P'Radikus Conflict(NES) FAQ/Walkthrough
version 1.1.0 by [email protected]

Or, how to win at P'Radikus Conflict without ever really getting any good at
it, or actually being clever

Please do not reproduce this FAQ for profit without my prior consent. If you
write a polite e-mail to me referring to me(and this FAQ) by name, then I
will probably say OK. But if I ignore you that means no--and I am bad about
answering e-mail. Sorry.

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           OUTLINE

 1. INTRODUCTION

 2. CONTROLS

 3. STRATEGY

 4. WALKTHROUGH

 5. CHEATS

 6. VERSIONS/CREDITS

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

 1. INTRODUCTION

P'Radikus Conflict comes off as much more intimidating than it needs to be.
All those worlds, systems and galaxies! Actually, though, it's only a few
missions, with a bunch of breaks in between. It's a somewhat unrealistic
mishmosh of RPG and space travel where you shoot down enemy craft and then
make money and get missions and then shoot down bases. However everything's
so depressingly the same except for how enemies get faster and more lethal
and take more hits to kill. The result is a very paint by numbers game that
never really gets interesting and, worse, never lets you save your progress.
One slip leaves you in the soup.

As usual with Color Dreams, decent ideas get sucked down into terrible
execution and perfunctory details, and it's just not terribly fun. Star
Raiders did it all better several years ago. Sure, there are some neat ideas-
-get the Thunderbolt weapon and then the Toson drive, and go to the far-away
P'Radikus galaxy--but such a long game really is horribly planned out, and
it's no fun to get caught up in details--such as they are--when the details
themselves don't evolve. You get a bunch of planets with different color
swirls around them, and sometimes you're dropped in a different random place
in a galaxy with an easy-to-follow map, but nothing's too taxing--and once
you get the Thunderbolt weapon, arithmetic tells you when to use it.

Still, with the miracle of emulation, this game is not so bad. There are only
eight quests you have to do, and you sort of feel as though you did save a
galaxy if you ignore that you barely saw any of it. So let's get to it.

 2. CONTROLS

First, Darkstar Ripclaw pointed out that an emulator that allows auto-fire is
good for this game. Firing A all the time gets tedious, you can't hold it
down to continue firing, and it doesn't drain fuel. Nestopia allows this.
Fceuxd, for all its good points, doesn't--as of this release, anyway. That I
know of.

left/right turns your ship. Down turns the brakes. Up accelerates--your ship
slowly loses pace if you let go of the controls.
(A) fires your main weapon, which is straight ahead.
(B) fires your secondary weapon, which has limited uses.
Start pauses the game.
Select brings you to a menu. If you are close to a living planet or a base
you can enter (1 width away and you should be able to land--don't sweat being
on top of it,) you get
 WARP: you can move to other sectors. The cost is 20 for 1 square, 15 for
each additional one--it's on a grid and not Pythagorean.
 MAP: shows your ship and where it is in relation to the planets. Glowing
ones have life. Bases are x's. Move left and right to see their coordinates.
 SCAN: shows you the main screen again.
 EQUIP: lets you equip special items including weapons you can use with (B).
 MISSION: tells your current mission.

Note that you have 16 directions to move your ship in. While precise
coordinates of where you are may not be available, you can use the map and
also this handy formula, which I am showing off because I am like that, to
determine what trajectory to use and for how long.

tangent of 22.5 degrees = up/across = 1-sin 45/cos 45=sqrt2 - 1
If at 22.5 degrees from horizontal, you go 1 up for every 2.4 out (2.414,
okay...)
If at 45 degrees, then you go 1 up for every 1 out
If at 67.5 degrees, you go 2.4 up for every 1 out
If at 0/90 then straight up/down.

With this you can do rough estimations of coordinates and distances between
planets. However, your best bet is to just line your ship up and run at the
next planet, using small movements and the arrow at the bottom of the screen
when you're close. It's totally unreliable when you're far away--it just
points any old way.

The only way out of a sector is to warp--otherwise you will just run along
the edges. Similarly, the only way out of a planet or base is to go to the
menu and hit A. Then the next time you go in, all gunners will be restored.

If you want to have to repeat a base or planet battle, then switch to menu
mode just as you kill the final cannon on the ground. Then return and you
won't get the all clear. Just in case, you know, it doesn't get repetitive
enough.


 3. STRATEGY

Completing missions out of order doesn't let you skip ahead.

Remember to use the map right away to see where you are, as where you
teleport to is pretty much random within a certain central area.

Always come to a complete stop before turning. Control is so wobbly that
using momentum just wastes time and leaves you open to more unexpected fire,
especially in bases.

Be sure a base gun is all the way on screen before firing. They can see you
when they're off screen, but you can't shoot them, which kind of stinks.

========

Try and take on only one ship or station gun at the same time. This sounds
like obvious advice, but basically for much of the early game you can just
shoot enemies and wait for your shield to recharge. The higher level it is,
the quicker it recharges. So you can outrun a lot of enemies, or use an EMP
wave on them, or turn around and blast them if things get really tough. EMP
waves don't last long but work great in a pinch. Remember that game time does
not pass when you are in inside-the-ship mode, so use that to see where your
shields are. Once shields are down to zero, armor starts getting zapped. If
you're really in trouble, you can sometimes bail out and go back home. The
big problem may occur when you took 50 fuel to get somewhere and it takes 50
to get back. Then you have to bite the bullet.

So how do you win quickly, on a base or on the ground?

The ground, or a planet, is pretty easy. You start from the left and go
right. Run past the first two pairs of guns, which should miss you. You'll
run into a Y-shaped group of enemy guns in the center. Here is how best to
take them out.

   *       *

       *

       *

The first gun you'll see is the one on the left. You can put on the brakes
and fire right--you may have to move up or down fractionally so that you hit
it. Once you've gunned that down, you can move a bit up, to the right of the
middle--there'll be a 45 degree turn down for the next part of the octagon in
the center. Then go down and take that guy out. Go down the center next to
get the remaining two enemies. You may be unlucky with the timing, given how
the bases open and close and are only vulnerable when open, and if so, brake
and fire.

Once you kill the center gun, you recharge with fuel from the base and may
get a bonus miscellaneous weapon. You will leave to the outerworld, and you
can probably warp home then.

Now space stations are a bit different. First, you have to break down their
shields. They start out as white steering wheels, but several hits and they
get greyish and stop firing. Then, the shields are down, and you can enter.
No matter which edge you land on, you're dumped somewhere random. If you come
from either side, then you can proceed as above. However, it may be better to
come in from the top/bottom. If you are in the top corner or bottom corner,
head horizontally to the center.

If you are at the top, cloak yourself near the enemies and go slowly, firing
down. You can take out the center guys that way. Then go a third-screen left
and north. Blast the one gun, land on it, turn right and blast right. This is
all very formulated and does not take into account enemy ships--they're worth
taking out with mines you leave behind or even missiles if you have a glut--
but it works. You may have to fire at the bases until they open, though if
you have the Thunderbolt, bases are the best place to use it.

Also, the Thunderbolt is handy for when you want to break down a base's
shield. No sense wasting time. The Thunderbolt also is wide, so you don't
have to calculate the angle of a shot precisely.

 4. WALKTHROUGH

Through this, remember your home base is at 4,4 15,16 63,80. You'll be going
back there a lot after each mission to get your next one.

Mission 1: get 2 shield and 2 drive

* Once you do this, you can attack enemy bases.

* I actually found it easiest to pile up 4 shield, 4 power and 4 drive. If
you are using an emulator, you can just sit around and fire away. You can
even get hit. You can build up the shield first, then you should have no
problem taking enemies out. This may be a bit tedious, though, so you may
want to go with just 4 shield and cover the other two as you complete more
missions.

The way you do this is just to shoot some enemies and keep your armor and
fuel up. You can steer away from enemies that approach you from behind, then
turn and fire while you move. Check your stats after every few fights, or if
you got hit.

I don't recommend moving around much unless you need to avoid getting hit,
but if you must, the map will tell you the way back to base. You don't need
too much to get 2 shield/drive, but I'd recommend buying Laser Cannons first.
They are 15000, which is maybe ten enemies. Also, if things are going well,
you can get up to 4 shield, power and drive. This is a non-risky way to go
about things, though it takes a while.

Mission 2: destroy the space station at 5,3 12,5 82,73

Go to Warp. Push right and up. Push A. Push right twice so you are at (12,5)
and push A. You'll see a map with the destination 82,73.

You'll need to head east-south-east. The arrows should help tell you which
way to go. Note you'll go by a planet and then the base. You'll know the
base, because it'll fire at you. Don't worry about that. Just charge in and
fire back. Once it explodes and looks like a shell of what it was, that means
you destroyed the shields and you can enter. You may want to rest up and
recharge your shields before doing so.

You may enter at various points in the map--the base is a circle in the
middle of a square. You will want to get to the center, where the guns you
need to take out are as follows:

   Y   Y
     Y

     Y

You will want to ignore the guns around the base. Fighting them only takes
time. Get to the center as soon as you can--but don't face more than one gun
at a time. You'll be using the brakes no matter which way you come from. If
you come from the south, then, take out the bottom one, then the center, then
go off to one side, hit that gun and hit the other. Take your time to wipe
out any other enemies that may fly at you. You should be able to turn in
time, but if not, go forward, brake and turn and fire.

From the top or the side, you simply reverse the procedure. You should be
able to figure where the guns are, as the grey part of the base extends a
half-screen away from the light-grey part. Just inch forward and nail the
base.

Once you kill all four center guns, you'll get to recharge fuel from the
base. You can go home and get your next mission.

The strategy section has more details.

Mission 3: (3,5) (14,3) destroy all bases

Left and down from 4,4 to get to 3,5
1 right to get to 3,5 14,3

Now you will see a bunch of circles that glow and others that don't. The
glowing circles are bases. Take them all out, and you've completed the
mission.

The details, you ask...

Well, head east or northeast to the clump of four planets. It doesn't matter
what order you take them in, because they all have the same pattern. You move
in from the right, and I recommend actually moving down and going to the
left, zigzagging.

The treasures appear to be random although you seem to get either 10000
credits, 25 cloaking devices, 25 mines, 25 missiles or nothing.

First clump:
99,42
114,044
113,50
108,28

Upper left:
12,10

Lower left:
26,88
25,101

Center-ish:
12,10

Mission 4: see what the enemy spy divulged 1,4 14,11 7,116

Head southwest to the X on the map. You've destroyed the base before but
enemies are faster. Cloaking a bit can't hurt, but save some for the next go
through.

Mission 5: find the Thunderbolt 1,5 13,14 113,084

The Thunderbolt is a great weapon which kills whatever it shoots, with only
one hit--well, base shields take two hits in mission 6, four in 7--and it
blows through any ships it hits. Better yet, the cannons in bases now die
even if you hit them when they're closed. This makes things easier than you'd
expect. The only thing it doesn't do is blow through one central cannon to
hit another--that'd make things too easy, though.

Getting to the sector is not terribly tricky, and you may wish to stop off at
an inhabited planet to recharge your fuel. This is a good place to use the
cloaking device to get close to the enemy guns. You will get a new weapon
afterwards. There's nothing particularly tricky about this other than--hits
are that much more dangerous.

Use your Thunderbolts wisely e.g. mostly on bases, but don't worry about
running out. For the last mission you'll get 99 again. Now that you have the
Thunderbolt, using it wisely can make the rest of the game relatively easy.

Mission 6: 6,7 9,10 67,77 is a base with a message

More of the same increased activity stuff. Enemies are even tougher, so stock
up on EMP waves. Bashing around at home is tougher as enemies have missiles,
but I advise working around your home sector to find bases that sell
technology, if you are getting low. You'll want to use the Thunderbolt when
you are in the center of the base or if an enemy pops up right in front of
you. Also, you should have enough to use on the base shields. Pace yourself,
though, as you need to survive two more similar dogfights. Basic math shows
you can use 33 thunderbolts.

Mission 7: the Toson Drive

The Toson Drive is somewhere in 8-8. That's all you're told, so if you don't
look ahad, you will have to do a little reconaissace. First, you need to jump
twice to get to the right area. I went to 6-6 and the first system I found
there. It was at 7,2, and it had plenty of planets. I defeated the nearest
one, refueled and then went to 8-8. If you want, you can stop at 7,7 or 7,8,
too, so you have extra fuel, but it can cost thunderbolts. Best just to go in
quickly and go out quickly and you won't need the extra fuel.

The Toson Drive seems to be at the first base you look. I went to 8-8 6-13
52-49, but you can just find whichever is nearest. It's defended by even
tougher enemies, but again, avoid them or EMP them and use the Thunderbolt to
blow the base shield and the center guns away. Cloaking devices are also a
great idea here. Whatever you do, do it quickly--or plan it while in menu
mode, then execute quickly.

Once you have the Toson Drive, you can go back to 4,4 in one swoop. Your
engine level is 6--so fuel use is now 6 + (# of galaxies away) and button B
now sends you to the P'Radikus Galaxy. The enemies there are very tough, but
it isn't very big. You may notice you can warp to the P'Radikus galaxy now or
back home. Go back home. That gets you 99 thunderbolts again. You will need
them. You also get 100000 credits, which you probably don't need.

Mission 7: The P'Radikus Galaxy

Be sure to stock up before entering P'Radikus, as the drive breaks once you
get there.

You'll notice a planet with bases around it. Head there. You'll need to
tackle eight bases and the planet. Without any way to rejuvenate armor, this
will be tricky. Let's do some math.

99 TBolts - 16 hits for the 4 Y's in the center of the main planet = 83
83 / 8 bases = 10 TBolts per base
10 - 4 (for the Y) = 6 TBolts for the base shield, if you need them.

Hitting the base shields quickly is important for winning quickly and not
taking damage. Also, it's good to know where the bases are.

They are in an octagon around the main planet you need to enter. You can't
enter that planet until you have killed all eight bases. Fortunately, a
little geometry can help us move from base to base with relatively little
fanfare.


    x
 x     x

x   P   x

 x     x
    x

We know the angles of a regular octagon are 135 degrees, and so each triangle
between the planet and two adjacent bases has angles of 45(center) and 67.5
and 67.5. 67.5 = 3 turns of your ship. So basically whichever base you take
out, you can tilt in a certain direction and get to the next one quickly
enough. Each base takes 5 hits from a thunderbolt--you can actually shoot the
base once with a laser cannon then with 4 thunderbolts, though economizing is
not necessary. (Note: laser cannon only takes 31 hits. Yes, you need to use
the thunderbolt.) Once inside, use the thunderbolt on each gun. They're
probably pretty hard to miss.

NW base: E-N-E (yes, S-W-S works too but I am going clockwise)
N base: E-S-E
NE base: S-E-S
E base: S-W-S
SE baes: W-S-W
S base: W-N-W
SW base: N-W-N
W base: N-E-N

This should take 72 thunderbolts. Now wherever you wind up, you have a
straight path to the planet. Enter it.

The map looks different. There are four different Y-shaped central bases. You
must take them all out. Fortunately, it's actually a bit easier than usual.

1) go right
2) fly up the center to kill each center part of the Y, then use cloaking to
fire at an angle from the center
3) go down and repeat, mirrored. The Y's are inverted on the bottom.
4) go right and slowly fly east. Take out the bottom of the Y, then sail
north
5) going up, repeat step 2.

Note you can also use cloaking to blast through more quickly if you have
extras. Each base may give you something cool, so be sure to use it.

If enemies swarm, you might as well use all the special stuff you have. This
is the last bit--once you win, you get the ending. So pull out all the stops.
If you are sure of your counting, the Thunderbolt is a great last resort.

Now enjoy the ending.

Final score is calculated as follows:
credits + 250000 for winning
It doesn't even rely on the ships or bases killed. What a rip-off.

 5. CHEATS

These helped me get through the game. Some spoil more than others.

0x4b-0x4f = # of bases killed(4b=ones, 4f=ten thousands)
0x56-0x5b = # of enemy ships killed(56=ones, 5b=millions)
0x86-0x8b = digits for # of credits(86=ones, 8b=millions)
0x8f = fuel
0x90 = shield remaining (game resets it to 20x 0xee if you go over)
0xdf = cloaking devices available to buy at base
0xe0 = mines available to buy at base
0xe1 = missiles available to buy at base

0xe3 = cloaking device
0xe4 = mines
0xe5 = missiles
0xe6 = EMP
0xe7 = T-Bolts left
0xeb = drive/engine bought (1 to 4--well, 6 for the Toson Drive)
0xec = power bought (1 to 4)
0xed = armor
0xee = shield bought (1 to 4)
0xef = weapon
 1 = cannon
 2 = a-cannon
 3 = laser
0x6f4 = minutes(in hex)
0x6f5 = hours(in hex)
The game doesn't keep track of days, since that'd just be depressing if you
actually logged one. It just circles back to zero time.

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

 6. VERSIONS/CREDITS

1.0.0: sent to GameFAQs 8/31/2009, complete, though I would like to fill in
details. Just want to grab the bounty though--feeling greedy. I will update
tomorrow because this is a tricky game!
1.1.0: sent to GameFAQs 9/2/2009, updated with mission detail, more cheats,
and arithmetic about when to use the Thunderbolt.

Thanks to the usual GameFAQs 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,
Lagoona, Da Hui, StarFighters76 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 SBAllen and GameFAQs for offering this as a bounty.
Thanks to everyone at HonestGamers and GameFAQs who have helped me in many
ways and given me reasons big and small to keep looking at old games like
this.
Thanks to Darkstar Ripclaw for the suggestion about auto-firing.

The following sites were of great help in figuring out what to do in the
game:

http://nesguide.com/games/pradikusconflict/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KSm0zi5vow
http://www.nesworld.com/manuals/pradik.txt

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