Defenders of Dynatron(NES) FAQ/Walkthrough
version 1.0.1 by [email protected](anti spam spoonerism)

Please do not reproduce for profit without my consent. You won't be getting
much profit anyway, but that's not the point. This took time and effort, and
I just wanted to save a memory of an old game and the odd solutions any way I
could. Please send me an email referring to me and this guide by name if
you'd like to post it on your site.

This guide has a corresponding city map on GameFAQs. You can refer to it to
decide where to go. You can also rotate it and it will be clearer than the
in-game map.

================================

         OUTLINE

 1. INTRODUCTION

 2. CONTROLS

 3. STRATEGIES

 4. WALKTHROUGH

   4-1. CLEARING THE STREETS

   4-2. CLEARING THE MALL

   4-3. CLEARING THE SEWERS

   4-4. PROTO COLA

   4-5. DR. MAYHEM

 5. CHEATS

 6. VERSIONS/CREDITS

================================

 1. INTRODUCTION

Defenders of Dynatron City(DC) had some great ideas. But it didn't have much
else worth bothering with. It's just not a very good game. It features six
heroes you can interchange while running around Dynatron City, shooting down
monsters and eventually taking out Dr. Mayhem in a sequence of five scenes.
The first is really the most interesting and involved, and the rest do seem
to get a bit repetitive. The bad AI should eventually lose out to the bad hit
detection, but you'll be able to figure out how to hit the enemy most of the
time. Given that each scene has a time-limit, you may have to learn how to do
as much as you can before the bos fight and, yes, chisel a bit.

The six heroes:

# Jet Headstrong, who fires his head off
# Radium Dog, a green dog that bites people and things
# Miss Megawatt, who shoots electric bolts, potentially at diagonals

# Buzzsaw Girl, who rides quickly on a buzzsaw that is like a wheel
# Toolbox, a robot that hammers the ground uselessly as an attack
# Monkey Kid, a blue monkey who flings bananas

Thanks to Wikipedia for this information. They really do have the goods on
nearly everything!

 2. CONTROLS

Move left and right as expected. Up/down climbs ladder or walks up/down.

The controls for each person are different.

(A) attacks. (B) uses the special power, and you can hold down if the power
is flying.

# Jet Headstrong fires his head up, down or left. He flies for a power move.
You need to hold the head down for it to move all the way.
# Toolbox jumps up in the air for a power move. This is useful for defense or
jumping over random background damagers. He pounds what is ahead of him. He
also jumps down as a power move and can climb up stairs.
# Radium Dog floats in the air. He needs to get in close to beat someone, but
sometimes if they fire at face level, they can't really attack him. He can
rapid-bite which is nice.
# Buzzsaw Girl fires quickly and moves pretty quickly, and she flips up to
land and jump. The flip can damage an enemy, but you don't want to rely on
it. She can rapid fire if you hold the button down.
# Miss Megawatt can fire downwards diagonally but not (with any reliability)
upwards. Her power-up move is to move fast. This is useful against some
monsters but generally Buzzsaw girl can move fast enough. She cannot rapid-
fire.
# Monkey Boy throws bananas, which is pretty worthless.

(select/start) goes to the item adjust screen. It is a de facto way to freeze
the game. Use up/down to go among the 3 options. Use left/right and (A) to
choose a new character. (A) chooses the map and (A) clears it. (A) also uses
a supercharger, which makes you invulnerable and very powerful for a while.

 3. STRATEGIES

Sneak up behind monsters when possible. If not, move vertically to avoid
them, watch where they go, and loop around them. This negates the possibility
that you might not hit them. Most of the time you can hit fliers at the
bottom, lizards with an accurate shot, etc. But you should also give yourself
a way to flee if the hit that should count does not.

If you can run past monsters without damage, that is a huge advantage.

Don't feel guilty about rapid fire, or upset if you seem to hit a monster.
Collision detection is bad, though often enough the second hit will take out
a monster.

Watch the health and use Toolbox as a bunker if you are in a tight spot. Any
time an enemy hits you and the health goes way down, immediately focus on
avoiding and outflanking that enemy to kill it. There are some that randomly
do a lot of damage. Learn them.

Be aware of where the nearest food is. Before the next fight, or a big fight
you know is ahead, be sure to recharge. There is enough food, so it's better
to waste a bit of it and get to the maximum(112 for all except Toolbox, 224.)
The exception is if you don't have a lot of time. For that, you pretty much
have to just fire continually and learn from your mistakes. A dry run through
the game would probably help you long term.

Save states before each new street combat.

It's easy to remember right is east, but remember it is north too. And that
north/east INCREASES the street name(1..6, A..D). And neither exit up or down
makes a difference.
 4. WALKTHROUGH

Your heroes to choose from at the start are Jet Headstrong, Radium Dog, and
Ms. Megawatt. The other three are in your roster: Toolbox, Monkey Kid, and
Buzzsaw Girl. The two females are probably the best. I would choose Jet to
start out. You can get Ms. Megawatt, who is really better, later. The first
few fights should not be a problem. You want to make sure also that nobody
gets captured. If they are low on health, find food.

Toolbox is actually a decent guy to have around because he has a ton of hit
points. However, it is not worth keeping Monkey Kid.

??trade Jet Headstrong at start for Ms Megawatt. Where does JH appear?

   4-1. CLEARING THE STREETS

1200 time to complete this. At ten streets, plus a boss fight, that is 110
time-units(seconds) per street. At first, you will have easy fights, but they
get tougher. You will want to pick up Radium Dog along the way, trading
Monkey Kid. You'll also want to pick up some power-ups, to make it quicker to
get through the Sewers. I also have a recommended order of clearing the
streets, as monsters flying from the sides can be rather nasty, and you want
to be able to fire at them before they shoot.

If you played through the game without really trying to solve it you may
notice that your health falls off a cliff on one of the later fights. This is
not an accident, but it sure seems like a dumb part of the gameplay. Jumping
monsters in the last two to four streets do 36(!) damage, while everyone else
does 1 damage. This is a recurring theme in the game, and it quite simply
gives you no clue who does what damage. If you are using an emulator, I
strongly recommend you save after each completed area, provided you get
through quickly. And be constantly firing with Buzzsaw Girl.

But anyway--you have 10 streets to clear and 1200 time units to do it in.
Each street shouldn't take much more than 60, leaving you a lot of time to
wander around. The boss fight will take 150 at most. So first, here is the
pattern of enemies, and then I'll give the pattern of streets.

1. walkers
2. walkers
3. walkers
4. 2 flyers, walker
5. flyers
6. flyers
7. jumpers
8. jumpers
9. everyone, heavy damage from jumpers
10. everyone, heavy damage from jumpers

Walkers are easy to just get behind and shoot. Align your feet horizontally
with the flyers and shoot away--you can either shoot their heads or base to
dismantle them. If Buzzsaw Girl fires continually, she'll get them. Jumpers
are tougher. You need to be able to duck their bullets and turn around. They
jump to synchronize themselves with you, so if they get close, you can move
vertically. Also they cannot fire if hit, so if you get the first hit in, you
shouldn't have a problem. That isn't always a sure thing with the game's
collision detection, but there's a way to avoid that, mostly.

The path I recommend to get through this level is as follows. It's implicit
that you clear things before doing anything. Parentheses are for cleared
streets.

C street, switch to Buzzsaw Girl and kill everyone and exit on right. You
can, if you want, visit the Doctor and Police for hints, though the hints are
random. You just need to fire continually at whatever monsters are there. You
get $5 for each one. It's good practice but not critical.
6 street, kill everyone and exit on the left edge--remember to get the
Megawatt power item in the auto dealer/repair. You'll need to flip to Ms
Megawatt and back.

Note that you appear from the right edge. This is useful later because the
jumpers will appear from the left edge, and you can blast them as they come
in, or shoot them once, then run at them and turn and fire as they go to the
right edge. Don't move from the right screen. And if your hits do go down,
search out food to regain health. You can only take two critical hits before
a player is captured, and the game isn't much good at showing you when
they'll occur.

A street, kill everyone and exit on the right.
(6 street, go to the right edge--no passage to street B)
D street, kill everyone and go 1 street left.
5 street, kill everyone and exit on the right.
(D street, go 1 street left)
4 street, kill everyone and exit on the right.
(D street, get the Buzzsaw Girl Power-up from the Hardware Store right of
Matt's Meats, go 1 street left)
3 street, kill everyone and exit on the right.
(D street, get the Toolbox power-up from the Drug Store left of Matt's Meats,
go 1 to the left edge--no passage to street 2)
1 street, kill everyone, enter the toy store to trade Monkey Kid for Radium
Dog and go to the 2nd-left street.
B street, kill everyone and go to the 2nd-left street.
2 street, kill everyone. Enter the sporting goods store for a Ms Megawatt
power-up. Go to the right street. Though you may wish to get some food before
you do so.
C street, go to the left edge to activate the boss, then go right and start
firing right away. Eventually the supercharger will appear on the bottom part
of the blimp. Hit it a few times and you win. You may have fliers to contend
with but they won't do damage. Keep in the neighborhood of the bottom
supercharger and keep firing away, and you should hit it pretty quickly. Pick
up the supercharger(twinkly thing that falls to the ground) and you are ready
for stage 2.

   4-2. CLEARING THE MALL

You may wish to pick up power-ups if you haven't already. With my
walkthrough, you just need to go to street 6 to get the Radium Dog powerup on
the right edge. You have 1000 time and I found I could use 300 or so getting
power-ups in various buildings. So, if you do not have them, or you need/want
food, get that now. Use the game map/my map.

Use Buzzsaw Girl for this. Wait for the Robosaurus to come to you, or else it
may jump out from the side and blast you. Be prepared to retreat diagonally
as soon as you see the Robosaurus. The plan to win is pretty simple here. You
find a Robosaurus, retreat and fire 3 shots. Then repeat. When he gets close,
move diagonally above/below him and circle around, and repeat the other
direction til he's dead. You want to make sure you are horizontally aligned
with him--he will flash when you shoot. You can also fire when the Robosaurus
is off the screen--in fact, this will stop him from shooting. However, don't
stay too long as the baby Robosauri can do damage. Retreat and fire off the
screen, then if you get to the right edge, loop and repeat. Then take the
elevator--run to the edge and push down at the curved bit. You may want to
buy food on the first level--there's not much else to do with your money. You
won't really have time to spend it in the sewers, so spend it now.

The final gun, Atom Ed, is not too bad. Fire at it, hit it three times or so,
retreat diagonally, then fire again. Don't wait for it to come onscreen. If
it does fire, note that you can outrun the fire easily, but don't get too
cocky. I also found it easier to work firing from the left at Atom Ed than
the right.

--level 1 has 1 robosaurus
--level 2 has 2
--level 3 has 3, then Atom Ed.

You get another supercharger for clearing this. Again, hold off using the
supercharger until the final boss.

   4-3. CLEARING THE SEWERS

This is not too bad, except for the time constraints of 800 units. Use Ms.
Megawatt, who can run fast, to get through here. There are basically two
sorts of enemies. The lizards, whom you can retreat/fire at, and the birds,
which fire diagonally. The lizards are the most dangerous, as they do 36
damage.

For Lizards you can actually run past them and they'll swing at you and miss.
For birds, you can fire at them from the top part and nail the two center
ones. You need to climb up the ladder a bit to take out the top one in the
group of four, but an angled shot can take out the bottom one. Climbing on
and off the ladder can be criminally difficult, so watch for this.

You get 800 time to win this, which is really barely enough, so proceed
quickly. Wipe out the bottom row moving left to right, then the top. You can
use emulation save states to see if anything is over on one side, then you
can try another. To avoid going back and forth too much, the pattern I
recommend is:

5-D-1-A-6-C-2-B-4-B-3.

The sewer boss is on 2nd street, and it is not hard. You just go to the top,
fire right, go back left, kill a lizard, then go back right and fire. You can
even kill lizards with a diagonal shot. You won't see the supercharger during
this, but you'll see the screen shaking. After killing enough, you'll see the
supercharger drop to the bottom. Pick it up.

Incidentally a map of what exits are where(up or down) is below, just for
fun.


v-------v---v 6
|       |   |
|       |   |
|       |   |
|   ^---^---v 5
|   |   |   |
|   |   |   |
|   |   |   |
v---^---v---^ 4
|   |   |   |
|   |   |   |
|   |   |   |
^---v---^---v 3
|   |   |   |
|   |   |   |
|   |   |   |
v---v---v   | 2
|   |   |   |
|   |   |   |
|   |   |   |
v---v---v---v 1

A   B   C   D

   4-4. PROTO COLA

Time: 700

The enemies look tough but, in fact, Monkey Kid is the toughest enemy, with
the bubbles(4 damage) being the worst of the rest. Without the bubbles, this
would be rather easy. You should use auto-fire to tackle the enemies, except
when you need to run, which should not be often. If there are too many
bubbles, you can use Megawatt Girl to run, then switch to another enemy. It's
also viable to use a superhero with a lot of health to absorb bubble damage,
then switch to the superhero that can do damage. This is tedious but probably
necessary.

Also, don't worry if Megawatt Girl or Toolbox gets captured, as long as you
are making decent progress. It's even ok if Buzzsaw Girl gets captured if you
have Radium Dog at decent strength. The only thing you need to do here is get
out with Radium Dog alive. And in the meantime, you just need to be hitting
the enemy, and you probably are if you see them flashing. Toolbox has more
hit points than you think he does, so don't be shy switching to him and back.
You may wish to avoid lots of bubbles at once, so you may want to get them
off the screen, but other than that, jump over them and attack enemies as you
see fit. Buzzsaw girl is great for long range, and Radium Dog is best for if
two enemies are in close.

First set of enemies: 25 hits(0x19) for each

The first set of enemies is two of Monkey Kid. You can back them into a
corner with Radium Dog and just have him eat them to death. If there are a
lot of bubbles, clear them with Toolbox jumping on them and then return with
Radium Dog. You may wish to use Buzzsaw Girl if Radium Dog's health goes to
1/2 or so.

Second set of enemies: 30 hits(0x1e) for each

The second set of enemies is two sets of Toolbox. Buzzsaw Girl can blast
them, run past them and blast them from the other side. But you need to have
Toolbox and Ms. Megawatt spell her. One runs/jumps away and then Buzzsaw Girl
blasts from a distance, and the enemies will go down. Again you may have to
juggle everyone's health here.

Third set of enemies: 35 hits(0x23) for each

The third set of enemies is two sets of Buzzsaw Girl. Fortunately the AI is
terrible. Radium Dog will rip them apart. Get in close and start biting. Then
once you are done, use another guy to get the supercharger on the bottom.

   4-5. DR. MAYHEM

Time: 600

This one's really corny. I just walked up to Dr. Mayhem and had Radium Dog
start barking at him. I had no problem taking him out using the
superchargers. You just make sure he's flashing and then hit the A button. I
was able to win starting with x60 health, so you can probably win with Radium
Dog pretty quickly.

 5. CHEATS

0x9c = player #1 power
0x9d = player #2 power
0x9e = player #3 power
0x9f = player #4 power
0xe7 = player #1
0xe8 = player #2
0xe9 = player #3
0xea = player #4
 Values
 0=Toolbox
 1=Buzzsaw Girl
 2=Monkey Kid
 3=Jet Headstrong
 4=Radium Dog
 5=Ms Megawatt
0xeb = player #1 hit points
0xec = player #2 hit points
0xed = player #3 hit points
0xee = player #4 hit points
(note: freezing player #1's values makes the game rather easy)
(also if a player is trapped, resetting brings him back)

0x543 = enemy 1's hits(especially useful in boss fights)
0x544 = enemy 2's hits
0x702 = cash(in increments of $5)
0x705 = # of superchargers
0x7fe = thousands and hundreds digits of time(eg 0x99 = 9900)
0x7ff = tens and ones digit of time(eg 0x99 = 99)

End of FAQ Proper

================================

 6. VERSIONS/CREDITS

0.9.0: sent to GameFAQs 5/5/2009, complete but lacking full detailed
instructions on how to get through and handle the worse damage
1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 5/5/2009, complete with a guide through
1.0.1: sent to GameFAQs 5/6/2009, added sewer map and general details

Thanks to the usual GameFAQs/honestgamers gang, current and emeritus. They
know who they are, and you should, too, because they get/got some SERIOUS
writing done. Good people too--bloomer, falsehead, Sashanan, Masters, Retro,
Snow Dragon/Brui5ed Ego, ZoopSoul, War Doc, Brian Sulpher, AdamL, odino, JDog
and others I forgot. OK, even Hydrophant in his current not-yet-banned
message board incarnation. I am not part of his gang, but I want him to be
part of mine.
Thanks to the NES Completion Project for keeping it going.
Thanks to SBAllen for putting various North American NES games up for a
bounty. I'd never have discovered this game otherwise.
All you people at honestgamers, YELL AT ME if I forgot you and you deserve to
be in there. I mean, it's partially because of HGWars I wrote this FAQ, and I
want to add to this in the future.
Wikipedia, for their information on Defenders of Dynatron City.

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