Asteroids Deluxe Hints and Tricks
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Contributors:
Roger Bonine, Rajeev Gantela and Tim C


When the Killsat ("snowflake") ship comes out near the end of the
level, DO NOT attack it head-on. Shoot at it, turn around, get further
away, and then turn back towards it and keep firing. This way you
are moving backwards, but you keep firing at it. 

Your shields have a maximum life expectancy of 17 seconds. Each
collision with a rock takes away about six seconds of shield time.
Once your shield runs down, it can not be recharged. In other words:
use your shields as little as possible. 

In the original Asteroids game, the large UFO shot in a random
direction. In Deluxe, it shoots at rocks 75 percent of the time and
in the general direction of your ship 25 percent of the time. If no
rocks are nearby, all shots go towards your ship. This renders the
"save and hunt" strategy from original Asteroids useless. Also, the
small UFO can now shoot aimed wrap-around shots, and at the 60,000
point mark, both UFOs shoot with greatly improved accuracy. 

Some advanced players hunt Killsats in Asteroids Deluxe as they
hunted small UFOs in the original Asteroids. 

As the Killsat pieces chase you about (after the snowflake is broken
apart of course), you may use this to your advantage - if you
maneuver so that the pieces are between you and an attacking UFO,
this makes an effective shield, without having to waste your shields
on the annoyingly accurate UFO shots. Unfortunately, you don't get
the points for this, and similarly the pieces shield the UFO from you
as well. I find this tactic primarily useful when you still have lots
of rocks left, and don't have the maneuvering room to deal with the
pesky UFO.