Battle Unit Zeoth
Game Boy
Developer: Jaleco Entertainment Publisher: Jaleco Entertainment
By: GammaBetaAlpha
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Table of Contents
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Basics [HELP]
Walkthrough [WALK]
Donations/Amazon [DONT]
Contact Info [CONT]
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How to Play
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Battle Unit Zeoth is a bit of a hybrid of the shoot-em-up genre with a
little bit of extra freedom of movement added in, with three horizontally
scrolling levels where you can move your mecha unit around and shoot in all four
directions, and two vertically scrolling levels where you travel up and down the
levels, eliminating enemies along the way.
A further kink to the shmup designation is that the Zeoth unit does not
really fly on its own - rather, it hovers, with the A button specifically
designated to keeping it hovering in the air, while not hovering will cause it
to fall to the ground, where it will slide along the ground instead. Pressing
the Up button instead allows the Zeoth to aim straight up. Pressing down while
hovering will let you aim down, but pressing down without holding the A button
will cause the Zeoth to actually move down faster.
You do not get any mid-level checkpoints in any of the levels. However,
if the Zeoth is destroyed, Battle Unit Zeoth is rather generous in that it will
allow you to restart at the beginning of the current level with unlimited
continues. A bar in the lower right corner shows you the current amount of life
you have, with up to 8 bars, which can be replenished by the U powerup.
Battle Unit Zeoth is also a fairly easy game in that you can hold the B
button, and the Zeoth will rapid-fire its weapon. I recommend using the Bullets
weapon as opposed to the Laser weapon, as the bullets can be shot out much
faster, making it better for spamming purposes.
The Zeoth unit can also use the Hyper Bomb, which destroys all current
units on screen (but not bosses). This can be achieved by double-tapping the B
button in quick succession, but its fatal drawback is that it takes two bars off
your shield life.
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Controls
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A - Hover in the air
B - Fire bullets (Hold B for rapid-fire)
Double-tap to use Hyper Bomb
Left, Right - Move in that direction. Letting go keeps the Zeoth facing that
direction
Up - Lets the Zeoth aim up
Down - Lets the Zeoth aim down while actively hovering
Causes the Zeoth to fall faster while not hovering
Start - Pauses the game
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Power-Ups
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Power-Ups can be collected from each level by shooting item boxes that
look vaguely like flags. There are only two separate actual weapons, however,
with P and U being weapon upgrade and shield replenishment, respectively.
Switching between Bullets and Lasers does NOT downgrade the strength of your
weapon from Stage 2/3 to Stage 1.
(B) - Switches active weapon to Bullets
(L) - Switches active weapon to Lasers
(P) - Upgrades the power of your weapon, up to Stage 3
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Level One
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This first stage is fairly straightforward, as you will run into mostly
small enemies firing at you. Occasionally, you will also get ships coming in
from the left side, so do not hug too far to the left lest you be damaged. Stick
to the top section of the stage to try and grab yourself some powerups -
whenever you see something that looks vaguely like a flag, shoot it to reveal
your power-up. A P can increase your number of bullets from 1 to 2 (and then 2
to 4), while B will give you back some of your life.
Boss One
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Hover straight above the long gun protruding left from the vehicle that
makes up the boss to avoid the lasers that it will shoot out from time to time,
as it will spray out three sets of bullet pellets out up into the sky. There is
a fairly large sweet spot between the laser and the bullets to hover comfortably
in, so wait it out until the boss starts to drive to the left side.
When it does this, quickly fly over to the opposite side, and drop down.
Fire on the boss from the ground from the right side, and count the number of
times it has fired out bullets. Once it has done so a second time, quickly hover
back up so you are above level with the vehicle. When it is finished firing for
a third time, it will go to the right, so go to the left, wait out bullet fire
three times, then go to the right again to continue firing. Repeat until the
vehicle boss is finally destroyed.
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Level Two
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The second stage is a vertically scrolling stage, so you will be mostly
going down. Keep yourself to open spaces as often as you can to avoid getting
into crowded spots with enemies and bullets. In tighter spaces where enemies
stand as sentries, try to pick them off from afar before going in any further.
Once you make your way down far enough you will encounter another boss fight.
Boss Two
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When the second boss is at the right side of the screen the first time,
it will only shoot bullets to its lower left and lower right, so shoot at it
from the side during this time. Once it begins to move, quickly fly down and
right, and move to the far right side. Avoid a single big bullet that it will
shoot out from its 'shoulder' region, then turn around and shoot at it as it
goes left once more to the far left side. Repeat shooting at it until it moves
to the center again, then head back to the left side and repeat.
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Level Three
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By stage three, which is another horizontally scrolling stage, you
should already have a full four-bullet armament to spam enemies with. Keep to
the air and again watch out for enemies coming from behind to hit you. Whenever
you break open the power-up capsules, avoid anything that has the L label, as it
will give you a laser attack, which is far slower than the bullets that you can
just spam like crazy.
Boss Three
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The third boss will start by sending out a huge bullet from its lower
section. When it does this, jump up above the bullet, then quickly lower
yourself back to ground. Shoot at the boss's lower section, while ignoring the
lasers that it shoots above the Zeoth unit's head. However, keep an eye when it
stops firing lasers, as this is a sign that it is about to drop debris from
above: focus your lasers up and spam bullets to destroy whatever is coming right
at you.
Boss three has a fairly simple attack set, so once the lower section
starts forming another big bullet, use your hover to get above the firing range
of the bullet. After it has been fired, lower yourself back down and continue to
fire at the lower section of the boss.
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Stage Four
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This is the second and last of the vertical stages in the game, and it
is somewhat easier than stage two as most of the areas are far easier to
navigate, and your Battle Unit Zeoth must travel up as opposed to down, giving
you greater leeway to navigate whenever you see enemies coming down from above.
Overall nothing really new.
Boss Four
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The fourth boss of the game is probably the most aggravating, as it does
not have a set pattern of movement. At the start, it will shoot out bullets
twice from the center position. Get slightly to the left side of where its
center position is at, and you can avoid taking damage from both spray of
bullets. Once it moves to one side, quickly move to the other side, and it will
shoot out two larger bullets that fire out in L shapes, one that goes to the
outer border of the screen first, then a second one that goes slightly inwards.
The aggravation takes two different forms: whenever the boss goes to the
center and you avoid the bullet storm, you cannot tell which side it is going to
move to, so you will have to be constantly guessing, and it may sometimes go
from left to right and skip the center completely. Additionally, when it fires
its two bullets, it can either spit bullets out from its bottom hatch that go
left/right and thenup, or it can spit bullets out from the top that come down
and then go along the bottom side.
For the most part, you should avoid actually firing at the boss from its
side, and instead stick under its hatch side. From there, fire up at its belly,
and quickly skip out of the way whenever it releases larger bullets from its
bottom hatch.
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Stage Five
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For the last horizontally scrolling stage and last stage overall, you
will actually encounter fewer overall enemies, with a less crowded level, so
feel free to move around and spam as needed. On occasion, however, a big rock
will spin to the center of the screen. When this occurs, quickly shoot at it
until it is destroyed: if you neglect to destroy it in time, it will split into
five segments, one side going left, the other four in the diagonal directions.
Should you fail to destroy it, quickly move right underneath or right above
where the center segment is to avoid taking damage.
Boss Five
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The last boss has four separate attacks: the first of these is a spray
of three bullets going southwest from its center. The second is a spray of
larger missiles coming out of its foot region. The third is a couple of missiles
coming out of its chest, going left, and then coming down from above to try
attacking your Battle Unit Zeoth. The third is a long, thin wave of energy that
it shoots from its gun.
Astoundingly, it is rather easy to defeat the very last boss. Go all the
way to the left side of the screen, then face right. Once the boss shoots out
the three small bullet pellets, go right slightly, and there is a decently sized
sweet spot in between the leftmost and middle pellet where you can stand. From
this position, you can avoid damage from both the pellets and the energy wave
(which does not span the whole height of the screen, but only about the top half
and a bit of the screen), and if you are constantly spamming bullets, then you
should be able to instantly destroy any missiles shot out of the boss's foot
region.
The only downfall is that when the boss shoots missiles from its chest,
you will have to hit the up button to shoot missiles coming down at you from
above, and to shoot right again, you must press the right button, which will
force your Zeoth unit to move right slightly, and out of the comfort zone to
dodge bullet pellets. Instead of moving right, move left, then move right back
into position once the boss shoots pellets again and continue to fire at its
legs until it finally is destroyed. As the fifth boss is the last boss,
destroying it wins you the game.
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Other than that, considering this FAQ is for an obscure old game, if you
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Contact Info
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[CONT]
Although I believe I have found everything there is to find in this
game, there is occasionally the possibility of some super secret level in an
obscure game that was never found because it was too obscure, or the like. If
you have anything that you feel needs to be includes, feel free to email me at
gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
If you have any other information to contribute or notice any errors,
again, shoot me a notice at gammabetaalphafaqs AT gmail DOT com
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