyway but now you dont get any reward for it. 5) when a bug type has evolved, it stays evolved at that level. whenever the game spawns a certain bug color, they're always in the latest stage that bug has ever evolved to (except egg stage). this means ideally you should sacrifice everything to try and kill every bug every turn, since it effectively buys you a turn, by preventing every bug from evolving. the game is very steamrolly so get the best start you can. if you keep things under control early it gets very easy to do the rest of the job. 6) this might just be my stupid brain but take the time to think of every possible move if an obvious best solution isn't apparent. i often get impatient personally and just go with a move where i think "eh looks good enough", but since the game is so steamrolly you really want to make the smartest moves especially early on. this'll make your moves later easier. 7) when you buy modules, switch out with modules youve already used if possible, or use a module before switching it out for a new one you buy. not doing this is just wasting a move. 8) if the shop doesnt sell a 2-cost module you'd like right now, but there's a collect module in the shop and some energy cubes lying around, you can buy it, use it to collect 2+ energy to effectively reroll a module in the shop. 9) 3 energy cubes on a single space will explode, so never end a turn next to 2 energy cubes or a chain of energy cubes connected to 2 energy cubes, since theres a chance an energy cube might spawn on the 2 energy cubes at the start of each round and make it explode. sorry if it seems basic but ive lost 3+ runs to this in my 7 hours of playing lol 10) anti energy works likes this (in case you like me didnt get it for a long time): attacking spaces with anti-energy adds another anti-energy on the space. 3 anti-energy make an egg instead of an explosion. pushing a bug into anti-energy also makes it into an egg. collecting an anti-energy just robs you of that number of energy. the anti-energy reverts back to normal energy when all adjacent anti-energy bug guys are killed. if you kill the bug that makes anti-energy with the same attack that attacks the anti-energy, the anti-energy behavior applies even though it should be turned into normal energy right after the attack. sometimes you can use this to your advantage by for example attacking the bug and one anti energy. this adds another anti energy to that space; 2 total, and then those anti-energy turn into regular energy because the bug died with that attack. now you can collect 2 energy instead of 1. also embarrassed to admit this, but save-scumming doesn't work haha. if you leave DURING a job, even before you lose, your streak is not saved. hope this helps :)
@@orangepinecone Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of this. I just got the cherry myself, and I entirely believe it's all thanks to your insight!
This is the best guide I've read on Bug Hunter. I've gotten so into this one. For like an hour of gameplay I couldn't complete the first job, then after like 6 hours I got gold. Got cherry after about 10 hours. I've gotten up to 9th job, then accidentally blew myself up bomberman style due to a chain going around a corner. Bug Hunter is amazing.
![[UFO50] Golfaria speedrun in 14:58.420](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tJj7onVnUgw/mqdefault.jpg)
After beating Barbuta and really enjoying it, I decided to give Bug Hunter a try next- I don’t play many strategy games and there are so many options and variables I was finding it a bit overwhelming- however this video is really useful I feel like I’m understanding a bit of how to use the game’s tools, or at least one successful way to use them!
This strategy is effective for speedruns but I can tell you right now it is not easy to use at all. The biggest problem you have with this is that you can't reliably get more than two or maybe 3 energy cubes at once, and you have to use your movement to collect them. AND, if you fail to get enough to spend even once you will most likely lose. This strategy only works while the bugs are early in their evolution. Every time you fail to kill every bug on screen, they cycle further, making it that much harder for you to get a kill, and they're already guaranteed to cycle forward at least once. It's much, much easier if you get even a single support module, and the four cube modules are tremendously powerful. The cubes do block the enemy from spawning, however, which is nice. It's not something you can rely on unless you're doing this, though.
I’ve never been a speedrunner but lately I’ve been thinking about trying to come up with a route for Mini & Max. I can’t wait to see the kind of speedruns that spring from this game, as so many of its games feel perfect for it.
Especially now that the glitch that lets you clip out of the closet is gone - definitely an amazing timesave, but I was hoping to see people try and plan out cool routes for the actual game lol
advice for getting cherry on this?
i just got cherry on this! :) (sorry if you also did and this comment is outdated lol)
here are the mechanics i didnt fully understand at the start but that are very handy to know + some advice:
1) you can push bugs into energy cubes to kill them. the energy cube wont make a big explosion like normal but only damage the bug pushed into it. you can also push bugs into holes to kill them. you can also push them to line them up, so you can kill 2 bugs with one shot.
2) if youre standing on an elevated position, you can walk immediately into/through an adjacent bug on lower elevation to squash it. even insta-killing purple beetles who normally have 2hp. you can also do this with a jumping action.
3) there are 3 types of larva: blue, purple and red. these can evolve into 2 different types of bugs per color, a total of 6 unique bugs. when 2 different types of bugs have been introduced, no more different types of bugs can spawn/evolve. a BIG part of my strategy is to prioritize which color larva to kill in order to manipulate what bug types i have to deal with. in my opinion red is hardest to deal with since it has bats which are very hard to kill, and the other spike guys who are somewhat hard to kill. purple are mid because its a roulette between either the purple beetles who are very hard to kill, or the purple squid which is one of the easiest enemies. blue is the easiest because both the blue bearded guy on mountains and crying anti-energy guys are easy to kill. so always make sure no red can evolve, and purple also if able. blue larva should be lowest priority. if one type of bug has already evolved make sure to prioritize killing larva of the other colors, so you only have to deal with one bug type with an ability, while the other bug types STAY easy by not having abilities.
4) your win condition is killing a certain number of bugs within a time frame and killing eggs do not count as killing bugs, so you should always try to kill bugs in their last stage before they evolve into eggs if possible, since eggs require you to kill them anyway but now you dont get any reward for it.
5) when a bug type has evolved, it stays evolved at that level. whenever the game spawns a certain bug color, they're always in the latest stage that bug has ever evolved to (except egg stage). this means ideally you should sacrifice everything to try and kill every bug every turn, since it effectively buys you a turn, by preventing every bug from evolving. the game is very steamrolly so get the best start you can. if you keep things under control early it gets very easy to do the rest of the job.
6) this might just be my stupid brain but take the time to think of every possible move if an obvious best solution isn't apparent. i often get impatient personally and just go with a move where i think "eh looks good enough", but since the game is so steamrolly you really want to make the smartest moves especially early on. this'll make your moves later easier.
7) when you buy modules, switch out with modules youve already used if possible, or use a module before switching it out for a new one you buy. not doing this is just wasting a move.
8) if the shop doesnt sell a 2-cost module you'd like right now, but there's a collect module in the shop and some energy cubes lying around, you can buy it, use it to collect 2+ energy to effectively reroll a module in the shop.
9) 3 energy cubes on a single space will explode, so never end a turn next to 2 energy cubes or a chain of energy cubes connected to 2 energy cubes, since theres a chance an energy cube might spawn on the 2 energy cubes at the start of each round and make it explode. sorry if it seems basic but ive lost 3+ runs to this in my 7 hours of playing lol
10) anti energy works likes this (in case you like me didnt get it for a long time): attacking spaces with anti-energy adds another anti-energy on the space. 3 anti-energy make an egg instead of an explosion. pushing a bug into anti-energy also makes it into an egg. collecting an anti-energy just robs you of that number of energy. the anti-energy reverts back to normal energy when all adjacent anti-energy bug guys are killed. if you kill the bug that makes anti-energy with the same attack that attacks the anti-energy, the anti-energy behavior applies even though it should be turned into normal energy right after the attack. sometimes you can use this to your advantage by for example attacking the bug and one anti energy. this adds another anti energy to that space; 2 total, and then those anti-energy turn into regular energy because the bug died with that attack. now you can collect 2 energy instead of 1.
also embarrassed to admit this, but save-scumming doesn't work haha. if you leave DURING a job, even before you lose, your streak is not saved.
hope this helps :)
@@orangepinecone Thank you so much for taking the time to write all of this. I just got the cherry myself, and I entirely believe it's all thanks to your insight!
@@Ffouks aw thank you so much for telling me ^^ and good job! congrats on cherry! :D
This is the best guide I've read on Bug Hunter. I've gotten so into this one. For like an hour of gameplay I couldn't complete the first job, then after like 6 hours I got gold. Got cherry after about 10 hours. I've gotten up to 9th job, then accidentally blew myself up bomberman style due to a chain going around a corner. Bug Hunter is amazing.
Crooks River
Ulises Falls
Runolfsson Summit
Dickens View